Our freedom is being taken.

#61 I can't stand Howard Stern. I'm not offended by him or anything I just can't stand him. If anybody else can't stand him or is even offended by him, here's something a lot of people who insist on writing congressman often overlook. There is this device you have in your home for such situations, I use it whenever I see something I don't care to watch. It's called a remote control. It's much faster than getting a response from somebody holding political office. I wish the people who are so quick to demand that the government casually legislate our rights away would think of these little, but effective solutions.

The problem lies in that, the people who are quick to jump on the letter writing kick everytime something like this offends them is their concern for their children and how these things affect them. It wouldn't be such a problem if these so-called concerned parents spent more time with their kids instead of letting media do the babysitting.

I've skimmed through this topic a little, I saw some references to racism...

Every human being has primarily identical DNA, with minor variations. The only reason why people are different colors is due to the environment they had evolved in. That's the beauty of the human body, it's ability to adapt and survive in just about every conceivable environment on the planet. The thing that has me curious is, in the european countries is the only part of the world where people evolved with different colored eyes and hair. People in the rest of the world has brown eyes and black hair, that is prior to the kind of traveling we take for granted today. I wonder what caused the genetic alteration...

#62 Some people seem to be forgetting that in America we also have the right to freedom of association (similar to the right to property) which, IMO is more important than freedom of speech. Clear Channel has every right as a private(non government) entity to freely associate or not associate with whoever they choose. If they no longer want to associate with Howard Stern then that is their right. They should not be forced to carry Howard Stern's program nor any other program.

Sadly freedom of association (and property) was one of the first rights to go. See forced payment into a negative return retirement fund(social security), forced subsidizing of others healthcare, anti-discrimination in the private sectore legislation, etc, etc. Your property and right to freely associate or not associate with people is being taken away daily.

"In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property." - Communist Manifesto

#63 Dont bring political discussions into my game development, they make me angry, and I have trouble avoiding them. Especially conspiracy theories, and things about how "bad" the US is. Because its not, your very statements prove that fact, and you are being ungrateful if you complain about it here, but dont look at how bad it really is elseware.

#64 It my opinion that if you dont like whats on tv, if it offends you then just change the channel. If you dont like howard sterns tv show or radio show change the channel or if you dont like the video game your kid is playing then check what your buying your kid before you give them the money i dont think the goverment has any place censoring tv or video games

#65 Just to show you the Australian attitude to racism, lemme give you an example. The other day, anti asian/jew graffiti was sprayed over a mosque and a large part of a Jewish community. It wasn't just cleaned off and ignored. A police inquest caught two of the culprits within 24 hours, and some other suspects are being questioned. Also, there's calls for people who have material designed to 'incite racial hatred and fear' eg pamphlettes and books, to go to jail for up to 20 years. The maximum life sentence in Australia is 20 years. Racism has no place in society today, at all.

And btw, man this was a huge thread resurrection.

#66 Hopefully bringing the thread back to a direction that we as game developers might actually have more immediate concerns about, check out the following link. Set e-mail clients to "castigate."

www.boingboing.net/2004/07/23/us_copyright_office_.html

#67 I agree that racism is wrong and there is no reason to be racist, BUT I think that people should have the right to hold whatever beliefs they want. I'm not defending property destruction or violence, there are laws to punish people who do either of them. The law should not distinguish between a white supremicist who defaces proprety or a black panther who defaces property from a hoodlum who defaces proprety. Freedom of thought goes hand in hand with freedom of speech and freedom of association. If government regulates what you can think then how can you truely have freedom of speech or association? You can only freely speak or associate with those that government lets you.