U.S Rep. Keith Ellison (DFL-MN) seeks to allow ex-felons to vote.

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Once felons have served their sentence, their right to vote should be restored.

Yes, that is correct.

But not universally true, particularly (IIRC) in the South. I remember Florida was the biggest offender on voting rights (surprise, surprise).

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5. Suppose a man is driving along the road and sees a naked woman. He crashes his car and kills four other people. Not harmful?

I suppose the same argument could be made about funny billboard advertisements.

Yes and no. I am in favor of the legalization of public nudity, but, at the same time, it's not something that we can implement overnight without incidents such as Silent Hunter described becoming far more common. Funny billboards do not cause regular accidents because we're accustomed to them. Public nudity would because we are not accustomed to it.

The real problem is, of course, social realities. We can change those realities, but it takes baby steps. "Shock therapy" is not generally a good solution.

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How many people have been mugged for drug money?

Wouldn't this decline if drugs were no longer associated with criminal activity? A drug addict may feel less inclined to obey the law on other issues now because they already break the law buying and selling drugs.

[Verily]

How many people have been mugged for drug money?

Wouldn't this decline if drugs were no longer associated with criminal activity? A drug addict may feel less inclined to obey the law on other issues now because they already break the law buying and selling drugs.

If they need money to buy the drugs (they're hardly going to get them in Medicaid, are they?), they've got two ways to go. Get a job or commit crime. Since no employer would hire a drug addict, they end up committing crime.

I beg to differ. Most drug addicts do have jobs. They have menial or low-skill jobs, but they're still employed. If they weren't, unemployment would be far higher.

[Verily]

How many people have been mugged for drug money?

Wouldn't this decline if drugs were no longer associated with criminal activity? A drug addict may feel less inclined to obey the law on other issues now because they already break the law buying and selling drugs.

If they need money to buy the drugs (they're hardly going to get them in Medicaid, are they?), they've got two ways to go. Get a job or commit crime. Since no employer would hire a drug addict, they end up committing crime.

I beg to differ. Most drug addicts do have jobs. They have menial or low-skill jobs, but they're still employed. If they weren't, unemployment would be far higher.

Few heroin or cocaine junkies have menial or low-skill jobs, as these are usually too demanding to hold on to with a heroin habit. Lots of successful white-collar people with one, though.

I was thinking more of marijuana, LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs. You're right about heroin and cocaine being more "high-class", and, hence, they rarely cause robberies to pay for drugs. The ones that do are the hallucinogens.

[Verily]

How many people have been mugged for drug money?

Wouldn't this decline if drugs were no longer associated with criminal activity? A drug addict may feel less inclined to obey the law on other issues now because they already break the law buying and selling drugs.

If they need money to buy the drugs (they're hardly going to get them in Medicaid, are they?), they've got two ways to go. Get a job or commit crime. Since no employer would hire a drug addict, they end up committing crime.

I beg to differ. Most drug addicts do have jobs. They have menial or low-skill jobs, but they're still employed. If they weren't, unemployment would be far higher.

Few heroin or cocaine junkies have menial or low-skill jobs, as these are usually too demanding to hold on to with a heroin habit. Lots of successful white-collar people with one, though.

I was thinking more of marijuana, LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs. You're right about heroin and cocaine being more "high-class", and, hence, they rarely cause robberies to pay for drugs.

More like more socially crunchy. And no, I would assume that heroin "causes" (really, it's the artificially inflated price level, not the drug itself, that's doing that, but nvm...) more theft and robbery.

We're back to the same point: artificially high prices resulting from illegality are the true culprit.

[Verily]

How many people have been mugged for drug money?

Wouldn't this decline if drugs were no longer associated with criminal activity? A drug addict may feel less inclined to obey the law on other issues now because they already break the law buying and selling drugs.

If they need money to buy the drugs (they're hardly going to get them in Medicaid, are they?), they've got two ways to go. Get a job or commit crime. Since no employer would hire a drug addict, they end up committing crime.

I beg to differ. Most drug addicts do have jobs. They have menial or low-skill jobs, but they're still employed. If they weren't, unemployment would be far higher.

Few heroin or cocaine junkies have menial or low-skill jobs, as these are usually too demanding to hold on to with a heroin habit. Lots of successful white-collar people with one, though.

I was thinking more of marijuana, LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs. You're right about heroin and cocaine being more "high-class", and, hence, they rarely cause robberies to pay for drugs.

More like more socially crunchy. And no, I would assume that heroin "causes" (really, it's the artificially inflated price level, not the drug itself, that's doing that, but nvm...) more theft and robbery.

We're back to the same point: artificially high prices resulting from illegality are the true culprit.

Yeah, we're not debating the main point at all, as we agree on that. We're debating about marginalia.

In the end, I don't profess much knowledge about the inner workings of drug trafficking so I will yield to you.

That sounds as if I'm implying that you're a drug dealer. Sorry, please don't take it that way.