] He compares the state of affairs to the tobacco
] controversy about 20 years ago, when some experts were
] still arguing there was no direct link between cigarettes
] and cancer.
]
] Jaffe knows that despite the piles of research he has
] gathered, and despite the conclusions of such respected
] groups as the American Psychological Association and the
] American Association of Pediatricians, there are many
] people who deny the negative effects of media violence.
]
] He also knows that just as every person who smokes won't
] get lung cancer, not every kid who plays violent video
] games will turn into a killer.

!@#$!@#!~@#!@$#!@$#!$@#$@!#$

Smokers don't get to make a concious decision to get lung cancer! You get to CHOOSE not to kill somebody. If you choose wrong, its YOUR RESPONSIBILITY!!!! If children aren't getting the right messages, the answer is to communicate the right messages in a constructive way, rather then to censor the media and patronize kids with hypocritical rightousness they can see right through.

London Free Press: News Section - A pitch for presents of peace

] Sen. Joe Lieberman (news - web sites), D-Conn., credited the
] industry for creating many good games but said the small
] percentage of games with extremely violent or
] pornographic content is "worse than ever."
]
] "The fact that the assassination of President Kennedy,
] which broke our hearts and altered our history, could
] become the subject of a video game from which people are
] making money is just outrageous, it is despicable, it's
] unbelievable," Lieberman said.

Fuck you Lieberman! This is the democratic party at its lowest. The assassination of JFK is the subject of many books, several movies, and several documentaries, but the minute someone makes a video game out of it protest breaks out. Stupid. The only reason you think its outrageous is because you don't understand computers!!!!!

Yahoo! News - Group Cites Video Games for Violence, Sex

] We are becoming a society that accepts the unacceptable,
] that looks the other way when our neighbors are in need
] or if a wrong is being committed. We continue to watch
] the videotape of professional basketball players jumping
] into the seats to attack unruly fans. We allow our
] children to play games that depict graphic violence. And
] all we do is say, "Tsk, tsk." We should do more.

The "you can't think that because I don't understand it" brigade arrives, right on que after the release of the JFK game. They want to "do something." I wish they'd jump off a cliff.

The Reporter - Keith Michaud

You're probably getting a ton of email right now. You may not even see this in the fray. I'm posting it to my weblog (below) because it is as much an open commentary as it is a comment for you.

You did the right thing.

There are a lot of people in this country right now who are scared and angry, because of 9/11. Their fear and their anger makes them weak. They don't want to see things like this because they can't take criticism. They aren't strong enough. They want to be right, and they want the enemy to be wrong, and they want to destroy the enemy and gloss over the details. It feels good to be right.

But wars are won in the mind long before they are won in on the battlefield, and if we become the kind of society that won't acknowledge its humanity, who won't think critically... who either shovels overzealousness under the rug or worse, encourages it, then we will become what the radicals who oppose us believe that we are. Thats when they win.

We have to show the Arab word that we are an honest, fair society that mostly wants their region to be peaceful, free, and successful. We can't convince them of this by saying it. In fact, many of us aren't convinced of this even though we say it all the time. We have to convince them of this by showing it... by actually being what we claim to be. That means showing that we are strong enough to take criticism. That means we acknowledge that open, honest dialog helps us make smarter decisions rather then "weakening our resolve."

We have to be willing to acknowledge things like this and investigate them fairly and deliberatively, and handle them appropriately depending on the facts. We have to be willing to seek out our flaws and deal with them, rather then denying them while they fester. We have to be confident enough in the honesty of our intentions that we know it will shine through enemy propaganda. And ultimately we have to make sure that the people watching us do this understand it, and understand the difference between this and the alternative. Otherwise, we've already lost.

Thank you for risking your life to bring us information from these places.

k wrote:
] ] So, by all means let's pander till we can't stand up.
] ] We'll all pretend to be duly chastised by our libertine
] ] ways and pay obeisance to those good heartland values
] ] that neither they nor we actually live by. Whatever. But,
] ] don't expect me to actually believe that George W. Bush's
] ] majority represents those things any more than we
] ] depraved liberals do. Politicians and preachers lie.
] ] Neilson ratings and product sales don't.

Oh, but yes they do! That NYT story was complete baloney, as I mentioned in another thread. I'll repost my complete comments here:

-=-=-=-

noteworthy wrote:
] Bush bastions Atlanta and Salt Lake City, watching
] a sex-drenched television drama?
]
] In the greater Atlanta market, reaching more than two million
] households, "Desperate Housewives" is the top-rated show.
] Nearly 58 percent of the voters in those counties voted for
] President Bush.

How about statistical bullshit?

Dekalb: 73% Kerry
Fulton: 60% Kerry

(Source CNN)

Thats the ALT and most of it's significant suburbs. I mean, we all know that Cobb is conservative. Whatever. Even in some of the exurbs people connected with the City are more likely to be finance voters rather then moral values types. The Atlanta "Market's" interest in "Desparate House Wives" may reflect its interest in Kerry, but you're not going to see that if the way you do this is to average out an area like "the whole state of Utah and parts of Nevada, Idaho and Wyoming" and call it "Salt Lake City."

Calling Atlanta a "Bush Bastion" is like calling Israel "Islamic" because you're including Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon in with what you call "Israel."

Stupid.

-=-=-=-

Now, if you are the kind of person who gets offended, stop reading this now.

I mean it. Stop.

OK, you asked for it.

