"Killing in First Person"

If you have ever watched a video gamer play a “first person” killing game, what you will see is multiple murders, through the eyes of the killer, on HDTV.  First person is a term used in literature, as the view of the person narrating the book and generally the main character.  It will often use the term, “I”.  So the view on the screen of the killing game will be as the shooter would see it, down the sights of their weapon.  In the good old days the view on the screen was a view of your good guy killers, or one of them, fighting the bad guys that the computer controlled.  It wasn’t so up close and personal.  You watched the action rather than living it.  In my opinion, anyone who sits for hours, playing first person combat games is in training for mass murder.  I am not contending that they actually will commit a mass murder, in real time, but if I were going to set up a profile for predicting the act, it would be #1 on my list.  In the recent killings in Tucson and Sandy Hook, I remember reading that the murderers both were game boys.

This raises an interesting problem.  Would you “track” all purchasers of first person video killing games?  In the future a study will surely be done that confirms that all mass murderers have a hobby of playing these particular games, but that only a small percentage of these game players commit mass murder.  So we "Monday morning quarterback" the lunatics that do the killing and place blame on the police or health professionals who have dealt with the killer before the slaughter takes place.  Some of the methods of profiling are: killing game player, male loner, bullied, dark wardrobe, gun and ammunition collector, long hair, an aggressive Facebook page … etc.

   

I just finished reading a novel by C.J. Box, “Stone Cold”, in which a suspected campus shooter is taken out before a mass student shooting can take place from the roof of his dorm.  The guy is a black clothed, long haired, a loner, who loves guns and killing video games.  He is guilty … right? Alert students are on the watch and inform the campus police that our shooter is heading for the dorm roof with an assault rifle in his hands.  Turns out that the assault rifle is a pellet gun that looks like an assault rifle and that he is on the roof shooting pigeons.  This doesn’t deter a swat team from going up on the roof and shooting the suspect to pieces.  Oops!  Swat teams are imaginary heroes.  A real “swat team” would be a sharpshooter with a telescopic sighted rifle and an assistant to wipe the sweat from his brow, not a dozen or so GI Joe impersonators.

So, do the game manufacturers who produce first person kill games share in the blame for mass murders?  Yes, they certainly do.  Their CEOs, in front of the Senate, claim that there is no connection between the game world and the real world.  Not so, in the mind of the player.  No Senator ever asks why they don’t produce “first person rape games.”  Would the answer be, “Rape is not socially acceptable (except while in the military or college).”  Could one logically conclude, “Killing is socially acceptable.”?  Please help me with this.

Comments are welcome, Old Buz

"What was the selling price of our nation?"

If you are a right-wing conservative, then your “Holy Grail” is the free market system.  Any interference with, or regulation of, or taxation of the industrial complex and its banking and investment system will damage its God given efficiency.  “What is good for General Bullmoose, is good for the nation.” – Al Capp.  Even the dumbest wealthy person knows that this isn’t true.  But, the folks who make the rules have been bought.  A good example of “free market rule” is in today’s paper.  AT&T is in the process of buying DirectTV for $48.5 billion dollars.  Can you comprehend this sum of money?  I can’t.  If a billion dollars is one thousand million and a million is one thousand thousands, then what does forty-eight and a half of them look like?  I know what the basic thousand looks like, but my experience does not include the reality of a million, let alone a billion.  The problem here is not the price of purchase; it is what it says about the efficiency of the free market.  Competition is the theoretical driving force behind the free market.  Competition gives us product improvement, while striving for an advantage in price to the consumer.  Large corporations know that it is far more cost efficient to buy your competition, rather than compete against them.  Profit, not product or labor is its main consideration and it matters little where the product is produced.  So the merger generally raises your, the consumer’s, cost of goods and lowers your standard of living.

We are entering the final stages of the free market system.  The early stages were great.  Competition was a benefit to almost everyone.  It built our nation.  The wealthy gray haired men still have wonderful memories of it.  They have purchased a tax structure that is very favorable to them, chosen wars to stimulate the economy, set up a healthcare system that cares for health insurance companies over the patient and a graduate level of education that is only affordable by the wealthy.  The small business man has largely been replaced by the Walmart and Costco big boxes.  These stores have basically won the retail competition, with few staggering competitors like JC Penny’s, Sears and Target.  Walmart (with lower income shoppers) and Costco (with upper income shoppers) will probably prevail, but there is a new kid, Amazon and its ilk, that are about to make a run and will either be bought by the big guys, or buy them.  The challenge is to find an American made product, made by American labor, in any of these giant retailers.  If you do find an American made product, like Rubber Maid, the manufacturer has been contractually squeezed so tight by the retail behemoth that to keep their head above water, while paying the CEO an exorbitant wage, it requires punishing their labor force.

