Bangkok (AP) May 7 — BREAKING NEWS— The Constitutional Court on Monday annulled Thailand’s parliamentary elections last month and ordered fresh polls in a bid to end the country’s months-long political crisis.
“The organization of the election by the Election Commission was unconstitutional,” court spokesman Paiboon Warahapaithoon said in a televised news conference called to announce the judges’ ruling.
The court’s 14 judges voted 8 to 6 to invalidate the April 2 elections based on a lawsuit filed by academics who claimed the commission acted too hastily in organizing the polls, and that they were unfair.
In a separate vote, the court ruled 9 to 5 in favor of holding new elections, Paiboon said. A date for the new elections would be set after consultations between the court and the commission.
The widely expected ruling came after the nation’s revered monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, sternly suggested last month that the top courts find a way out of what he called the country’s political “mess”.
Yeah, we already know the answer to that, but apparently it’s making it’s way into print (which would explain the feature on the MSM this morning about Bush’s “double” from the WHCA dinner).
Colbert’s routine was more remarkable for its unique and creative brazenness. He joked that Bush’s presidency is like the Hindenburg; that Bush’s wiretappers were monitoring this very event, and that the White House press corps, sitting in front of Colbert, gave Bush a free pass, scandal after scandal, until recently (when his polls numbers dropped).
How’s this for a newsworthy lead? It was perhaps the first time in Bush’s tenure that the president was forced to sit and listen to any American cite the litany of criminal and corruption allegations that have piled up against his administration. And mouth-tense Bush and first lady Laura Bush fled as soon as possible afterward.
From whom were they fleeing? A star comedian pretending to be a Fox News-like blowhard doing a sort of performance art that America hasn’t witnessed nationally since the days of Andy Kaufman.
Is c-span now into damage control about the Colbert clips? According to MSNBC, they are forcing YOUTUBE and IFILM to take those clips.They also said that you will be able to use Google but that the whole clip will be provided and not only the Colbert segment.
Researchers organizing a federal panel on sexually transmitted diseases say the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allowed a congressman to include two abstinence-only proponents, bypassing the scientific approval process.
Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., who chairs the House subcommittee on drug policy, questioned the balance of the original panel, which focused on the failure of abstinence-until-marriage programs. In e-mail to Health and Human Services officials, his office asked whether the CDC was “clear about the controversial nature of this session and its obvious anti-abstinence objective.”
Last week the title of the panel was changed and two members were replaced. One of them was a Penn State student who was going to talk about how abstinence programs were tied to rising STD rates.
The panel is to be held Tuesday at the National STD Prevention Conference in Jacksonville, Fla.
Unbelievable…except it’s the Bush administration. Never let facts get in the way of propaganda.
And he said suggestions that he had sacked Jack Straw as foreign secretary over differences with the United States about Iran were “rubbish”. Mr Straw was “an outstanding figure” who had agreed with the prime minister after the last election that he would stand down as foreign secretary “at some point”.
The remarks follow claims that Mr Straw’s demotion was a consequence of him ruling out military action against Iran.
I’ve heard that but I’ve never discovered any evidence that this was true. I do know that he was a on the board of Planned Parenthood, (which is what wingnuts cited to demonstrate that Poppy Bush wasn’t sufficiently anti-choice) but I think his membership owed more to the eugenics take that bastardizes reproductive rights to forced sterilization of “undesirables.” Margaret Sanger was, at best, sympathetic to eugenics. Read Dr. Julianne Malveaux’s powerful article, “Sanger’s Legacy Is Reproductive Freedom and Racism, for more detail.
[And of course, this history is used out of context to convince women of color that they should give up knowledge of their bodies and reproductive control, which is stupid–should we not be unionized because of its racist underpinnings? Forced or coerced sterilization is not pro-choice.]
Back to the point, though, I think this country still did business with the Germans until they couldn’t get away with it any longer. And I do believe that our government knew about the camps years before they decided to do anything about them. I think the evidence suggests that Prescott, at best, displayed a lack of concern about the Nazis. My own opinion? He didn’t give a shit.
If that story is true it had to have happened in the US, not Ireland as Bush had never left the country (well until he became prez)and bragged about not having a passport.
