In this article from The Record, a newspaper (used loosely in this case) in Stockton, CA, aggression is being attributed to the video game Grand Theft Auto IV. 

Stockton’s Mark Wellis, 19, said he was involved in an altercation a week after he purchased “Grand Theft Auto IV.” At the time he noticed that he had become less sensitive to violence.

Wellis doesn’t completely blame the game for his violence, but it did affect him.

 

So after 19 years of life, one week with GTAIV and the kid is no longer sensitive to violence?  Wait there’s more….

“My son Peter was never really aggressive, but once he got into video games, ‘GTA’ being one of them, he started to push, hit, talk back, and just become a different person,” said Stockton parent Greg Within, 46.

Does Peter sound like he is 17 or older?  I ask because GTAIV is rated Mature meaning you have to be 17 or older to purchase the game.  Seems to me like Greg Within may need to look ‘within’ for the root of the kid’s new personality (pun intended).

Critics seem to want to paint this video game and others like it as the source of the debauchery of the world.  They seem to think that if we can reduce or remove this ‘influence’ entirely, the world would be a better place.  But maybe, just maybe, the world would be a better place with fewer critics and politicians…just maybe.

Here’s an interesting take on the ‘jobs Americans won’t do’ stance of those supporting illegal immigrants from CNN’s Glenn Beck:

The Journal article offered an example of a couple that sells food at fairs around California each summer. They say that because of the H-2B visa shortage most of their seasonal employees aren’t able to enter the country.

So why don’t they just hire Americans instead? Good question. Her answer? “This is a hard job.”

I find it pretty hard to believe that there aren’t a few college students who wouldn’t want to drive around California and work outdoors all summer, but let’s assume that’s true. Let’s even assume that none of the other 1.1 million Californians who were unemployed as of April are interested in the job either. Isn’t anyone wondering why?

Well I’m not a labor consultant, but I am a thinker. Maybe the problem isn’t that the job they’re offering is “too hard,” maybe it’s that the wages they’re offering are “too low.”

No one paints the undersides of bridges for fun, they do it for the money. That’s how capitalism works.

How capitalism does NOT work is when we collectively look the other way as companies exploit illegal labor for their own benefit.

The unspoken truth is that these businesses don’t hire illegal aliens because they can’t find American workers, they hire illegal aliens because they don’t want American workers. And it has nothing to do with wages.

I have been rather scarce here lately.  No particular reason.  Just haven’t had that urge to get my type on.  But for nearly six years I have made at least one post to Xpinionated so I gotta keep the tradition going.  So how about a simple update….

Had a great time with Devin, Mrs. Xpinionated, and some friends of ours at the Georgia Force game a couple of weekends ago. 

Was in the emergency room this past Monday morning with the worse asthma attack I’ve had since I was five or six years old.  But the Prednisone that I’m on now has me feeling ridiculously good breathing wise…

sorry Devin won’t sleep (and hasn’t been for the past week) so the writing stops now….