1 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, October 30, 2008 - 3B
Presidential
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S
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Pakay.
and we
denied
's official: The Brits hate his little girl "the sex talk." Billy,
arah Silverman but love ... don't you realize most teenagers
'aris Hilton? Yup, while take the sex talk as a license to
man was booed off stage have sex, and that such matters
g a are best left to outdated film
Lon- strips or creepy health teachers
and-up with hairy wrists?
mance, At least from the trio of
is so famous teen pop tarts, Cyrus
ired has made the best life decisions.
he UK Of course, it's all relative when
onsid- Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant
a per- once again, apparently trying to
it move SC UTZ repopulate Louisiana before her
"I love sister can. On the other hand,
with cute English adents," "High School Musical" star Van-
told friends. But appar- essa Hudgens's one mistake was
the real reason for the failure to realize any nude pic-
is that Hilton wants to find ture of a hot young celebrity can
hy exactly Ben is so "big." and will end up on the Internet.
is, Madonna can tell you Seriously, those pics will still be
y why you shouldn't get number one on the uncensored
ed with British guys. First, Google image search for the
efuse to be Alex Rodriguez, next year. However, Hudgens
cond, they fleece you for all says she's learned from the
ard-earned cash. Yes, Guy experience: "Posing nude made
e is walking away from his me smarter," she told The Mir-
e from Madge with $60 ror. By "smarter," I assume she
n, according to The Sun. means "cell phone wallpaper for
nna, naturally, is a little bit horny teenage boys across the
about Ritchie's "male gold- country."
g." "Kabbalah ... teaches Sadly, this is my last column
u don't take what you before the November 4th presi-
t earned. He hasn't earned dential election, so I thought it
y of it." Madonna thought might be appropriate at this point
ent, and then donated her to catalog celebrities as they
net worth to Kabbalah as weigh in on important political
issues.
aking of rifts in Tinseltown Republican and McCain
ges, "Californication' star endorser Spencer Pratt on gay
puted sex addict David marriage: "I think it's your own
vny has been accused of choice. I think, you know, who-
ng on his wife Tea Leoni evr you decide to marry - boys,
is tennis instructor Edit girls, whatever you like - it's up
"There is no romance, to you."
e are just friends," Pakay Heidi Montag on the impor-
t in less than perfect Eng- tance of Colin Powell's Obama
endorsement: "Who needs Colin
Powell?"
Former cokehead and "I'm
ection season. With Busey" star Gary Busey on
drugs: "(When you snort cocaine
w hat better off a dog) you get a little bugs,
you get little hairs, you get grease
e for Celebs to and goo from the ground; it's not
at all a healthy thing to do."
tnd like idiots? Paris Hilton on the space
program: "What if I (go to space
and) don't come back?With the
whole light-years thing, what if I
mm, sure. Look, I'm not . come back 10,000 years later, and
this is Tea's fault, but everyone I know is dead? I'll be
e who lets her sex-addict like, 'Great. Now I have to start
nd spend time playing ten- all over.'"'
e most erotic of all outdoor Porn star Sarah "Paylin" on
with a beautiful Hungari- foreign relations with Russia: "I
man is kind of asking for it. don't speak Russian."
know who else is ask- Real Sarah Palin, on protect-
it, and by "it" I mean ing Alaskan wildlife: "My favor-
daughter to become ite meal is moose stew."
xt Jamie-Lynn Spears? Unfortunately, none of my
ay Cyrus, who is exhib- trademark glib humor has been
emarkably poor judg- injected here. These are all actu-
egarding his daughter al celebrity quotes. So, when you
even for someone who are sealed in your voting cubicle
hree years with a mul- Nov. 4, even if you're shit-igno-
st he lets his daughter, rant of the issues, rest assured
y labeled a harlot by the you're probably smarter than
because of her exposed most of the above people.
Halloween costumes, anyone?