Really? Then what about the whole “W has never been outside the US” line that was prominent in the lead up to 2000? Do you happen to have a link to the article about when Bush stayed with Blair at age 13? Not earth shattering, but I’m curious anyway.
If I find a link I’ll post it. I don’t think I read it in an article, I believe someone posted the story on Salon’s Table Talk several years ago. It might have been when Kitty Kelley’s book came out so it could be in there.
America may not have the same sensibilities about the death penalty as “old” Europe, but there can’t be many US citizens who embrace the killing of their fellow man as gleefully as the President.
Perhaps the most disturbing example of Bush’s zeal for the Death House was shown in 1998 when he was governor of the state of Texas. Karla Faye Tucker was then facing execution by lethal injection. The former teen prostitute had committed murder after a three-day drug binge and later underwent a religious conversion in jail. As a born-again Christian – just like Bush – many religious leaders wanted her life spared. Tucker even appeared on Larry King’s TV show to discuss her case. Bush was caught out by a reporter mocking the condemned woman. Sneering at her, he put on a whiney voice, pouted his lips and whimpered: “Please, don’t kill me.” Significantly, Tucker had never even asked for mercy while on King’s show.
Bush later claimed in his biography, A Charge To Keep, that he had a “restless night” before Tucker’s execution and “felt like a huge piece of concrete was crushing me” as he waited for her to die. Bush said reading her postmortem was “one of the hardest things I have ever done”, adding that the whole experience left him “heavy of heart”.
Bush said he denied her a clemency appeal – which was based on the fact that her conversion had rehabilitated her – saying:
“I have concluded judgments about the heart and soul of an individual on death row are best left to a higher authority.”
##
“George has no humility whatsover about being President. He really thinks he deserves the office; that it’s his by merit, not default. With each political job he’s had, he’s gotten worse, more arrogant. Now he’s unbearable.” Kelly’s book concludes that Bush’s faith makes him invulnerable to self-doubt – just like his political friend and fellow Christian Tony Blair.
Crank up Wurlitzer; it’s time for another round of “Let’s all PANIC!!” You may have heard that ABC TV is airing a movie tomorrow night about what happens when a bird flu pandemic reaches America. Well, I’ve already seen it (I work at my local health department, which was asked for comments by our local newspaper) and I have to strongly disagree [Do they sell Kool-Aid in Britain?] with the comments in New Scientist today that it’s “eerily accurate.” It’s about as accurate a depiction of a health crisis as “The Poseidon Adventure” and “The Love Boat” were of vacation cruising, or “The Day After Tomorrow” was of climate change. Our local TV reviewer got it right: “It’s alarmist, dreary and nihilistic.” What did the health department think? Go here and scroll down almost to the end, to where our county public health officer weighs in: “‘This movie is overloaded with hyperbole, hysteria and melodrama when we should be approaching a potentially critical situation with realism and appropriate planning,’ said Dr. Stephanie Hall, Knox County public health officer, who is overseeing pandemic planning for the county.”
Scientists report they have deciphered the signaling pathway for a key class of steroid hormones that regulates growth and development in plants. “By manipulating the steroid pathway…we think we can regulate plant stature and yield,” said Joanne Chory, the senior author of the new report. This could lead to “no-mow grass” in the not too distant future.
old golfcart will eventually take on a rounded shape. What is with all the damn golfcarts driving around here anyhow? It’s like golfcart heaven. They have golfcart dealerships for crying out loud! You ain’t shit in Bama if you don’t have a golfcart you drive around the neighborhood in!
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Nigerian medical experts concluded Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE – news) violated international law during a 1996 epidemic by testing an unapproved drug on children with brain infections, the Washington Post reported in Sunday editions, citing a copy of the panel’s confidential report.
The report, completed five years ago but never released, found that Pfizer was never authorized by the Nigerian government to give the unproven drug Trovan to nearly 100 children and infants at a field hospital in Kano, where they were being treated for an often deadly strain of meningitis.
Pfizer’s experiment was “an illegal trial of an unregistered drug,” and violated Nigerian law, the international Declaration of Helsinki that governs ethical medical research and the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, the panel concluded, according to the Post.
The FDA cleared Trovan for adult use in 1997, although it never approved the drug for use by American children.
Trovan was later associated with reports of liver damage and deaths, leading the FDA to severely restrict its use in 1999. European regulators banned the drug.
