So, a kindly 85-year-old lady has no qualms about purchasing a gang-glorifying, violence-soaked, sick entertainment for her teenage grandson, but is shocked when it turns out to contain explicit sex? Wasn't the rest enough? Sigh.
Displaying an eagle-eye for political opportunity, Sen. Hillary Clinton has swooped down on this issue. She fired off a letter to the Federal Trade Commission asking it to investigate the download that unlocked the sexual content of GTA, and promised to propose legislation that would crack down on the sale of violent and sexually explicit games to minors. "We should all be deeply disturbed that a game which now permits the simulation of lewd sexual acts in an interactive format with highly realistic graphics has fallen into the hands of young people across the country."
Well, yes, we should. But surely we can find a better spokesman than Sen. Clinton. In the first place, we know the Clinton technique quite well by now. Make conservative-sounding noises (remember "End Welfare As We Know It"?) and then hand power to the very liberals who created the mess. Second, the senator's husband is a national dirty joke who did as much to debase the culture as any video game squared. Finally, the problem is not retailers selling directly to children. That rarely happens. In fact, adults are buying these games for kids.
Bill Bennett and Sen. Joe Lieberman had a better idea a decade ago. Shame them. Shame the manufacturers, the retailers, and yes, the parents who buy the trash. Put their faces on television. Let them feel the wrath of the majority of parents (liberal and conservative) who truly detest what this anything goes culture has wrought.