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Games Government Entertainment Politics

Senator Clinton Slams GTA 1493

Joining the ranks of such luminaries as Jack Thompson and Governor Blagojevich, GamesIndustry.biz has the word that Senator Hillary Clinton has joined right wing advocates in decrying the gaming industry as a paragon of loose morals and corrupting influences. From the article: "Children are playing a game that encourages them to have sex with prostitutes and then murder them...This is a silent epidemic of media desensitisation that teaches kids it's OK to diss people because they are a woman, they're a different colour or they're from a different place." Commentary available at The Australian. Update: 03/30 02:22 GMT by T : Thanks to reader mantle_etching, here is a link to the entire speech as delivered, so you can judge its content for yourself.
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Senator Clinton Slams GTA

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  • Re:Some Perspective (Score:5, Informative)

    by stonedonkey ( 416096 ) on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @03:49PM (#12079778)
    Completely out of context.

    Context:

    "Headlining an appearance with other Democratic women senators on behalf of Sen. Barbara Boxer, who is up for re-election this year, Hillary Clinton told several hundred supporters -- some of whom had ponied up as much as $10,000 to attend -- to expect to lose some of the tax cuts passed by President Bush if Democrats win the White House and control of Congress.

    "Many of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you," Sen. Clinton said. "We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."
  • by isotope23 ( 210590 ) on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @03:52PM (#12079852) Homepage Journal
    Look here [usdoj.gov]

    The best quotes :
    "Serious violent crime levels declined since 1993. "
    "Firearm-related crime has plummeted since 1993."

    The most amusing thing is Doom was released at the peak in 1993. Perhaps people are taking their frustations out in violent video games instead of real life?

  • by CSMastermind ( 847625 ) <freight_train10@hotmail.com> on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @03:56PM (#12079935)
    http://www.apa.org/science/psa/sb-anderson.html [apa.org]Fac ts versus Myths about video game violence The guy covers the main points about video game violence. In short, yes there are. But there are more studies that show that children are likely to become violent if their parents are negligent or violent.
  • Re:Some Perspective (Score:3, Informative)

    by angle_slam ( 623817 ) on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @04:09PM (#12080251)
    No. Paying for essential services (military, police, roads, etc.) is the whole point of taxation.
  • Re:Some Perspective (Score:4, Informative)

    by Russ Nelson ( 33911 ) <slashdot@russnelson.com> on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @04:24PM (#12080567) Homepage
    Redistribution of wealth is the whole point of taxation.

    Not really. The whole point of taxation is to fund projects where the public gain exceeds the public cost, but the private cost exceeds the private gain. In other words, those things which no individual will do, but which benefit the public. Or, in other words, a hell of a lot less than any government is doing today.
    -russ
  • by jaavaaguru ( 261551 ) on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @04:28PM (#12080655) Homepage
    Nobody should be slamming Thief, or GTA, or CS. They're just games. Games for ADULTS, and as such are rated 18.

    The news here is that Senator Clinton admits that parents and/or retailers aren't paying the least bit of attention to age ratings on games.
  • by Lord Kano ( 13027 ) on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @04:40PM (#12080886) Homepage Journal
    George W. Bush.

    He was against Kyoto when he ran. He courted pro 2nd amandment and pro life voters. After he was elected he went on to ignore Kyoto. He allowed the Clinton Gun Ban to lapse and re-impose the global gag rule on abortion.

    LK
  • by mark-t ( 151149 ) <markt AT nerdflat DOT com> on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @04:45PM (#12080985) Journal
    Actually, the two circumstances are highly related.

    People tend to mimic what they are exposed to. It is the same pscyhological pattern that first enabled us to learn how to communicate when we were little, and although there is some dissipation of this phenomenon as we grow older, it never completely goes away.

    Sufficient exposure to violence, even if entirely virtual, will tend to result in more violent behaviour in the individual. The amount of exposure to violence that a person can tolerate with no outwardly obvious effects ever manifesting varies greatly from individual to individual, but is fundamentally linked to the pscyhological bent that all human beings have to mimic their surroundings, as I mentioned above. Because, as I said before, this phenomenon dissipates somewhat with age, younger children _TEND TO BE_ more susceptible to influence caused by exposure to violence than older people.