Rzating the ESRZB
Why the video game industry should reevaluate its rating system
By Jamie Block I Daily Arts Writer
EI
timT
sou
Whether it's blood gush-
ing from mangled aliens.
or pixelated prostitutes
roaming the streets, there will
always be objectionable content in
video games. However, the rating
system put in place to restrict this
content takes an entirely misguided
approach, exacerbating the problem
it's supposed to solve. Sometimes
censorship is done right; the PS3
game "LittleBigPlanet" has been
delayed due to religiously offensive
content. But as a gamer with a pen-
chant for dismemberment, I hate
to see a potentially great, albeit
violent game, get slapped with a
rating that stops many enthused
gamers from playing it. Also, the
strict rating system is actually
increasing the amount of content
it's trying to restrict. This point
will be especially important over
the next few weeks, when many
high quality M-rated games are
being released for every console
on the market.
The Entertainment Software
Rating Board uses many different
criteria to assign a rating. They
examine the levels of violence,
blood, sexual content, cursing and
potentiallyillicit activities such as
drinking and gambling. For each
category, a certain quantity seals
the game into a more restrictive
ranking. For example, while a
game rated M (Mature) can con-
tain "intense violence," a game
rated E (Everyone) can only con-
tain "minimal cartoon, fantasy or
mild violence." This regimented
system only serves to restrict
game developers, who must
always be extremely conscious of
their game's potential rating. The
rating system doesn't account for
games that may contain extreme
levels in one category but are oth-
erwise relatively tame.
A recent example of this is "Halo
3," where the blood and gore levels
are the only things pushing it into
the Mature rating level. The rest
of the game's elements lie safely
within the bounds of Teen games,
but most parents who see that big
"M" slapped on the back of the box
aren't likely to analyze why it got
put there. The "Halo" franchise has
been one of the most successful and
highly anticipated series of all time,
and while there is obviously a lot of
blood, the gore shouldn't be cause
for teens to be left out of the game.
I know from experience that upon
hearing a game is rated M, many
parents, even those for whom the
levels of gore would not be a major
.issue, refuse to hear any further
pleading.
My personal example is "Diablo
II," a game where high levels of
blood and "dark themes" pushed
it into the Mature category. This
was one of the greatest PC games
of its time, and it pained me hav-
ing to see it only from a distance
or at a friend's house. While this
may seem like a petty concern -
after all, I now own the game - it
would save gamers and parents a
lot of useless arguing if the rating
system were more clear, and the
reasoning behind it more readily
apparent.
The most common factor to shift
a game's rating has historically
been blood and gore, which seems
like the least worrisome factor for
See RATINGS, Page 4B
lish. H
saying,
anyon
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sports,
an won
YouI
ing for
for his
the nex
Billy R
iting re
ment r
Miley,
spent t
let. Fir
alread
media
back in that Vanity Fair shoot
(Side note: What was the deal
with that ruckus about Cyrus's
exposed back? What is this, the
Victorian era? And even though,
yes, she was only 15, doesn't vir-
tually every girl's swimsuit have
an exposed back? I don't get it.),
date a model named Justin Gas-
ton, who was recently caught in
shirtless photos with a girl who
looks like she's auditioning to
be Hef's next live-in girlfriend.
And then, Billy reportedly gave
EINHORN
From Page 1B
not about all of these lives, cul-
tures and communities that sur-
vived for hundreds of years in
Eastern Europe and were oblit-
erated," Einhorn said. Her book
- and searching for one's own
personal history in general -
presents one way to reduce this
effect and live more fully within
the spirit of "never forget."
Rediscovering our own his-
tories may seem like a daunt-
ing task. It may require visiting
a strange country and learning
about a time that is completely
foreign to us: but at the same
time, the process may provide us
with the missing third side to a
story.
"You look for slices of life that
tell a larger tale," Einhorn said.
So if you ever decide to travel
half-way across the world to
visit an old street corner, or to
simply look into the eyes of rela-
tives in antique photographs,
pay attention to what you find:
You might be surprised at what
you uncover.
Schultz truly is America.
And so can you. E-mail him
at markthos@umich.edu.
I U S D 01* K U