future wine 

mayhem

Horrid times, indeed. I certainly feel for sensitive, decent folks trying to remain sane while living in the States. But hell, these times also dish up a steady diet of hilarious news bits - from virtually anything that flounders out of Bush's mouth to any and all attempts by the "Krish-chun" right to sell itself as "moral".
In any case, this one from today's NY Times was particularly worth a yelp of laughter:

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation on Friday to outlaw the sale to teenagers of electronic games featuring reckless mayhem and explicit sexuality."

"Reckless mayhem and explict sexuality". Jeez. As opposed to "thoughtful", "cautious" or "prudent" mayhem.

Mayhem. Good word.

Gotta keep the kids away from reckless mayhem...and, "Hey, c'mon!"...god knows from explicit sexuality...

Meanwhile, no problem having the majority support the wholesale ignoring of the Constitution, or becomming inured to the systematic use of torture by those acting on their behalf (you know...the "moral" ones).

The cited video games are creepy, but not due to their reckless mayhem or explicit sexuality (you can find that at almost any given moment at some mass-culture feeding point). It's that they present an asshole's view of the world...leading one to the question - why are they so popular? What has occured in cultural evolution to bring us to this point? Why do so many people, young and old, get such a thrill from virtually assuming the role of fucked up shitheads?