I want to clarify something in a recent blog.  The term “Koch-Suckers”, was not meant to imply that the brothers themselves are in any way suckers.  The millions of campaign dollars that they expend in elections around the nation are not spent foolishly.  They buy legislators with these dollars and the returns to investment, in the form of friendly legislation, pay them back many fold.  The investment in campaigns is out of love … love of money.  No, the “Koch-Suckers” term was meant for you folks that take their suggestions.

Comments are welcome, Old Buz

"Pissing With the Wind"

I am having a hard time getting this week’s blog post written.  I would call it writer’s block, but I don’t honestly think that a blogger is qualified to be referred to as a “writer”.  I only started blogging this year and find it akin to pissing with the wind.  Pissing against the wind creates blow-back.  In my experience, there is no blow-back from blogging.  There are no comments on the blog, intelligent or otherwise.  I do my best to make the subjects relevant, controversial and humorous, in order to not have you doze off while reading them.  I expect comments and thoughtful criticism.  Nothing!  Oh well, friends, relatives, loved ones will give the occasional “you are doing a good job, atta boy Buz”, but a comment on content or an opposing position is not taken.

Pissing in and of itself relieves pressure and that is a good thing.  So, I suspect I will continue with the blog, but I also suspect it produces no more than a good game of computer solitaire.   My daughter actively participates in Facebook.  Her entries to her Facebook program are short and informative or beautiful photos or art work.  She does receive responses to her entries and some come in the form of a complete sentence, but very few.  The responses normally have no more content to them than “Wow” or “Yeah”.  Her communication group is composed of artists, directors, actors in a large metropolitan area.  We have easy, fast high tech communication today, but I question if it is making us better communicators.  The cell phone carries us out in space, away from the vehicle we are operating, away from the family member we are with, or to a position of extreme rudeness to the friend we are sharing a meal with.  John, I know that you are presently patting yourself on the back for saying in your comment, “Congratulations!  You are now officially a curmudgeon.”  But ask yourself if there isn’t  just a little truth in what is said here?  Was the curmudgeon of yore a lunatic howling at the moon or a bellwether of the present and the future?

To be fair to you blog readers out there, Google at blogspot.com, the master of my blog site, has you reach the area for your comments by clicking on “No Comments”.  These words, to me, mean: don’t make a comment or no comments accepted.  The word “No” needs to be omitted.  It is counter intuitive.  When you try to contact Google to ask them to change this design, you find that they would really like to see you imaginary people communicate with each other, but they do not communicate with you.  Google talks to you, but never with you.

So, what is the purpose of this blog post?  Why are we here?  Would the World be a better place without political parties?   What is your awareness?  Does God exist?  Why do folks stand in the sand and shoot at each other?  Are we but lemmings with a cell phone in our hand?  Are Honey Nuts really as healthy as the package side would indicate?

Comments are welcome, Old Buz

"Political Correctness"

I was inspired to write this post by an editorial in The Arizona Daily Star, by Tucson trauma surgeon and a Democratic candidate for The Arizona State House of Representatives, Randall Friese.  It was about Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona moving our government closer to the political center through the use of her veto power.  The elected majority of representatives are still right-wing radicals who send her reactionary legislation on guns, religion and Hispanics.  Governor Brewer is presently swatting these laws down with her pen.  She has lost her way.

Jan, in her Republican glory days, signed a bill into law which allowed a patron to carry a concealed weapon into a bar.  In my youth, I spent no small amount of time in bars.  Long enough to know that there is such a thing as an angry drunk.  Start with a concealed weapon carrier (paranoid, psychopath of the “Stand Your Ground” variety) and get them drunk and you are mixing a dangerous cocktail.  Do you personally know anyone, other than a police officer, who carries a concealed weapon?  If you do, remember, “you are judged by the friends you choose.”  Why are we suddenly pushing laws to increase the rights of concealed weapon carriers?  Are they part of a well-regulated militia?  Who are these people?

The Governor was at the height of her political correctness when she was waving her finger in the face of the Democratic President of The United States, Barak Obama.  She was correctly representing the politics of the party that she led and those who elected her.  She was in perfect synchronization with the majority of her State House of Representatives.  But, Jan Brewer is starting to use her mind, her conscience and her allegiance to the people of Arizona.  Why on earth would she do that?  Well, for one thing, she will not be up for re-election, due to term limits.  So she doesn’t have to take her marching orders from her party or the simple majority who placed her in office.  She is free to govern well.  The political fog is lifting.  A sensible person is emerging.  I could vote for Jan Brewer if she were an independent, especially if she were running against a political soldier for either of the parties.

Our representatives soon fall into line with their political party.  The party largely controls their campaign funds and their committee appointments.  This is no small influence.  The sad thing is that it is large corporate dollars that control both parties.  The driving force for large corporate dollars is short term profits, not long term solutions.  So, Dr. Randall Friese, I wish you all of the success in the world and I enjoyed your article, but as a curmudgeon, I would advise you to keep your funny little green outfit, stay clear of politics and be careful what you wish for.

Comments are welcome, Old Buz