I’ve met people from almost all walks of life, at least in this country, from a variety of ideologies and opinions, politically, socially, and religiously. I am baptized Catholic, but do not attend mass or any religious services. I’m not registered to either political party, and have voted both sides in the past three elections. My first eligible vote for President was 2004, however due to moving to a new town, I was unable to cast a vote either where I lived or where I was living. It would have been for Bush. I voted for Obama in 2008, and in local elections this past year, I voted for McMahon for senator and Foley for governor.

Politically I am socially liberal in many ways, supportive of social services. race and gender equality, pro-choice, and pro-gay marriage. However I am fiscally conservative with some libertarian ideologies. I believe in balanced budgets, controlled-to-lower spending, leaner government, and pro-capitalism. While I respect and support unions, I believe they should be regulated and controlled and wages and pensions be brought in reasonable line with a company’s books as to not drag them down. Social Security, Welfare, Medicare/Medicaid, all of these need to be reformed and regulated to eliminate wasteful spending and seal exploitation holes. Unemployment benefits should be regulated and efforts be made to get people back to work in private sector jobs, either through job placement, training, or otherwise. Government jobs should be maintained at levels comparable to what is needed and nothing more. Healthcare should be available for everyone, but not distributed or directly administered from the government. Finally immigration should be regulated and controlled, and those seeking to live in the country be directed through the proper process to do so. Illegals should be deported without hesitation if they refuse to go through lawful means of entry and naturalization. Our borders should be secure and violators detained and sent back, force used only when to defend themselves or necessary. Folks living on the border who encounter trespassers who do not yield to civilized reason, should be shot. The list can go on here.

The point is, I grew up in middle class America, with lower-to-middle class Americans, even those who immigrated from elsewhere. I often stereotype, but am never flat-out racist, and respect another’s opinion so much as they respect mine. My parents and grandparents worked hard in a variety of different jobs and fields to provide for their families and make ends meet. So when liberals and conservatives on Capitol Hill make decisions that affect us all, big or small, rich or poor, I have every right to question it without prejudice, without bias, in a manner I see fit until I change my mind otherwise. I am not close-minded, or absent from debate or opinion from others, but the moment you invoke my supposed political background, my social background, who I do or do not know, or the experiences I do not share because you find me ignorant, you have indeed crossed the line into prejudice and bias.

TL;DR: I am sick and fucking tired of being called a backwater, Rush-loving, Bush-thumping, socially-ignorant Republican redneck because I don’t agree with your holier-than-thou “peace and love” hippie liberal bullshit after having spent the better part of the last decade trying to at least understand the other side of the coin. It’s degrading, it’s tiring, and frankly I am done with it.

With that, I announce the last entry of TL;DR Politics. Feel free to browse the archives for as long as I see fit to stare at this any longer. Will I never post another politics thing again? Unlikely, but time will tell.

Frankly, it has less to do with the recession and more to do with the divisive state politics and class warfare around here. Malloy was largely elected by the major cities of Connecticut, and statistically speaking, the majority of those folks are low-income, non-white, many of whom are receiving one or more state benefits such as welfare, unemployment, or food stamps. Most suburban and rural towns did not vote for Malloy in the election, and in the end, he managed a narrow victory off the back of Bridgeport’s voter snafu. So really what this tells me is that for the majority voter, what was important to them was the Democrat platform, taxing the rich and corporations and redistributing the wealth to the lower class. Feel free to tell me I’m wrong, but please link me to someplace that shows how many folks are on government-sponsored benefits programs before you do, because I’d like to know the EXACT number myself.

That really is only a small point though, really, I have no objection to social welfare programs when they are administered to the folks who actually need them, and measures are taken to control costs and eventually put these people back to work and off the dole. Sadly, this is not the case. These programs have spiraled out of control since their inception and folks continue to support the liberal agenda because liberals know all they have to do to get elected is promise more free money to their constituents and they’re guaranteed office. Malloy thought he’d be clever and stir up some baskets with the state employee union, but quickly retreated on his position when they deadlocked, because why the hell would they accept sacrifice or concessions? They’ve been floating off of sweetheart deals and taxpayer-funded incentives forever, and especially from former Governor Rowland.

Speaking of Republicans, they aren’t off the hook either. Their inability to work with the state legislature to fairly compromise with anything for the good of state residents and private business has crippled business in this state. Few large companies exist in this state, and those who do are large insurance corporations and non-industrial or agricultural companies who already outsource a number of jobs outside the US. Small Business in Connecticut is a joke, anyone who survived the years of “Dick Dasterdly” as our AG is probably not even in a position to remain viable in this state. Many are jumping to NY or NJ after the budget plan was revealed. I work for a small private business myself and we are too finding it difficult to remain viable under the tax code in this state. But to be fair, Malloy is only one part of the problem. The state Democrats, much like our national government, feel inclined to continue spending money this state DOES NOT have and borrow against the next generation and to what, fund their comfy retirement?

