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120 Comments
- PFinn, on 10/11/2007, -1/+87when are people going to realize that video games aren't the problem... if we are worried about what kids will do with violent or sexually explicit games then we obviously have absolutely no faith in the parents ability to educate their kids on those subjects.
Also, it is horrible that a government would take money away from people who need it (welfare debate aside) only to try to keep the idea that it isnt the parents responsibility to educate the kids.
Ban everything!!!! Teach Nothing!!!! (/sarcasm) - SirGunslinger, on 10/11/2007, -3/+47That 1 million should have come out of the legislators' salaries. Having tax payers foot the bill for something so trite and trivial is sickening.
- Pseudorious, on 10/11/2007, -26/+66So money to help individuals avoid personal responsibility was taken to help individuals avoid parental responsibility. Fantastic.
However, this isn't the 1950s. $1 million is an astonishingly small amount of money. It's very Austin Powers of the article to pretend that it's a huge sum. - JD52, on 10/11/2007, -1/+27Another interesting point to ponder.....
Case in point the GTA series.
The game is released with a certain rating. The games are chocked full of violence. You can run around, shoot people, shoot police. The premise of the games are to commit crimes.
No one has any problem with this until it is discovered that there is a portion of the game that is hidden from the public where you can *gasp* have badly animated sex.
So having sex, which is not a crime, is worse than shooting police officers, stealing cars and robbing people?
I'm so confused! - jonathantneal, on 10/11/2007, -1/+26From Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (D) - "During a meeting of the Illinois House of Representatives Committee of the Whole, Governor Rod R. Blagojevich challenged lawmakers to approve his Tax Fairness Plan – his ambitious proposal to reform Illinois' tax system, which closes corporate loopholes and brings greater stability to the state’s fiscal future to fund record investments in education and healthcare."
From Quad-Cities Online article: "The governor raided funds throughout state government to pay for the litigation. Some of the areas money was taken from included the public health department, the state's welfare agency and even the economic development department."
Sounds like a real stand-up guy. - JonForTheWin, on 10/11/2007, -5/+26>The story gets even worse when you learn where the money came from
Tax dollars, /your pockets/. - logicalnoise, on 10/11/2007, -1/+20god I hate blagojevich this exactly why I voted against him in the last election. The prick promised to be scandal free and he's turned out to be just and f'n bad. The entire videogame law was just a distraction from his other BS.
- justoman, on 10/11/2007, -6/+22@Pseudorious
However considering the amount of money that is in welfare, this is a big deal. - Pseudorious, on 10/11/2007, -1/+151) Become?
2) They were probably sleazy from the start. It's how they got where they are.
3) You have to elect someone. Though, I read about a California town that voted a dog mayor, and it seemed to work out well. - PimpinOnWelfare, on 10/11/2007, -5/+19uh oh ... im screwed
- masterJDK, on 10/11/2007, -10/+22It never ceases to amaze me how *****-up this country is.
- minoss, on 10/11/2007, -3/+14It's because the US is a religious state and every single major religion in the world classifies sex as off limits while violence is perfectly fine. For more evidence of this, go read the bible.
- Phrag, on 10/11/2007, -1/+12Regardless to what percentage of the entire state budget it is, one million dollars is not a small amount of money to waste. Attitudes like that are the reason that your congressional representatives got paid the equivalent of $11,00 per day worked last year (including the days where they were there for a couple hours at most).
- Drakensteel, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9 Video game regulation is stupid. I know that my dads good friend Pat (I consider her close enough to be an aunt, though I try to avoid calling her that) was heading to Wal-Mart and so picked up DOOM 3 for me (it had just came out). However she had one of her grand sons with her (he was about 8 at the time). They assumed she was buying it for him, and it took her over an hour to check out (the sales clerk even called the manager over it).
Aside from the fact she was not getting it for him anyway, The whole issue was ridiculous. Now, she might have just been getting it to make him happy, then ignored him, but in general a parent will have a better approximation of what their child can and can't handle then a complete stranger.
