lsureveille Opinion Blog

I really feel like I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but I guess I’ll never really understand what makes a politician tick.

I’m not the biggest political follower. However, every time someone in Congress decides they feel the need to make a change to something technological, I feel the need to step in and criticize them.

The latest outing involves House Representatives Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Joe Baca (D-CA) trying to pass video games off like cigarettes placing a warning label on the front of all games rated above “early childhood” — basically all games.

“Just as we warn smokers of the health consequences of tobacco, we should warn parents — and children — about the growing scientific evidence demonstrating a relationship between violent video games and violent behavior,” Wolf told The Hill.

The problem, Mr. Wolf, is that doesn’t make any damn sense. Not only is there no conclusive scientific proof of a causation of violence solely from video games, but there is already a ratings system in the ESRB who individually rates games based on content and places a rating on front and why its rated that on back.

I agree, parents should be educated about the ESRB — I couldn’t tell you the number of times a parent has ignorantly brought an “M”-rated title to my counter for Little Johnny to buy without knowing what it means, but branding all video games with a warning label is just silly.

This is no different than my coverage from the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) from earlier this year or coverage from California Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger at his tirade on violent video games in the past.

Politicians will continue to be politicians — spreading lies and false truths just to push ahead their political agenda.

This, just like every other unconstitutional bill trying to be passed, is nothing but a full waste of my time and tax dollars. There’s enough screwed up in this country than to make a nonsensical link between video games and cigarettes.

If no one can see how glaringly wrong this is, then I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.

— Adam Arinder

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, many legislators still believe that comprehensive sex education shouldn’t be in our schools. The small amount of sex ed making it into Louisiana classrooms is often wrought with misinformation, scare tactics, moral judgment, and religious bias. I’m more liberal now than I was in high school regarding my views on sexuality, but even my conservative high school self had problems with the lack of real information given in our high school sex ed class.

Talking about sex with people, not just teenagers, is scary. No one gets that more than I do. But not teaching the many ways a person can protect themselves is taking away their chance to live a better life. Does that option include abstinence? Absolutely. But if a person doesn’t have the willpower to ride the abstinence wave, they deserve to know how to protect themselves from harm.

Just like everyone learns how to stop, drop, and roll if their clothing catches on fire, everyone should learn to stop, drop the condom on, and roll it down correctly to protect themselves from catching a fire in their pants.

As tongue-in-cheek as I may be about sex education at times, the reality is that it is vitally important in our schools. Parents aren’t teaching their kids about sex at home, otherwise we wouldn’t need to have this conversation, so we need to start talking. Other subjects that aren’t commonly taught at home are taught in the classroom, and sex ed should be no different.

Our kids, and their kids, and all the kids after them deserve to have the best life possible, and teaching each new generation how to protect themselves if they can’t contain their sexual curiosity is the best way I know how to make that happen. It may not seem like much, but those whose lives have been affected, for better or for worse, by their lack of education will tell you it can make a world of difference.

— Kristi Carnahan

Calm down people, President Barack Obama is only the latest president to become a scapegoat for opponents of big money influence in politics.

Obama has been attacked in the media for awarding his biggest fundraisers with plum jobs in his administration.

You can whine and complain all you want about how unethical it may be to trade lucrative positions and access for campaign donations. I don’t like the idea either, but it’s not going to change a thing – it’s all part of the system.

This is the era of super PACs and big money donors, and you’ve got to play hardball to keep up. Republicans have done it, and Democrats have done it. Get over it.

It doesn’t excuse Obama from ridicule, but there is too much blame to go around to single him out.

In reality, as a CEO, wouldn’t you want to surround yourself with a staff of like-minded individuals and big investors too?

Our last president surrounded himself with big oil buddies from his days as an oil executive, including his vice president. Guess who donated the most to his campaigns through his career? Oil companies.

There is a narrative to be reported, and nobody likes dramatization and conflict more than the media because it brings readership. It’s what we do and it’s what keeps readers intrigued, but before you get your panties in a bunch just remember the system we’re talking about. It’s politics, and in this day and age money can be the difference between a landslide victory and crushing political defeat.

— Matthew Westfall

The big three.

Whether it’s the Boston Celtics with Kevin Durant, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, or with the Miami Heat’s LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, things always seem to come in three.

I guess four’s a crowd these days.

The same can be said when it comes to video game consoles over the past couple decades.

