The Czar suspects that this story is getting some ground because it is a conservative vs. liberal issue. Let us hope not.

Dr. Carole Lieberman, a self-proclaimed “media psychiatrist” (uh oh) declared to Fox News that recent increases in rapes are largely the result of video game violence.

Literally, “…the increase in rapes can be attributed in large part…” to sexual scenes in videogames. What sexual scenes? Which games?

Evidently, the upcoming release Bulletstorm features the phrases “topless,” and “gangbang” for, respectively, cutting a player into two pieces and killing multiple players. And therefore all other games are guilty by association from those two bizarre examples. That is a bit of a stretch, no?

But why stop there? The FoxNews horrifies the reader by throwing in the clause “…and with kids as young as 9 playing such games….” Heads up, morons: nine-year-olds are not playing these games. Older teenage and college kids are. Sure, there will be a collection of indulgent and disconnected parents who will let young kids play the game—but this is the parents’ fault, not the entire gaming industry.

Jeez, for an alleged right-wing organization like FoxNews to come down on third parties deciding family morality&3151;as opposed to making the parents responsible for their kids—makes us wonder whether it was a weekend off for the editorial staff there.

Two points, which you can see coming a mile away.

First, Dr. Lieberman is utterly full of fantastic crap to make such a claim. There are no accepted studies that support her claim that violence in video games is increasing the number of rapes. And yes, statistics are very clear that the number of rapes nationally continues to fall. She is clearly making this claim up. We shall no longer tolerate her nonsense here. She is yet another soft sciences academic intellectual demanding that Something Be Done. For The Children! And while she can produce no case studies backing up her ridiculous claim, there is unfortunately no shortage of examples of soft sciences academic intellectuals really making things bad for millions of innocent people.

Second, the whole idea that video games desensitize or encourage children to commit violence crimes is hogwash. Skin-deep research will conclude that kids pick up on aggressive tendencies while playing videogames, but often fail to add that kids pick up on aggressive tendencies playing football, watching the news, or simply rough-housing. Negative effects of video games do exist, of course, if the kid spends 12 hours a day repetitively moving through levels while failing to engage others socially or taking part in other responsibilities. But that, of course, is true of anything kids do: if they do it to excess, they end up being outcasts.

Other claims that video games lead to violent acts cannot be justified by the facts. Violent crimes have been tumbling while the absorption rate of video game technology into society has been meteoric. Were there truth to the claim, violent crime rate among minors would be sensational given the millions of Wiis, Xboxes, and PlayStations out there right now.

Be careful, friends. This is one more example of an academic trying to soften up society. After all, why would a controlling personality fear the public having access to something that developed strategic analysis, tactical decision making, accuracy and control when firing a (virtual) weapon? Naturally enough, the answer is obvious.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.