And back to the actual story, it just shows how stupid people like this are. They think that regulating everyone else's lives to their own specifications and morals that they are willing to take things that people truly do need to attempt to enforce their ridiculous policies. - sodade, on 10/11/2007, -3/+12I am so ***** sick of listening to people whine about individual welfare! Yes, I get that it pisses you off that there are people who fall through the gaping cracks of our society. Yes, I get that it pisses you off to have some tiny portion of your taxes go towards dealing with those people. "but it is not the amount of money - it is the principle of the thing! Yes, I get that too and I agree with the importance of personal responsibility and hold myself up to rigorous standards of my own responsibility-oriented values.
BUT
I think that we have to deal with the world the way it is rather than the way we'd like it to be. From a purely pragmatic perspective, my quality of life is degraded by the conditions of those around me. If you say to people on welfare "***** off and die - you ain't getting a dime from me you ***** leachers" you are totally justified, but you are still ***** over the people who have to deal with the now welfare-free people who would have nothing to lose. People with nothing to lose are dangerous and it is worth it to me to give away some pennies to helping to keep them at least somewhat under control. - Karroog, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9What I want to know is:
1) Why do our representatives become idiots
2) Why do our leaders become greedy with money/power
3) WTF PEOPLE KEEP ELECTING THEM! - luther70, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9You would have thought getting rid of Ryan and his machine would have eliminated this. Meet the new boss same as the old boss.
- Rahyl, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8Let's make sure we remember where that money REALLY came from: your pocket.
- JonForTheWin, on 10/11/2007, -9/+17Yeah . . because stealing money from people who worked to earn it and threatening to seize their home at gunpoint should they not comply isn't evil.
- catalysis, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7It's not just blago, the whole system in illinois is corrupt from the inside out. They treat the budget like a big pot of money. Money gets funneled around to the point that you don't know where it came from anymore. Toll road money is being spent on minority owned business programs where politicians use their black friends as fronts to basically rob taxpayers. Yet, no one questions it and the political machine just sustains itself.
- luther70, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7To bad the other side nominated a bag lady.
- Drakensteel, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6It has to do with the stupidity of trying to regulate game sales. If there wasn't such a fuss about it this never would have happened.
- zengonzo, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6 datastorageguy, anyone who holds a belief against the efforts of reason should qualify as a fundamentalist, whatever the party.
- pezholio, on 10/11/2007, -12/+17:sigh: Yeah, because welfare is evil :rollseyes:
- Vicissidude, on 10/11/2007, -10/+15This is typical conservative thinking. Reduce government handouts to the poor in order to funnel money to the rich (lawyers, in this case) to defend what they consider to be our morality.
I can see three problems with this:
1. Taking money that the poor need to survive is reprehensible. If you are liberal or conservative, your morality does not support this. Christians, your morality does not support this - read the Bible and focus on what Jesus actually said. Atheists, your morality could support this, but most of your books and authors do not.
2. Attacking video game makers is reprehensible. These people and companies have a right to create these games and share them with the world. Yes, they have a First Amendment right to do this, but there is also a deeper human right upon which the First Amendment is based. These software engineers have the right to think and say without censorship from the government or anyone else, regardless of whether some of us like it or not. The rest of us have the right not to listen or not to buy, but our rights stop at limiting their rights.
3. Finally, giving that money to the rich lawyers is reprehensible. Taking from the poor is one thing, but then giving to the rich for an unworthy, evil cause is simply a different kind of evil. - logicalnoise, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5^^true though I didn't vote for her. So basically I threw out my vote I guess.
- snotrokit, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4ahhh there is my fine fine Illinois govt at work. Makes me damn proud to live in Illinois.
