Rant time again.....
Good morning boys and girls! It is your old pal Rev. Megan
here! I've just finished reading the most wonderful article (the
amount of sarcasm there cannot be put into words) and I must share it
with you! Following the link to the article will be exerpts
followed by my personal opinions.
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=461&Itemid=2&limit=1&limitstart=1
"Millions of American parents should be thankful to the Senator for striking back against what can be fairly called "Grand Theft Innocence" at the expense of our children by only some within your industry"
-Ok, first off, the game is rated M for Mature. It is not meant for children. Since this seems to be one of his main staples for his argument I won't add anything more here.
" It has been my privilege, as a lifelong Republican, to provide facts-not feelings"
-*Snort*
"She has been an abiding and loyal advocate for parents who oppose predatory, fraudulent practices by some within your video game industry."
-"Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children?".......really.....if we were really thinking of the children we wouldn't be buying this game for them.
".....for what for me have been nearly seven years of effort to try to get certain companies within the video game industry to start acting like good corporate citizens."
-Good corporate citizens? You mean like Enron and Haliburton? Oh...and if you have been doing this for nearly seven years and you still have not made any progress....perhaps you should stop?
" As a lifelong Republican who ran against Janet Reno, I can note that whereas the largest chapter of the National Organization for Women, located in New York, has had me address them regarding the misogyny and violence against women depicted in the Grand Theft Auto games, the supposedly "family values" Republican President of the United States, George W. Bush, has consistently turned away from parents who have asked him to speak out against the entertainment industry's assault on our children."
-Ok...I personally do not like the game because of the way women CAN be treated in here, and some of the violence does get overboard, but that is my personal opinion and I am not trying to shove it down people's throats. It is an adult game, it is stated on the box, not to mention in all the commercials and any poster dealing with the game. But I'm off topic. The industry is not focusing on children for their game, otherwise they probably wouldn't have put a MATURE rating on it.
" George Bush simply said "Parents just have to be better parents." He should trying telling that to my clients in Paducah whose three daughters were gunned down by 14-year-old video gamer Michael Carneal, who trained on Doom to become a more efficient killer. What did they, as parents, Mr. President, do wrong? Was sending their kids to school their mistake?"
-You know, I think this is the only thing I agree with Bush on? It is not the government's job to raise the children, it is the parent's job. And if the parents are not willing to set up rules, or put their foot down on certain issues, or be frikin parents, then they should not have children in the first place. It is the job of the parent to protect the child and raise the child so that it can survive/manage in the adult world when it reaches adulthood. Video games and TV are not babysitters.
" George Bush, as Governor of Texas, gave a state tax break to Id Software of Dallas, the makers of Doom, after Columbine, for Heaven's sake, and it is his Department of Defense which has subsidized with taxpayer dollars the creation of violent video games for teen consumption at the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has increased funding for this taxpayer rip-off since my appearance on ABC's World News Tonight more than two years ago exposing this scandal. Don Rumsfeld is supposed to be catching terrorists, not training them."
-Wait...since when is the military a terrorist organization? Oh and on the Doom bit. Um...it's called AUTO AIM? It does not teach you how to shoot, unless you are using a gun that automatically hits targets as long as you can see them.
" That man is the Entertainment Software Association's president, Doug Lowenstein. Let me explain to you ESA Members exactly why that is the case: The inept fashion in which ESA has "managed" the "Hot Coffee" mod scandal swirling around your industry and Take-Two's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has given Senator Rodham Clinton a reason and a mandate to act."
-..............Words fail me for the amount of idiocy in this man.
"While Mr. Lowenstein dithered and fiddled, concerns about the scandal grew deeper, and knowledge about its details were more widely disseminated. When the scandal spread, I found out about it and acted, as did Dr. David Walsh, a clinical psychologist who is going to be at the Senator's side today in Washington."
-Scandal? Oh no! We must put all this money to a scandal about inept parents...but of course we can't blame them, they're thinking of the children! The children they let play the game of course....so we will put all the blame on the people who made the games! Wait...aren't those the people who put the MATURE rating on it so that children couldn't go out and buy it for themselves but would need a PARENT to get it?
"Doug Lowenstein could have prevented what is going to happen today, but he preferred to shoot the messengers. It is his chronic style."
-..............*Falls over laughing*
" Instead of acting like a responsible adult......"
-You mean like the parents who let their children play the game? I'm sorry, that argument doesn't work.
"Lowenstein has unleashed his PR (pillory and ruin)......"
-Didn't this guy say at the beginning of his letter that he reported facts and not feelings?
"No opponent could possibly be acting upon principle, in the world according to Doug Lowenstein. Only he is the oracle of truth. All others are scum. It is his way."
-I'm sorry...this is just hillarious. So what is J.Thompson doing in his letter? Apparently he is right and anyone who doesn't agree with him is wrong right?
