...From video games. Because that is clearly the most pressing concern our favorite Democrat war-lovers have on their plates.
Spurred into action by a bit of sexual content included in last year's mega-hit "Grand Theft AUto: San Andreas" Hillary Clinton, along with Joe Lieberman, have taken it upon themselves to legislate the federal regulation of video games in a bill they call the
Family Entertainment Protection Act".
Parts of the bill make some sense, for example it is hard to argue that it is OK to sell children games that are rated M (for Mature, or 17 years and older). However, in their quest for the appearance of being morally decent by enacting legislation to "save the children" they are totally willing to sell out the contitution.
One provision of the FEPA is to legislate adherance to the ESRB ratings system. As it stands now, both the ratings system and the adherence to it by retailers are voluntary, much like the MPAA ratings system. As has been backed up by the defeat of similar bills in many states, this is unconstitutional:
Applauding the basic intentions but finding fault with the approach taken, ESA president, Doug Lowenstein, has issued a response to the bill, stating: "While we are gratified that the Senator holds the ESRB in such high regard that her bill would give these ratings the force of law, the courts have made clear that giving a private party governmental powers is unconstitutional."
I'm not sure why these senators feel that regulating the content of media is the most valuable use of their time right now. In my opinion it is pretty duplicitous for them to seek to restrict the portrayal of violent imagery when they support violence orders of magnitude great that isn't occuring on a television screen but in real flesh and blood.
I don't necessarily think we should run our DINOs out of town on a rail (or even risk losing their seats after bitterly contested primaries) but I wonder how strong a message they need to get from their constiuents before they realize that the children that need saving right now are in Iraq and not in Wal-Mart buying video games.