Exclusionary Hate Legislation and the Bigots That Propagate Them.

     When looking throughout history we see a theme of exclusionary and hateful laws much like Amendment 2 has excluded domestic partners and gay couples that wish to be recognized by law like all heterosexual couples.  It is important to look at how hate laws have been written around American to get a better concept on how hate has adapted and changed through the years.

     Only 44 years ago, in the state of Florida, it was illegal for a black person and a white person to co-habitate as well as get married.  Such laws were called Anti-miscegenation laws and  in Florida they outlawed interracial cohabitation and marriage.  Fortunately the cohabitation law was overturned in 1964 via McLaughlin v. Florida by the U.S. Supreme Court as unconstitutional.  In 1967 the U.S. Supreme court struck down Anti-miscegenation laws that prohibited interracial marriage via the Loving v. Virginia case.

    Virginia trial court Judge Leon Bazile stated, "Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."

     After the ruling of the Supreme Court, the remaining laws were no longer in effect. Nonetheless, it took South Carolina until 1998 and Alabama until 2000 to officially amend their states' constitutions to remove language prohibiting miscegenation. In the respective referendums, 62% of voters in South Carolina and 59% of voters in Alabama voted to remove these laws.

     Today when we speak of hate a lot of different groups come to mind.  A few examples of these types of groups are the KKK, the Westboro Baptist Church, the New Black Panther Party and of course the Nazis (new and old).  In Germany, an anti-miscegenation law was enacted by the National Socialist government (Nazis) in September 1935 as part of the Nuremberg Laws (Protection of German Blood and German Honor Act).  The laws enacted and in some cases barely amended were no different than the laws passed during the Nazi regime in Germany.

     Taking this small history lesson in hand and using it as a comparison to the current day hate laws there is no shadow of a doubt that the recent laws passed reflect the existence of prejudice, bigotry and hate that still pulses through the veins of America.  62% of Floridians approved the law to exclude homosexuals from having any form of a legal union.  To those people I express my heartache, shock, dismay and my disgust.

     I will stand up and fight for my RIGHT to marry WHOMEVER I CHOOSE.  This is America... NOT Nazi Germany and even though it majority spoke it is NEVER right to limit the rights of a specific group regardless of color, creed, gender, orientation, disability or ethnicity.

If you truly want to see the ugly head of hate rear its head think about the vote on some of these hateful ballots:

1) Illegal for Atheists to marry since "Marriage" is a pact between a woman, man and God.

2) Outlaw Christians and Jews from marrying Muslims.

3) Outlaw Blacks, Hispanics, Latinos from adopting white children.

...

You can see that the above while hyperbole is not too far removed from the exclusionary principals of Amendment 2.

I ask that everyone look within themselves and see Amendment 2 for what it is.  I ask that you look into your heart and put yourself into the place of those the law is against and ask yourself how you would feel if this law was geared toward you.  If you are incapable of stepping outside of your own self for a moment to imagine the pain suffered I am afraid that this plea will fall to the ground much like a lead weight.

“Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.” - John F. Kennedy

Opening up sources to include more than texts...

While I understand the value of text only sources I also see the detriment.  Since the core of this class is focus primarily on electronic media it would stand to reason that citations from an electronic source would also be appropriate.  If we were to take the argument that only physical paper books can be used for citation and research we would be restricting the liqidity and hampering the creative process.  You can see that I am correct by looking at the past few years since the explosion of blogs, posts, comments, etc.  You can see that this new medium allows for instant searching, instant retrieval and instant citation with mere clicks.  When looking at books it is much more difficult to do that considering it is not at fluid.  By limiting the ability to quickly locate, isolate, quantify and classify the context to research would be reducing the depth and diversity of the citations and in turn reducing the ability to reinforce the perspective of this paper.

Final Fantasy XII: At a Glance...

