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| 5/17 |
| 2004/1/5-6 [Politics/Domestic/California, Politics/Domestic/President] UID:11667 Activity:very high |
1/5 Hits the nail on the head regarding living in the Bay Area
http://sfgate.com/columnists/nelson
\_ Yup, just because someone is a liberal doesn't make him any
smarter or a better person than the average joe. It just makes
him more hypocritical. Hopefully they'll die out because they
don't appear to be having a lot of kids.
\_ Not all liberals are hypocritical. And not everyone in the
bay area is rude. And us non-rude liberals get just as
\_ The author never claims this. The 5th to the last paragraph
says essentially the same thing.
\_ I was addressing both the article and the above reply.
--scotsman
frustrated about the rudeness as our couterparts. Also I
have never seen such behaviour towards my sisters (two kids
apiece) or my friends who have been pregnant recently. Perhaps
this particular woman is rude herself, and gets it back in
spades. --scotsman
\_ It is really funny to watch conservatives accuse liberals of
being hypocritical. See Rush Limbaugh, William Bennett, Strom
Thurmond and many many others just in the last couple of months.
Can you name one famous liberal of similar hypocrisy? Can you
say "projection"? I knew you could.
\_ Barbara Streisand, Ted Kennedy, Michael Moore.
\_ Barbara Streisand, Ted Kennedy, Michael Moore, ELF.
\_ I think part of ELF's hypocracy is not the organization but
its members. These people commit vandalism and endanger
people they disagree with, but yet you know ELF members
were strongly protesting the war.
\_ I don't know that at all. Did ELF take a stand on
the war?
\_ I didn't say ELF had a stance. I'm just saying I'd
bet you dollars-to-donuts that ELF members were
against the war.
\_ What do these people preach that they do not practice?
You do know the definition of hypocricy, right?
\_ Google the following:
"barbara streisand environment"
"michael moore fear-mongering"
right to left. c.f. "hate speech," "racism," "diversity"
\_ ad hominem attacks does not suddenly make that
person an hypocrite.
\_ no but criticising the gun lobby of using fear
tactics while using fear tactics himself to
advocate social welfare does
\_ You think they're fear tactics? Did you even
watch the film?
\_ yes, I watched the film. And you do not
think they're fear tactics? Manipulated
much?
who expects society to bend over backwards to accomidate her
"ted kennedy chappaquiddick"
can't get over the shock of having race and class privilege.
"elf desctruction"
\_ See your problem is that you don't know what the
word hypocricy means. When did Ted Kennedy or
liberals in general advocate not driving drunk?
Did elf ever advocate non-violence? I am not
sure what your beef with Barbara Striesand and
the enviornment is, but you might have one there.
\_ Babs advocates enviornmentalism and conservation
but owns a huge house with air conditioning.
\_ Um, she also sued a scientist who was
studying the effects of erosion on the
California coast. Did anybody actually
Google the terms above?
\_ And there was that time she turned into a
giant fire-breathing robot and flattened a
hick mountain town in Colorado.
\_ Strom Thurmond never advocated white men not
having sex with black women either. ELF claims
to be for protecting the environment, but their
actions have done more harm to the environment
than good.
\_ He most certainly was against miscegenation:
http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/usa/strom-thurmond
And your opinion of ELF's actions is
debatable. They think what they do helps
the environment, and so do I.
\_ How have ELF's actions done more harm to the
environment than good? What, people have
started hating trees because the ELF's been
firebombing construction sites?
\_ I agree that it's debatable. In the long
term one can argue that they've increased
awareness of their cause. But in the short
term, the polution caused by the fires
they set have done more harm then what
they targetted. The sad thing is the
author is right. Most people in the Bay
Area are incapable of seeing more than
one side of an issue.
\_ Tell me the name of a place where people
are not like that.
\_ They delayed clear-cutting by months in
some cases at a minimal cost in burned
material. This is clearly a plus for
the environment. Of course, it's also
a huge minus for environmentalists who
want to be taken seriously, which I
suspect was more your original point.