BOULDER, Colorado, May 8, 2006 (ENS) – Over the past 20 years, nations worldwide have controlled the production and use of ozone-destroying chlorine compounds, and the Earth’s atmosphere appears to be recovering from losses of protective ozone in the upper atmospheric layers, according to new research.
A paper by Betsy Weatherhead of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Earth System Research Laboratory in Colorado and Signe Bech Andersen of the Danish Meteorological Institute documents a leveling off of ozone loss as a result of the Montreal Protocol.
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) 45 minutes ago — A South African judge acquitted former Deputy President Jacob Zuma on charges he raped an HIV-positive family friend, keeping alive the political hopes of a man until recently seen as the country’s next president.
“I find that consensual sex took place between the complainant and the accused,” Judge Willem van der Merwe told a packed courtroom as more than 2,000 Zuma supporters massed outside the Johannesburg courthouse exploded in wild cheers.
Zuma’s rape trial has fanned tensions in the ruling African National Congress (ANC), where he remains a widely popular figure and was until recently seen as the frontrunner to succeed President Thabo Mbeki in 2009.
Despite his broad appeal, political analysts say he has been badly wounded by the rape trial.
The 64-year-old anti-apartheid veteran had pleaded not guilty to raping his accuser at his Johannesburg home last November. But his lawyers said he did have consensual sex with the woman, a 31-year-old AIDS activist.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) 30 minutes ago — A former top aide to Ohio Republican Rep. Bob Ney is expected to plead guilty in connection with corruption investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a source familiar with the case said.
The source said Ney’s former chief of staff, Neil Volz, is expected to plead guilty at a federal court hearing to conspiracy to commit fraud and to violating the one-year ban on lobbying after leaving congressional employment.
Oklahoma isn’t OK, as far as the video-game industry is concerned. Pending legislation in the state linking video games to pornography and making the sale and exhibition of violent video games to minors a fineable offense is drawing fire from the industry’s main trade association.
HB3004, proposed by State Senator Glen Coffee (R-Oklahoma City) and Representative Fred Morgan (R-Oklahoma City), is awaiting final congressional approval before going before Governor Brad Henry, who is widely expected to sign the bill into law. Even if signed by the Democrat governor, the proposal is unlikely to pass constitutional muster, according to one expert; nevertheless, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA)–the de facto mouthpiece for the video game industry –and its grassroots political arm the Video Game Voters Network (VGVN) are taking no chances. The groups have put out a call to defeat the measure before it’s passed into law.
Coffee and Morgan’s bill would lump violent video games to pornographic content. The bill defines “inappropriate violence” as “patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community” and the content lacking in “serious literary, scientific, artistic or political values for minors.” The bill goes on to define criteria such as “glamorized or gratuitous” violence, violence used to “shock or stimulate,” violence that’s not “contextually relevant to the material” and so on.
“It’s important that we protect children from exposure to what, in many cases, is shocking and gruesome violence,” said Rep. Morgan in a statement.
A statement from Clay Calvert, Professor of Communications and Law at Penn State, really jumped out at me:
“The overwhelming precedent is very high against laws targeting violent content in video games,” he told Macworld. “The Supreme Court has specifically limited obscene speech to sexual content, not violent content. Violent content has always been protected.”
And maybe that’s the biggest problem in this country — if we accept violence as being okay, then what’s wrong with going into another country and shooting up a bunch of brown-skinned folks who talk funny?
I’m reminded of a line from George Carlin: “I’d rather have my kids watch a video of two people making love than two people killing each other…”
President Bush’s approval rating has slumped to 31% in a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, the lowest of his presidency and a warning sign for Republicans in the November elections.
The survey of 1,013 adults, taken Friday through Sunday, shows Bush’s standing down by 3 percentage points in a single week. His disapproval rating also reached a record: 65%. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points…
…Bush’s fall is being fueled by erosion among support from conservatives and Republicans. In the poll, 52% of conservatives and 68% of Republicans approved of the job he is doing. Both are record lows among those groups.
And what do the Repugs have to say for themselves?
“It is a challenging political environment,” acknowledges Tracey Schmitt, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, “but we are confident that ultimately voters in November will recognize that a Democrat Congress would simply not be equipped to ensure either economic or national security for our nation.”
.
