Loss of Privacy

The makers of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City are being sued by the victim’s families saying that it’s the game’s fault a 14 year old boy, now 16, shot their family members. The $600 million suit filed on Monday names the boy, Cody Posey, Sony Corporation of America, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. and its subsidiary, Rockstar Games as the parties responsible. It claims that Posey played the game obsessively for months and that the GTA series are “virtual reality murder simulators.” While it is sad that these people are dead, the suit is extremely naive.

The game trained him ”how to point and shoot a gun in a fashion making him an extraordinarily effective killer without teaching him any of the constraints or responsibilities needed to inhibit such a killing capacity,” according to the suit.

If this were true, then Hollywood is also responsible for every action film they produce. Also, if it were true then the game would have taught him how to aim and, the last time I looked, my guns don’t have an R1 button on them, but they do have nasty kickbacks, something no game gives you the experience in. The game doesn’t teach about recoil, reloading, necessary arm strength, proper holding of the gun, or proper aiming of the gun. To say that this game teaches one to be an effective killer is misnomer. I would say a film, such as Saving Private Ryan, would do more to teach someone the realities of killing someone that GTA. I have no problem killing a person in GTA, but watching Saving Private Ryan, I get sick to my stomach every time.

The plaintiffs accuse the corporate defendants — Sony Corporation of America, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. and its subsidiary, Rockstar Games — of a ”civil conspiracy,” saying they should have foreseen their entertainment ”would spawn such copycat violence.”

This will not hold up in court and has been disproved many times before. Knife and gun makers have been cleared many times before. They are not responsible for what owners do with them and they are far more dangerous than a video game. If the corporate defendants are responsible for this tragedy, why then is the gun manufacturer not being sued? Posey wouldn’t have killed these people without the access to a gun right? So why is the owner of the gun not being sued?

Posey had told police he shot his family after his father, the ranch foreman, slapped him for not cleaning horse stalls fast enough. Prosecutors described Posey as a ruthless killer, but his lawyers claimed his father had abused him for years.

Now we begin to see what really sent this kid over the edge. Years of abuse, which probably led to years of being ignored, giving this kid the time to “obsessively” play his games. Posey’s desensitization to violence did not begin with playing GTA. The abuse he suffered in life, most likely, led him to being violent. He watched his mother die in a car accident and his father and step-mother abused him physically and sexually. His inherent safeguards that should be there aren’t. His parents should have had a say in teaching him not to be violent. Instead, they taught him how to be violent and that it was an acceptable behavoir.

The years of abuse that Posey took is more likely the resulting cause of his homicidal acts. Abuse removes the respect you should have for others. Abuse removes the bond between parent and child that teaches love. Abuse blurs the line between the real world and fantasy. Abuse leads to ignoring the child and allowing him to play violent games for hours with no interaction from the parents. Remember the game is rated M (Mature), meaning no one under 17 is allowed the buy the game. Who bought the game for him? Who allowed this child to play a mature game not meant for him? Who allowed him to play it obsessively without checking in on him?

I also have to admit that I enjoy killing people in games. Trust me. You are all better off that I kill you sixty times come Sunday instead of doing it in real life. It’s a nice way to release the rage I feel towards my fellow idiot human beings (No, not everyone is an idiot but those that are should consider themselves lucky I have video games at home.). I’m sure others feel this way too. It allows me to release my anger in a safe way, without doing harm to others.

While it is a tragedy that people’s lives are lost, we must look, realistically at who is responsible for these people’s lives. First, and foremost, Cody Posey is responsible. Next, the parents, for allowing Posey to play for so long without human interaction and, presumably for purchasing the game. NO ONE else is responsible. Movies, books and games can, and do, move people to think about society and their role in it. But this case has nothing to do with video games being the trigger that caused Posey to be homicidal. It doesn’t matter what the platform is (game, movie, book, etc.), if you are intent on committing violent acts, you will find a way. Blaming something else is merely a way to take responsibility off yourself and eases the consequences you must face for your actions.

The court is not convinced that the respondent has antisocial personality traits to the extent that would make him not amendable to treatment or rehabilitation,” Counts said. “There is evidence that the situational nature of the violence makes it less likely that the respondent will pose a future danger to the public.”

