I was hoping this wouldn't turn into a gun control debate, but fuck it.  Such statements need to be contested.

Given that gun control has no real effect on whether people have access to guns illegally or not (check out the stats by country of illegal guns on page 2 and 3 in particular) we should not be focusing on robbing law abiding citizens of their property (and their right of self defense) without monetary compensation and worse, sending police who are trained to gun people down at the faintest sign of resistance (say, someone reaching for a weapon or flash light because they have no idea who the fuck the intruders are in their home are that are yelling and waving machine guns at them) to raid the homes of those who are suspected of not obeying the law.  It's bad enough that people are gunned down in their own homes by police because their neighbors have put in an anonymous tip about smelling marijuana smoke, we don't need people who have never harmed anyone with a gun and never will being killed for the terrible act of wanting to defend themselves or their family, or in some cases having a gun collecting hobby. 

For that matter, given that hammers kill more people per year than assault rifles in the US (all rifles combined, actually) if you want to argue from a perspective of reducing violence we're better off banning those.  And kitchen knives, too. (Come to think of it, there is a group in England trying to ban kitchen knives.) 

The gun control argument also seems particularly silly when you consider that Germany, with it's very strict gun control laws, has had more people killed in mass shootings than the US, even counting the latest one and this is without factoring in the inherent moral problems that come with gun control laws.

For that matter, while it takes more courage to kill someone with your bare hands than a gun (but apparently not more courage than required to kill someone with a melee weapon if we're making a comparison with assault rifles) it also takes a lot more courage to kill someone in a place where people might defend themselves than it does to gun down people in a place where you know that anyone who is capable of defending themselves (or others) is 15-30 minutes away.  There is a reason that virtually every single shooting happens in a 'gun free' zone and a reason that mass shootings almost never occurred prior to the laws creating gun free zones.  Even the Aurora Colorado theater shooter, armed to the teeth and with a full set of body armor on, insisted upon picking the only gun-free theater in town.  Banning gun free zones would do a hell of a lot more to see to it that mass shootings didn't happen than gun control ever would.  That strategy also has the added benefit of not involving robbing people of their property and civil rights or sending police out with orders to bring them in dead or alive even though they've never committed a violent act in their life and don't intend to.

The discussions I've had with people who think video games should be banned/regulated indicate that they feel that the addition of interaction adds a level of realism that causes people to be violent or be desensitized or 'trained' for violence or something like that that is not present in movies.

I think that's bullshit, of course, but most people can't be bothered to see if facts match their (mostly dead) hypotheses or not.

Yes, Perdido Street Station is the first of three books in that series.

Yesterday I checked out a book from the library (Iron Council by China Mieville) and found a letter from a librarian that handled it on a sticky note saying that he loved the series, thought it was very under-rated and wanted to know what I thought, and he left me an e-mail address to contact him at.  That was pretty awesome.


Also:

Missouri Rep. Diane Franklin proposes that the best way to curb the sale of violent video games is through sales tax. What is a violent video game you ask? Anything rated T for Teen and up by the ESRB, including games like You Don’t Know Jack.

The United States Supreme Court ruled that video games are protected speech, no different than books, paintings, or films, when it ruled on Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association in 2011. That case struck down the 2005 California state law that banned the sale of violent video games to people under the age of 18, and required additional warnings on the package beyond the ESRB ratings system. The Court found the law unconstitutional, just as many district courts had found similar laws previously. That doesn’t stop people from trying, though. Missouri is now attempting to curb the sale of violent games by imposing a tax on them.

More specifically, State Representative Diane Franklin (R) has introduced House Bill No. 157, calling for a 1-percent sales tax placed on all violent video games sold in the Show-Me state. The bill employs a liberal definition of just what constitutes a “violent” video game:

“[The] term ‘violent video game’ means a video or computer game that has received a rating from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board of Teen, Mature, or Adult Only.”

The majority of games sporting the ESRB’s M for Mature rating do feature explicit violence and in many cases sex, as do the mere twenty-two games to receive the Adults Only rating over the past nineteen years. That games rated T for Teen is included under the bill’s definition betrays the author’s profound ignorance of the media in question.

