[Carry_Okie]

I wonder when the mental institutions will be opening their doors and letting the loonies roam free.

It's already been done. I literally thought that this article would be about "mainstreaming" the mentally ill. During the 1960s, liberal activists sued the State of California for retaining certain classes of the mentally ill in institutions. A judge (I don't recall if it was State or Federal) ordered them released and then Governor Reagan had to do it. The left then blamed him mercilessly for "throwing them out of the institutions and onto the street" to this day.

That class of people is the primary source of the homeless problem today.

[DBtoo]

The same thing happened in Texas in the late 80s. The oil bust occured and the state was having money problems, so they opened up the mental institution in Austin and let the people out. Shortly afterwards there was a noticeable increase of homeless people in Houston where I lived at the time.