In other news

Not really commenting on the main issue as I don't know enough about the bill but just to point out I've never had to provide any form of ID to vote and we've never had any significant voter fraud issues here in the UK either. Most countries do require some form of ID but it's not "literally every other democracy".

Some of the resin (if you could get hold of it) was also laced with opium eg temple balls. But yes, apart from that most of it was mild enough to be smoked incessantly if that was your bag.

pretty awesome so i googled to find it - lolololololol

image search below got it at least 😀

For the most part, people don't oppose voter ID laws in the United States because they believe that voter ID requirements are intrinsically bad no matter the context.

They oppose voter IDs laws mainly for two reasons. First, they know that the GOP's professed motivation for wanting voter ID laws is pretextual. They know that fraud isn't occurring at anything close to a material level, and they know that the real goal is to reduce voting among demographics that tend to vote blue. That's why Republicans will oppose mobile voting until the end of time, no matter how secure and fraud proof the mechanism for mobile voting might be. Second, opponents are aware of previous efforts to suppress voting, and they remember at whom those efforts were directed. That context isn't a factor in a lot of Western democracies.

Speaking only for myself, if there was a real push to ensure that every U.S. citizen had an ID, there was a real and earnest push to make secure voting as easy and convenient as possible, and voting was a right that could not be taken away from citizens on the margins of society (e.g., convicted felons), I would not oppose voter ID laws.

roc, do you think people serving lifetime sentences should still get voting power?

It seems a supermajority of Americans want voter ID

95% republicans
71% democrats
85% whites
82% latino
76% blacks

Most people want it but for a few stalwarts.

To me it seems like a no-brainer to stop the endless discussion. People want it, just do it and move on.

Polling on the voter ID is toxic and frankly, ******ed

Did you know that if pollsters asked "Do you support current voting laws"

that would also indicate that individuals support providing ID to vote

This is because every single state requires proof of citizenship to register to vote

So sure, lets create a unique ID required to vote. Make it free. Issue one unilaterally to every single citizen eligible to vote. Cool, we wasted a bunch of money to accomplish nothing

In practice, we know that wont happen. It will cost time, money, and energy while accomplish the real goal of getting less people to vote

Probably, but I definitely think convicted felons who have been released into society should be able to vote.

or be president i guess

+1.

Fundamental right in a democracy should be the right to vote. Can't be taken away and the courts should rule on any failure to make it easy to exercise

I hope no one is arguing that weed is more harmful than alcohol.

It depends.

An occasional "social drinker" is probably doing far less harm to themselves than someone like coordi who apparently tokes out on a regular basis.

But coordi is probably doing far less harm to his health than d2e4.

Well obviously anything in moderation is fine but I'm assuming the conversation was about regular use.

A person who smokes weed every day is probably going to be healthier than someone who drinks every day.

I agree. But "regular use" casts a wide net.

And there is a big difference between 'regular use' of wine as opposed to 'regular use' of hard liquor.

Once again, it depends.

I'm talking about populations not individuals. Obviously there are going to be exceptions and outliers.

is my boy d2e4 getting after it?

was going to post my wacky theory in some other thread but i wasn't loose enough. had some post hockey bevvies so i'll post here.

ai/robots gonna take over. brain power won't be that useful going forward. might be able to use some human labor for various tasks, but that's akin to pyramid builders. the real in demand skillset might be the really loose, acid tripping, hallucinating folks, that are able to direct ai to do various tasks that no person/computer has thought of yet. could be some benefits to getting after it in a few years.

I don't think so. Regular use of alcohol I would bet will have measurably worse effects physically, compared to a regular weed user who never touches alcohol.

Maybe smoking weed just rocks and if you don’t like it you shouldn’t smoke it? The same people that think vaccines cause autism now think weed causes schizophrenia? I’m surprised they even believe in autism or schizophrenia, but I guess we shouldn’t really expect consistency here.

It probably depends on the method of ingestion. Smoking almost anything seems to be carcinogenic. I'm sure that people in the 60s/70s who were smoking low potency joints all day were doing some of the same things to their lungs that cigarette smokers do. As discussed earlier, weed is so potent today that few people are smoking huge volume.

The belief that weed use is stongly correlated with mental illness is far less commonly held now than it was decades ago. Nobody is rushing to remake Reefer Madness.

If only they could get rid of the smell

The biggest difference between alcohol and weed isn't the harm to the user. It's the harm to people around the user. Domestic violence, child abuse, etc., are much more correlated with alcohol consumption than weed consumption.