I feel our government is only a small part of this pie, and the sad reality is a lot of this is being influenced by the social fiber of this country. People no longer see the value in working hard, making a living, raising a family, and making a better life for their children. The Baby Boomers are concerned with retiring comfortably with as much money and benefits as possible, the working middle class is struggling to make ends meet and hold down the majority of this country’s social services, two wars, and a myriad of other things, teens, graduates, and 20-somethings believe they are entitled to pieces of every pie, or are saddled with tremendous government-sponsored debt to attend “college” that does not even place them in a successful job, and everyone else doesn’t even care to contribute to this country’s workforce and simply skates on a free ride of government money and incentives while continuing to multiply cancer cells.

Yes, I compared welfare leeches to cancer. U mad?

You should be.

This country and its people need a new purpose, a new goal to spark innovation and a drive to make things great again. We need a new challenge, we cannot settle for complacency. We had the Industrial Revolution and two world wars, Korea and Vietnam, the rise of telecommunications, television, and radio, blasting off into space and the Moon, the internet and world wide web, and now utilizing that technology to change how we communicate and perceive the world. Everything that was created and sacrificed by many before us we enjoy today, and how do we move forward?

Education. Realization. Commitment. Effort. Our children should learn common sense in addition to facts, our history, what the people sacrificed before them for the liberty and freedom we all enjoy. They should learn what a honest day’s work is and how it builds the foundation for a better life. They should have opportunities as early as middle or high school to find a profession or skill they are interested in and train for it. Post-high school education and college should focus on those skills and build on them, so they can be successful in their job and not spend four years learning “liberal arts” and listening to tenured professors talk about how wonderful the world would be if the rich gave all their money away to the poor, charity, and the government. They should learn that while large corporations are not always honest, without them, there would be nothing for our country to leverage on. Frivolous lawsuits should be banned. The Justice System should level punishment that fits the crime if proven guilty. States should adopt either income tax or sales tax, but not both. The list goes on.

But TLDR: Common Sense. People are the most important asset in a business, corporation, family, or government. Without them, there is nothing. Greed, contempt, jealousy, every human trait and emotion will always be there. You can either choose to coexist with it, or withdraw from society. Innovate, or die. Humans have to adapt, and so can you.

No one appreciates death, that is, no moral human being with a conscious and right mind appreciates death, and yet the parties on the streets and the sighs of relief by many indicate a much different idea in the wake of Bin Laden’s death. Many compare it to Saddam Hussein’s death in Iraq, however for those people, they celebrated the fall of a tyrant, someone who controlled their country and persecuted those that did not belong to him. The celebration of Bin Laden’s death marked more of a celebration of justice, or what he represented. He represented a dark cloud of terror and instability in the world, where his Al-Qaida network struck innocents from the shadows without remorse. His removal will not stop terror from occuring, in fact, many believe it may increase in order to seek revenge, but the loss of a figurehead can also embolden those who seek to stop these terrorists, countries who previously may have not been in the fight because of how long and drawn out these conflicts have been may have new convictions, our own military, having heard the success of those Navy SEALS who bravely carried out the orders, strengthening to finish the job in Afghanistan and Iraq, and to discourage would-be terrorists and tyrants in other nations from laying a hand on a world that does not clearly want them.

It’s not the event of the century, it probably shouldn’t be a reason to celebrate, or so the Vatican says, but why not? We finally brought down the man who helped usher in a decade of terrorism and fear for an ideal nothing short of unoriginal, religious conquest, just like all of the other religions that have had a hand in history, and yet he clung to a belief that without the US, a vital player in the global economy, that this world would be absent of the thing that lives in all human hearts, greed and selfishness.

As for his body, frankly I don’t think Islamic customs was good enough for the man, but I respect that decision. Rather, I would have liked we dumped his body on Pakistan’s Asif Zardari’s desk with a shovel and told him to bury him themselves, since they likely always knew he was in the country and never bothered to say anything or do anything about it. I know we’re not the best of buds or anything, but not cool man, not cool.

It’s no secret here that I am not a fan of our illustrious Senator Blumenthal. I did not vote for him, and I continue to state that his overreaching nanny-state politics will destroy what is left of this state’s local business, just as he did as AG in his “crusade for the little guy”. It’s a noble cause, and on any other day I would completely justify it, but the “little guy” is grossly misrepresented in this country, assuming you are firing more than ten brain cells and realize we are massively in debt and the government wants to spend more money. But this is pure conjecture, right? Getting off track…

…so as it turns out, Sony’s Playstation Network went down without reason last week, leaving users unable to play online games. Several sites have weighed in on it, including Penny-Arcade whose writer Jerry “Tycho” Holkins summarized Sony’s level of interaction in this as being “They need to find a human being, or hire one, and start an actual dialogue with users.” Case in point, they neglected to inform anyone of the seriousness of this breach until today.

>mfw

I’m not a defender of corporations. Far from it. If there is one thing I’ve learned from working in large national corporations, weather they be retail, food service, or otherwise, is that “damage control” is often thought of last, after you’ve fixed the problem. You want to be able to say “Oh hey, it’s fixed, but here is what happened…” rather than update your users of the problem in real time. It’s a slippery slope, because if you come out too early, the hackers won’t know your on to them, or it will invite people who didn’t know of the exploit to jump in at the last second. But on the other hand, you’re helping the thousands who use the service change their information and make arrangements with their banks and credit companies. Anything that involves personal information is a necessity to protect in this day and age.