The court declared that, at the time of the murders, he was suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome and depression, most likely caused from the death of his mother four years previously as well as the abuse he suffered. It’s obvious that no one ever sought help for the boy to deal with the circumstances of his mother’s death. How could they? They were too busy treating him like human dirt.

Unfortunately, people had to die to see this kid was slowly turning violent. $600 million will not fix this broken kid and it is a sick twist to shift the responsibility from parental negligence to a young man who desperately needs help. The parent’s failure to notice what was happening to their child and their ongoing abuse towards him is what the real tragedy is and we all ought to think twice when we try to place the blame elsewhere from where it should lie.

It’s been a year and a half since REAL-ID passed 100-0 in the Senate and 368-58 in the House. We are now halfway to the point where we’ll be asked to show our papers. REAL-ID strips us of more of our privacy, takes away more States’ rights, and bullies the States into complying with the wishes of the Department of Homeland Security. REAL-ID requires all States to link together, creating a national database. REAL-ID turns your driver’s license into a national ID.
The problem with REAL-ID is that I already have an ID for federal purposes. It’s called a passport but, if I don’t get a REAL-ID, I am going to be forbidden to receive federal aid, social security benefits, the ability to open a bank account and the right to travel on a plane.

The minimum information on this ID card will be name, birth date, sex, ID number, digital photo, and address, with more information capable of being added later. The same requirements now installed into the REAL-ID are ALREADY in place on your passport. Why create more legislation for something that is already there? The Department of Homeland Security has said they plan on adding additional requirements, the first of which will probably be fingerprints or retina scans.
REAL-ID was attached as a rider to the military spending and tsunami relief bill, forcing senators to vote for it or seem like they were heartless politicians. REAL-ID is yet another program that strips States’ rights. Your information will now be digitized and accessible to anyone that asks for ID, including the guy at 7-11 who wants to see ID so you can buy beer. REAL-ID was quietly tucked into the spending bill with no debate, no committees, and no discussion whatsoever on the topic.

There is also no defense that this will deter terrorism because 1) we already have this type of legislation, it’s just not enforced 2) someone will get off their asses and get this voted as unconstitutional, thus preventing nothing and 3) the 9/11 terror suspects already obtained all their IDs legally. Under the new system, they will also be able to obtain their IDs legally. Nothing will have changed other than the ability of the government to further spy on its own citizens.

REAL-ID will also help to increase identity theft instead of preventing it by making your ID machine-readable. How will this happen? You enter a bar and show ID. You enter other businesses that require ID (think supermarkets, liquor stores, etc). Your ID will be scanned at these establishments and they can, and already do, sell your information to places such as Acxiom and ChoicePoint. Your newly issued ID from the government in 2008 may be “airtight” against identity theft but once it’s scanned commercially, all bets are off. How many databases have you heard of that have been breached in the last year?
States are not required to adhere to this legislation, however, if the States do no agree, then they receive no federal funding for things like road repairs, federal aid, federal money for schools, etc. This is just like the No Child Left Behind Act. It bullies the States into accepting what the Federal government wants. It’s tyrannical and unconstitutional.

This IS a national ID and establishes that the Secretary of Homeland Security can add whatever he/she wants to it, without prior approval from anyone, and he/she is now above the law in determining what he/she sees fit to put on your ID.

The Supreme Court also ruled last year that the police can demand to see your ID at any time, even if you’re not doing anything wrong. This ID card will be great for that, don’t you think?

You will also not be allowed to have PO Boxes on your ID. PO Boxes are typically used to protect your privacy and even judges and the police will no longer be exempt from this. It will now be easier than ever to track down people you do not like and do nefarious things to them and/or their families.

In 2008, your State’s DMV will begin to reissue driver’s licenses to meet federal standards at a cost of $11 Billion. You will have to return to your local DMV with a photo ID that has your birth date and address and prove that your Social Security number is real and belongs to you. You will have to prove your status as a US Citizen, whether you were born here or emigrated, and foreigners must produce a valid visa. Each State DMV will then digitize your document to be permanently stored and then verify your documents.

This ID establishes a national database on YOU. You will no longer have any privacy as anyone who wants and demands to see this will see all your private information on it. With the magic of RFID and other technologies, your entire life will be on that card in a matter of a few years.

