Take a look at what McGee dug up:


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'I just read an interesting take on the recent violent video game law passed in California:

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Wired News: The Tortured Language of the Law Interestingly, the one moment of genuine clarity in the California law is when it frets about games where you can “torture” someone. The legislators define torture as when you intentionally cause someone else suffering — “mental as well as physical” — that is quite apart from the cut-and-thrust of battle. The language is suddenly much crisper here, and I wondered why.

Then it hit me: Because this is the one area of law where our governments have deep, recent experience. Three years ago, the federal government was painstakingly crafting legal memos about torture — not so they could ban it, but so they could perform it. Who could forget White House counsel Alberto Gonzales’ intricately crafted prose, saying that torture “must cause pain equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death”?

Consider that your final irony: Politicians work hard to ban virtual torture — while working just as hard to allow it in real life.
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This goes to earlier cynical observations about politicians like Hillary Clinton demonizing video games while in the same breath demanding that more kids be sent to fight the war in Iraq.

Seriously, what it is about these people and their inability to separate real world violence from video game violence? They claim their fear is that kids will become more violent in the real world as a result of video games, and yet… they support policies that actively put kids in harm’s way. Isn’t this the pot acting like the kettle?

By the way, I think it is interesting to note that under this law a game like The Sims would be banned for sale to minors. Within the “dollhouse” confines of its world the player can perform actions that actively “torture” the Sim characters, ultimately leading to them urinating on themselves, going insane, and starving to death. Take note casual gamers, this law isn’t just about “murder simulators” aka first-person-shooters.



I’ve often marvelled at the myopic attention that lawmakers give to violence stemming from the consumption of video games. There are examples a’plenty of other sport and entertainment related acts of violence. Here’s a good one:

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CNN.com - Brooklyn girl, 9, admits killing playmate - Oct 8, 2005 NEW YORK (AP) — A 9-year-old girl pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter Friday, admitting she fatally stabbed her 11-year-old playmate after a tug-of-war over a rubber ball went sour.
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Quick! Someone tell Jack Thompson to stop chasing that ambulance and get started on a bill to limit the sales of rubber balls to minors!

I’ve learned through sources that this rubber ball was the “ultra-bouncy” sort, the kind that the marines often use to train for battle. Essentially a murder trainer. The constant up-down motion of the ball combined with its angry red color has been shown to stimulate the violence centers of the brain, vestiges of when humans more closely resembled dogs. These things are a ticking time-bomb, right up there with iPods and hand-held gaming devices. Satan’s own toys.

Seriously, has anyone ever bothered to do a study to compare actual incidents of video games being linked to real-world violence in comparison to other entertainment products (rubber balls included!) causing same such violence? I’d imagine that statistically video games are safer than golf. I say that because, in 15+ years of playing and being around video games I’ve seen zero instances of violence as a cause of games. In my less than 5 years of playing golf I’ve seen a half-dozen or more fights or near-fights. Anyone watch soccer lately?



Is this government serious? It seems that the US is doomed to fight un-winnable wars. First the war on drugs, then the war on terror, now the war on porn.

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FBI forms anti-porn squad
Last month, the bureau’s Washington Field Office began recruiting for a new anti-obscenity squad. Attached to the job posting was a memo from FBI headquarters to all 56 field offices, describing the initiative as “one of the top priorities” of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and, by extension, of “the Director,” Robert Mueller.

The new squad will divert eight agents, a supervisor and assorted support staff to gather evidence against “manufacturers and purveyors” of pornography – not the kind exploiting children, but the kind that depicts, and is marketed to, consenting adults.

“I guess this means we’ve won the war on terror,” said one exasperated FBI agent, speaking on condition of anonymity because poking fun at headquarters is not regarded as career-enhancing. “We must not need any more resources for espionage.”
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This is typical of an administration fueled by supposed “Christian Values”, whose base of power is made up of the “righteous right”. A recent article in Harper’s illustrated the hypocricy of that notion:

Only 40 percent of Americans can name more than four of the Ten Commandments, and a scant half can cite any of the four authors of the Gospels. Twelve percent believe Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife.

And therein is the paradox. America is simultaneously the most professedly Christian of the developed nations and the least Christian in its behavior. That paradox—more important, perhaps, than the much touted ability of French women to stay thin on a diet of chocolate and cheese—illuminates the hollow at the core of our boastful, careening culture.

Where are the wars on poverty, AIDs, illiteracy, or hunger? According to the United Nations Development Program, the cost of providing the most basic needs that go unmet around the world–for food, shelter, clean water, primary education, basic medical care–would be $80 billion a year. The U.S. military will spend five times more than this sum next year alone.

Does the world really need anti-porn squads or government representatives who spend their days trying to put illegal sales controls on video games? This all falls into the same catagory to me: Political WMD. Worthless Media Distraction.'
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(*)(*)(*)(*) rights.

Oy!

I consider myself to be a comprably good Christian and a conservative, and yet I wish Jack Thompson lived in Thailand or was never born!!!

And by the way: the anti-porn squad: you knew it was bound to happen. Soon the commies (erm, Democrats) will be forming the FBI Thought Police to make sure nobody is thinking un-American thoughts. They, of course, will be immune to the Thought Police's scans.

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Henry K.

"Let me introduce you to the next President...of the United States: Joe Biden!" -~-Barack Obama

Planning on getting shot?