I was just hearing a story on NPR about the new Office of Social Innovation . This is the type of stuff that our government needs. It needs a way to review and consolidate, in order to solve problems, instead of looking for something new to augment on to existing processes. The only issue I have is that I doubt this new office will be able to do this. Issues like prohibition, the media, and the gun control -- which are social issues worthy of study -- don't stand chance of review.
Thereby making this office another example of what it is trying to eliminate - useless fluff.
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Prohibition: There is more that sufficient evidence proving that prohibition does not work on any level. This goes for drugs and anything else one can derive profit from.
Media: Media has changed drastically since the 1950's, but outside of copyright and delivery issues, there isn't much different in the way we talk about media. What's needed is a discussion on how to handle the level of information we have access to.
Gun Lobby: At some point the U.S. will need to face the fact that, as pliable the constitution is, our nation has reach a point where certain issues are beyond the scope of the constitution, e.g. privacy, abortions and gun control. I mention gun control, because despite the success of the gun lobby, it is obvious that the second amendment was never meant to deal individual ownership of hand guns and rifles. I'm not saying that the signers of the constitutions were pro or anti gun control, simply that the concept of gun (musket) ownership was so different from what we are now experiencing that there is no way the second amendment could have been written with our current dilemma in mind.
