many robots

So I happened upon this earlier today and nearly had a brain aneurysm. Seriously.

WASHINGTON - Video games glamorizing guns and violence have long drawn the ire of media watchdog groups. This holiday season, they say they have found a bloody new wrinkle to hate: cannibalism.
...
"It's just the worst kind of message to kids," said Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., who joined institute officials at a press conference announcing the group's 10th annual video game report card. "They can be dangerous to your children's health."

Now there is some interesting research surrounding violent media and its effect upon the behavior of young people. This isn't something I'm going to argue as I haven't had PsychLit access in years. There are two things very, very wrong about this that I'll list now:

1. There are things directly linked to violence we're not doing anything about. Domestic violence, abuse, neglect, racism, substance abuse [by parents and kids], poverty, poor educations and shoddy parenting are already strongly correlated with youth violence. We don't need more research, we don't need public interest groups feeding press releases to politicians and we don't need an advisory committee on this. We know these things and instead of addressing them are simply punishing one of the few growth industries that the US has left and trampling all over the first amendment in the process. Even if you're convinced that violent video games are bad for young people there's no successful argument that can convince me that this time, money and public awareness wouldn't be more productive applied to some of the many social ills we have that are incontrovertibly linked to violence by young people.


2. We're at war at the moment. Remember that? We're on track to pass the mega-ironic statistic of having more Americans die in Iraq and Afghanistan than did on September 11 long before we leave. The administration's cronyism, incompetence and deception is lying out there, like a turd in the punch bowl that no one is willing to adknowlege while our people die in dusty streets in the middle of nowhere. Joe Lieberman's not new to this game but I have nothing to say but "shame on you" for this whole fiasco. Hilary Clinton too. You guys are Democrats, why in God's name are you buddying up to people like Rick Santorum to push an agenda that no one except religious-oriented ["family" my ass] lobbying organizations and douchebag ambulance chasers actually wants? You don't think if Joe makes another stab at the presidency his comments about the serious nature of video game zombie violence aren't going to come back to haunt him?

Between this and the Democrats' constant buddying up with the MPAA and RIAA I'm done with them. I'm going to do something. It's not much but it will easy my conscience. All the money [admittedly not a tremendous amount] that I used to give to the DNC and various other Democratic fundraising groups is now going to the EFF and ACLU. I'm wiritng letters to all my elected representatives telling them that. And I'm not going to vote for them anymore.