But why does Richard Blumenthal think it is wholly necessary to A: Intervene as a US Senator and B: Demand that Sony offer additional protections at their cost for these type of issues. Politicians love to assume that companies are overflowing with capital that they can pay for half a million or whatever number people to have credit checks and fraud payments, when they’re probably going to have a class-action lawsuit slapped on them anyway, because god only knows they can’t make a single mistake. I’m not condoning their lack of security, but nothing is secure, and if you don’t have your own personal safeguards on your information, you’re just as short-sighted as Sony themselves. But let’s focus on the first part for a moment:

Why does Blumenthal need to intervene? It’s not a government matter, and it’s not even a Senator’s matter. Sure he can listen to his people and make an inquiry I suppose, but that’s not what this is, this is ol’ Tricky Dicky firing up his 00 Mean Machine previously parked in the Connecticut AG spot and roaring into Washington to “save the day” against some unsuspecting gamers, people traditional government doesn’t even like anyway. (See Senator Yee and former Senator Clinton on Violent Video Games) Who is he saving from what? Oh right, the people from big bad Sony’s deceptive business practices or whatever magical bullshit he is going to pull up. Look, I ain’t got anything against you, you won over McMahon, fair is fair, that’s not the issue, the issue is, I don’t need or want your nanny-state politics in my country. These people are unfortunate, not going to argue, but they aren’t going to benefit from the high probability legislation you will try to enact that will force Sony to probably have to charge for their service to break bank. These folks are lucky it’s free, XBox Live! charges for online, and you need to pay for internet to play online on a PC. If you want to enforce security standards and put some government money into strengthening online security and giving hackers appropriate justice and penalties if caught, that’s great, but Sony does not deserve to be dinged for someone else’s intrusion. It’s bad enough authorities do that to open wireless owners, and I seem to recall a bill passing by targeting open wireless thieves.

Second, additional protections? Look, it sounds nice, it really does, but why? I’m not getting offered free credit checks and fraud alerts, why should these people? Oh they got hacked? I got hacked by someone through Paypal? Where is my free shit? Right, I don’t expect it, because I’m not part of this “entitlement collective” (I refuse to call it “generation” because you old-timers can suck it, plenty of us who grew up right) who sits around and waits for people like Blumenthal to bring the government dogs of war down on companies and demand they cough up compensation for their actions. He killed several companies in this state like that, some were small Mom and Pop businesses just trying to make buck and exist in their communities, and many more are on their eleventh hours. All he cares about is his career and government employees. In the end, they’re just as likely to use all of this as a method to tax and spend it anyway, somehow, and if not, it still makes re-election material.

I’m 50-50 on free-market capitalism and anti-corporation, because there are some things companies do that are unfair and unjust to people, and if left alone, they will abuse them and neglect them. But not allowing these companies the ability to take control of the situation and direct it without government cronies stepping in to take credit and be the hero, is just telling Sony that there is no reason to continue investing in the American marketplace. Sony is a strong brand in Japan, as is the Playstation system. Microsoft can’t even begin to dent Japan’s market with the 360. I simply just don’t like government interference in this sort of thing. Let them deal with it, and if they cannot (which seems the case) then step in.

But really I just don’t like Blumenthal. All this, just for that.

Haters gonna hate. =)

The issue to me in all of this is that we all knew of the budget issue since it croppd up shortly after the recession was announced in 2008-2009. The Gov. Rell dipped into the state’s “Rainy Day” fund and made other cuts and concessions to close the gap for that year, but if deeper and more serious cuts were not made in the next budget, it would widen once more. Many Malloy supporters like to dish on her for leaving the state in a jam, but really I pin this more towards the Dems in the state legislature that stalemated her attempts to call for a better balanced budget by eliminating more spending and cutting non-essential departments in programs within the state agencies. This of course cries foul with state unions and such because heaven forbid we the people who fund the state be allowed to consolidate operations during lean times. Rather, Malloy wants to seek “concessions” from unions which probably means more furlough days and other useless items that really just prolong the inevitable.

What grinds my gears the most is the notion that they expect the middle class in this state to foot most of the bill. By their definition, the middle is the 20k-100k bracket they are taxing 5% on income tax and increasing or establishing new taxes on the everyday things we use. Eliminating the tax-free weekend is also a huge loss for lower and middle class families as that often falls on the week before school starts and is a huge help in families buying things for their children’s back-to-school. It’s rather crass of them to assume that we are “out of the woods” in these tough economic times, while we are better positioned than a year or two ago, times are still tight and families don’t need more taxes piled on their already high plates of costs. To me, “fair” is our government doing the responsible thing and shedding redundant or non-working agencies and programs, reducing the number of state employees to save costs, and maximizing efficiency on existing programs. We live in an instant and digital age, and yet things are still done on paperwork and folders, when we could be converting a lot of things to computers or other means, that alone would eliminate the need for extra personnel. I know what you’re going to say, how dare I advocate people losing jobs.

