It's no surprise that video games about current conflicts around the world are yielding far higher revenue than Hollywood movies about those same conflicts.
The bigger issue, though, will be heard in front of The Supreme Court in a few weeks.
Schwarzenegger v. Electronic Merchant Association/Entertainment Software Association will impact the future of video game retail sales, at least in California for the short term.
G4 has a nice summary of the arguments, broken into three parts. I was fortunate enough to get a preview of the case from The Chamber of Commerce, because their Litigation Center is helping with the case, and I took home a copy of the brief.
Adam Sessler chimes in, too: http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/707646/Sesslers-Soapbox-Gaming-is-Not-a-Crime.html
The basic summary is that the state of California wants to restrict the sale of M-rated video games to minors. Next thing we know, we'll be forced to refer to the Taliban as "Opposing Forces" in the new Medal of Honor game. Craaap that already happened!!
The First Amendment seems to be a popular little guy this year, and that makes me uncomfortable.
07 October 2010
Lunchtime Reads
Marketplace has been following campaign contributions heavily this year, ever since the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling from the Supreme Court.
The Center for Public Integrity has published a piece detailing how corrupt the system has become, and it's not just the Republican money machine.
The Citizens ruling was one of those head-scratching SCOTUS decisions, because now what's happening is that corporations, rather than just donating money to both parties, are shelling out money to outside interest groups, and remaining anonymous in their donations. Our political system just got more about dollars rather than ideas.
It's rare when Thomas Friedman writes a column that is actually intellectual, and this one is a winner.
Vanity Fair, another fine source of feature journalism that I read as much as I can of, has a new piece telling us that John McCain is basically a broken politician.
The Center for Public Integrity has published a piece detailing how corrupt the system has become, and it's not just the Republican money machine.
The Citizens ruling was one of those head-scratching SCOTUS decisions, because now what's happening is that corporations, rather than just donating money to both parties, are shelling out money to outside interest groups, and remaining anonymous in their donations. Our political system just got more about dollars rather than ideas.
It's rare when Thomas Friedman writes a column that is actually intellectual, and this one is a winner.
Vanity Fair, another fine source of feature journalism that I read as much as I can of, has a new piece telling us that John McCain is basically a broken politician.
Brief Plug
I don't feel like combining my other two blogs into this one, because it would be really hard to keep track of everything I write. This will significantly increase when I start writing Op-Ed pieces for Georgetown's The Hoya, and I may even start writing web pieces for Marketplace's Tech Blog (if the editor returns my messages), and I plan to write a few more things for Navylogblog.org (really hard to get inspired for that blog, will take suggestions).
My DC blog is at http://gobluefromdc.blogspot.com
History blog that I don't update very much is at http://stack-o-papers.blogspot.com
My DC blog is at http://gobluefromdc.blogspot.com
History blog that I don't update very much is at http://stack-o-papers.blogspot.com
05 October 2010
Obama in Rolling Stone
Two great pieces from the latest issue of RollingStone Magazine. I forgot how much I enjoyed their political reporting, especially Matt Taibbi's. Rarely is there a piece that I find uninteresting, and often they are more well-written than the established publications.
President Obama gave Jann S. Werner an Oval Office interview. I'm not completely sold on Obama's drive to prevent a GOP majority in November, because as one reads his comments, it's almost like he is in campaign mode as opposed to actually leading the Democratic party. I also think pushing the "we've completed 70 percent of what we set out to do in our first two years" line is a little overconfident. Yes he got financial reform, health care, and education items passed, while making major decisions on the wars, but can he really say that those items account for 70% of his agenda? What about all the concessions he made just to get those things passed? Granted that isn't entirely on him, but, the major reason for him even being in the Oval Office is because he wanted to fix Washington. I don't see that yet.
Taibbi wrote a phenomenal piece on the inner-workings of the Tea Party machine. It's more depressing than anything to read how he traveled around Kentucky meeting with people who are so upset with government spending that they are throwing their support behind young Rand Paul, but they can't defend why they themselves draw on Medicare, or want a tax cut...it's more about them wanting stuff taken away from others so that they get more for themselves. Paul himself is exposed as wanting to reign in spending, yet doesn't see an issue with his comments that personal physicians like himself are entitled to make more money.
President Obama gave Jann S. Werner an Oval Office interview. I'm not completely sold on Obama's drive to prevent a GOP majority in November, because as one reads his comments, it's almost like he is in campaign mode as opposed to actually leading the Democratic party. I also think pushing the "we've completed 70 percent of what we set out to do in our first two years" line is a little overconfident. Yes he got financial reform, health care, and education items passed, while making major decisions on the wars, but can he really say that those items account for 70% of his agenda? What about all the concessions he made just to get those things passed? Granted that isn't entirely on him, but, the major reason for him even being in the Oval Office is because he wanted to fix Washington. I don't see that yet.
Taibbi wrote a phenomenal piece on the inner-workings of the Tea Party machine. It's more depressing than anything to read how he traveled around Kentucky meeting with people who are so upset with government spending that they are throwing their support behind young Rand Paul, but they can't defend why they themselves draw on Medicare, or want a tax cut...it's more about them wanting stuff taken away from others so that they get more for themselves. Paul himself is exposed as wanting to reign in spending, yet doesn't see an issue with his comments that personal physicians like himself are entitled to make more money.
CNN Fires Sanchez, Ratings Up 3000%
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed watching indispensable journalism as much as the next guy:
Rick Sanchez is the greatest journalist of all time.
But now he's been fired, because he apparently hates Jews, and Jon Stewart. It's always something with those folks!
Sad to see a reliable source of entertainment on America's worst news network have such a fitting end to a very comical career. Place your bets for where he ends up next. I'll take 5-to-1 on "Entertainment Tonight," with an over-under on a new show on FOX called "Rick Sanchez on Ice!" showing up in January.
Rick Sanchez is the greatest journalist of all time.
But now he's been fired, because he apparently hates Jews, and Jon Stewart. It's always something with those folks!
Sad to see a reliable source of entertainment on America's worst news network have such a fitting end to a very comical career. Place your bets for where he ends up next. I'll take 5-to-1 on "Entertainment Tonight," with an over-under on a new show on FOX called "Rick Sanchez on Ice!" showing up in January.
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