Early last year, the West Virginia Public Employees Insurance Agency sponsored a study on the effects of Dance Dance Revolution on the activity levels of overweight children. It must’ve turned out well, in their opinion, because I heard on the radio this morning that the state of West Virginia has signed a deal with Konami to put X-boxes with DDR-style games in all WV public schools for Phys.Ed. And Health classes. (Sorry for not having a link. I heard it on the radio, and haven’t found a link yet.)

My first reaction was that this isn’t an entirely stupid idea. Sure, video game systems aren’t the first tool you think of when you think of teaching kids, especially when you’re trying to encourage them to exercise, but that doesn’t mean they’re useless for this sort of thing.

Plus, video games are a lot like guns, in that they’re inanimate objects that are often blamed for people’s actions (usually by liberals, but sometimes by big-name conservatives, like Hillary Clinton). With guns, it’s often true that exposing people to them will make them understand that guns don’t magically make people into insane killers like a real life version of the “Rage” virus or whatever in 28 Days Later. Maybe this will do something similar for video games.

Still, I can’t help thinking that letting television and video games serve as a substitute parent has proven to be a very bad idea. Can letting them stand in for teachers be that much better? Granted, a video game system isn’t likely to try to brainwash kids into agreeing with its political stance or do drugs while being protected from drug tests by the state, but I’m still not convinced.

I like Wil Wheaton. I do. When he’s talking about geeky or just general life type stuff, his is one of my favorite blogs. On the other hand, when he talks about politics, I usually completely disagree with him. So, it was a surprise to me today when I saw that he’d quoted Senator Harry Reid, and I ended up agreeing with both of them (in part, anyway):

Sen. Harry Reid (D, NV) nails it:

“After reviewing the Republican record, I know why Ken Mehlman and Karl Rove want to play politics with national security in 2006 instead of having an honest debate about who can keep Americans safe. It’s because this is a debate Republicans cannot win.

["]Republicans run good campaigns, but when it comes to actually governing and protecting Americans, they have a record of incompetence.“

Right on, Senator. Think you can get the rest of the Democrats together on this one, or are you guys going to totally screw it up again?

If you read my blog through an rss aggregator, which one do you use? I’ve not found one I like a whole lot. Right now, I just let Opera gather feeds for me, and… wait. I screwed that up. Let me start again.

If you read my blog through an rss aggregator, you may not have seen the rotating quotes that appear at the top of my page. One of them, for which I don’t have a proper attribution, says, “When it comes to civil liberties, Republicans may be third rate firemen, but Democrats are first rate arsonists.” That’s pretty much the way I look at it, and it’s pretty much right in line with what Reid and Wheaton say above.

Republicans run good campaigns because Republicans say things people want to hear, by and large. Maybe they don’t live up to their promises, but that’s usually because they wimp out in the face of opposition or because they are incompetent. Democrats are competent, but they say things people don’t want to hear (because people think they’re saying stupid things or telling flat out lies).

No, they probably can’t win a debate on national security, but I’ve got a strong feeling that the Democrats can’t either. Any honest debate about national security will reveal two things. One, the Republicans are inept. Two, the Democrats are delusional. They think that they can pull the covers over their heads and hit the snooze bar of ignorance yet again, and that life will go on without incident.

I’ll take “inept, but trying to do the right thing” over “capable, but not doing anything at all” any day.

Yesterday:
Grey, rainy and cool. I drove the MINI.

Today:
Warmer and sunny. I drove the Prism.

It’s supposed to snow tomorrow, I think, which will mean slick and/or salty roads, neither of which is particularly healthy for cars. I’ll probably forget this tomorrow and jump in the MINI on my way to work.

I’m fairly certain I know all my readers personally, and that no one’s been particularly worried by my absence here of late, but just in case, here’s an update.

As much as I love blogging, and as much as my blog is complete crap, maintaining this blog isn’t entirely effortless. We’ve been dealing with a crisis of sorts at work (nothing on the scale of Massey’s crisis with the fire; I almost feel silly using the word), and by the time I get home, I’m not much in the mood to read blogs, much less write one.

Hopefully, things will be back to normal soon.

While every Marvel or DC universe fan is finding their favorite books impacted by House of M or Infinite Crisis, Spider-Man fans know that the most important “event” going on right now is Spider-Man: The Other – Evolve or Die. We’re now eleven issues into this twelve-part event, and… I’m still not sure what to think.

There may be spoilers in the following, so don’t click if you’re spoiler-phobic.

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