\_ She didn't even mention by far the worst part about the
Bay Area, and the one reason I'll never move back: housing.
She's probably stuck in some idiotic mortgage on an overpriced
home just like all the flame warriors here.
\_ I'm guessing she didn't mention it because the essay was about
society, not the economy.
\_ She mostly just sounds like she has a bug up her ass. I've
never seen anyone with the attitude about children that she
describes. If she wants to bash stupid Bay Area lefties, how
about the Critical Mass yahoos or ACT UP SF (the offshoot
ACT UP group that spreads the HIV IS A LIE meme). She's
right about the turn signal thing, but thats got nothing to
do with politics, for fuck's sake - if anything George
Deukmejian's cuts to drivers ed programs in the '80s have more
to do with that.
\_ waah waah! I'm oppressed!
\_ "Jennifer Nelson, an Oakland writer, worked in policymaking
positions in the Deukmejian and Wilson administrations."
Hell, she's lucky she hasn't been lynched.
\_ One more demonstration of how political language migrates from
left to right. c.f. "hate speech," "racism," "diversity"
\- i think the author should have focused on "chez panisse
liberalism" or on anti-children seniments. they are different
phenomena and combining them sounds like random bitching
rather than dissecting something coherent. --psb
\_ Her problem is that she is a white person with three children
who expects society to bend over backwards to accommodate her
and her concerns. Here she is nothing special and she still
can't get over the shock of not having race and class privilege.
\_ The responses on this motd illustate her point perfectly. -ax
\_ Do you think people like her deserve special treatment? |
| 5/17 |
|
| sfgate.com/columnists/nelson -> www.sfgate.com/columnists/nelson/ A proposal by state Assembly member Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, to ban sales of violent video games to minors has this less-government-is-better proponent in a quandary. Too often, lawmakers at all levels of government write laws to make up for peoples dumb choices and poor parenting. But we also cant ignore the increasing violent nature of video games and the impact a steady diet of violence has on kids mental health. Is it healthy for kids to play a game such as Postal, in which the player roams through a town, gunning down unarmed citizens, including cheerleaders and the school marching band, as they beg for mercy? Research shows that playing violent video games appears to affect aggression by priming aggressive thoughts. In addition, this potentially violence-inducing pastime is growing in popularity. Annual video-game sales now outpace revenue from movie tickets, and 90 percent of American children ages 2-17 regularly play video and computer games. According to an industry research group , the market share of games rated Mature, or M, more than doubled between 2001 and 2002 the most recent information available. The same group reports that about 40 percent of those who play M-rated games are under 18. While Yees concern about the effect of violent games on youth is valid, his approach is wrong. Instead of turning to government regulation, the answer is a stronger partnership between the industry and parents. Yees legislation proposes to ban the sale of certain violent video games- those involving acts that would be criminal in real life - to minors. Unfortunately, the proposal creates a confusing new rating category that differs from the video-game industrys existing system. Today, video games are rated according to those categorizations much like the Motion Picture Association of Americas rating system, which retailers voluntarily enforce. The ratings include Early Childhood EC, Everyone E, Teen T, Mature M and Adult Only AO. M-rated video games are meant for players 17 and up, and AO-rated games are for those 18 and older. Even with the rating system in place, a 2000 Federal Trade Commission FTC secret shopper survey found that 85 percent of the time, teens directed by the FTC to deliberately attempt to purchase an M-rated game in order to determine whether they would be asked for identification managed to do so without being carded. Yee wants to prohibit minors from buying a portion of the M-rated video games - those involving acts that would be criminal in real life. Just as not all R-rated movies are violent, not all M-rated video games portray violence. The problem is that Yee has no feasible plan to help retailers understand which video products fall into his new category. So, what would happen to retailers selling violent video games to minors if the law took effect but there were no clear guidelines about which games fall into the new state rating system? A Yee spokesman said lawmakers hoped to work with the industry to make it clear, but if the industry is not cooperative, he expects that the details would be worked out in court. In fact, Yees spokesman added, the Assembly member expected that retailers would simply stop selling violent