The base of the right wing consists of people who are:
Rednecks who like to watch people die on TV so they can feel good about themselves as "ass kicking Americans," greedy professionals who want lower taxes and don't give a fuck about the world, crazy fundamentalists who want to shove their religion down everyone's throats, and fascists.

Its ok, the base of the left wing consists of people who are:
Punks who are still pissed of at their Dad and don't know the difference between questioning authority and always disagreeing with authority, idiots who are not able to understand that the public's money is their money too, crazy freaks who want to destroy anything associated with traditional culture in America, and socialists.

I was wrong, and many commentators where wrong, to give credit for this election to the base of the right wing. The base of the right wing didn't win this election. Those people were going to vote for Bush anyway. The center chose Bush.

The center are people who don't really care about conservative religious values but don't mind crosses on public lands. The center are people who want lower taxes but not at the expense of killing people. The center are people who just aren't into all this fanatical political bullshit and mostly want to hire a President who is charismatic, strong, honest, and responsible. They chose Bush. They chose him because seems more Presidential then Kerry. He is.

The left didn't vote for Kerry. They voted against Bush. They need to actually produce a candidate they want to vote for. They'll win if they can do that. They need to forget the issues and focus on the man.

RE: Pandering To HypocrisyPandering To HypocrisyPandering to Hypocrisy

Palindrome wrote:
] Decius wrote:
] ] Palindrome wrote:
] ] ] Decius wrote:
] ] ] ] Kill JFK.
] ] ]
] ] ] Why?
] ]
] ] Because you can?
]
] Not good enough. Why?

Of course it is.

Thats why. Because you can.

One of the things that makes new technology compelling is that it enables you to have experiences that you could not have before. Thats what was magical about mechanized flight... About space travel. What computer simulations like GTA or Keyhole have about them is that they enable you to have experiences that weren't just unavailable, but they were either physically impossible or morally reprehensible or deadly. GTA lets you experience the glee of totally escaping from social reality and going on a killing spree, without any of the costs. In that sense its cathartic. They are selling a consequence free environment.

Debates about morality always come down to people drawing lines in the sand and then being offended when others cross them. For the most part we all agree about rational lines in the sand. People who murder are usually sociopaths or mentally ill. Almost all people agree that there is a line in the sand there. There are lines we don't agree about. In some cases, like slavery, those drawing the lines where rational. In other cases, they are wrong.

An easy example is swear words. When I was in high school I was in Drama class and we put on a play. In the play someone said "This Sucks." We put the play on, the kids loved it, and then the next day in school the administrators were all over the place talking about parents complaining about references to "Oral Sex." We were confused. We didn't understand what they were talking about. Eventually one of them had the presence of mind to say that really they were concerned that we used the word "sucks." At that point some of us got it, and others didn't. Eventually everyone figured out that this was a reference to "Oral Sex." We really hadn't considered that before. We used the word to refer to something that was bad. We had no sexual connotation attached to the word.

This was an irrational line to draw. We meant what we meant. Other people had associations in their heads that we didn't have. Its not our fault that they misinterpreted us, nor is it rational to draw a line in the sand that says you can't say the word "sucks" when you are really concerned about "oral sex" and thats not always whats going on when someone uses the word sucks.

Violent video games are the same way. The bad part about killing people is that people die. People who are offended about violent video games are offended because its bad when people die. This is irrational, because people don't actually die in video games. Video games don't have the bad part that you are concerned about. Children understand this implicitly. They know the difference between video games and the real world. Frequently its the adults who don't understand the difference. Unfortunately, Adults are famously bad at recognizing when their children know something that they don't know. They tend to assume that their children are always one step behind them. If culture really worked that way we could never improve upon anything. History would be a constant regression. It is not, and those who think it is are typically confused.

RE: JFK Reloaded | Home

] Fly from space to your home town. Visit exotic
] locales such as Maui, Tokyo, Rome and Paris.
] Satellite imagery makes it real. Explore restaurants,
] hotels, parks and schools. Think magic carpet ride!

Indeed. This is one of Google's new aquisitions, and it is hella cool. You start out floating over a picture of the earth built with satellite images. You can tilt and rotate. You can zoom in. In urban areas you can typically zoom in close enough to see cars. You can type in a street address and it will fly you there with a very smooth animation. You can also tilt your camera when you are close in and see topographical features in 3d. The grand canyon is particularly interesting in this regard, especially if you tell it to exaggerate heights. All the images come from the net so they'll be updated over time. Wow.

This is the map of the future.

Keyhole

] Following up yesterday's BB post about Kevin Sites' blog
] post on the Falluja shooting video: The New York Times
] covers Mr. Sites' response-via-blog today; it was the
] first time he'd issued a detailed statement about the
] events surrounding what was captured on tape, and the
] decisions that followed.

There is lots of cool stuff on BoingBoing today. This post is probably the most newsworthy.

Boing Boing: NYT on Falluja shooting video response via blog

Kill JFK.

JFK Reloaded | Home

] Fists were flying. So were cups, plastic
] bottles and even a chair in one of the ugliest NBA brawls
] ever...

I don't follow B-ball, but if you missed this, you missed out. My theory is that the amount of violence in human society is a constant. With no Hockey season all that violence had to go somewhere, and it this case it ended up in a Basketball game. Usually it just vents down to the Middle East somewhere.

abc7.com: Pacers Brawl With Fans During Pistons Game