The current and previous console generation has been led by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony. Before Microsoft made it big there was Sega, and before Sony showed up there was Atari.

Every time a new competitor threw its hat into the ring, another company fell.

The numbers always seemed to go back to three.

With heavy rumors that Valve Software is thinking of stepping into the hardware business, this means one of the current big three has to go down.

But which one?

Nintendo has dominated this generation both in home consoles with its Wii, selling nearly 100 million units worldwide, and the handheld market with its DS line (over 150 million units sold worldwide).

That leaves Microsoft and Sony.

Microsoft has enough money to throw around and popularity with its superior Xbox LIVE online service, it’s hard to imagine gaming without the Xbox.

That leaves poor old Sony. Once the king with its PlayStation 2, Sony seems to have fallen flat on its face this generation.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my PS3 and it’s a damn powerful machine. However, its initial $600 launch didn’t help steal sales from Microsoft, and it’s expensive to develop for.

The PSP wasn’t the best either — it got killed in sales by the DS. Sony’s newly released Vita hopes to turn things around, but with a lackluster launch — I mean, seriously, who splits a launch over two weeks — could spell disaster for Sony.

Plus the company as a whole isn’t doing too hot lately, which means when it’s time to trim some fat, gaming might get the axe.

While Valve’s “Steam Box” is still nothing but a rumor, if it becomes a reality you can say goodbye to Sony faster than you can say PlayStation 4.

— Adam Arinder

It’s happening again!

Government fearing people are once again afraid this man will take away gun rights if reelected.

This lunatic who happens to be the executive vice president of the NRA has posted a misleading article to the NRA’s website, claiming El Presidente has a masterful plan to take away guns.

Obama won’t do anything.

This same scenario happened in 2008 when Obama was elected. Gun sales went through the roof.

But any rational person could easily look at Obama’s first term and see he hasn’t tried to restrict Second Amendment rights once.

In fact, he even passed a law to let you bring firearms into family-friendly national parks.

He’s got more to be worried about in these countries than in America.

So don’t worry.

Even if he’s reelected, you’ll still get to buy this gun, this ammo, and these pistols from this dude who hates this man.

Relax. No one’s taking your guns.

— Chris Grillot

Warning: This blog contains language some may find offensive.

This morning I became another one of the countless victims of the “mindfuck.”

Mindfuck: an idea or concept that shakes one’s previously held beliefs or assumptions about the nature of reality.

It’s like when a magician asks you to pick a single playing card out of a deck, look at it, and then give it back to be reshuffled. Defying the bounds of reason and logic, the magician somehow miraculously proceeds to “guess” the exact card you had previously chosen among the other fifty-one in the deck.

Unfortunately, the mindfuck I experienced this morning wasn’t cool or awesome like a magician playing a card trick; it came as a result of an interview with the University’s Department of Economics Chairman Robert Newman.

The purpose of meeting with the Chair was to bolster my column’s argument on why Rick Santorum’s economic proposals would be disastrous to the U.S. economy.

You see, before this interview, I thought I knew it all when it came to economics — or at least most all of it.

My ideological beliefs were firmly rooted in the liberal education I had received via The New York Times, John Maynard Keynes and the extensive Montessori education I had undergone.

Everything made sense up until 10 A.M., the time of my interview: Republican policies were to blame for any and all of societies woes because their sole purpose was to help the rich become richer.

Fast forward to 11:30 P.M.

I’m pissed. I feel as if my intelligence had just been raped, and, consequently some kind of Sexually Transmitted Disease was now inhibiting my ability to think.

In nearly 90 minutes, the economics professor was able to persuade me that lowering taxes on the wealthy was beneficial to the economy, cutting spending on programs such as entitlements would spur economic growth and that the more the market was in control of the economy, the better.

Thoughts began racing through my head as I second-guessed myself on what had been my entire worldview.

I call my editor, Clayton, to tell him that I would need about four more hours to write the column because the interview had literally “mindfucked the shit out of me,” as I told him.

Four more hours? Ha. More like four more years.

In the end, I was able to complete the column on time, but I wasn’t satisfied. I decided to stand by my liberal views, so I took the position of attacking Santorum’s policies as unsustainable for long-term economic growth.

There’s just one problem: I don’t know if I’m right.

It’s now 2 A.M. on a Tuesday night, nearly 15 hours since my interview started, and I am still questioning myself.