To me, state and government jobs should have never been paid “career” jobs in the first place. You are there to perform a job that other people are paying for, almost like the conventions I staff every year. Sure the attendees pay to attend the event, and I get some things paid for like my food and room, but I am not getting salary or benefits and nor should I, it’s three days out of the year. What’s worse is these unions are strongarming into raising these people’s salaries and benefits without any additional capital coming in. In private business, you can’t even consider raising salaries unless you have the incoming revenue to afford it, if you don’t, you are toast. Why does government think it can operate like a private business? This “for the good of the people” crap is sickening, because you aren’t doing me any favors by raising my taxes just so you can afford to buy another state vehicle or hire five more people to sit behind a desk and shuffle papers. I probably do more work in a day than the average state worker does and my job is pretty low-key compared to many. I realize these are crude analogies I am crafting, but the point is, if you are taking out more cookies than you are making and putting in, eventually you are going to run out, and who is to blame, the one taking or the one creating?

Sadly, this is why I voted for Foley, because I knew Malloy would take the low road in this situation, he is a Democrat, and Democrats don’t reduce spending and shrink government, they tax and spend. Even the most moderate of Democrats don’t fully support the idea of limited government, and it’s sad because we as a country spend more time trying to make ourselves be some pillar of human morality and advancement, when we are no better than the rest of the world’s monkeys. I really wish we’d stop trying to be like everyone else and really establish this country’s real nationalistic pride, if we did, we would see the equality in all of us and understand that this country really is stronger as a whole rather than divided by race, religion, class, and lifestyle choices. Moving one step closer to a better tomorrow doesn’t start with spending more money on everyone, it starts by more people spending time with everything.

Yes I am talking about Sarah Palin, and YOU, America. You. But we’ll hit this last.

I continue to be morally disgusted with this country often, and how culturally bias, self-serving, and unyielding we are as a whole towards everyone else. We consume, we waste, we breed, we steal from others, murder others in cold blood, and all to serve ourselves, our immediate family, or others, at someone else’s expense. Yet this is how life goes, everything blows by in an instant. We are taught to seize that instant, make it our own. We are taught in elementary school that sharing is caring, that it makes a better world, and then as we grow older, we realize that nobody shares, nobody cares, everyone takes for their own and fuck the other guy. There are exceptions, and it’s those people who balance this world and keep it from turning into a ball of chaos, but as a whole, human beings innate ability is to want for oneself.

On the subject of this kid, Jared Loughner, a 22-year old kid who was described as “mentally unstable”, a pot-smoker, and disruptive element, many quickly denounced him as a nobody who committed senseless violence rather than taking up his political position in the proper channels. News media latched on to his troubled past and painted a picture of a person so far removed from normal society, that everyone would immediately see him as evil, without remorse, without hope. The internet quickly descended upon his social networking profiles, eager to pick apart and analyze him, feeding whatever they can to the media and to talk and TV personalities to dissect. I am not apologizing for this kid’s actions, what he did was senseless violence, and it was not what rational human beings do to solve their differences. He didn’t just wound Rep. Giffords, he killed a nine year old girl, a federal judge, and four others in the attack.

But he did not kill himself. Perhaps he didn’t have the chance to, he was tackled to the ground pretty quickly by some heroic and brave people. In this case we will have the chance to hopefully hear his reasons for doing this, and depending on evaluation, judge him according to the law and to what we feel, as a society, is a punishment that fits his crime. In my opinion, should be be deemed conscious and capable of his act, he should be thrown in a solitary cell with a projector replaying lives of those he took over and over and over until he either commits suicide, or dies of old age. It sounds cruel, but when it comes to capital punishment, I don’t believe it does anything to deter crime. A story for another post. Should he be found mentally incompetent, or otherwise unaware of his actions, though I can’t imagine how, then we should be using him as a case for understanding why so many of our young people are falling through the cracks in society.

A few days ago someone linked a couple articles on US education and how it is being underfunded by people and its effect is compromising our children’s educations. Education is important, without it, we’d still function as a society, because we did once before obviously, but we would be unaware of what we could be, unable to grasp concepts that make for our way of life to exist. We would not have skyscrapers and bridges, or even McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts. The price we pay for a child’s education today is astronomical, and a lot of that I feel is absolute bullshit.

What bothers me about taxpayer-funded education is that, like everything else we taxpayers pay for with good intentions, we don’t know where our money goes. It’s like donating to some guy who promises to do something with the money, and takes a vacation to Japan. There is no accountability for where your money goes. There isn’t even a clear path for where your money goes when you buy a Big Mac lunch. We believe the money goes to employee wages, restaurant operations, and eventually the CEO and board members, but is anyone else getting a cut? An indirect sale? Taxpayer-funded education should be going to the schools to provide for the students, in the form of teacher salaries, building construction and upkeep, books, supplies, teaching tools, technology, and recreational equipment. Times change, things might get more expensive, but once your basic requirements are held and you have some extra, save up for a rainy day, or invest in a project that will benefit everyone. This seems logical right?

