First, sorry for the lapse in posting. There are things going on right now that I can’t discuss just yet and posting will most likely be light the next few weeks as well.

In the meantime, I guess the government feels that, since the TSA is protecting us form those evil Macbook Airs, that the State Department feels it’s OK to outsource passport production to dodgy overseas contractors.

Yeah, let’s just hand what few security measures about passports we have over to people who are going to sell it off to China or other unfriendlies.

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“in order to accomplish his plan, the government must have the ability to read all the information crossing the Internet in the United States in order to protect it from abuse.”

Yeah, I think he sunk his chances with the following statment:

“Americans will have to trust the government not to abuse the authority it must have in order to protect our networks, and yet, historically the government has not proved worthy of that trust.”

So, remind me, why am I supposed to give you this power again?

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Yes, I know it’s WAYYY too early to be talking about the elections, but I can’t help it; much as I dislike politicians, I’m mesmerized by politics. It’s like chess, but with the future of the country at stake.

Having said that, feel free to ignore anything tagged “politics” for the next few months. You won’t miss anything but my inane rambling anyway.

According to this, Hillary is doing terrible amongst the 18-35 crowd and I can hazard a guess as to why. Video games.

Hillary has a history of coming down in favor of regulating the gaming industry with rules that are not applied to other industries with violent and sexual content (from senate.gov):

“The disturbing material in Grand Theft Auto and other games like it is stealing the innocence of our children and it’s making the difficult job of being a parent even harder,” said Senator Clinton. “I am announcing these measures today because I believe that the ability of our children to access pornographic and outrageously violent material on video games rated for adults is spiraling out of control.”

Senator Clinton announced that the legislation she will introduce will put some teeth into video game ratings by instituting a financial penalty for retailers who fail to enforce the rules. It will prohibit the sale of violent and sexually explicit video games to minors and put in place a $5000 penalty for those who violate the law.

While I can agree that defending children from inappropriate material is a worthy cause, you have to take into account that the majority of today’s voters are an overlap of both the young voters that have grown up being told nonsense like “video games are murder simulators” and are sick of the rhetoric and the aging gamers of yester-year that have survived the launching of the gaming industry along with the witch hunts that followed games like Mortal Kombat and Primal Instinct. Indeed, the ESA reports that 47.6% of gamers fall within the 18-46 age range, which is exactly the age group Hillary is (if you believe polls) out of touch with.

Let’s also couple this with the fact that, in the month of September alone, Nintendo pushed 501,000 units of the Wii for a 4.5 million total units sold since November 2006 and 495,800 units of the DS for a 13.2 million lifetime total (I’m not sure when the DC started shipping).

This is even more impressive when you look at the age-range of people buying (and actually playing) these units. The ESA reports the following interesting facts:

• Sixty-seven percent of American heads of households play computer and video games.
• The average game player is 33 years old and has been playing games for 12 years.
• The average age of the most frequent game buyer is 38 years old. In 2007, 92 percent of computer game buyers and 80 percent of console game buyers were over the age of 18.
• Eighty-six percent of game players under the age of 18 report that they get their parents’ permission when renting or buying games, and 91 percent say their parents are present when they buy games.
• Thirty-six percent of American parents say they play computer and video games. Further, 80 percent of gamer parents say they play video games with their kids. Sixty-six percent feel that playing games has brought their families closer together.
• In 2007, 24 percent of Americans over the age of 50 played video games, an increase from nine percent in 1999.

These statistics tend to deflate any politician’s cries of video games “stealing the innocence of our children” (remember, ESA reports 92% of game buyers are above 18 and 86% of those under 18 report having their parent’s permission or having a parent present when buying games) and just show them as pandering to an older, more reserved demographic that’s fading fast (ESA reports that 24% of Americans over 50 play video games).

I suppose it could all be coincidence, but what all of this should tells me is that Hillary is unpopular with the gaming crowd, which happens to be a larger percentage of voters than politicians are considering.

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Wonderful. We’re fighting a war that wrecking people’s lives, dealing with our rights being taken from us a little at a time and Senator Mark Pryor is working on a bill for a turbo V-chip that even he doesn’t think will do anything but “…light a fire under the FCC to take a fresh look at new options in the marketplace.”

Yes, with all of our current problems, let’s waste time on stupid stuff like this!

Arkansas, are you aware of the idiot you’ve elected?

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I would like to congratulate Sen. Sherrod Brown and Sen. George Voinovich on growing a spine and voting down the immigration bill today.

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Retardedness abound on the Obama tour. I wonder when these guys are gonna realize that the best way to deal with bloggers is not to. (vi Instapundit)

Deltus:

Actually, the question is: do bloggers want to be considered press, or don’t they? If you’re not there primarily to get blog material, don’t introduce yourself as a blogger.

Touche. I’m not quote sure how to respond to that. I mean, I’m certain that many in the blogsphere want to be considered press, but it’s obviously dangerous to paint all bloggers with the “Press” brush. Not everyone in the sphere considers themselves press or wants to be one, but, like you said, they rarely introduce themselves as bloggers. I think the blogsphere works much more like a “citizens’ press” than the real press anyway. Sort of like a watchdog group.

I still hold that once congress critters realize that bloggers can’t be regulated and that they can work in their favor, this problem will just dissapear. With the internet and blogging so wildly popular, any citizen can be a reporter and Congress just needs to realize that they live in the spotlight no matter what they do. Best to just roll with it, I say.

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Ouch: Worse than HMOs. It’s well-earned. Nonetheless, this is troubling, and not just for the Democrats, who are only doing somewhat worse than the GOP Congress did. How long can we have a free and successful nation with such an unpopular — and deservedly so — political class.

Problem is, to fix this, it would require people to stand up and take responsibility for electing the congress they’re so unhappy with and then do something about it. A huge step would be forcing term limits on congress-critters to prevent incumbencies. Another would be to actually contact your representative instead of just bitching about them. I’ve already told Sharrod Brown I’m giving him the boot next election.

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My question is, if they’re being conducted secretly, how do you find out about it to put a stop to it? Seems like a bit of a paradox to me.

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Glad to see I’m not the only one cynical of the government. Maybe if more were cynical AND vocal, something would get done. It’s not likely, but I can’t be cynical ALL the time.

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Maine Net Neutrality bill: I call bullshit.

Way to get into politics, Maine. Write a bill that looks awesome, then completely change it so that it does nothing it was originally intended to do and call it a victory for the people and their rights. Brilliant!

Bastards.

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