Here is the one-hundred-and-twenty-fourth edition of Tom Nob’s Thursday Notes. TN2 serves as a brief summary of what good humor we have found during the past week plus some suggestions for the upcoming weekend.

New Films

Carnage

The Pill

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

New TV Season

The Life & Times of Tim – season three

New Stand-Up

Bill Hicks:  12/16/61

Rich Vos: Still Empty Inside

And Finally

In addition to the rise in geek chic that we detailed last week, another theme that will define 2011 is the mad-scramble by public governments at all levels to plug the holes in their budgets either by raising revenue or cutting costs.  Here in the U.S., due to inordinate power exerted by the Tea Party and its minions, increasing taxes has become a non-starter which means that new revenue must come from more creative sources.  The golden honey-pot that quickly attracts attention is gambling and it seems that every state and large city has explored ways of increasing gambling activity.  One of the more unique and unusual initiatives comes from Missouri (new state motto:  Show Me The Money).  For fifteen years the state had “addressed” the problem of gambling addiction among its residents by allowing individuals to ban themselves for life from the state’s casinos.  In fact, since 1996 until early this December, over 16,000 people added themselves to the self-imposed exile list which meant that they would be fined or arrested if found gambling in state (crime:  trespassing).  This ban only applied within the state of Missouri which meant they could always drive over the state line and wager without worry about the warden (the majority of casinos are located within mere miles of the border).  Of course, these are just the type of customers you want in casinos if higher revenues are your goal, so the Missouri Gaming Commission unanimously approved a change lifting the lifetime ban and replacing it with a mere five-year voluntary suspension option.  When confronted by objections from anti-gambling advocates, the commissioners claimed that such a move would actually encourage more people with gambling problems to sign up and, thus,  lead to lower revenue.  While this circular logic is both amusing and amazing, the real lesson of this story is one that’s been said many times, many ways….what happens in East St. Louis stays in East St. Louis.