"......is to demonize critics and to engage in ad hominem jihads intended to obscure real concerns about real industry abuses. "
-I don't think this guy knows that the term Jihad means personal crusade. Or that he is a complete idiot....
" I saw this attack dog mentality by Lowenstein...............But he winds up growing them like topsy."
-.................................*pokes the dead horse with a stick*
"Lowenstein, on the other hand, has a standing policy to refuse to appear together with me on any stage or on any television program in which I might debate him face to face."
-Probably because you aren't worth his time?
"Doug Lowenstein travels with his own private make-up artist. Did you all know that?"
-*in a child-like voice* Oh yeah? Well did you know that you smell?....and that....you're a poopy head!
-Please, this is not a pissing contest here.
"Take-Two's new game coming out in October featuring violence by students in a school setting (the next scandal that is brewing on Lowenstein's watch) ought to be renamed "Doug.""
-.......What?
"Bullying is not real leadership. It is a stopgap measure until real leadership shows up."
-*Continues beating the dead horse*
"Is Lowenstein's the kind of "leadership" the Members of ESA are paying for?"
-Apparently the answer is yes.
"When Hitler invaded Russia............"
-Not even Evil Canevil could make this jump (thanks to Bill Engval for that quote.)
"Your Doug Lowenstein is similarly "loosely educated" about the United States Constitution. I have never, in my eighteen years of public interest law practice against the excesses of the entertainment industry, run into an individual more devoid of even an elementary understanding of the meaning and scope of the First Amendment."
-Um...no I think he has a pretty good grasp of it. Let us go and check it ourselves.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Hmmmmm.....Yeah I think Doug has a pretty good grasp of it.
"Doug never met a pixilated prostitute he didn't like"
-You're just jealous because you look like an idiot and probably haven't had any decent sex in ages....sorry....couldn't hold that one back.
".....while scourging under-siege parents."
-.........I can't even begin to think how wrong this statement is.
"My fervent prayer as a Christian is not "Lord, give me more friends." It is rather "Lord, give me more enemies like Doug Lowenstein." He makes what I do so easy."
-What a terrible abuse of a religious plug! And what is it that is so easy? Being a total prick?
"Your ESA leader in all of this is a man who has gone way, way out of his way to mock every single parent who has said to the Take-Two's of your industry "Enough already!""
-Hmmm...I have a solution for this. DON'T BUY THE FUCKIN GAME FOR CHILDREN!
"When well-intended citizens and legislators have tried to get your industry to adhere to the logic of the "M for mature" ratings label, Lowenstein has flown into a fury, claiming children have a constitutional right to consume pornography and violence. "
-I want to see where that quote is. And last I checked they do adhere to the M for Mature. It is the people selling the game in the stores that aren't adhering to it. Go after them you fucktard.
"You all, in your industry, ought to thank Doug Lowenstein. His extremism has painted a bullseye on your industry. Doug Lowenstein has the brush and Take-Two has provided the blood red paint."
-*Yawn* Keep it up! There's still some life in this horse!
"If those of you who understand that any technology can be used for either good or for ill and that "responsibility" is something that adults are supposed to exercise in all walks of life...."
-You mean like how parents are supposed to take responsibility for raising their children?
"If you want your fledgling industry destroyed for all of you....."
-Wait...so a twenty plus year old industry is fledgling? So at age 23 I am still a fledgling? Wow Mr. Thompson! You certainly don't know how to research! Last I checked it was asshats like you who were working to destroy the industry....and you probably haven't even touched a controler in your life....why don't you actually research the field you are wanting to destroy by actually TRYING the games, or possibly looking at other games as well as ones that are already being beaten to death.
"But if you want to be a partner with America's parents by together taking our children out of harm's way, then look for an ESA president who has the common decency to recognize the truth, speak it, and then act upon it."
-AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA......oh wait....he didn't mean that to be funny. My bad.
-Oh and....PARENTS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THE ONE'S KEEPING THEIR CHILDREN SAFE FROM HARM!
"It's your choice. You've made some pretty bad choices to date. Make a good one for a change. Dump Doug."
-Oh real mature.....
Ok....here's some real simple solutions to this whole problem.
First on the subject of parents
1) Have parents take responsibility for their children
2) Don't buy the game for a child. It's rated M for a reason
3) If you don't want your child playing it and their friend happens to have it, then have the child come over to your house instead of letting your child go over to where the game is. It's really simple. You CAN control what your child plays.
4) Be a goddamned parent!
5) Teach your child that the videogames are not real as well as showing them right from wrong
6) If you don't want to do your job as a parent don't go off looking for someone else to blame when your child does something stupid
On selling the game
1) Have the people check IDs when a game rated M is purchased. If you can do it for credit cards and checks you can do it for games. Its like how you are supposed to card for alcohol and cigarrettes. Its not all that complicated
I could go on but I don't think there is any life left in this dead horse to keep beating on it.
