Just Pick Someone Already

Will each of the main parties please get to it and announce their Presidential candidates. I’m tired of the Obama/Hillary and McCain/Romney arguments and discussions.

Actually, I wouldn’t mind it if they bumped the election up another six months or so as well. Most of us really don’t need to hear another nine months of bickering about who is better than the other person (especially since few if any voters will change their minds).

Proposed 20,000% Tax Increase

Yes that figure is correct. Congress wants to increase the current cigar tax up to 20,000%. You might be asking yourself, what kind of horrible product would deserve such an outrageous tax increase? The answer is the oft maligned demon weed in it's best form, the cigar.

Via the St Petersburg Times:

As part of an increase in tobacco taxes designed to pay for children's health insurance, the nickel-per-cigar tax that has ruled the industry could rise to as much as $10 per cigar.

"I'm not sure in the history of man, since our forefathers founded the country in 1776, that there's ever been a tax increase of 20,000 percent," said Newman, who runs the Tampa business founded by grandfather Julius Caesar Newman. "They had the Boston Tea Party for less than this."

My coolerdor's cigar stock would last me for years if this atrocity were to actually become law; but beyond that I guess I'd do what many do now with Cubans and order overseas by a company that ships said packages discretely.

Censorship Hits Manhunt 2

“Censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates in the end the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion.” - Henry Steele Commager

"Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it."
- Mark Twain

It’s always amazed me that some people think that they should have the right to tell others adults what they can and cannot view. First it was books, then movies, and now videogames. Due to their ratings board refusing to issue a rating, Manhunt 2 will be banned from being sold in the UK. Ireland has followed suit as well.

So why exactly did they feel the need to ban the game? According to BBFC director David Cooke, “Manhunt 2 is distinguishable from recent high-end video games by its unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone in an overall game context which constantly encourages visceral killing with exceptionally little alleviation or distancing.” Both the Saw and Hostel franchises would fit this description quite well. So why were they given a rating equivalent to R? If the content is truly the issue, then shouldn’t the standards apply equally across different mediums?

The U.S. ratings board for videogames is almost as bad. The ESRB has given the game an initial rating of Adults Only (AO), which is equivalent to an NC-17 rating. It seems like we have another case of issuing a more restrictive rating due to the medium.

On the positive side, one might be able to make some cash buy eBaying copies of Manhunt 2 to people who live where freedom of speech is heavily restricted.