Ehh … we do have an active member located in Thailand, therefore a check on the Asian News.
Bangkok (AP) May 7 — BREAKING NEWS— The Constitutional Court on Monday annulled Thailand’s parliamentary elections last month and ordered fresh polls in a bid to end the country’s months-long political crisis.
“The organization of the election by the Election Commission was unconstitutional,” court spokesman Paiboon Warahapaithoon said in a televised news conference called to announce the judges’ ruling.
The court’s 14 judges voted 8 to 6 to invalidate the April 2 elections based on a lawsuit filed by academics who claimed the commission acted too hastily in organizing the polls, and that they were unfair.
In a separate vote, the court ruled 9 to 5 in favor of holding new elections, Paiboon said. A date for the new elections would be set after consultations between the court and the commission.
The widely expected ruling came after the nation’s revered monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, sternly suggested last month that the top courts find a way out of what he called the country’s political “mess”.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Yeah, we already know the answer to that, but apparently it’s making it’s way into print (which would explain the feature on the MSM this morning about Bush’s “double” from the WHCA dinner).
Chicago Sun Times
Is c-span now into damage control about the Colbert clips? According to MSNBC, they are forcing YOUTUBE and IFILM to take those clips.They also said that you will be able to use Google but that the whole clip will be provided and not only the Colbert segment.
More war on science: Centre Daily Times
Unbelievable…except it’s the Bush administration. Never let facts get in the way of propaganda.
Good grief!
This is more like “news at 11.” I’m not the least bit surprised, nor am I the least bit surprised that they caved.
Souder is one noxious wingnut. And ugly, too.
.
Tony Blair has refused to give a timetable for his departure as prime minister, saying it would “paralyse the proper working of government”.
Blair's reshuffle fails to silencecritics as resignation calls grow
‘Outstanding figure’
And he said suggestions that he had sacked Jack Straw as foreign secretary over differences with the United States about Iran were “rubbish”. Mr Straw was “an outstanding figure” who had agreed with the prime minister after the last election that he would stand down as foreign secretary “at some point”.
The remarks follow claims that Mr Straw’s demotion was a consequence of him ruling out military action against Iran.
≈ Cross-posted from my diary —
Tony Blair and Labor in Election Defeat! ¶ FM Straw Sacked by Nr. 10! ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Do you think it is possible that when Dubya was born he had a twin and the Bush’s adopted him out to someone in Britain in order to spread the virus?
.
I’ll make a ugly suggestion, speaking of evil twins …
Wasn’t Prescott Bush close to the Nazi party?
● What Congress Does Not Know about Enron and 9/11 ◊ by John Loftus
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
I’ve heard that but I’ve never discovered any evidence that this was true. I do know that he was a on the board of Planned Parenthood, (which is what wingnuts cited to demonstrate that Poppy Bush wasn’t sufficiently anti-choice) but I think his membership owed more to the eugenics take that bastardizes reproductive rights to forced sterilization of “undesirables.” Margaret Sanger was, at best, sympathetic to eugenics. Read Dr. Julianne Malveaux’s powerful article, “Sanger’s Legacy Is Reproductive Freedom and Racism, for more detail.
[And of course, this history is used out of context to convince women of color that they should give up knowledge of their bodies and reproductive control, which is stupid–should we not be unionized because of its racist underpinnings? Forced or coerced sterilization is not pro-choice.]
Back to the point, though, I think this country still did business with the Germans until they couldn’t get away with it any longer. And I do believe that our government knew about the camps years before they decided to do anything about them. I think the evidence suggests that Prescott, at best, displayed a lack of concern about the Nazis. My own opinion? He didn’t give a shit.
Where’s Real History Lisa when you need her?! :<)
Didn’t Bush actually meet Blair as a pre-teen/teenager? I remember some story about a summer in Ireland and I think hog-farming.
If that story is true it had to have happened in the US, not Ireland as Bush had never left the country (well until he became prez)and bragged about not having a passport.
It might not be true, but it definitely was Bush sent to the U.K., I think at 13, to stay with a friend of Blair’s dad.
Really? Then what about the whole “W has never been outside the US” line that was prominent in the lead up to 2000? Do you happen to have a link to the article about when Bush stayed with Blair at age 13? Not earth shattering, but I’m curious anyway.