So why are all of our school systems, from the urban areas to the rural areas, running out of money or lapsing on their upkeep of buildings and materials? Outdated books? Broken equipment? I really want to say the reason of this is teacher salaries, because much like my previous rants on General Motors and the UAW, unions are once more doing a fine job of making it so teachers still manage to get raises and even keep their jobs during suspensions, but have no accountability for their jobs and no compromise when the district needs to raise funds for other projects. But I can already hear the TAKKATAKKATAKKA of keyboards flying to liberals and progressives moving at the speed of light to prove me wrong online here, and tell me that teachers are underpaid and under-appreciated. They probably are, you’re probably right, but when you’ve raised a generation on iPods, cell phones, and video games to the point where all they have to do is stick out their hand and they receive a treat, what do you expect? They don’t have a work ethnic, they don’t see the need in doing school work to further an education, why bother, their welfare-bound parents are providing for them, their middle class parents are borrowing against their third mortgage to provide for them, their rich parents are showering them. Schools have become a focal point for teaching our children how they should feel, act, react, and deal with the issues in our world, rather than be taught facts and how they should form their own opinions based on the facts presented. No, our children’s education is being bought by political parties interested in molding public opinion using our children, just like how they insist McDonalds is trying to make kids fat by offering toys in their Happy Meals.

All of this comes back around to Sarah Palin and her website map that was targeting congressional districts opposed to President Obama’s Healthcare Plan in March. Rep. Giffords was one of them, and subject to violence against her headquarters after the voting. Within hours many, especially anti-Tea Party, anti-GOP, and largely liberals, were out to denounce Palin and her supporters for fostering and cultivating “hate” and “bigotry” that caused this incident to occur. This kicked off a medium-powered rage moment in my head at the time, which amounts to this:

For fucks sake people, STOP. I’m so fucking tired of hearing about Sarah Palin. She is an unqualified hack of a woman from a politically corrupted state whose residents receive kickbacks from the oil industry up there just so they can be allowed to conduct business. She didn’t know jack for SHIT about the rest of the country, its social values, or its politics when she was chosed by John McRage to be his Vice-President in what was clearly a move orchestrated to draw in female voters AND the type of right-wingers not even righties like. Yet after the election she has continued to shine in the spotlight thanks to a relentless GOP and certain “Tea Party” eager to capitalize on her MAXIMUM TROLLING to continue to shove her misguided, bigoted, and worthless opinion down the American people’s throats. What is worse is she has built a political TROLL SHIELD as well, so when you say shit about her she doesn’t like, you are immediately aligned with the liberals, ACORN, Obama, Pelosi, progressives, or whoever, your opinion then becomes invalidated and lost in a sea of UNLIMITED TROLL WORKS cultivated by her supporters who cling to her every word like Rush Limbaugh’s leftover steak in the alley dumpster. So in the end, it really doesn’t matter what she says and if you agree with it or not. IT’S ALL THE SAME SHIT, and YOU should feel bad that you ever bothered to mention it in the first place. Even now I am disregarding my own advice to write this but my message to America is simple:

America, Sarah Palin is NOT going to become President, Vice-President, or even Governor again of her own state. She is not going to save the world, heal the sick, give you a blowjob in the back of your SUV, or sing songs about the glory days of George W. Bush’s presidency. She will not have sex with you (but Bristol might), she will not shoot in a moose in your honor. She does not read your tweets, nor care about your Facebook posts to her wall, your shrine to her honor. She does not care about your walls of text (like mine) about how much you hate her, the Tea Party, or the GOP. She doesn’t care how much you want Obama to whisper softly into your ears at night while you touch yourself, nor does she care about what you think of her family no matter how assbackwards retarded they can be.

It doesn’t matter if you love or hate her, she’ll take it either way, like the entire Wasllia High School Hockey Team in the locker room. She bathes in her supporters love and cultivates her opponents hate. She is the Emperor of the Galactic Empire and you are Mace Windu. She is Justin Beiber and you are any respectable singer ever to have been born. The moment you realize that YOU and YOUR unwarranted self-importance mean nothing to her, is when you realize that Sarah Palin never existed in the first place, that Sarah Palin is like the Matrix, existing solely because society wishes her to.

TL;DR: The real tragedy of Rep. Giffords is not the man who shot her, but the country who continues to shoot itself rather than look deeply within ourselves long enough, past the cholesterol buildup and artificial implants, to understand why in the face of every tragedy, that we’d rather blame someone, anyone, especially political, then simply console and pray for those involved, be you religious or not. Also, much like the comments Keith Olbermann said on MSNMC yesterday, we should also have the conviction to reshape ourselves, our community, and our political parties from those who seek to destroy the established norms of our society. Violence is never an answer, and never fair to anyone, including the ones who intend to inflict harm on others.

The most complicated part of reading this is understanding just what exactly California wants out of this bill. In media and news articles, they say that the law aims to restrict the sale of violent video games rated M or higher by the ESRB, to minors. It’s been argued by the ESA, EMA, and other game and merchants organizations that this violates First Amendment rights. The lower courts have agreed, but it has finally reached the top, and it’s up to our Supreme Court justices to decide if it is or not.

