• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Democrats have delivered the Square Deal, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and now… the Big Joe Biden Deal.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

The new republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Let me file that under fuck it.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

So many bastards, so little time.

Mobile Menu

  • Four Directions Montana
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2024 Elections
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Open Threads / Regulating Video Games

Regulating Video Games

by John Cole|  May 21, 200510:23 pm| 7 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

FacebookTweetEmail

A bill that will most likely be found unconstitutional just passed the Illinois Senate:

The Illinois Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to approve a revamped version of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s plan to ban the sale of violent and sexually explicit video games to minors.

But one lawmaker said the governor’s pet project actually could cost the state money.

The Senate approved the measure 52-5, and now a few changes made on the floor will need to be approved in the House before the bill goes to the governor’s desk.

Under Blagojevich’s plan, businesses and clerks caught selling violent or sexually explicit games to a person younger than 18 would be charged with a petty offense and fined $1,000. Retailers would be required to affix stickers labeled “18” to games depicting “dismemberment, decapitation, disfigurement, maiming, mutilation of body parts or rape.”

The industry’s Entertainment Software Ratings Board already labels games as A for adult, M for mature, T for teen and E for everyone, but those ratings aren’t legally binding. Under this bill, retailers would put the mandated stickers on games rated A or M that fall under the bill’s definition of violence.

Other than the rape, the dismemberment, maiming, mutilation and other stuff pretty accurately describes almost every video game I have bought in the past couple of years.

My gut instinct is to oppose this, but, this does not seem terribly onerous. Discuss.

*** Update ***

For whatever reason, the dismemberment/maiming bit reminded me of one of the best quotes in movie history. From Blazing Saddles:

Hedley Lamarr: Qualifications?
Applicant: Rape, murder, arson, and rape.
Hedley Lamarr: You said rape twice.
Applicant: I like rape.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Excellent Movie
Next Post: Dealing With the Fallout »

Reader Interactions

7Comments

  1. 1.

    RepubAnon

    May 22, 2005 at 12:46 am

    It does seem a somewhat vague standard as to whether or not a “T” game gets stickered or not. Then, too, what about the various online games at various Flash sites? Some of these involve stick figures getting into bar fights and selling cocaine. Are online sites offering free play subject to these same laws?

  2. 2.

    RepubAnon

    May 22, 2005 at 12:51 am

    OOPS- sorry about the double post, my web browser froze.

  3. 3.

    Kimmitt

    May 22, 2005 at 5:17 am

    I’m in the same place as you — this isn’t good law, but it seems pretty trivial.

  4. 4.

    Justin Faulkner

    May 22, 2005 at 2:47 pm

    Banning the sale of violent video games *to minors* is pretty innocuous, but I would wager that more often than not it’s those kids’ parents (having money, of course) who actually purchase the game. I’m all for the Tipper Gore approach–parental information to empower decision-making–but I doubt this will make any huge difference.

    On a side note, I’ve found that many of the culture war crowd, who advocate *outright* censorship (of TV, movies, games, etc) are often among the most hungry consumers of that material. These parents complain about violence in video games but then go right out and buy Grand Theft Auto for their kids! In other words, they can’t say no to their kids, so they want the government to say no for them. Take some freaking responsibility, I say!

  5. 5.

    Justin Faulkner

    May 22, 2005 at 2:49 pm

    I want to clarify, just in case someone objects, that I know this sort of thing is not analogous to the “Tipper Gore approach.” I was just saying that I think that is a good way to go about protecting kids: providing tools that parents (legally in charge of their children’s safety and development) can make informed decisions.

    Of course, the parents have to be willing to *make* those decisions.

  6. 6.

    wild bird

    May 22, 2005 at 5:33 pm

    And chicago is run by that jerk faced mayor RICHARD DAILY who tried to sue the firearms companies to line his pockets and got his butt kicked too bad for the mayor of the windy city and he is the souce of all that wind mostly HAT AIR

  7. 7.

    AWJ

    May 22, 2005 at 11:34 pm

    Contrary to what your teachers at Bible college may have taught you, punctuation isn’t a liberal plot against America. Really.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • schrodingers_cat on Righteous Rant Open Thread (Apr 15, 2024 @ 4:42pm)
  • lowtechcyclist on Henry Would Like His Lunch Right Now, Please (Open Thread) (Apr 15, 2024 @ 4:42pm)
  • Nelle on Righteous Rant Open Thread (Apr 15, 2024 @ 4:38pm)
  • Geminid on Take the Fucking Win (Apr 15, 2024 @ 4:37pm)
  • cain on Righteous Rant Open Thread (Apr 15, 2024 @ 4:29pm)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Talk of Meetups – Meetup Planning
Proposed BJ meetups list from frosty

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8
Virginia House Races
Four Directions – Montana
Worker Power AZ
Four Directions – Arizona
Four Directions – Nevada

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
Positive Climate News
War in Ukraine
Cole’s “Stories from the Road”
Classified Documents Primer

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Political Action 2024

Postcard Writing Information

Balloon Juice for Four Directions AZ

Donate

Balloon Juice for Four Directions NV

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2024 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!