If this is not challenged, then, in eighteen months, REAL-ID will go into effect, giving the USA their national ID card and placing you in the wild open for anyone to see. New Hampshire was the first state to fight this and many other States are now doing the same. It’s not too late to wake up and stop this legislation before it takes effect.

What is DRM?

There are so many definitions concerning DRM (Digital Rights Management) that the common user finds it frustrating to find an easy answer to what DRM is and how it affects their lives. Face it, people do not care that their iTunes are wrapped in a DRM container because they only listen to their iTunes on their iPod and maybe on one computer. They don’t care, that is, until they actually try to do something else with the items they supposedly bought and feel that the fair use rule applies, but doesn’t.

In its simplest terms, DRM can be described in the following analogy. Imagine that you are taking a trip from New York to California and plan on driving I-80 across the country. However, all electronic devices, including those in your car have to purchase a special license to use them in each particular state you cross into, as well as having a license so that you may have your devices interoperate. So, you cross the border into Pennsylvania and your equipment is checked. You haven’t bought a license to use these in Pennsylvania so you must do one of two things. You can turn around and go home or purchase permission to use what you own to continue driving, listening to your music, watching a DVD in your car. Once permission has been obtained, you’re back to enjoying your trip until six hour later, when you reach the Ohio border where, once again, you must have your equipment checked again to see if you’re allowed to continue. This is DRM.

Why You Should Care?

Once people know what DRM is, many still don’t care because they rely on others to solve the problem for them. They believe that someone will “crack” the DRM, making their movies, music, videos, etc., useful to them once again. There are others that still believe companies would never do such a thing and are thus then shocked when companies install rootkits into their computers. Their disbelief allows companies to get away with this and, some, will go further still by saying, “If I still have a line out on my computer, I can still record and do what I want.”

What happens when they remove a line out from your computer? How will you record then? If you rely on the pirates to fix things for you, what happens when they all get arrested for breaking the law. Yes, it is currently illegal to circumvent the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) of which DRM is a part.

You should also care if you happen to purchase your items online. This includes iTunes, Napster, Amazon’s movie service, Microsoft, and Steam. In the example of Steam, you must validate that the game you are using was really purchased by you. This validation must take place for online and offline games. So, before you fire up Doom 3 (or other Steam games) validation must take place. This must be done at least once. Several games also won’t play unless you disconnect your internet connection. Another problem with Steam is that sometimes these services tell you that your game is illegal. It doesn’t want to hear you have the receipt in your hand. It’s been deemed illegal so no more game. Again, this brings the pirates in to solve the problem for you as countless gamers have been forced to download illegal, cracked versions just to play the game they legally paid for.

What happens when you want to play this game ten years from now and Steam doesn’t exist? Well, you are S.O.L. You have only paid for the right to play something for as long as they deemed necessary and, well, it’s not necessary any more. That’s right. The company has decided for you that you no longer need to play the game/movie/music.

The books, DVDs, and CDs that you own right now typically fall under fair use. You can take them anywhere (with the exception of region locked DVDs which is DRM) and do what you want with them. You can give your mom your DVD and she can go home and watch it. You can loan your friend a CD. You can make a mix tape/CD to listen to in your car. If your mix tape/CD is stolen, it’s okay. You have the originals safe at home. Once you tire of these items, you can give them away to friends and family or sell it on Amazon or at a yard sale.

You cannot backup your digital versions of the books, DVDs, and CDs that you “bought.” You don’t really own them. You can’t make a mix tape/CD. You have to think carefully before you make that firmware upgrade to your MP3 player because it will be now seen as a new device and the files you “bought” no longer work. If your player is stolen, you no longer have the files that you “bought” and must “buy” them again. If you get sick of these files, you cannot give them away or sell them because you never owned them to begin with.

DRM is about renting, not buying. DRM gives control over your computer and your devices to the content owners, not to you. They decide what you can and cannot do with your equipment. DRM stops you from sharing. DRM removes the possibility of you to do what you want with your own files, even ones that you created. Your home movie of Grandma’s 100^th birthday will be subject to this. The love letter you wanted to send to your girlfriend will be subject to this.

DRM is control. It is the Industry controlling you and your media. DRM is the loss of your choices and, in the end, is bad for everyone involved.