    Because the impact varies so much from person to person, however, it's probably simply most appropriate to let a child's parent determine if they should be allowed to be exposed to the material. Obviously, video game stores are not going to be responsible for parenting other people's children, so it's probably reasonable for them to err on the side of caution. If the parent thinks it's okay, then the parent should get it for the kid himself.

  • by jav1231 ( 539129 ) on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @04:49PM (#12081066)
    Anyone who thinks there is NO link to what you see/experience/read/hear/etc. and behavior is a complete moron. Even if you HAVE a degree. To think otherwise simply display's your "sign."
    I loath to agree with Hillary, and I'm fairly certain this is merely to give the illusion that she's a moderate, but comment on her position. Any attempt to argue that pre-teen boys can simply watch all this stuff and not be affected makes one look foolish.
  • Re:Young Republicans (Score:5, Informative)

    by ninjagin ( 631183 ) on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @05:08PM (#12081380)
    Perhaps it is you who is asleep.

    The "War on Drugs" was not a creation of the Clinton administration. It's actually a very very old propaganda effort, and most of its proponents have been republicans.

    See: http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/pol/495lect03.htm

    From my own formative years, I remember when Reagan re-invigorated the Nixon anti-drug efforts after Ford let them fade out. Carter was very much anti-drug (still is), but thought that there were more pressing concerns for the executive.

    If you do your homework (which it seems you do not), you'll see that your perceived "democratic legislation of morality" has historically (over the last 40-50 years or so) included legalized abortion, civil rights and equal rights for women.

    Sadly, it is republicans that want to pass laws that restrict personal freedoms and civil rights... controlling who you marry, how you die, what you watch, where you can go, what you can see and where you can travel. Now that they have majority, this is also their great opportunity to force christian values on everyone -- not by bringing them to church in fellowship, but by only passing laws that pass a christian fundamentalist litmus test. For shame.

  • by BroadwayBlue ( 811404 ) on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @05:53PM (#12082048)
    Ah, irony. Not many realize that administering morphine actually hastens the onset of death; it slowly kills the patient. It was given because that is the accepted medical practice. Whether it makes sense or not is not the issue anymore; but don't read into it that morphine was given to prevent pain from starvation.
  • Hahaha! (Score:1, Informative)

    by Dasch ( 832632 ) on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @05:58PM (#12082124)
    You've obviously never been to a place that's even remotely socialist - I have yet to see an actual, hardcore socialist politician in the US.
  • by MBraynard ( 653724 ) on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @06:02PM (#12082172) Journal
    To answer your question, the reason that morphine is administered is to kill the patient. The doctors use the 'cover' of it being to ease pain, but the truth it they are giving leathal doses to euthanize the patient. Enough morphine causes many vital organs to shut down.
  • by nitehorse ( 58425 ) <clee@c133.org> on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @06:07PM (#12082230)
    There's a transcript available at gameFAQs [gamefaqs.com] which you might find enlightening.

    Careful, there's a lot of text there.
  • by Mr. Slippery ( 47854 ) <.tms. .at. .infamous.net.> on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @06:13PM (#12082306) Homepage
    She still looks like a socialist.

    Conservatives like to throw that word "socialist" around. In the words of Inigo Montoya, "I do not think it means what you think it means."

    Or is Hillary working for a democratic society and economy run to meet the needs of all instead of the profits of a few [socialism.org.uk]? For the worker's democratic ownership and/or control of the means of production [blackened.net]? For the end of capitalist oppression and exploitation [infoshop.org]?

  • by geekee ( 591277 ) on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @06:29PM (#12082516)
    Arnold is the exact opposite of a national socialist. He believes in free markets and is liberal on social issues.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @06:58PM (#12082888)
    Nobody who plays the game would ever do it because there's no point. You don't make any money, you don't complete a mission, so it's an entirely pointless thing to do.
    It replenishes your health.

Saliva causes cancer, but only if swallowed in small amounts over a long period of time. -- George Carlin

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