@logical, I was REALLY drawn btwn Blago and Topinka, it was kind of a who will screw us less type deal. - Captbob007, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6I'm a resident of IL, and this doesn't surprise me one bit. Our dumbass (I mean governor) loves to spend all kinds of money on his pet projects, funding them by screwing over other things, like our state universities. He's trying to give the state universal health care and (surprise surprise) tuition at the University of Illinois was just raised 11%. Furthermore it has more than doubled in the past 10 years.
- AriaStar, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6@ Pseudorious: I wish I could Digg you up about 500 times.
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I know not a single person on welfare without at least two video game systems. And most of my relatives live on welfare. That's part of the reason I no longer have contact with them, and haven't since 2005, even though some deaths. I'm disgusted that so many able-bodied people decide to live on welfare then cry about being poor. GET A ***** JOB. For those who work and can't quite make ends meet, if you're not out buying expensive toys, I'm fine with you getting help.
Know what? Before getting approved from welfare, unless you are disabled, you should have to show that you are working at least 40 hours per week (30 if a single parent with school-aged children, 20 if children are under school aged), your necessary monthly bills (rent, food, utilities, a modest clothing allowance), and your current pay. Whatever you fall short of you get in aid for a while. But that's not happening.
I couldn't care less that money is being taken from welfare (IT'S ALSO COMING FROM OTHER SOURCES). My problem if that they are deciding what adults should be able to play by this bill. - Pseudorious, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4@quick2822
Voting is a personal choice. I'm not sure why the government should waste a cent to encourage/force someone to take an action they do not freely choose. - Quick2822, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6Why do people keep electing them in Illinois? Because the people who actually vote for these people don't play video games, so what do they care? Like every other state, voter turnout for people in their 20's is low, and they are the ones who play video games.
Unless you can change it so people 18-25 (or whatever the official range is) will vote in elections, stupid people will run the state and federal government. - Drakensteel, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Oh PLENTY of people had problems with it, even before the sex scene. That just gave them another excuse to try to ban the game.
Granted I still think the whole controversy over it was stupid to begin with but...
I feel that being able to get on a game and shoot up a mall with a chain gun, do mob hits, ext actually helps more then it hurts, since it lets violent people do violent things without actually hurting anyone. If they didn't have games is a release how many do you think would eventually turn to actually hurting people? - datastorageguy, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6Yeah but you will have free health care!! What a utopia!!
/sarcasm - lostcny, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4When will parents be able to decide what is OK and not OK for their kids? Is the world so messed up today that the government needs to step in and tell us what is right for our children or ourselves....seriously freedoms that we have are not freedoms anymore without someone saying you can do it. That's not freedom, truth is blind, and we've all been duped into believing that we are free when we're partially free.
- Drakensteel, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5get cut off?
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -12/+16Sooooooooo... he stole money from unconstitutional programs to defend an unconstitutional law...and the money went to lawyers and an out of control court system.
Yeah, I think this can be considered a ***** of *governmental* proportions.
(Yes..."governmental" is bigger than "monumental"...especially with today's government.) - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4it only took an hour to check out in a wal mart ? that must have been a nice change of pace
- datastorageguy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4@ahhell
You mean like Tipper Gore? ...... - snotrokit, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3because in this particular election, it was the lesser of 2 evils. We were screwed either way.
The republican candidate was just as scary. The bottom line is that this country can no longer be represented fairly by either of the two parties, each one is more corrupt and more screwed up than the other. - CLShortFuse, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3It's not THAT much money. I agree it's wrong, many are "underanalyzing" this $1,000,000. Population of Illinois is 12,831,970 (2006), that means every person in Ilinois has to be 8 cents. Even with 8 cents, it's $26,557.60 extra, so 8 cents is about right considering not everyone pays taxes. I look at how government spends billions of dollars on worthless things (the just recent Homeland Security article comes to mind) and see this $1,000,000 as near nothing by comparison.
What this is is shameful, taking from welfare and education deparments. It just shows how they don't care about their own citizens. God forbid they use money from a department that lines their pockets. - willcode4beer, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3How is an "exposed breast" sexually explicit ?
