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Our legal representatives, hard at work!
Last month, some folks in the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection decided that there was nothing really to do with their time on the taxpayer dollar and that the most pressing problem in this nation is videogame violence. During a June 14 hearing on the issue, Pennsylvania Representative Joe Pitts made the following statement:
It’s safe to say that a wealthy kid from the suburbs can play “Grand Theft Auto” without turning to a life of crime, but a poor kid who lives in a neighborhood where people really do shoot cops and steal cars and deal drugs might not be so fortunate. There’s almost certainly a child somewhere in the America who is going to be hurt by this game. Maybe his dad is in jail or his big brother is already down on the corner dealing drugs.
It’s a wholly ridiculous statement, which is why Jon Stewart gave it air time on the June 22 episode of “The Daily Show,” noting that “the House of Representatives is filled with insane jackasses.” Well Representative Pitts is apparently now trying to call shenanigans on Stewart, claiming that Stewart didn’t give him a fair shake and that he actually believes “that gratuitously violent video games are inappropriate for all children.” But he doesn’t explain why he didn’t say this during the hearing, instead of making a ridiculous statement which essentially amounts to an argument that the poor kids are more susceptible to being psychologically manipulated by videogames since there are potential drugs and violence right outside their house. Nor did this dude explain how he can blame Stewart and “The Daily Show” crew for embarrassing him by showing a clip of his own words (that don’t even appear to be out of context, which would at least give him some, albeit small, argument).
With this ridiculousness in mind, QuizLaw hereby makes its first official lesser-of-two-evils political endorsement for Pitts’ fall opponent, democrat Lois Herr. We don’t know anything about her, aside from her obligatory statement that Pitts’ comment was “an embarrassment,” but that’s why we call it the lesser-of-two-evils endorsement.