Teaching is easy and most teachers are just too lazy to find a job in the real world so they should stop complaining about their careers, right? That’s the comment that I hear most often when I hear people say that teachers have it easier in life than most other professions. The fact is, teaching is just as difficult as most other professions and deal with much more than the public knows. The problems arise when students come home and exaggerate what goes on in school. Parents then believe what was said to be true (because children never lie, especially your own) and then the stories are repeated as fact, with very little investigation into whether the statements were true or not.

Contrary to popular belief, most teachers do not teach one topic in their field of expertise. Teachers commonly have 2-3 preps per day. For instance they may have 2 preps in American History and 3 preps in Global History. Now, while we know some subjects, such as History, do not change that often, prep time is not spent practicing how to recite information to students. Prep time includes correcting homework that wasn’t finished the night before at home, photocopying, stapling, phone calls to parents, mandatory meetings for students with learning disabilities required by the state and/or federal government, meetings with parents, and correcting exams (not all exams are scantrons) with well developed essays from students.

It also covers research time to make lessons better and relevant to the students. Many schools have not invested in new textbooks in 10-20 years, forcing teachers to spend even more time creating lessons that are up to date despite the old textbooks. Students change from year to year, as well current events, which require tweaking of lesson plans to fit the students’ needs for that year. By doing this, the students will continue to get the best possible education from a particular teacher.

Teachers also give up their free time, often uncompensated, by volunteering to help student groups and activities. Teachers are also required to stay after school to be available to assist students each day as well as mandatory office hours after school for anyone who wants extra help or need to make up exams.

Teachers also spend a great deal of time, on their own and out of school, creating hands-on lessons and activities. Then, in class, students learn by working with primary sources, thinking critically on a given topic, role-playing, and bettering their writing skills. This is part of the new teaching method. Spending all class time lecturing simply does not cut it anymore and students need to be better prepared when they attend class in order to succeed.

In order to succeed, the student needs to do more than just show up for class. They need to study at home, come to class prepared, and have a general respect for the teacher, their fellow students, and the learning process in general. This has become a huge problem today and is at the root of the problem as to why teachers do not want their jobs to be judge by test scores alone. Many students come to school with a feeling of entitlement. They have been told their entire life that they are special and they can have whatever they want. When a teacher instructs them to do a particular task, for example, group work, these students balk because they “don’t feel like doing that.” Then, class time is spent disciplining the student or throwing the student out for being disruptive. The lack of respect towards teachers, which comes from students, as well as parents, has reached appalling heights. Many of these students also do not attend classes regularly and those that do are disruptive to the learning process.

Why should a teacher be held responsible for low test scores when a large percentage of students never attend class and then fail state mandated exams? Would you enjoy it if your coworker failed to complete a big project and you were fired for it?

Teachers are still responsible for these students though as they have their administrators breathing down their necks with constant threats of “you may not have a job next year if test scores aren’t high enough.” That is why teachers enjoy tenure. Yes, tenure can protect bad teachers but it is there precisely so that teachers cannot be fired on a whim. Teachers are constantly chided that the job they are doing is not good enough and many live in constant fear that they will not have a job the following year. In order to assess how good or bad a teacher is, you need more than simply going by test scores. Just as in baseball, a player’s greatness isn’t always displayed in his batting average alone, it’s the whole package and the “intangibles” that are used in evaluating a player.

Yes, some school districts have great health benefits but many do not. It is not uncommon to have to pay $200-500 per month for health coverage. This is a moot point because good, cheap health coverage is hard to find in almost any sector today. The health care system in America is a joke and teachers are not exempt from being hit with the same restrictions as other careers.

Yes, teachers do get summers off, but many spend their time in second jobs, workshops, or furthering their education. If a teacher wants to be promoted, they are required to return to school for more education, all paid for by the teacher. Many teachers look forward to their time off to recuperate from the pressure, paperwork, and people. Isn’t that what vacations are for?

And, yes, they also have time off during the year for other holidays. Government workers, bankers, etc. also get many days off during the year. Take a look at your child’s school calendar too. There are many days per year that teachers are working when students do not attend. There are also teachers that take the few days of Christmas and Spring Break to catch up on paperwork and grading, while others use that time to take your children on educational trips, thus, they are still teaching.

