What issues are not getting handle because society/government has no stomach to take it on?

Obscenity laws.

I recently learned about obscenity laws in one of my classes and basically they say that anything sex-related, offensive and lacking social value is illegal. When I say “offensive” I mean offensive to anyone. This means that quite a lot of porn is considered obscene such as S&M and any fetish porn. How strictly these laws are enforced depends entirely who is in office at the time. When Bush was in office, he had a special task force made up to “hunt down” obscene material and have people arrested for having it. Now, Obama doesn’t care so it is unlikely that you will be arrested for having material considered obscene.

I think these laws should be stricken from the books. Not too long ago, homosexual porn was considered obscene, now it is laughable to call it obscene. Obscenity is purely opinion based and the rules are twisted to suit whatever conservative ideals are being offended.

@KatawaGrey I think an exception should be made to your otherwise sound argument, for the case of child porn, considering the fact that in many cases it causes horrific psychological harm to the child.

However, I do NOT think pictures of naked children constitutes “child porn” and I think it is insane that possession of such images could be prohibited. As if we were not all at some point actual, physical naked children….!?

Sure, the idea of some paedo getting off on these pictures is creepy as hell, but it really harms no one.
Better that, than his desires being pent up inside to effect his frustration to the point of (criminal) insanity.
We know what that means.

@Hypocrisy_Central I think a lot of the issues in question are in this no-go zone, because of previous policies of misinformation, propaganda and dogmatic argument from part of the government and other authorities. There is no better example of this than the prohibition of drugs…

@The_Idler: Child porn is officially considered child abuse and actually has no connection to obscenity laws. However, an issue that is sometimes dealt with under obscenity laws is written child porn or CGI featuring children. Since neither of these are actually harming children I do not think they should be legal, however, once anyone in possession of these takes their fantasies to real life, then it crosses into child abuse.

I am quite happy that child porn is illegal because of the harm that comes to children in it because the rules and morals change completely when a child is involved.

Yes, the making of child porn is child abuse, but I still feel possession of it should be illegal, besides disagreeing with every other form of censorship and prohibition of non-offensive (harmful) objects and materials…

@The_Idler: I am not entirely sure about this but I think that watching it and owning it is in the same category as creating it. Watching child porn without reporting it facilitates child abuse. I agree with you and I think that possession of, watching of and making of child porn should fall neatly under the category of child abuse and have no bearing in sexuality whatsoever.

@KatawaGrey ” I recently learned about obscenity laws in one of my classes and basically they say that anything sex-related, offensive and lacking social value is illegal. When I say “offensive” I mean offensive to anyone.” I would suppose the lynch pin in that argument would come to what lacks social value. I never thought owning a Playboy, or Hustler magazine was illegal but I guess there must be something socially redeemable in them because they are quite openly sold (mostly in the right liquor stores).

@The_Idler ” However, I do NOT think pictures of naked children constitutes “child porn” and I think it is insane that possession of such images could be prohibited.” That would be one of those areas where there is no stomach to get in there and solve. Zero tolerance (the lazy easy way to deal with it) would say any graphical image of a naked child is illegal, and that could make criminals of anyone who took a picture of their bare baby on a bear skin rug. Or if they took a video of babies 1st sink bath and shared it with members of their family or posted to their page on their social network. As @KatawaGrey would lean (at what I am getting) is that to make sure there is not one bee sting you wipe out all the hives. Then there is no chance that someone can watch it and get their jollies off.

Yes, drugs can be dealt with better than they are now but no one really wants to get their hands that dirty or get into an ugly fight like what it would take. To win the battle of drugs you have to use back alley fighting techniques but everyone wants to use Marcus of Queenberry rules.

I think issues to do with with stopping the pollution of our waterways, soil and air. As well as focusing the population on how to get off of fossil fuels (which would go a long way to decreasing pollution too).

We need to stop lobbying of government by corporations.

And, of course, dealing with the national debt.

@Hypocrisy_Central: Actually, pornography is protected because even though it is meant to cause arousal the first criterion for determining if something is obscene it is not considered offensive because, I guess, standard issue pornography is “natural” whereas bondage porn is considered “unnatural” and therefore is offensive. Interestingly enough, if you produce your own obscene material for your own personal use, it is not illegal. What bugs me most about these laws is that people twist them to make damn near anything obscene and thus illegal.

Getting rid of tax breaks to religious institutions.

If an organization is non-profit, they should get the same tax breaks as any other nonprofit. If they’re not, then they don’t. Religion should have nothing to do with it.

@Qingu: Ooo, good one! I don’t necessarily agree that the specific religious building should lose the tax break but properties owned by a religious institution should not be exempt from taxes. That is a big problem in my town because there is this one church that has decided to take over. Most of its properties are rented by businesses that have nothing to do with the church or any of its religious works. Why are they exempt from paying taxes on those properties? Makes zero sense to me.

Climate change.

Issues criminally being overlooked are stock market and banking regulation.

The mistreatment of social minorities (not racial). I’m not sure if this is a problem in every school district, but it is in mine. Thank God I graduated.

For example, my counselor in 7th grade wanted me on Ritalin because I was “Goth”. This is exactly what she said:
“All Goth kids have a problem, & they need medication for it. Ritalin should do nicely for you!”

Also, teachers would send my friends to the office for wearing all black.

@Draconess25 Yeah, well you’re obviously bloody mental. I can tell õ.O

@The_Idler I take that as a compliment. Thank you!

High Five!
=}

@The_Idler XD

@tranquilsea ”We need to stop lobbying of government by corporations.” That is a real easy fix if people really wanted to get down and dirty to fix. But most people don’t care what goes on in Washington so long as they can still have 300 channels and drive no more than $3.40 a gallon. There are lobbyist because we the people don’t have the nard to push political reform that makes the public servants actually serve the public or we are just too apathetic to care.

Government and Corporate morality, ethics, and appropriate punishment for criminal violations.

Discipline in schools. There is almost none. But administrators are afraid of parents suing. So they do nothing.

Welfare abuse.

Illegal immigration.

@crankywithakeyboard I got suspended for 2 months & arrested in 7th grade for “terrorism”. I simply told someone I hated them. Would you say that isn’t enough discipline?

@draconess25:
It seems to go from one extreme to another. That zero tolerance crap is ridiculous and shouldn’t have happened to you. I don’t see as much of that anymore at least. I saw a lot in the ‘90s. Just no discipline period in some schools these days.

@crankywithakeyboard Exactly. Our school district didn’t have “enough” discipline. You were allowed to do almost anything at school. Then, all of a sudden, they threw in a school uniform & zero-tolerance. Kids started stabbing each other, breaking more rules, etc. Neither policies fixed anything; they just made things worse.

I think that zero tolerance policies in schools should be abolished. Zero Tolerance, Zero Evidence Research reveals that zero tolerance policies in schools is ineffective in reducing alcohol abuse or other problems.

According to the report “Zero Tolerance, Zero Evidence: An Analysis of School Disciplinary Practice,” there is no credible evidence that zero tolerance is effective. Furthermore, school suspension and expulsion result in a number of negative outcomes for both schools and students. The report, conducted by the Indiana Education Policy Center at Indiana University School of Education, reviewed the use of zero-tolerance policies since their inception in the 1980s.

“Zero tolerance is a political response, not an educationally sound solution,” said Dr. Russell Skiba, author of the report. “It sounds impressive to say that we’re taking a tough stand against misbehavior, but the data say it simply hasn’t been effective in improving student behavior.”

http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/ZeroTolerance.html