Matthew Ford’s Infernal Blog

Some observations on Katrina sparked by Kanye West’s outraged speech at a fundraiser and the media coverage of “finding” versus “looting” food.  Interesting stuff, though it’s ill advised to make sweeping claims based on two cherry-picked photos out of thousands. Snopes did an admirable job of showing all sides of this.

I believe that overheated claims of racial bias ultimately help propagate true racial bias. I’d like to see people restrain themselves and stick to facts. There are plenty of indisputable facts which show racial bias in America; to fling around accusations without very good backup just makes the substantiated claims suspect. As promised, I’m all too willing to call out the foolishness of the Left as well.

A related, interesting, and more substantial discussion is about the media’s use of the term “refugee” to describe the victims of the hurricane. (continued »)

One of the things I love about Australians is that they (can I say “we” yet?) are so much less uptight than the USA about sex. And using sex not in the (IMO) creepy Asian way or the blasé Euro way; it’s fun and lusty and mischievous. Here are a few examples:

• On the most popular nationwide breakfast news-lite show, they broadcast from a museum that had a whale penis on display. The onsite host and museum staffer played around with it and the studio hosts, both male and female, made a number of naughty jokes about it.
• The same show frequently has a “joke of the day” which is almost always some kind of dirty joke, read and submitted by both men and women.
• A big billboard on the way out of the Brisbane airport touting a time-saving parking pass or the like has the tagline, “Slip in and out faster”.
• A TV commercial for “Titan” brand garage doors: A young man is talking with his dad in the yard standing in front of his garage. He says, “Hey da, you know how I was complaining that my last girlfriend didn’t have a Titan?” Dad nods. “Well, this time I’m going to do interviews.” The young guy talks with a number of sexy girls who are sitting up on his workbench right in front of him while his dad chats up the ones in line. The naughty part is that in the Australian accent, “Titan” sounds the same as “tight one”. So the guy sounded like he was saying to his dad, “You know how I was complaining that my last girlfriend didn’t have a tight one?”

Would any of this happen in on USA broadcast TV? I think not.

I read an article in the Brisbane Courier-Mail about a crime victim group’s protest against the game Hitman, and decided to write my first letter to the editor here. I wrote:

Monday’s article “Hitman game strikes nerve for crime victims” struck a nerve with me, because I care about social ills and I make video games for a living here in Brisbane. I want to defend my industry and art, which employs hundreds of skilled people in Queensland. As a father, I and most in the video game business strongly support the use of game ratings, and Hitman’s “MA 15+” rating is the game maker’s strong assertion that it is not to be played lightly by the young. Parents should monitor game playing just like TV watching and web surfing. Crime victims naturally want to find a cause, and it is easy to blame entertainment as the cause of crime. Unfortunately the solution is more challenging than suppressing works of fiction. Politics and misinterpretations aside, no valid study has shown that violent video games cause violent behavior. Past panics about comic books, cowboy matinees, and pirate storybooks similarly proved unfounded. Lastly, I plead the case that video games should enjoy the same freedom of expression as any form of entertainment. Violent video games often explore and provoke thought about themes of violence, crime, and lawlessness– not merely glorify it for thrills. These games are recreation and not of huge social merit, but they also are not the cause of violence. Let’s focus on the real causes of crime and not divert ourselves by blaming the mirrors held up to society.