games rather than risk being held civilly liable under the proposed law. It isnt fair - or competent - lawmaking to put a vague law on the books and then expect retailers to sort it out. Yees staff point to the FTC secret-shopper survey as an example of how retailers do not take the rating system seriously, thereby creating the need for government regulation. But industry representatives argue that their voluntary rating system needs to be given a chance to work before the heavy hand of government is brought down. The FTC survey on video games also documents that 30 percent of minors can get into an R-rated movie without being carded. Doug Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association , believes his industry ultimately can do better than the movie industry, which has been rating movies for more than 35 years. The video-game industry launched its rating system just 10 years ago. To educate parent and kids about the system, the industry created a Check the Rating public-education program, which includes public-service announcements starring Tiger Woods and Derek Jeter. In reports issued in 2000 and 2002, the FTC has consistently called on the video-game industry to restrict sales of M-rated products to minors. In response, the nations major video-game retailers last fall announced a national campaign to begin requiring identification before allowing purchase of an M-rated game. The Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association IEMA has promised that the new carding program will be in place by the 2004 holiday shopping season. IEMA members include Best Buy, Blockbuster Entertainment, Circuit City, CompUSA, Electronics Boutique, Gamesource, Hasting Entertainment, Hollywood Video, KB Toys, K-mart, Meijer, Movie Gallery, Musicland, Shopko Stores, Target, Toys R Us and Wal-Mart. Membership to this powerful association, whose members sell roughly 85 percent of all computer and video games purchased in the nation, will require participation in the carding program. The group says retailers will educate store employees about the importance of enforcing the carding program and will display signage and information about the rating system in member stores. As an added incentive, the association knows federal and state legislators such as Yee are itching to bring government into the picture if the carding system, once in place, is not seriously enforced. But there is a missing component in this discussion about kids and violent video games: parents. The video-game industry and retailers can step up their efforts to limit minors ability to purchase extremely violent or sexually explicit video games all they want, but if parents continue to allow their children to purchase and play these games, there is little government can do about it. Those of us who believe extremely violent video games are harmful to children by promoting an acceptance of violence would like to believe young people are buying and playing the games without the full knowledge of their parents. The reality, according to the FTC, is that parents are involved in the purchase or rental of video games 83 percent of the time. The same report showed that parents are only nominally aware of the rating system and its age-based ratings and content descriptors. New laws wont prevent young people from playing violent video games as long as their parents allow it. Parents, not government, need to be more involved in monitoring the media children are consuming. Yees concern about the impact of violent video games is understandable. But his energy would be better spent educating parents about the rating system and the dangers of allowing their children to play M-rated video games. Jennifer Nelson, an Oakland writer, worked in policymaking positions in the Deukmejian and Wilson administrations. |
| www.rotten.com/library/bio/usa/strom-thurmond -> www.rotten.com/library/bio/usa/strom-thurmond/ US Officials > Strom Thurmond Strom Thurmond Senator and former Governor of South Carolina. That year, the States Rights Democratic Party issued their nine-point platform; We oppose the elimination of segregation, the repeal of miscegenation statutes, the control of private employment by Federal bureaucrats called for by the misnamed civil rights program. We favor home-rule, local self-government and a minimum interference with individual rights. We oppose and condemn the action of the Democratic Convention in sponsoring a civil rights program calling for the elimination of segregation, social equality by Federal fiat, regulations of private employment practices, voting and local law enforcement. We affirm that the effective enforcement of such a program would be utterly destructive to the social, economic and political life of the Southern people, and of other localities in which there may be differences in race, creed or national origin in appreciable numbers. Authored the "Southern Manifesto" against school desegregation. Timeline 5 Dec 1902 James Strom Thurmond born, Edgefield SC. |