Article 1

Article 2

Article 1 is an actual well thought out analysis of the game.  While it does give a break down of the game mechanics to delves deeper into the motivations to make this game different from the others within the franchise.  The author of this article went as far as comparing this game to the fight between India and Pakistan over Cashmere.  While I do see how it can be compared I also see how this is wrong.  Cashmere is seen as a holy land between India and Pakistan and the relationship between that and the game doesn't seem to hold much water.  In the game the country of Dalmasca was taken over as part of a plot to assimilate the entire world.  While I give the author credit for an interesting perspective I do not follow this line of reasoning as much as I would have liked to.  There were various statements that were spot on and I agreed with such as the anti-establishment undertones in the game.  Pirates, thieves and the like are all vital parts of the whole machine to make this game as amazing as it is.

Article 2 is a review of the game.  It went through the mechanics, the adventures, the characters as well as various other details.  His impression of the game was that it "was flat at times" but continued that regardless of his opinion it was the mechanics that kept him playing.  I confess that I am a bit like this guy in many ways when playing a game.  It really wasn't until I took this class (ENC1102) and read the first article that made me really look deeper into the game and find the theme that moved me more so than others.

For my theme I am torn between two.  While the game does an incredible portrayal of the difficulties and ethics of POWER.  Seeking power, obtaining power and killing in the name of power.  Is seeking "power" ethical?   And if its gray.. what is the threshold? At what point do you stop?  Power is something that can be made by love or by fear.  Children, whether tehy realize it or not, have "power" over thier parents.  Some are better at manipulation to get what they want while others are less obvious and do it in a certain undertone.  

As for my other topic it is the ethics of revenge.  I know that this is a gray area for some while for others is black and white.  For me... it is very very gray.  Is justice revenge?  For some it would be a yes and others a no.  But for many... it is gray.   It is hard to decide which one because typically... one doesn't seek power without a motivation and what better motivation and ethically questionable... than good old fashioned revenge.

What books can I find on these topics to back up my claims on them?  Which would have MORE that side with ***MY*** perspective... lol  I looked and found a few that I need to skim.

Thanks for reading.

-Scott

RED CLASS: Thesis and ROUGH Outline

Thesis:

While “Operation: Pedopriest” and “Faith Fighter” are
critical perspectives of religion, “Operation: Pedopriest is grittier and more emotionally reactive.

I.                    Thesis Statement

II.                  Faith Fighter

a.       Game Mechanics similar to Mortal Kombat

b.      List of Beliefs

                                                               i.      Contenders

c.       Censored Version

                                                               i.      Muhammad’s face is blacked out.

III.                Operation: Pedopriest

a.     Game Mechanics -   Army game Theme

                                                               i.      Silencer

1.       Quiet/Intimidate

2.       Delay the police

                                                             ii.      Priests

                                                            iii.      Kids

                                                           iv.      Adults

                                                             v.      Molestation

 

IV.                Common Themes

a.       Portrayal of religion in a critical light

b.      Intimidation, death, suppression in the name of religion

c.       Both critiques have a basis in real life.  We live it and these games offer a better understanding and dialogue.

V.                  Differences

a.       FF – lighter tone rather than the deeper context of religious bigotry/intolerance.

b.      OP

                                                               i.      See the priests molesting kids

                                                             ii.      You as a Silence have to intimidate the adults from contacting the police

                                                            iii.      If police are dispatched you must delay them from seeking their target

c.       Extremely offensive – molestation in general

VI.                Summary

a.       As shown FF does lightly encroach upon the real issue of religious intolerance

b.      OP is more visually detailed and leaves less to the imagination for interpretation.

                                                               i.      Direct artistic attack on the Catholic Church and its ethic violations

1.       They show this by actually animating molestation by a priest

ID The Creep (Third Video Blog)

I would consider "ID the creep" a serious/training video game. It in its own way it trains the player the difference between a potential online creep vs someone who is not. It puts the player through three tests. The first test concerns online chatting. There are buzz words that need to be looked for and that should not be answered. The most seemingly nice questions actually help the creep identify who the user is. I would have to say that this is a game geared toward budding internet surfers particularly children. This allows the children in a safe atmosphere the training needed to identify when someone is a creep and when someone is not. The second battery is email. You need to identify which email is creep originated. Again it allows the player to read the subject but to get a feel for what the email will be about. The third and final trial is an Instant Messaging test similar to the chatting test. In order to proceed to each level you must identify all the creeps. As I stated earlier, I would consider this a training game. The safety of everyone's children is paramount and if this game can assist in that assurance it is well worth it. The thought of someone creeping around on the internet in itself is scary however when they use that imagery against you in this game it can be considered pathos driven. There is dark cloud of fear that is used in this game which reflects a lot of how it is in real life.

