NIMF To Close Its Doors 68
eldavojohn writes "One of the driving forces behind the ESRB toughening its ratings is closing its doors on December 31st, 2009. The National Institute on Media and the Family was funded by Fairview Health Services, and simply could no longer justify the yearly $750,000 price tag given today's economic climate. NIMF's reign of nagging has been pretty consistent since 1996, and was often indirectly featured on Slashdot. Don't worry, president and founder Dr. David Walsh promises to keep writing and giving speeches ... and imploring us all to think of the children."
Fortunately (Score:5, Insightful)
This is one good thing that comes with economic hardship. Idiotic, wasteful, inefficient ideas like this get swept away in the tide while people start focusing on more important issues, like keeping a roof over their heads or feeding and clothing themselves and their children.
We need many more years of economic hardship to get rid of all the free-loaders who make a living from telling other people how guilty they should be feeling, or making nonsensical claims with no evidence to back them up.
Economic climate... or lack of concern? (Score:5, Insightful)
Is NIMF's inability to procure funding just a sign of the harsh economic climate or is it an indication that people are becoming less concerned with the issues it promoted. 15 years ago, computer and video games were making the transition from "toys for children" (Sonic, Mario) to more graphic and mature titles (Doom, Duke Nukem). Parents and (older) adults saw these gore-soaked, stripper-filled games and wondered what effect this would have on the younger generation. Worriedly, they funded -through contributions or taxes- groups like NIMF.
More than a decade later, a generation has come of age having played these games for most of their lives and -surprise, surprise!- they are not any more messed up than any previous generation. Video games, it seems, are not the corrupting influence people thought they might be. Not only are the supporters of yesteryear lest likely to fund these groups, but the same generation NIMF etal were meant to protect -now grown up themselves- are equally unlikely to open their pocketbooks to them.
Claiming it is merely the "economic climate" that is shutting down these groups is buying into their argument that there is a necessity for the services they provide but that harsher realities requires our finances to be redirected to more essential things. People generally consider "protecting the children" to be a priority. That NIMF is closing is just as likely an indication that we recognize they are not necessary to keep the kids safe because there never was any real danger to them in the first place.
Re:Fortunately (Score:3, Insightful)
There's nothing wrong with parents wanting to prevent their children playing certain types of games. If you think they're harmless, that's fine. Let your own kids play them. A lot of parents do care, and do like some sort of age rating. The NIMF encouraged this in a generally fairly reasonable manner.
Re:Already said, but true... (Score:3, Insightful)
Point taken. But I like to shoot down the PC crowd before they get one in.
And, yes, by law I meet the standards and I can claim the reparations/benefits by virtue of being part Cherokee. I meet the qualifications more than a lot of people who claim to be so. That I choose not to do so is a personal decision. I'm predominantly White, my mother is a German citizen, and I feel that it would be hypocritical of me to do so.
Why? Because we have enough parasites in this country, playing up on events that happened a century or more ago. Or who aren't even citizens, yet feel they deserve the rights of citizens simply because they fucked up their own country or community.
Why would I participate in that sort of behavior if I find it reprehensible in others? I don't need anything the government has to offer. Not that they give White people anything anyways - the one time I claimed unemployment, I received 300 USD twice a month (despite having a previous salary much higher than the average citizen - this amount was not even the maximum allotment) and it was terminated after 6 months (despite full compliance with job search regulations). This wasn't even enough to pay my house note, and I lived in a working class neighborhood. They wouldn't even give me food stamps. The only way my ex-wife and I made it through that period was by taking under-the-table work and some illegal activities on my part. Meanwhile, I could look right next door at the black "family" (almost all females) with about twenty kids, who were all unemployed, yet were wearing expensive clothing and driving vehicles that cost at least as much as my own truck. And they weren't having to sell dope or risk their lives by collecting debts for loan sharks whose clientele were mostly armed and paranoid. Makes one a bit bitter.
Full-blooded Native Americans, I can understand. They're by-and-large dirt poor, got royally screwed through no fault of their own (it was their land and they fought to defend it, or were decimated by plagues, so I have sympathy there), and deserve a chance to go to college and better their selves. Descendants of Black slaves (there were plenty of White slaves in America as well...they just called them "indentured servants" who had been "transported")? Sorry, but you were sold by your own people when slavery was acceptable (read the history of slavery in Africa). You've had many opportunities and grants to fix your problems, but you'd rather sell crack and shoot each other (or prey on White civilians). Mestizos? You fought wars and lost, you still have your countries - fix them.
And just because you're born somewhere does not make you a citizen. Ever heard the term "anchor babies"? I find it ridiculous that a Mestizo woman can give birth to a child in this country and it's a citizen. I'm a citizen because my father is an American citizen who married a German woman he met while stationed in Europe (if they divorced, she would not be a citizen). If my mother had somehow illegally entered, say, Australia and given birth, I would not be an Australian citizen. I would be deported along with her.
So you might be right about one thing (the actuality of citizenship of American citizens), but you're completely full of shit about Native American laws and being born somewhere making you a de facto citizen.