brainwagon

I suspect that David Letterman was channeling Jon Stewart.

The Free Information Society has links to a bunch of WWII era propaganda posters, including this rather amusing one linking promiscuity with dating Hitler. Holy crap. You can’t make stuff like this up.

I’ve been tracking Wil Wheaton’s amusing anecdotes about competing in the 2005 WSOP, but today the poker muse must have temporarily vacated him only to be replaced by the political muse. Today he’s writing a brief letter to Senator Hillary Clinton, indicating that her valuable time might be better spent chasing after Karl Rove rather than Carl Johnson, creator of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto, San Andreas.

For those of you not immersed in the world of video games, Grand Theft Auto is a popular series of video games where the principal activities required are essentially all violent crimes. The gamer is expected to steal cars, drive around, shoot police officers, rough up prostitutes, and generally just cause all sorts of mayhem.

These games have been controversial since they were first released, but they are also insanely popular, due no doubt in some small measure to the controversy itself. The game is rated M, indicating strong violence and sexual themes, so it is not like parents are not warned.

But the controversy has been kicked up a notch in the last couple of months by a modification which is going around the Internet called “Hot Coffee”. Apparently one of the subplots for the game involves trying to get your girlfriend to invite you back to her place for coffee. This particular mod changes an innocent coffee break into, well, sex. No, I’m not going to give you screendumps, I don’t have any, don’t ask. Search around for yourself if you want to see what it’s all about.

So, here we have a game which consists of

1. Stealing cars
2. Drive by shootings
3. Killing police
4. Smashing hookers with tire irons

and yet the thing which requires a congressional investigation is the notion that someone has managed to create a modification to the game which allows you to see a bunch of flesh colored triangles do the horizontal mambo. Are there a whole bunch of parents somewhere who felt like GTASA was appropriate for their children until they learned of this mod, and are now irate?

I’m confused. I respect the idea that it’s a vile video game without any redeeming value and is completely inappropriate for children, but presumably you knew that before, didn’t you? If you are a resident of New York, do you think that it’s a worthwhile use of your representatives time to tell you what you and everyone else knows?

Well, it is O’Connor who is going to be the first to vacate a position on the Supreme Court, not Chief Justice Rehnquist.

O’Connor to Retire From Supreme Court

If you thought that the nominations for other judges were ugly, stay tuned for this wild ride.

The House of Representatives has (again) passed a proposed amendment to the Constitution banning desecration of the flag, It reads (in full):

The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.

It’s a piece of cloth. Like most symbols, it has no intrinsic value to itself. If it serves to inspire, it must do so because the nation for which it stands stands for something valuable. Something like Freedom of Speech. Freedom of Assembly. Freedom to Petition the Government.

Some people don’t get it.

Proponents, who say the amendment has overwhelming public support, say burning or otherwise defiling the flag goes beyond the bounds of free speech. “To burn a flag is to disrespect America and disrespect democracy,” said Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga. “Desecration of the American flag is not a form of free speech. It is a challenge to the institutions that defend liberty. Our flag deserves to be protected and respected.”

When someone burns a flag, it isn’t the flag they are protesting against. It is burned as a symbol of someone’s displeasure with the actions and policies of the government for which it stands. Stifling the expression of that displeasure is contrary to the First Amendment.

Someone who does get it:

“If the flag needs protection at all, it needs protection from members of Congress who value it more as a symbol than for the freedom it represents,” said Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y.

For those of you with a sense of humor, try reading this account of a young man who was suspended for reciting his own pledge of allegiance to the Federation of Planets.

On a more serious note, I wonder why exactly schools choose to force participation in these silly patriotic enterprises. It’s like when you toss Christmas parties at work: it doesn’t really inspire any new fondness for your coworkers. If you had any fondness for them, you probably welcome the chance to hang out with them. If you didn’t, the promise of a free dinner and booze is hardly likely to make any lasting change in your opinions.

If you’d like your children to have feelings of genuine patriotism for your country, here’s an idea: work to make sure your country is actually deserving of your respect. No country which promises freedom should require loyalty pledges.

From Thoreau’s CIvil Disobedience:

The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus,(5) etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others, as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders, serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it.