These people need some psychological help, seriously. - snapcase, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3The worst thing about this current practice of blaming video games as the source of violence in our youth is, it is the exact same thing they did with comic books back in the day. They were wrong back then, and they are wrong now.
- PaperMonkey, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3@ Pseudorious - That is making the assumption that the people that don't vote are actually making a statement and declining their ballot instead of just being apathetic and not voting at all. Now as a Canadian I can say for my peers, that is just pathetic. It takes at _most_ 15 minutes to go in, get your ballot, get crossed off the list, place your vote and leave. We don't have a billion different things to vote for on our ballots so yes, that does cut down a lot of the time but really. Yes, it is your right to vote (well more correctly, to _choose_ to vote) and if you are actively choosing to abstain from voting then I congratulate you on the strength of your convictions but then you also don't really have a leg to stand on if you complain about the government. It may seem like semantics but if you want to make a statement to the law makers then get all of your friends that don't vote and tell them to stand up and be counted. To go out to the polling station for the next elections and decline their ballot. Yes, you are taking part in the system and bowing to the machine but you are also showing them that the 18-32 demographic really is the most important demographic out there.
- Calcularius, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4The only argument you'll ever need against the video-games-cause-violence lie...
Number of Violent Crimes per 100,000 people in the US since 1991
correlated with game console releases in the US.
1991 758.1 (Super NES)
1992 757.5 (Turbo Duo)
1993 746.8 (Jaguar)
1994 713.6
1995 684.5 (PS1, Saturn)
1996 636.6 (N64)
1997 611.0
1998 566.4
1999 523.0 (GameCube, Dreamcast)
2000 506.5 (PS2)
2001 504.5 (Xbox)
2002 494.4
2003 475.8
2004 463.2
2005 469.2 (Xbox 360)
“I listen to scientists, health care providers, public safety officials, and I base what I do based upon their findings, not what some readers of Game Informer magazine wish was true because of how they waste their time.” – Jack Thompson - Branden, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3My personal favorite is that he refuses to live in the capital city, Springfield, so we have to pay for him and his guards to travel to and from Chicago.
- seniorfrito, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4Ok, I'm a taxpayer. How do I complain to these people, or rather about them? This is so ridiculous, it's just as bad as the John whatever his name is. The attorney that said he'll sue Microsoft lmao. Really anyone know how to do something about this? I really want to.
- pisceanmars, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3The base simplicity of judging any program or person in caricatura breeds intolerance and does nothing to further the discourse. Why would some rail against unemployment assistance and turn blind to corporate subsidizing, or in turn promote unlimited and benefic freedoms for the individual and call for the constriction of larger economic entities?
- sodade, on 10/11/2007, -3/+6by MaynardJK 1
"Sigh (gag), Evil as in "as soon as I am entitled to the fruits of your labor, you become my slave". Give all the money you want to be charitable. That is your right. When people start getting charitable with my money without my permission, I get pissed.
My solution to the welfare problem is this. Get rid of government welfare and make mugging legal. That way, you cut out the bureaucratic middleman so that more of the money gets to the people that need it. Armed robbery is the same to me whether I'm being robbed by the government or some scumbag on the street."
Yeah sure - I get your point, but I am personally a lot more pissed about being "robbed" of thousands of dollars to pay for ***** interventionism than I am the buck or two to pay for some leaching welfare recipient. You see, it really does benefit me to give the buck or two to the losers of our capitalistic game.
Your robbery analogy is cute and all, but, having lived in poor areas in Oakland as a 20-nothing, I have had the real experience of being robbed at gunpoint and I must say that an hour of dicking around with TurboTax is preferable to a minute of staring down the barrel of a 38special wielded by a crackhead. - Drakensteel, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3@quick2822
True, but like the guy below you said, its a choice. Its the younger peoples fault for not voting. - Drakensteel, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3what?
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