Consider some of the games rated Teen currently on Amazon.com’s best-seller list. Titles include: You Don’t Know Jack, Forza Horizon, and Dance Central 3, whose most violent content is bright colors. The most violent T-rated games on the list are Star Wars Kinect and StarCraft II, games whose fantasy violence is roughly comparable to the first fifteen seconds of a thirty-second commercial for NCIS on CBS. Television shows are naturally not included in the proposal, though, nor are movies or books.

Rep. Franklin’s bill is unlikely to be signed into state law, and if it is, it will be struck down as swiftly as similar legislation proposed in Oklahoma, New Mexico, and California.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/missouri-congress-proposes-tax-on-violent-video-games-like-dance-central-3/#ixzz2IEOsku15

I was concerned about the Heinlein biography I'm reading, given that it's volume one and covering his early years before his career as a writer really started.  Fortunately, it's quite engaging in spite of this.

Edit:

Still working on the Heinlein biography, but progress is steady. If all goes well I can finish tomorrow.

Meanwhile, this gem popped out at me and made me smile given his reputation for sexism in his writing:

The AML was expanding so rapidly that Heinlein had to recruit engineers everywhere he could--a very scarce commodity when all the young men were in the services.  But he knew there would be an untapped source: he spent the last months of the academic year scouting technical schools all over the East, looking for female engineers. Female engineers would be draft-exempt. He amused himself between interviews checking-and refuting (to his satisfaction) Doc Smith's idea that a woman could have either brains or beauty, but when he saw at first hand the unfair treatment women were accorded by universities, he became incensed. At the university of Delaware, he found that female engineering candidates were not even permitted into the School of Engineering:


It makes me wonder if his attitude towards women has been misinterpreted...or if he was a late blooming sexist.

EDIT 2:  I'm now reading Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End.  Just finished and reviewed The City and the Stars.

EDIT 3:  Finished Childhood's End.  I'm now reading The Fountains of Paradise.

EDIT 4:  Finished and reviewed The Fountains of Paradise.  I'm now starting on China Mieville's Perdido Street Station.

Nope, the correct solution is to see to it that only government agents that are sent out to break into Jedis' homes and kill them if they're suspected of smoking a magic plant have light sabers.  That way any academy killing sprees will be perfectly legal/moral. :)


While I think a moon base is a fascinating idea for both the astronomical research and the beginning of a plan B for colonizing other astronomical bodies, I have to wonder why Gingrich wanted it.  Something tells me he doesn't care about any of those things.  Maybe he thought we could use the moon base to drop a nuke on Russia or Iran or something.  I think the guy may still be stuck in the Cold War.

Currently reading Robert Heinlein: In Dialogue With His Century, Vol. 1 by William H. Patterson.  A biography of Heinlein is right up my alley right now.  I just hope the second volume (which deals with the more relevant period of his life) comes out soon.

Trust me, join a sci fi/fantasy literature board and you will see that plenty of people still appreciate Asimov. :P

I've finished Donaldson's Gap Cycle (Here's a review on my blog), and since then I've been on a huge sci-fi binge.  Right now I'm reading Asimov's The Naked Sun.

If you aren't the kind of person who absolutely hates sci-fi, I would strongly recommend it.  Let me know what you think when you start.  Just be warned that the series doesn't really kick off until book two and that many find book one difficult to get through (it's the most stomach-churning).

I'm currently reading Stephen R Donaldson's Chaos and Order, the fourth book (of five) in Stephen R. Donaldson's Gap series.  This series, while not for the light of heart, is one of the best pieces of fiction I've ever read.

I had seen bits and pieces of all three on DVD with relatives and in class but I had never sat down to watch the movies beginning to end.  I'm glad I liked it, too.  Looking forward to the next two.

Regarding the most recent one, who the hell refuses a free PSP?

During the family Christmas gathering my dear uncle was arguing that I need to get out more, have kids soon, etc. (not probable in my current medical condition/career situation).  Somehow he managed to time his comment on the subject that I need to 'get out and work [my] penis' exactly when every fucking female at the gathering was in the room.  That man has a gift.  T'was just a bit awkward.

Also, if anyone wants to try to top this story, go ahead.  I'm sure someone has something better and it will certainly improve my mood.