What makes this transcript amusing is the type of questions and comments made by the justices during the opening arguments for both sides. Zackery Morazzini, the attorney representing Gov. Schwarzenegger and California, spent most of his opening statements arguing that the law aims to prevent the sale of violent games to kids based on the criteria in the game, as well as citing the various studies that have been done to determine if violent games cause children to inflict real violence on people. Justice Scalia came out of the gate in the beginning latching on to what was considered “deviant” in the context of a violent game. He likened it to “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” in what was established and not established norms for violence. What amused me about this part was his insistence on asking Mr. Morazzini what was so special about video games that warranted a special exception to First Amendment rights in publishing such a game. Most adults find video games to be children’s toys, and they cannot fathom just exactly how adult themes such as sex and violence have a place in a video game, something the other justices mention later on in the hearing. Justice Sotomayor even references Bugs Bunny shortly after, asking “One of the studies, the Anderson study, says that the effect of violence is the same for a Bugs Bunny episode as it is for a violent video. So can the legislature now, because it has that study, say we can outlaw Bugs Bunny?” She continues to say that cartoons offer no social value, to adults, which is exactly how they perceive video games also. Video games offer no social or educational value, it’s simply entertainment aimed at and developed for children and teens. This isn’t unlike other forms of media, such as cartoons, movies, television, and so on.

Shortly after, Sotomayor then brings into question rap music, and it’s influence on children and violence. Indeed, the genre of music, popular among blacks, hispanics, and younger audiences, many times preaches lyrics that involve sex and violence. However socially, it has been accepted as part of urban culture, and even though many dislike it, it does not get the same “rap” as video games. Video games with sex and violence are seen as gross and unnecessary, often even by the same adults who turn a blind eye to rap music or any other form of violence in media. By the end of Mr. Morazzini’s statements, the consensus was that the state cannot possibly target A: the type of violent game that fits the description they submit, and B: the age demographic these games are supposed to stay out of the hands of.

Paul Smith, the attorney for the Entertainment Merchants Association, opened contending that the state, knowing full well their bill should not be able to withstand a First Amendment challenge, was trying to re-write the amendment to grant them an exception. He also argued that the bill was nothing more than an attempt to censor works just like movies, television, books, and other form of media that ran into this issue before in court. The justices this time argued for the bill in the form of stating that perhaps parents do need help regulating violent media in their children’s lives. It’s very easy for a child to gain access to this type of content, even in the most well-regulated of family environments. Several of the justices noted how easy it is for a person to hack around protected content, and that is one of the reasons many games cannot be accurately rated, because modders can modify games to have things like nudity or the infamous “Hot Coffee” (which has been said to have been left in by the original developers, but some dispute it). Later on, Justice Alito asks “What if the State passed a — what if California took the list of video games that your association rates as mature and said there’s a civil penalty.” Mr Smith predictably cites the ESRB’s role in rating video games and that if the state is going to regulate which games are violent and which are not, then it amounts to a government takeover of a voluntary ratings system for the purpose of regulating video games sales according to what they perceive.

In my opinion, the state’s position makes little sense to me, which is why this bill is so badly constructed. Leland Yee constructed this bill, with or without Jack Thompson’s supposed involvement in it, to rid the industry of violent video games. He, and most other mostly-Democrat politicians who believe in “Nanny-State Politics” would rather the gaming industry ceases making any of these games for anyone and sticking to family-friendly games for children, because to them, games are for children and nothing more. Republican politicians are a double-edge sword, conservative-leaning business owners will balk against this bill because it hurts their bottom line– if popular violent games like Grand Theft Auto ceased to be made, their core business would disappear. However, typical conservative folks will probably see games as a “waste of time” that no one should be playing anyway, and probably wouldn’t be sad to see them go. The state clings desperately to questionable scientific studies about how violent games affect children when really, the studies are marginal at best. There is no doubt that violent media has the potential to affect people, especially children, but as one justice pointed out, children do not simply become violent after minimal exposure to violent material, it usually takes repeated viewings or a longer period of time for these effects to manifest. Not always, but usually.

It’s not our government’s job to regulate violent video games, or any sort of violent media today. We have voluntary ratings boards for film, television, and even other forms of media like music and some books. The ESRB has been operating for many years now rating video games and from my brief time working for Gamestop, it works. Parents are aware of the dangers of violent media, they saw Columbine, and they know that without values and supervision, impressionable children will fall through the cracks. But many children grow up in single-parent households, or no-parent households and foster care. They aren’t given the kind of attention needed. They are prone to violence and video games take their fantasies and extend them. We could stand better to be using the money being wasted on these bills, the lawyers, and everything and putting it back into education and social services to help our children and young adults understand how to separate fantasy from reality, and let retailers and local law enforcement deal with single cases.

I’ll be interested to see where the justices will go with this. What interests me is that liberal-leaning newbies Sotomayor and Kagan seem to be correctly questioning the validity of the state trying to circumvent the First Amendment. Many thought they would vote closer to their beliefs rather than objectively interpreting the Constitution, so it will be interesting to see how they rule in the end.

Bonus: The webcomic Virtual Shackles took note of one of Sotomayor’s remarks towards the last quarter of the hearing.

Stay classy bro.

Anyway, it was an interesting and hard fought election. Honestly I was really just in for Blumenthal losing, anything else was eh. Sadly, I rather expected him to win. The breakdown with approximate results:

Malloy vs. Foley – Governor
What has perplexed me is how this state seems to favor Republican governors despite having all Democrat representatives and senators, and a largely Democrat-controlled State House and Senate. I think Connecticut wanted a firewall knowing that as we go into the next round of budget talks, we’ll need someone to ensure that our local reps keep this state somewhat in check. Race-wise, it’s good to see that with all of the negative campaigning, Foley still rose above the Malloy attacks.

