Tag Archive for 'Andrew Lanza'

New York State anti-video game bills getting more opposition

GamePolitics.com is reporting two separate news about the New York State anti-video game bills are getting some heat from people concerned about them.

The CEO of Vicarious Visions, a video game developer from Albany, NY, writes a rather excellent editorial in Times Union, a newspaper in Albany. The editorial mentions the failed attempts of legislating video games in other states, and how the court battles there have cost tax payers almost $2M USD. He’s warning the New York State legislators from going the same path given the sorry state of New York State finances. He’s recommending the legislators concentrate their legislative efforts in encouraging the use of the ESRB ratings and educating parents of the ratings and parental controls already used by the video gaming industry and retailers.

More importantly, it seems the legislators themselves are waking up to the realities of the two bills. Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson recently challenged Andrew “Virginia Tech in every sentence” Lanza in the New York State Senate about the constitutional concerns of his bill. Lanza remained clueless, as always. I’m very encouraged by the fact that he’s, in fact, finally getting challenged by someone over this issue. If the bills don’t get struck down before Eliot Spitzer signs them, the legal fees will come down on us New York State tax payers.

-TPP

New York State Senator Lanza continues to milk the Virginia Tech tragedy for political gain

The anti-video game bill championed by New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer and New York State Senator Andrew Lanza has been passed by the New York State Senate in four days after getting introduced. Looks like the debate over the bill was thorough and comprehensive. Not.

Andrew Lanza continues his blatant exploitation of the Virginia Tech tragedy to promote his misguided attempts to save the kids from these awful video games. His press release about the passing of the bill says:

“The recent release of ‘V-Tech Massacre,’ a sick game which exploits the Virginia Tech University tragedy, is a painful reminder of the culture of violence which has severe consequences on our youth and society”

Wow. That’s wrong in so many levels it boggles the mind and begs questions as to Andrew Lanza’s ability to effectively legislate the video gaming industry since is blatantly obvious he knows nothing about it.

First of all, the game was created by an Australian, so it’s rather interesting why it has any bearing on “our” society. He could’ve pulled out all the guns and dug up some Islamist game as well, but that would require him to actually have some knowledge of video games. Instead, he clings onto a sensationalist, headline gathering soundbyte to camouflage his bill as something that could’ve prevented the Virginia Tech tragedy. That’s kinda interesting as well, because the shooter did not play video games. Instead he wrote poems and plays. Let’s ban those next, eh?

Secondly, the game was created by a hobbyist and is not commercially available, so it wouldn’t be subjected by the very bill Lanza is marketing for…even if the game was made by an US citizen. Again, Lanza demonstrates shocking lack of knowledge about the subject matter he’s drafting bills for. Or he knows this and is blatantly exploiting the fact other people know even less about video games than he does. Either way, he’s unfit to legislate the video game industry either as a clueless dumbass or an unscrupulous manipulative liar.

That being said, his bill does have some redeeming qualities. It contains some elements that would increase consumer awareness and accuracy of the video game ratings present in every commercially available video game in the country. The number one problem with the video game rating system in the United States is that parents are either unaware of them or completely ignore them. The bill is doing something to address that, which is good

However, as GamePolitics.com reports, since the bill also goes on to criminalize the sale of mature rated video games to minors, it will be struck down as unconstitutional by the courts. Lanza and Spitzer must’ve been aware of this before the bill was introduced, I have absolutely no doubt about it. As such, they would’ve known it would be fruitless to introduce and pass the bill as far as making it a law goes. Therefore they must’ve had other reasons for introducing the bill. I wonder when Lanza is up for re-election again…

Anyway, as a New York State resident, I will foot the legal bills, and indirectly fund Senator Lanza’s re-election campaign. Make no mistake about it, that’s what this bill is all about. Hugging babies and saving the children have always been a popular campaigning tricks. I’m just hoping Senator Lanza would use his own money to campaign for office, instead of mine. I consider what he’s doing to be fraud.

-TPP

New York State Senator exploiting the Virginia Tech tragedy to promote an anti video game bill

New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer is working on a anti video game bill. He’s going on an media blitz this week shopping his bill.

GamePolitics.com reports State Senator Andrew Lanza has been appointed to head a legislative task force on video game issues.

Apparently the Virginia Tech tragedy is a driving force behind this new efforts. Says Senator Lanza:

“The Virginia Tech massacre is a painful reminder of the culture of violence which has severe and tragic consequences on our youth and for our society,”

Well, I’ll be damned. A politician blatantly exploiting a horrendous tragedy for his own agenda. What else is new. Nice going Andrew.

Senator Lanza should really do some research on these issues, if he’s to head a task force on it. If he did, he would find out that the Virginia Tech shooter was insane, and did not, I repeat not, play video games. But let’s not get the facts get in the way, we must protect the children from these evil video games, eh?

I knew Eliot Spitzer was a bit of an opportunist, but I figured being an attorney he would’ve done his legal research, including an assessment of the First Amendment issues, before going public with plans to introduce a bill that’s 100% certain to get overturned by the courts as unconstitutional, just like in every other state where similar laws have been enacted.

Raising the Virginia Tech tragedy to promote the bill is disgusting, especially since it’s a lie, but there’s also the fact that various US states have been forced to pay legal fees after they’ve lost lawsuits against their anti video game bills. Here’re a few examples of the costs:

Illinois: $510,528.64
Louisiana: $157,548.00
Michigan: $182,349.00

Who’s going to be accountable in the New York State Senate when their anti video game law suffers the same fate? Eliot Spitzer must know he’s on this path, he didn’t become a high profile white collar crime hunter by being ignorant of the facts. It appears, however, in this case he’s willingly ignoring them to do some political pandering.

Let’s hope the Senator and the Governor get some sense in their heads and drop this vote shopping expedition before it is really going to cost New York State tax payers any serious money. And Mr. Lanza, stop being a dispecable piece of shit.

Here’re the contact information for the two gentlemen in case you wish to express your opinions on their money wasting and attention whoring ways:

http://www.ny.gov/governor/contact/index.html

Eliot Spitzer
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224

518-474-8390

http://www.nyssenate24.com/contact_info.asp

Senator Andrew J. Lanza

Albany Office
947 LOB
Albany, NY 12247
(518) 455-3215
(518) 426-6852 (Fax)

District Office
3845 Richmond Ave.
Suite 2A
Staten Island, NY 10312
(718) 984-4073

-TPP