Scott Campbell - Red Class: Two Video Game Blog

Click for Obama:
 http://www.click4obama.com/

When looking at the selection of games provided I was drawn to one particular.  The Click 4 Obama game was something that initially made me wonder what does that mean.  What does it mean to click for Obama?  Once I started playing the game it was very much like a quiz show but centered around history, world and local politics and geography.  I myself being fond of these types of games found that I was drawn in immediately.  All of the "Question and Answer" fun aside as you answered more and more questions correctly to the right of the screen a jigsaw puzzle of Barack Obama started to come together.  When you complete a puzzle you, in essence, "clicked" to help get more advertising online for Barack Obama for President.  The website states that its goals are to Challenge Americans to lean more about American History, Government, Politics, Race Relations, and Current Events, to provide everyone an easy opportunity to become involved in the future of America and support Barack Obama's dream to bring about real change in Washington.

The graphics, game and results were persuading the user to push to answer more and more questions.  The more people visit the site, the more advertisers will want to be there the more money can be donated to "Barack Obama for President" the more good you are doing by staying and playing.  The game was not necessarily persuading someone from, let's say, the far right to come to aid Barack on his conquest for the White House.  This game is geared to engage those who are curious about the game and for those who are Pro-Barack and want to help increase the advertisements.

The core game itself calls to your logical and ethical side.  The questions ranged from "What is the capital of Minnesota" to "How many people have died in Darfur".  Whether you get the question right or wrong it will let you know and the reasoning behind the answer.  It is an initiative to inform the user within the construct of a game.  Possible to better equip them to make Barack as the choice for our next president.  The site does support Barack however the layered questions asked did not seem to push you to want to vote for Barack it was only meant to inform the player.

Super Chick Sisters: 

http://www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com/superchicksisters/index.asp

I noticed this game when in class and thought I would give it a go.  The premise of the game is not too far away from the beloved Super Mario Bros. games I played as a child.  Funny enough, the Super Mario Bros are in the plot of the game.  Replace our lovable plumbers with two chicks, as in cute, 'peep'-like, baby chickens and you 'for the most part' have the game dynamics.  What is different however is that as you progress there are additional characters along the way such as picketers, snails, rats, etc.  When you pass one of the characters described they will talk to you and give you a tid bit of information about Kentucky Fried Chicken.  Some of these include but not limited to, KFC cut the beaks off of the chickens, KFC de-feathers chickens using scalding water, KFC drugs the chickens to be fat and immobile, and they address poor living conditions and maltreatment.  As you progress through and get to the checkpoint there is a KFC flag that you run to and replace with a PeTA flag.  

I generally knew of atrocities regarding the KFC chickens but never specifics.  However reading all the conversations from the characters really made me not want to go there again.  This obliviously is a persuasive, serious game that plays on all of the parts of an argument.  Logically, Emotionally and Ethically I could not eat chicken that has been put through the things they describe.  All this aside, I do question the truthiness of the claims made by this game.  I will however do my own research and become a better informed consumer when it comes to my chicken preferences.

Day Uno: Zombie-tastic

Greetings bloggers, gawkers, tubers alike this is my first official blog for course credit. I have to admit I really wasn't expecting Composition II to be "e" based or technologically inclined. One could suppose that my age and ignorance, not new things, are now noticeable to me. From my experience, when I took Composition I, at SMSU in Springfield Missouri, Fall Semester of 1993, we had things called pens and pencils. The sweet march of time takes its toll on everyone. All sarcasm aside, it is my belief, I will enjoy and learn a great deal from this course. The electronic revolution aspect of the course aside, the first course discussion was a thought experiment, proposal and delivery on how to survive a zombie attack. Yes you read that correctly. Zombies. Brain eating, moaning, limb dragging, worm bitten undead zombies. The agenda for Day 2 I would suspect will center around zombie domestication techniques. I will keep you all posted.

-Scott