Blumenthal vs. McMahon – Senate
I think I had to agree with former Governor Rowland on WTIC earlier this evening when he said that despite most towns voting for Foley for governor, many people took the safe-vote in Blumenthal, he’s known, he’s trusted (at least by Democrats) and he was better positioned to win this race. McMahon was plagued by her connections to the WWE and it’s turbulent history. Honestly, I did not place that much stock in it, she ran the company, she let some things happen. Politicians have gotten away with much worse, and I feel that she was hindered simply by being a successful businesswomen, in this hostile anti-business air still left over from 2008.

I thought it was pretty classy of McMahon to ward off her crowd from boo’ing her opponent in her concession speech. Dasterdly however, didn’t spare a second to put one last nail in her coffin before launching into his usual speeches of “fighting for us”. Also, money can’t buy? As I recall, you took from public money buddy, she didn’t. Enjoy your victory though.

Courtney vs. Peckinpaugh – House / CT 2nd
For a fresh face with little funding, she put up a very good challenge for Courtney. I think if she had focused a bit more on specific issues and what she would do to benefit Connecticut, she might’ve had a better shot IMO. GG though.

Jepsen vs. Dean – CT Attorney General
Eh, let’s just hope he doesn’t try to be Blumenthal Jr.

Other CT Races: all 5 House districts look to stay blue. 3 are definates and the 4th and 5th districts were toss-ups. the 4th looked to be solid for Republican Dan Debicella, but now they’re calling Democrat Jim Himes. Shenanigans maybe? No results yet on the local races.

Other states: Ohio and Indiana redeemed themselves by electing Dan Coats (R-IN) and Rob Portman (R-OH) to the Senate, as well as three House seats in Ohio, Bill Johnson (R-OH6), Bob Gibbs (R-OH18), and Jim Renacci (R-OH16), with Steve Chabot (R-OH1) favored to win his. The other two big wins for Republicans were Rand Paul in Kentucky and Marco Rubio in Florida. To me, the fact that Nancy Pelosi will be ousted from Majority Speaker and the House turning over, this provides us with the chance to really evaluate these bills they were ramming through Congress. If anything, this forces Obama to really try to work with Congress rather than play the party line on his agenda. This will make the next 2 years up to the next Presidential election, just that much more interesting.

TL;DR Boo Blumenthal. Yay Ohio and Indiana. Goddamit Barney “Elmer Fudd” Frank, go back to bed. Thank you Southwick, MA for NOT voting Deval in MA. Thank you everyone who voted, one way or another. If I was a drinking man, I would toast you a shot for another term of American “politics”. Tell you what, you do an extra shot for me. You deserve it.

Malloy vs. Foley for Governor: Honestly, I did listen to him earlier this evening on WTIC’s Church and State. He seems like a nice guy, and honestly, considering our state legislature isn’t going to probably go red this year, he probably would be the most compatible choice. It’s a tight race, and they both have points I agree and disagree with, but I’m going to hail-mary on Foley for this one.

Blumenthal vs. McMahon for Senate: It really comes down to jobs for me in this one. Blumenthal, in my opinion, doesn’t know what job creation is. His run as AG has done nothing but drive out small business and sue everyone else. His ads tout his lowering energy rates, are you kidding? The only break we’ve gotten is from the whole supplier thing that came around a year-ish or so ago. I pay quite a bit for electricity in an apartment. I’m also tired of his campaign’s inability to tackle McMahon on anything other than the WWE, alleged abuse of women, and steroids. These aren’t issues, they’re liberal tactics to reduce her position and weaken her credibility. That’s all Dick Dasterdly is good for, lying and smooth-talking his way through everything. McMahon is no saint, and she will have to prove that she can do the job, but much like above, I’m willing to make the long-shot again, knowing full well it failed me in 08 with our President and Congress. Above all, she is promising to stick to self-imposed term limits, and could even fight for them, and I support that.

Courtney vs. Peckinpaugh for House District 2 (Eastern CT): I also got a chance to listen to her talk on Church and State on the drive home and she seems pleasant, but she also seems oddly assured that she will win. As I said in my initial size-up, her positions on issues seemed very vague and very cookie-cutter out of the general GOP stance on issues. I am not above sending newbies to the Hill, because I think they will at least effect some change in the short term before the Beltway corrupts them, but I rather like Courtney’s record so far, and I know, gasp, he is a Democrat. Remind me to whip up a Venn Diagram for you conservative haters.

Jepsen vs. Dean for Attorney General: I haven’t followed much beyond the new suit Dean is filing over Jepsen’s experience, which is pretty underhanded for someone who I guess promised not to file frivolous lawsuits like the man currently driving the 00 Mean Machine. Still, I think she was taking advantage of the Bysiewicz ruling and is trying to get an edge. Considering this is a race of two Democrats, it really comes down to who I think wants to move away from what Bumenthal has created for the AG position, and that is Dean.

Merill vs. Farrell, Jr. for Secretary of State: Eh, I just looked into this one today, and it looks like we have a lawyer with a lot of positions in school boards versus a local attorney with town council experience. Issue-wise, hint of party-line leaning moreso towards “hot issues of the year”. This will be my shot-in-the-dark vote.