Thank you and good night.
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=461&Itemid=2&limit=1&limitstart=1
"Millions of American parents should be thankful to the Senator for striking back against what can be fairly called "Grand Theft Innocence" at the expense of our children by only some within your industry"
-Ok, first off, the game is rated M for Mature. It is not meant for children. Since this seems to be one of his main staples for his argument I won't add anything more here.
" It has been my privilege, as a lifelong Republican, to provide facts-not feelings"
-*Snort*
"She has been an abiding and loyal advocate for parents who oppose predatory, fraudulent practices by some within your video game industry."
-"Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children?".......really.....if we were really thinking of the children we wouldn't be buying this game for them.
".....for what for me have been nearly seven years of effort to try to get certain companies within the video game industry to start acting like good corporate citizens."
-Good corporate citizens? You mean like Enron and Haliburton? Oh...and if you have been doing this for nearly seven years and you still have not made any progress....perhaps you should stop?
" As a lifelong Republican who ran against Janet Reno, I can note that whereas the largest chapter of the National Organization for Women, located in New York, has had me address them regarding the misogyny and violence against women depicted in the Grand Theft Auto games, the supposedly "family values" Republican President of the United States, George W. Bush, has consistently turned away from parents who have asked him to speak out against the entertainment industry's assault on our children."
-Ok...I personally do not like the game because of the way women CAN be treated in here, and some of the violence does get overboard, but that is my personal opinion and I am not trying to shove it down people's throats. It is an adult game, it is stated on the box, not to mention in all the commercials and any poster dealing with the game. But I'm off topic. The industry is not focusing on children for their game, otherwise they probably wouldn't have put a MATURE rating on it.
" George Bush simply said "Parents just have to be better parents." He should trying telling that to my clients in Paducah whose three daughters were gunned down by 14-year-old video gamer Michael Carneal, who trained on Doom to become a more efficient killer. What did they, as parents, Mr. President, do wrong? Was sending their kids to school their mistake?"
-You know, I think this is the only thing I agree with Bush on? It is not the government's job to raise the children, it is the parent's job. And if the parents are not willing to set up rules, or put their foot down on certain issues, or be frikin parents, then they should not have children in the first place. It is the job of the parent to protect the child and raise the child so that it can survive/manage in the adult world when it reaches adulthood. Video games and TV are not babysitters.
" George Bush, as Governor of Texas, gave a state tax break to Id Software of Dallas, the makers of Doom, after Columbine, for Heaven's sake, and it is his Department of Defense which has subsidized with taxpayer dollars the creation of violent video games for teen consumption at the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has increased funding for this taxpayer rip-off since my appearance on ABC's World News Tonight more than two years ago exposing this scandal. Don Rumsfeld is supposed to be catching terrorists, not training them."
-Wait...since when is the military a terrorist organization? Oh and on the Doom bit. Um...it's called AUTO AIM? It does not teach you how to shoot, unless you are using a gun that automatically hits targets as long as you can see them.
" That man is the Entertainment Software Association's president, Doug Lowenstein. Let me explain to you ESA Members exactly why that is the case: The inept fashion in which ESA has "managed" the "Hot Coffee" mod scandal swirling around your industry and Take-Two's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has given Senator Rodham Clinton a reason and a mandate to act."
-..............Words fail me for the amount of idiocy in this man.
"While Mr. Lowenstein dithered and fiddled, concerns about the scandal grew deeper, and knowledge about its details were more widely disseminated. When the scandal spread, I found out about it and acted, as did Dr. David Walsh, a clinical psychologist who is going to be at the Senator's side today in Washington."
-Scandal? Oh no! We must put all this money to a scandal about inept parents...but of course we can't blame them, they're thinking of the children! The children they let play the game of course....so we will put all the blame on the people who made the games! Wait...aren't those the people who put the MATURE rating on it so that children couldn't go out and buy it for themselves but would need a PARENT to get it?
"Doug Lowenstein could have prevented what is going to happen today, but he preferred to shoot the messengers. It is his chronic style."
-..............*Falls over laughing*
" Instead of acting like a responsible adult......"
-You mean like the parents who let their children play the game? I'm sorry, that argument doesn't work.
"Lowenstein has unleashed his PR (pillory and ruin)......"
-Didn't this guy say at the beginning of his letter that he reported facts and not feelings?
"No opponent could possibly be acting upon principle, in the world according to Doug Lowenstein. Only he is the oracle of truth. All others are scum. It is his way."
-I'm sorry...this is just hillarious. So what is J.Thompson doing in his letter? Apparently he is right and anyone who doesn't agree with him is wrong right?
"......is to demonize critics and to engage in ad hominem jihads intended to obscure real concerns about real industry abuses. "
-I don't think this guy knows that the term Jihad means personal crusade. Or that he is a complete idiot....