If I find a link I’ll post it. I don’t think I read it in an article, I believe someone posted the story on Salon’s Table Talk several years ago. It might have been when Kitty Kelley’s book came out so it could be in there.
.
America may not have the same sensibilities about the death penalty as “old” Europe, but there can’t be many US citizens who embrace the killing of their fellow man as gleefully as the President.
Perhaps the most disturbing example of Bush’s zeal for the Death House was shown in 1998 when he was governor of the state of Texas. Karla Faye Tucker was then facing execution by lethal injection. The former teen prostitute had committed murder after a three-day drug binge and later underwent a religious conversion in jail. As a born-again Christian – just like Bush – many religious leaders wanted her life spared. Tucker even appeared on Larry King’s TV show to discuss her case. Bush was caught out by a reporter mocking the condemned woman. Sneering at her, he put on a whiney voice, pouted his lips and whimpered: “Please, don’t kill me.” Significantly, Tucker had never even asked for mercy while on King’s show.
Bush later claimed in his biography, A Charge To Keep, that he had a “restless night” before Tucker’s execution and “felt like a huge piece of concrete was crushing me” as he waited for her to die. Bush said reading her postmortem was “one of the hardest things I have ever done”, adding that the whole experience left him “heavy of heart”.
Bush said he denied her a clemency appeal – which was based on the fact that her conversion had rehabilitated her – saying:
“I have concluded judgments about the heart and soul of an individual on death row are best left to a higher authority.”
##
“George has no humility whatsover about being President. He really thinks he deserves the office; that it’s his by merit, not default. With each political job he’s had, he’s gotten worse, more arrogant. Now he’s unbearable.” Kelly’s book concludes that Bush’s faith makes him invulnerable to self-doubt – just like his political friend and fellow Christian Tony Blair.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
A secret UK Ministry of Defense report on UFOs has concluded that there is no proof of alien life forms behind UFOs, which are likely either meteors or other atmospheric phenomena. The 400-page report was kept secret for 6 years.
The cloaking devices that are used to render spacecraft invisible in Star Trek might just work in reality, two British mathematicians have claimed. Don’t get too excited; it’s all theoretical at this point.
Crank up Wurlitzer; it’s time for another round of “Let’s all PANIC!!” You may have heard that ABC TV is airing a movie tomorrow night about what happens when a bird flu pandemic reaches America. Well, I’ve already seen it (I work at my local health department, which was asked for comments by our local newspaper) and I have to strongly disagree [Do they sell Kool-Aid in Britain?] with the comments in New Scientist today that it’s “eerily accurate.” It’s about as accurate a depiction of a health crisis as “The Poseidon Adventure” and “The Love Boat” were of vacation cruising, or “The Day After Tomorrow” was of climate change. Our local TV reviewer got it right: “It’s alarmist, dreary and nihilistic.” What did the health department think? Go here and scroll down almost to the end, to where our county public health officer weighs in: “‘This movie is overloaded with hyperbole, hysteria and melodrama when we should be approaching a potentially critical situation with realism and appropriate planning,’ said Dr. Stephanie Hall, Knox County public health officer, who is overseeing pandemic planning for the county.”
Al Gore held a private screening of his new global warming documentary, followed by a Q&A session, over the weekend in Nashville, at which he said he plans to roll out an initiative to train people to give that global warming presentation in hopes of delivering his message to a broader audience. Could there be viral marketing of another product in mind? The Wall Street Journal (free today!) speculates that Gore is planning a presidential run: On stage and in the film, a deadpan Mr. Gore opens, to laughs and applause: “I am Al Gore. I used to be the next president of the United States of America.”
Scientists report they have deciphered the signaling pathway for a key class of steroid hormones that regulates growth and development in plants. “By manipulating the steroid pathway…we think we can regulate plant stature and yield,” said Joanne Chory, the senior author of the new report. This could lead to “no-mow grass” in the not too distant future.
Cancer treatment based on a tumor’s location may become as quaint a notion as medical care based on adjusting one’s anatomical “humors.” Cancer treatment will eventually be replaced with therapies that use drugs deemed to be of highest benefit based on the tumor’s pharmacologic profile. Treatment choice would be determined by how each patient’s tumor reacts to anticancer drugs, regardless of the tumor’s anatomical origin.
