BREAKING: McCain does not believe that video games cause social problems for kids

[burythehatchet]

July 13, 2008

NEW YORK, NY - In a departure from the stated conservative position, and in a move that is sure to offend the evangelical community, Republican nominee John McCain burnished his maverick credentials by declaring that video games should not be regulated and that is is very unlikely that these games contribute to violent tendencies among children.

Speaking to a town hall group after attending church Sunday morning McCain said "my dear friends, I have played these games and I do not see any connection between playing video games and violent tendencies among our nation's youth" indeed, we must focus our attention towards other possible causes", he continued. "After all, my friends, what possible harm can come from two white rectangle paddles hitting a square ball back and forth?

[muryan]

1. LOL

Congressional hearings on pong... wheres jack thompson?

[cags]

2. God No!!! I hate to agree with McIdiot on anything...LOL nt

[Hawaii Hiker]

7. That's the first time I ever agreed w/McCain

I never subscribed to the right wing theory that all the problems in the world can be traced to video games & Hollywood...We don't need to regulate the entertainment industry, the First Amendment is a good thing, well at least to liberals it is....Conservatives only give a shit about the 2nd amendment...

[Hippo_Tron]

3. Don't give him any ideas

:spank:

[Drunken Irishman]

4. Thank God it's a parody, because I don't want to be agreein' with McCain on anything!

:D

[Faygo Kid]

5. Pong. Still my best video game, although I liked Intellivision, too.

And when they came out, I put my money on Beta, not VHS.

Me and John McCain. Cutting edge technology from 1982.

[TlalocW]

6. We have an Intellivision somewhere in my family

Last time I checked about five years ago, it still worked. You could use it for about a month before it started screwing up and needing a rest.

TlalocW

[BlooInBloo]

8. Nah. Combat was the best ever. With X-and-O football hard on its heels....

And that, tangentially contains the germ of why video games are not per se bad for kids' socialization.

Maybe bad for boys-socialization-with-girls, I suppose, but that's a whole different can of worms.

[burythehatchet]

11. Don't feel bad. I invested in the Panasonic 3DO at $500 when it came out in '93(?)

[opihimoimoi]

9. Real gamers go for Planetside....requires brains, skill, timing, intellect, social skills, etc

Interactive

real time

Team work

[BlooInBloo]

14. Pfft. Eve is where it's at.

:P

[MercutioATC]

10. I see McCain has been playing "Grand Theft Fire" again...

[crimsonblue]

12. did he really say this?

who the hell has played pong in the last year? last 20 years? holy shit this guy is a fossil

[burythehatchet]

13. Satire is becoming very challenging with this guy.

:(

[crimsonblue]

15. nothing would surprise me about Grandpa 'Depends'.

[Norwood]

16. Well at least hes on the right side of at least one issue

[TexasObserver]

17. Remember the first year of SNL: Franken & Davis had a running PONG skit

One would start talking about things that bothered the other, like "so I heard your girlfriend is seeing someone else." The guy to whom that was addressed would fail to move his paddle, and he'd lose the point. And so on ....

Because PONG was the campus craze at the time, everyone understood it. There were PONG machines that weighed about 200 pounds, and they were run on quarters, I think it was. They'd be wherever students gathered.

By the following year, everyone had their own home set of PONG, which was played on the TV screen.

[burythehatchet]

18. Boy that brings me back. Why did the rabbi do corcumcisions for free?

I remember pong well. I worked in a pizza parlor/arcade and we had the Pong machine, the asteroids machine, Frogger and the motorcycle game. These days I long for those days when I was little teen and the world seemed simple. :(