Teaching is definitely not the hardest job on the planet but it certainly isn’t the easiest either. They have a job to do, just like everyone else and they get paid just like everyone else. With the No Child Left Behind legislation currently in place, teaching has become more difficult with no increase in pay. Teachers also have a different type of stress to deal with because, frankly, dealing with other people’s children all day is vastly different than dealing with adults. This is not to disparage other professions but there are many more things you cannot say and do while around children.

While people spend time denigrating teachers, they forget that these are the people that are actually educating their own children. Teachers get paid less money than many other professions with similar educations, put up with the name calling from disrespectful students and parents, do their jobs without the hopes of ever being promoted unless they spend more of their own money on more education, and never receive a Christmas bonus from their employers. These people are not only educating your children, they are counseling and motivating them. Teachers are your child’s mentor and they deserve a little more respect than society currently gives them.

I encourage anyone that believes teacher’s have it easy and are lazy to spend one day with them. Better yet, sign up to be a teacher. Pay thousands of dollars to get your master’s degree, as is required almost everywhere today. There are shortages in Math and Science in most school districts and I’m sure they would love to hear from people in those particular fields that are willing to give up their “tough real jobs” to come and teach.

You cannot possibly know how difficult teaching may or may not be unless you actually walk a mile in a teacher’s shoes. They sacrifice just as much as others, sometimes more, so that your children can earn more money and spit on new teachers, calling them lazy and stupid. Appreciate your education and thank a teacher for not being an ignoramus.

I first became aware of Rosie O’Donnell in the late 1980′s when I saw her hosting VH1′s Stand Up Comedy show. I thought she was funny, smart and witty. I thought she was great in Another Stakeout and A League of Their Own. This led to her own talk show. I watched a lot of the first season, including the episode where she finally got to meet Tom Cruise (who has since also turning into a complete nut). It was great that, out of all of the millions of people on the planet, she got to have her fantasy of meeting someone she had a crush on and getting a kiss from him come true. I was genuinely happy for her.

Over the next few years, I watched her show less and less as time no longer permitted me to catch it and I wasn’t too impressed with the “Queen of Nice” persona she was exhibiting. If you’d ever seen her stand up routine, you knew she was anything but. Still, I found the good things she was doing a positive thing. She also came out as a Lesbian, something people suspected for years and no one really cared. It was like your dad saying he liked beer. It wasn’t something you didn’t know anyway.

She revived Broadway in a big way due to her sheer enthusiasm for the genre. She helped a lot of people and raised awareness for many causes via her show. Her magazine was serious and she broached serious topics like depression, obesity, cancer, and foster care. Her autobiography received critical acclaim. She was awarded multiple Emmys for her show and herself but, then, something changed. Rosie turned political. Even in this, she couldn’t do it normally. She became militant in everything she uttered.

There was the incident where she said, “You are not allowed to own a gun, and if you do own a gun, I think you should go to prison.” Then she ambushed Tom Selleck on his position on gun control. Then, she pissed people off further when it was discovered that her bodyguard was armed. She was a hypocrite. Rosie even had the audacity to tell the great Bernadette Peters that she couldn’t sing “Anything You Do” from the Broadway show “Annie Get Your Gun” unless she removed the line “I can shoot a partridge with a single cartridge.” Peters refused, as she should have, and the cast sang a different song without Peters.

Then came the legal troubles with her magazine, Rosie, which eventually folded. The publishers claimed that she was rude, obnoxious, uncooperative and violent. Rosie countered by saying she removed her name from the magazine because they no longer carried her vision of how things should be. A former colleague testified that Rosie had said, “people who lie, die of cancer.” In the end, the judge ruled against both sides, dismissing the case.

Rosie freaked when she discovered many adoption agencies, particularly those in Florida, refused adoptions to gay couples. While this was a great opportunity for her to raise this topic, she came off as an abrasive, militant lesbian, thus defeating any real debate on the topic.

She is currently getting a lot of criticism for her comments that radical Christians are as bad as radical Muslims. Regardless of the validity of this argument people are sick of hearing about her and her wacky views. Rosie could come out and say, “Jesus was a Jew,” and everyone would immediately think, “Shut up already!”

She comes off as a pushy, abrasive, militant, ill-informed, shove-your-views-in-your-face, radical lesbian. People no longer see her as the witty stand up comic she once was or as the queen of nice. They see hatred for all things non-Rosie. She needs a makeover, fast. My suggestion. Go away for a few years, shut up and come back a little less outlandish.