Biodegradable plastic bags based on agricultural products, not petroleum, are finally poised to move into the marketplace in a major way. However, getting rid of electronics waste remains a problem.
Maybe the UFO report was kept secret for 6 years by using the theoretical cloaking device.
Live long and prosper, baby!
So my next door neighbors really aren’t from…….
Explains the rusted out car in their front yard. But it is sort of saucer shaped 🙂
old golfcart will eventually take on a rounded shape. What is with all the damn golfcarts driving around here anyhow? It’s like golfcart heaven. They have golfcart dealerships for crying out loud! You ain’t shit in Bama if you don’t have a golfcart you drive around the neighborhood in!
I missed this on Saturday
Pfizer broke law with 1996 Nigeria drug test: paper
From the link:
That is ugly.
Link
.
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) 45 minutes ago — A South African judge acquitted former Deputy President Jacob Zuma on charges he raped an HIV-positive family friend, keeping alive the political hopes of a man until recently seen as the country’s next president.
“I find that consensual sex took place between the complainant and the accused,” Judge Willem van der Merwe told a packed courtroom as more than 2,000 Zuma supporters massed outside the Johannesburg courthouse exploded in wild cheers.
Supporters of former Deputy President Jacob Zuma dressed in traditional Zulu outfit, arrive at High Court in Johannesburg. Verdict was broadcast live on radio and tv in South Africa.Zuma’s rape trial has fanned tensions in the ruling African National Congress (ANC), where he remains a widely popular figure and was until recently seen as the frontrunner to succeed President Thabo Mbeki in 2009.
Despite his broad appeal, political analysts say he has been badly wounded by the rape trial.
The 64-year-old anti-apartheid veteran had pleaded not guilty to raping his accuser at his Johannesburg home last November. But his lawyers said he did have consensual sex with the woman, a 31-year-old AIDS activist.
● BBC News – S Africa’s Zuma Cleared of Rape
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) 30 minutes ago — A former top aide to Ohio Republican Rep. Bob Ney is expected to plead guilty in connection with corruption investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a source familiar with the case said.
The source said Ney’s former chief of staff, Neil Volz, is expected to plead guilty at a federal court hearing to conspiracy to commit fraud and to violating the one-year ban on lobbying after leaving congressional employment.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
In Oklahoma it might…
Oklahoma bill would peg some video games to porn
By Peter Cohen
Oklahoma isn’t OK, as far as the video-game industry is concerned. Pending legislation in the state linking video games to pornography and making the sale and exhibition of violent video games to minors a fineable offense is drawing fire from the industry’s main trade association.
HB3004, proposed by State Senator Glen Coffee (R-Oklahoma City) and Representative Fred Morgan (R-Oklahoma City), is awaiting final congressional approval before going before Governor Brad Henry, who is widely expected to sign the bill into law. Even if signed by the Democrat governor, the proposal is unlikely to pass constitutional muster, according to one expert; nevertheless, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA)–the de facto mouthpiece for the video game industry –and its grassroots political arm the Video Game Voters Network (VGVN) are taking no chances. The groups have put out a call to defeat the measure before it’s passed into law.
Coffee and Morgan’s bill would lump violent video games to pornographic content. The bill defines “inappropriate violence” as “patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community” and the content lacking in “serious literary, scientific, artistic or political values for minors.” The bill goes on to define criteria such as “glamorized or gratuitous” violence, violence used to “shock or stimulate,” violence that’s not “contextually relevant to the material” and so on.
“It’s important that we protect children from exposure to what, in many cases, is shocking and gruesome violence,” said Rep. Morgan in a statement.
A statement from Clay Calvert, Professor of Communications and Law at Penn State, really jumped out at me:
“The overwhelming precedent is very high against laws targeting violent content in video games,” he told Macworld. “The Supreme Court has specifically limited obscene speech to sexual content, not violent content. Violent content has always been protected.”
And maybe that’s the biggest problem in this country — if we accept violence as being okay, then what’s wrong with going into another country and shooting up a bunch of brown-skinned folks who talk funny?
I’m reminded of a line from George Carlin: “I’d rather have my kids watch a video of two people making love than two people killing each other…”
continues for Bush: USAToday
And what do the Repugs have to say for themselves?
Pfft…