If you can as well, try checking out this Open Letter to the Kansas school board who is struggling with the idea of teaching so-called “Intelligent Design Theory” in their science classes.

I am writing you with much concern after I read of your hearing to decide whether the alternative theory of Intelligent Design to be taught along with the theory of Evolution. I think we can all agree that it is important for students to hear multiple viewpoints so they can choose for themselves the theory that makes the most sense to them. I am concerned, however, that students will only hear one theory of Intelligent Design..

Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.

Heh.

Some things just make you blink.

A Day in the Life is reporting that MSN is only blocking the words democracy and freedom in the name of a blog, the post title, and the URL, but NOT in the body copy.

Hmmm. So much for the censorship charge if this is true.

Robert, did you really think about this before you said it?

Dan Gilmor had a short .mp3 response to the news that Microsoft was cooperating with the Chinese government to censor weblogs on MSN. I ranted about this a couple of days ago, it seems that Dan is of like mind.

A Minute with Dan: Don’t Mention Democracy | Bayosphere

“It’s easy enough to understand why our craven corporate giants are doing the dictators’ bidding. But Microsoft and Google, like so many others, rose to enormous wealth and influence by leveraging the freedom they enjoy in the United States. They may be serving their shareholders’ interests. But what they’re doing is not honorable. Why does money trump honor? Is this really the American way?”

Amen, Dan.

Oh good gravy.

Senate panel votes to expand Patriot Act. The revised act would grant the FBI the power to write its own secret subpeonas, not subject to judicial review, whose very existance would be a secret punishable by jail time if revealed.

My favorite quote:

In testimony in April, FBI director Robert Mueller said: “The administrative subpoena power would be a valuable complement to (existing) tools and provide added efficiency to the FBI’s ability to investigate and disrupt terrorism operations and our intelligence gathering efforts.”

Golly, I bet their job would be easier still if we dealt away with other pesky loopholes, like rights to a jury trial, requirements to show probable cause, rights to due process and other commie-pinko ideals.

With only brief commentary on my part, I submit Human Events, The National Conservative Weekly’s list of the Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries.

The Kinsey Report? Number Four?

Dewey’s Democracy and Education? Admittedly, two topics not generally favored by conservatives…

I also liked their synopsys of Keynes’ General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money:

Keynes was a member of the British elite–educated at Eton and Cambridge–who as a liberal Cambridge economics professor wrote General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money in the midst of the Great Depression. The book is a recipe for ever-expanding government. When the business cycle threatens a contraction of industry, and thus of jobs, he argued, the government should run up deficits, borrowing and spending money to spur economic activity. FDR adopted the idea as U.S. policy, and the U.S. government now has a $2.6-trillion annual budget and an $8-trillion dollar debt.

Oh, is that what caused the deficit and the debt?

Notable Honorable mentions include Darwin’s Origin of the Species [sic] and Descent of Man, Ralph Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed and Freud’s Introduction to Psychoanalysis. Books which hilighted environmental problems and feminism also seemed to be high on their list.

Governor digs fixing potholes / San Jose crews destroy part of road for staged event

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger traveled to a quiet San Jose neighborhood Thursday, and — dogged by protesters — filled a pothole dug by city crews just a few hours before, as part of an attempt to dramatize his efforts to increase money for transportation projects.

It’s not exactly a surprise when a politician fixes a problem and creates a news event out of it. It’s not even a surprise when it turns out that the politicians themselves created the problem. But seldom are both clearly identified as occurring on the same day.

Cowardice.

It saddens Scoble.

Is it really surprising that a company as large, predatory, and self-centered as Microsoft might not be a good guardian of individual rights? Let’s face it: companies aren’t good guardians of individual rights. The best you can hope is that they just stay out of the way. But it’s hopelessly naive to assume that your employer will act in your best interest. It sometimes happens, and those companies should be treasured, but it surprises me every time it happens. You can’t expect companies to behave ethically or with conscience.

I concur.

I’m not a big scholar of the history of the Supreme Court, but could it just be possible that Justice Scalia is the worst justice to ever serve our nations highest court? Witness the irony of banning all the media from an event where he received an award for supporting free speech. Say wa? Then surf on over to Flutterby.

Holy crap, I fear for our great nation and its good people.