National Debt / Video Game Silliness

Wow. As a nation, we're going to have a deficit of almost half-a-trillion dollars:

The deficit will hit $482 billion in the 2009 budget year that will be inherited by Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain, the White House estimated Monday. That figure is sure to rise after adding the tens of billions of dollars in additional Iraq war funding it doesn't include, and the total could be higher yet if the economy fails to recover as the administration predicts.

The result: the biggest deficit ever in terms of dollars, though several were higher in the 1980s and early 1990s as a percentage of the overall economy.

Even more interesting is this:

The administration actually underestimates the deficit since it leaves out about $80 billion in war costs. In a break from tradition -- and in violation of new mandates from Congress -- the White House did not include its full estimate of war costs.

Basically, the amount is higher but they didn't want to draw attention to it. So they left part of it out. Can they actually do that? What a mess. I sincerely pity whoever takes over the Presidency.

In other news, an upcoming video game called Fat Princess is making some people angry. It's essentially a game of Capture-the-Flag.Here's the twist: the flag is a princess who you can attempt to stuff full of food to make her harder for the opposing team to carry off. Sounds funny, and ultimately harmless.

Not everyone seems to think it's all fun and games. Melissa McEwan, a writer for feminist gaming website Shakesville, is "positively thrilled to see such unyielding dedication to creating a new generation of fat-hating, heteronormative assholes."

Seriously, I think feminists do their best to always find things to be pissed off about, much like religious kooks. Moving on ...

New York passed a bill recently to help enforce age ratings on video games. Not a big deal to me, since the parents of children everywhere have already dropped the ball (or refused to pick it up in the first place).That's parenting for ya'; it's always someone else's fault/responsibility.

Here's the rub, though. Among other things, this new bill is going to give New Yorkers "an advisory council to conduct a study on the connection between interactive media and real-life violence in minors exposed to such media."

Again? How many studies on kids and video game violence do we really need to waste money on? There have been more studies done on the subject than I've lost managers at this hotel (and I've gone through a lot of them). You know what they generally find? Not a god damn thing. When they don't like what they learn, they typically use words like "inconclusive". When they're willing to accept their own research's findings, they use words like "no evidence".

The director of the New York Civil Liberties Union had this to say on the subject:

"New Yorkers do not need the state judging which video games are appropriate and which aren't. Parents, not government committees, should be responsible for making those judgments. If the legislature wants to reduce youth violence, it should fund educational programs to teach students conflict resolution skills."

I couldn't agree more. These motherfuckers need to stop wasting money trying to prove the same tired theory over and over again. The evidence isn't there. The bastards can always try a different approach ... if they're really so concerned about kids, violence, and video games.