" I saw this attack dog mentality by Lowenstein...............But he winds up growing them like topsy."
-.................................*pokes the dead horse with a stick*
"Lowenstein, on the other hand, has a standing policy to refuse to appear together with me on any stage or on any television program in which I might debate him face to face."
-Probably because you aren't worth his time?
"Doug Lowenstein travels with his own private make-up artist. Did you all know that?"
-*in a child-like voice* Oh yeah? Well did you know that you smell?....and that....you're a poopy head!
-Please, this is not a pissing contest here.
"Take-Two's new game coming out in October featuring violence by students in a school setting (the next scandal that is brewing on Lowenstein's watch) ought to be renamed "Doug.""
-.......What?
"Bullying is not real leadership. It is a stopgap measure until real leadership shows up."
-*Continues beating the dead horse*
"Is Lowenstein's the kind of "leadership" the Members of ESA are paying for?"
-Apparently the answer is yes.
"When Hitler invaded Russia............"
-Not even Evil Canevil could make this jump (thanks to Bill Engval for that quote.)
"Your Doug Lowenstein is similarly "loosely educated" about the United States Constitution. I have never, in my eighteen years of public interest law practice against the excesses of the entertainment industry, run into an individual more devoid of even an elementary understanding of the meaning and scope of the First Amendment."
-Um...no I think he has a pretty good grasp of it. Let us go and check it ourselves.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Hmmmmm.....Yeah I think Doug has a pretty good grasp of it.
"Doug never met a pixilated prostitute he didn't like"
-You're just jealous because you look like an idiot and probably haven't had any decent sex in ages....sorry....couldn't hold that one back.
".....while scourging under-siege parents."
-.........I can't even begin to think how wrong this statement is.
"My fervent prayer as a Christian is not "Lord, give me more friends." It is rather "Lord, give me more enemies like Doug Lowenstein." He makes what I do so easy."
-What a terrible abuse of a religious plug! And what is it that is so easy? Being a total prick?
"Your ESA leader in all of this is a man who has gone way, way out of his way to mock every single parent who has said to the Take-Two's of your industry "Enough already!""
-Hmmm...I have a solution for this. DON'T BUY THE FUCKIN GAME FOR CHILDREN!
"When well-intended citizens and legislators have tried to get your industry to adhere to the logic of the "M for mature" ratings label, Lowenstein has flown into a fury, claiming children have a constitutional right to consume pornography and violence. "
-I want to see where that quote is. And last I checked they do adhere to the M for Mature. It is the people selling the game in the stores that aren't adhering to it. Go after them you fucktard.
"You all, in your industry, ought to thank Doug Lowenstein. His extremism has painted a bullseye on your industry. Doug Lowenstein has the brush and Take-Two has provided the blood red paint."
-*Yawn* Keep it up! There's still some life in this horse!
"If those of you who understand that any technology can be used for either good or for ill and that "responsibility" is something that adults are supposed to exercise in all walks of life...."
-You mean like how parents are supposed to take responsibility for raising their children?
"If you want your fledgling industry destroyed for all of you....."
-Wait...so a twenty plus year old industry is fledgling? So at age 23 I am still a fledgling? Wow Mr. Thompson! You certainly don't know how to research! Last I checked it was asshats like you who were working to destroy the industry....and you probably haven't even touched a controler in your life....why don't you actually research the field you are wanting to destroy by actually TRYING the games, or possibly looking at other games as well as ones that are already being beaten to death.
"But if you want to be a partner with America's parents by together taking our children out of harm's way, then look for an ESA president who has the common decency to recognize the truth, speak it, and then act upon it."
-AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA......oh wait....he didn't mean that to be funny. My bad.
-Oh and....PARENTS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THE ONE'S KEEPING THEIR CHILDREN SAFE FROM HARM!
"It's your choice. You've made some pretty bad choices to date. Make a good one for a change. Dump Doug."
-Oh real mature.....
Ok....here's some real simple solutions to this whole problem.
First on the subject of parents
1) Have parents take responsibility for their children
2) Don't buy the game for a child. It's rated M for a reason
3) If you don't want your child playing it and their friend happens to have it, then have the child come over to your house instead of letting your child go over to where the game is. It's really simple. You CAN control what your child plays.
4) Be a goddamned parent!
5) Teach your child that the videogames are not real as well as showing them right from wrong
6) If you don't want to do your job as a parent don't go off looking for someone else to blame when your child does something stupid
On selling the game
1) Have the people check IDs when a game rated M is purchased. If you can do it for credit cards and checks you can do it for games. Its like how you are supposed to card for alcohol and cigarrettes. Its not all that complicated
I could go on but I don't think there is any life left in this dead horse to keep beating on it.
Thank you and good night.