Followers

Total Pageviews

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

How much is too much government?

image

There are a lot of complaints about our country becoming a nanny state. The recent Supreme Court ruling that government can't ban the sell of violent video games to minors was pretty even, 80 agreed with the decision and 70 disagreed according to informal ViCad poll. They were three negative comments to our forum's question of the day" Do you agree with the Supreme Court’s ruling on violent video games?"

The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 against the state of California, but I agree with the dissenting summation written by Justice Stephen Breyer, one of the two dissenters in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, pointed out the court's double standard. "What sense does it make," he asked, "to forbid selling to a 13-year-old boy a magazine with an image of a nude woman, while protecting a sale to that 13-year-old of an interactive video game in which he actively, but virtually, binds and gags the woman, then tortures and kills her?"

What sense, indeed. Breyer went further: "What kind of First Amendment would permit the government to protect children by restricting sales of that extremely violent video game only when the woman — bound, gagged, tortured, and killed — is also topless?"

Another fine question. Breyer pointed out the inconsistency in order to defend the California law. He would have ruled that the video-game ban is constitutional — just as some laws against selling obscenity have been upheld.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2080289,00.html

I've seen a lot of comments saying that it's up to the parents to restrict, and I guess permit children what they can or can't watch. I’ve heard many times that there's too much government intrusion in our lives. I wonder if that's a blanket statement in restricting any more government laws? Ron Paul uses this reasoning for his objection to the civil rights laws. He said it was an intrusion on property rights. I guess Ron Paul and these posters are saying that parents and the free market will police itself. That's a good theory but is it based, in reality?

I don't have a barometer or a gauge to measure how much government we need, but I've come down on both sides because I take it on a case by case basis. I may not be against red light cameras, but I'm a strong opponent of the Patriot Act.

Hey this  is Texas, where they pass a “anti groping law” and then turn around and approve legislation that requires mothers seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound examination and listen to a description of what it shows in the same legislative session.

4 comments:

Edith Ann said...

Yo! Dude! I wasn't through discuss Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin on the last blog! 8^}

Okay, your last paragraph says it all.

Gee, you're going to get me all excited about national politics again!

Mike said...

Sorry about that EA, but always feel free to insert the latest tidbit about the loony tunes girls,Palin & Bachmann..:-)

I may not remember a lot of my American history but I remember that Lexington and Concord are in Massachusetts and after having to memorize that John Adams was the father of John Quincy Adams, I still remember the roles they played in American history. It's not a gaffe or two but it's a pattern of ignorance. Michelle and Sarah are pushing a America exceptionalism platform using revisionist history to accomplish it..... Michelle Bachmann said we were the only country to correct our mistakes but that's not true. She said the founders ended slavery and that certainly is not true because the of 3/5 human being was a business decision for the south and like tax cuts to the current republicans; it's the manna they live for.... Herman Cain said he would repeal the minimum wage to get this country going again and Michelle Bachmann said it would leave more money in a taxpayer's pocket. Wrong talking point,Michelle, repealing the minimum wage would leave the worker with less money.

You know what's scary? Michelle Bachmann can say the stupidest things but as long as she's pro life, anti Obama, and pro Tea Party, her admirers don't care if she knows anything about the issues. She just might win Iowa and South Carolina on her way to the nomination.

Edith Ann said...

Well, my kids always tell me I don't remember stuff from my childhood! They think I lived with dinosaurs.

It may have been here, or on one of the other zillion blogs I follow, so forgive me if am repeating your words to you. Someone said the difference between Obama making the 57 states comment is that he knows there are not 57 states; Bachmann and Palin both believe their version of history to be fact.

BTW, I'm for the restrictions and warnings. Anything to promote civil society. But, I also support a parent's right to make a different choice. When it breaks the law, it breaks the law. It's an iffy area.

Mike said...

I'll go a step further and say Palin & Backmann make stuff up and when caught, they double down on the lie..Yesterday,a Bachmann supporter went into Wikipedia and tried to make John Quincy Adams a founder.

My children and grandchildren used to have a leg up but I'm retired,leaving me lots of time to Google and for backup, I have my trusty iPad at my side..:-)