Frank: an activity that harms no one

See, that's the problem. There are people harmed by addictive gambling, just as their are people harmed by pretty much any addition, including alcohol, tobacco, recreational drugs, and, of course, blog reading on the internet.

To "their" eyes (the "freedom? what freedom?" crowd in the right), they are protecting families from themselves, as the families are the ones that suffer, often to the extent of needing government assistance. This assistance omething the right also wants to do away with as its liberal socialism in action at the rich's taxpayer expense.

It all adds up - restrict the addictive activity and they can cut back on the support programs.

Of course, it completely ignores the fact that enforcement of the law will cost billions more than the social support costs do, as demonstrated by the "drug war"'s costs over the last 2 decades (especially in our courts and prisons).

But when did facts ever get in the way of supporting the family?

Posted by: Joe Shelby | July 26, 2006 10:17 AM

This isn't the first they printed something that made sense. They printed an even better one back in 2005. I wrote about it at the time and received an email from the author who assured me that every detail of the story was true.

Posted by: Austin Cline | July 26, 2006 11:20 AM

Speaking of the "war on drugs", since they can't keep prisoners from overdosing on opiates in prison, how well must that war be going? Even if the most ardent drug warriors got their way and turned this country into a police state with the security of a federal prison..., well you get the point.

The question is: do we want to turn this country into one giant prison in a futile attempt to stop some people from killing themselves with drugs?

Posted by: Troy Britain | July 26, 2006 1:21 PM