Other Local Races: Guglielmo (35th District CT Senate), this guy has been out on the corner next to the on-ramp for 84W in Vernon near Tri-City now for the past three weeks waving down every car that passes by. This morning he was out there with Courtney and some other couple. I don’t follow as much of the local stuff as I should be, but hell, if you can stand all morning during rush hour waving people down, you got my re-elect vote. Just try to at least help our budget this time, no matter who is Governor. I don’t know of any other races, but I’ll wing it, probably block-vote Republican for maximum trolling.

So all in all, R-R-D-D-R-D. 3-3 tie for Republicans and Democrats. It pays to be unaffiliated.

Get out there and vote tomorrow. Vote for my picks. Vote for the other guys. Vote who you think will serve our state the best. Matters not. What’s important is that you make your vote count for someone and for this state. That’s what this country is all about. May the best candidate win.

Except Blumenthal.

The bill, originally authored by Senator Leland Yee D-California and signed into law by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, comes before The Surpreme Court this week. This comes after the law was declared unconstitutional last year by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, along with similar rulings in many other states that tried unsuccessfully to enact similar laws.

This thing that strikes me about this is the fact that the root of people’s conceptions around video games is rooted in human psychology. A game is something one plays for entertainment, enjoyment, and even though there are games for all ages and backgrounds, games are often perceived for children more than anything. Some games have withstood time to be treated beyond that. Monopoly for instance is a game enjoyed by virtually anyone, because it was a game created to weather The Great Depression. Poker, and many other card games, are considered mostly adult games because usually it involves gambling, which is seen as an adult thing. Video games however, have been perceived as children’s toys since their creation. The largest reason is because the games released dealt in childrens topics, or were based on popular childrens franchises. Atari had a number of Sesame Steet games made for the console, many of which I played. During the NES era, a lot of games were based on popular movies, sports, racing, or other commercial properties, along with Nintendo’s first-party titles. The Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis continued these trends, but did so in better graphics and somewhat deeper realism. With each new console generation, graphics and sound became better and better, and companies started looking not only to up the ante on more realistic games, but their target demographic was aging. Those of us who grew up with the NES in the late 1980′s were not in our teens and twenties in 2000 and beyond. Our tastes in games has changed, and the industry has tried to change with them. Unfortunately, this brought about a change that our parents and grandparents did not account for when we were kids. It brought about a need for games that would place us in a reality that was similar to our own, but not real. Violence, sex, drugs, themes common to movies and television could be made into games, but then those could fall into children’s hands just like their movie and television counterparts, under the guise of friendly video games. How do you retain the ability to freely create games adults can enjoy, but not have them fall into the hands of kids who are not mentally prepared to deal with the types of situations in them? Did anyone even realize what you could do in Custard’s Revenge for the Atari 2600?

We have a video games rating system, the ESRB. It works just like the MPAA’s ratings board for movies, and the rating system used for television programming. The system works, and I can prove that first-hand, I worked at a Gamestop for one Christmas several years back. It was a written rule that if you sold a violent game to a minor, you would be fired. We also knew the existence of secret shoppers and sting operations. Even if we did not, most of us cared enough about people to never allow children to play violent games. Any parent who came up to me asking about a game for their child, I always asked the child’s age, some things they are interested in, and pointed them towards an appropriate selection. If a parent with a younger child came up to me with a M-rated game to buy, I would inform them what they are buying and if it was for the child in question. The problem does not lie with the system, it lies with politicians and parents. I had many parents insist on buying M-rated titles knowing full well what they were. Children would pressure them into buying them anyway, insisting they were mature enough to handle it. Parents hide behind the notion that games are just games, that their children are as still as naive and innocent as the day they were born. These children are not stupid, they’ve seen TVs, movies, even our own American and World history, it has been centuries of bloodshed and violence. Some even contend with their own family units fighting or abusing them. We do not live in a cookie-cutter society where children are innocent and immune to the world around them, children are actually a lot more perceptive that we take them for, and they know that an M-rated video game being kept from them intentionally must hold something important, something valuable, and they will do whatever it takes to see it, even if they have to find an older sibling or friend to do it for them. Rather, it should be a parents duty to explain these kinds of situations with their children, make them understand that the kinds of things they see in media today are wrong and often, illegal. They should be shown that it is okay to play a game that may touch on difficult subjects, but is intended to be separate from reality, not to be brought into the real world and inflicted on other people. Fantasy should have it’s own place separate from reality. They also should be taught that they can have free access to material rated above their age when they reach that age and show they can be trusted with mature content. These are jobs parents can do to minimize violence and the types of things our politicians feel they need to legislate against. They do not need you to take care of your family, they would rather penalize us all for the actions of a few rather than educate the many.

It is time that we stop our government from further intruding into our private lives simply to serve their own careers and consciences. Parents need to stop allowing video games, or any entertainment medium, from parenting for them when they feel it to be convenient. People outta take their own responsibility for themselves and their families. I cannot attend this rally they are planning for Tuesday (probably wouldn’t even if I could) but I strongly oppose those in government trying to push this through and support the industry and folks who wish to see to it that our rights stay just the way they are. Let’s hope the Supreme Court makes the right choice.