God, I wish I never had that interview.

— Jay Meyers

Church Point Mardi Gras is something that everyone should experience.

It was without a doubt one of the most fun days I have had in a long time.

Mardi Gras in Church Point isn’t just about how drunk you get, it’s about the people getting hammered alongside you.

There is a very strong sense of loyalty among friends in Acadiana. A person could ask his very best friends to accompany him to kick a person’s ass or pick his mother up from the hospital.

The people from this region tend to stick close to home. Essentially, everybody knows everybody. It’s because of this that people always know everybody else’s business.

This is how the fights start. He said, she said, they said, he did, she did, he did her, she loved it. Cue the punches.

These people party harder than anyone else in the country, with the exception of Las Vegas, which is in a league of its own. They do everything harder. They work harder, they love harder, they fight harder.

Church Point goes big and the result is a very good time. I recommend it to everyone. Go see it for yourself.

Ca c’est bon.

— Parker Cramer

One item I didn’t really get a chance to touch on in my column thanks to word count is the Vita’s portability — or should I say lack thereof.

The Vita is a powerful beast, there’s no denying that. However, with all that power and large screen comes an even larger gaming unit.

The whole purpose of a handheld gaming console is the ability to take it on the go with you. In a day where smartphones play just as many games as the old Game Boy, it’s hard to justify carrying around another piece of gadgetry.

Riding in the car coming back to Baton Rouge over the break, I found myself neglecting starting new games on my Vita because it didn’t feel right playing it on the road. I wanted to wait until I got back home to play my games.

I shouldn’t feel that way about a portable console.

The problem is the Vita’s game are so deep and so great, I want to experience them with the least amount of distractions as possible — something the real world has a lot of.

Also, I want to hear my games without the need for annoying earphones.

With my 3DS, I can play a couple levels of “Super Mario 3D Land” or “Mario Kart 7” with or without sound, and it doesn’t make a difference.

Playing something like “Uncharted: Golden Abyss” or “Lumines” would be just silly to experience silently.

It seems Sony missed the idea of portability for its Vita — at least the day-to-day portability. Sure if I’m going out of town for a few days, the Vita would be great in a hotel room or on a plane where lugging around a PS3 is unthinkable.

But not on the bus. Or around campus. Or even at my other job…at a video game store.

The Vita has a lot to offer for gamers, but ease of portability just isn’t one of them.

— Adam Arinder

Anyone familiar with my work here at The Daily Reveille knows how big of a proponent of Netflix I use to be. I’d tell all my friends, family and anyone who would listen to me they need to sign up for the service — because it was fantastic.

Was being the key word there.

I stuck with them during the initial price hike, but the company completely lost my faith after the whole Qwikster incident last year.

I’m not sure what went through company CEO Reed Hastings’ head, but it was absolutely awful.

With Netflix back on course, they seem to be gaining steam and marketshare back. I decided to keep my service, although all I really use it for lately is to get caught up on episodes of “How I Met Your Mother.”

However, this new Verizon and Redbox (Coinstar) partnership really intrigues me. There isn’t a lot of information about it yet, but considering the market Verizon carries with its phone and Internet, it wouldn’t be difficult to introduce a streaming service for those customers — as well as for those on other carriers.

Plus, if there is the possibility of getting unlimited movies from a Redbox kiosk for a low monthly price? Sign me up.

Netflix used to offer one DVD out at a time and unlimited streaming for about $10 per month. Now, DVD and streaming are separated into two different categories, each costing $8 per month. If this new “VerizonBox” partnership takes off, charge around $12 per month(possible discount for Verizon customers) for unlimted streaming and unlimted (one at a time) movie rentals from a Redbox kiosk and Netflix could be in some serious trouble.

Verizon and Coinstar need to play all of their cards if they want to dethrone Netflix.

But if they do play them right, the final product could be legen — wait for it — dary!

Confession is an integral part of the lives of most Louisianians, but a Michigan criminal court case could change that in the near future. Specifically at issue is the sanctity of the content of communications between the clergy and the laity — the confidentiality of confession, in other words. The long-standing precedent of confessional privilege is under review up North, and the consequences could hold down South, as well.

Confidentiality is overrated, I argue in my column today. Check it out to see for yourself if the “seal of confession” is worth breaking in the name of justice.

— Phil Sweeney