Word Soup

Posted by karl at 12:42 PM | Permalink

Gamestop video game retailers can no longer sell a game that would have allowed them to play as Taliban forces. Apparently, they might have realized that one religious zealot with a thirst for violence is the same as any other. From Kotaku:

As all stores located on Army and Air Force bases will no longer be allowed to sell Electronic Arts' upcoming military shooter Medal of Honor because an aspect of the game includes playable Taliban characters.

The Army and Air Force Exchange Services has confirmed to Kotaku that they requested the game pulled from the 49 GameStop's located on bases in the continent U.S. The ban, an AAFES representative told Kotaku, also extends to all military PXs worldwide.

In an email to employees, GameStop says the decision was made "out of respect for our past and present men and women in uniform."

Our hive mind brain is an odd animal. Murder and mayhem in the real world? Fine. Fictional representations of murder and mayhem? Fine. Fictional representations of murder and mayhem from the perspective of the OTHER guy? Sheer insolence.

Posted by karl at 12:37 PM | Permalink

I love how our press is capable of skepticism -- but only when they're writing ledes about ANOTHER country's leader. From an AP piece about Russian President Vladimir Putin:

"Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin fired darts from a crossbow at a gray whale off Russia's Far Eastern coast on Wednesday in the latest in a series of man-versus-nature stunts designed to cultivate the image of a macho leader."

Imagine if they showed that kind of domestic literary conciseness. "Obama/Bush hypes war majority of public doesn't support with factually-dubious rhetoric" etc. This country's press is broken. Look at the lead up to any war. Look at the coverage of the financial meltdown. If the AP wrote about Bush/Obama stage shows so precisely, they'd be brought up on charges and accosted as unpatriotic.

Step 1: address corporate financial influence on policy.

Step 2: yell at our press until they remember their job is to report the truth, not some noxious mish-mash of safe, "he said, she said" reporting.

Step 3. Margaritas.

Posted by karl at 07:22 PM | Permalink