JULIAN SANCHEZ ON THE ANTI-VIDEOGAME BRIGADE:

It’s been a good week for the digital descendants of Thomas Bowdler. As we all know, the best sweeping public policy is guided by our reactions to manifestly insane people who commit acts of violence as extreme in their rarity as their brutality. So as the bones of the Virginia Tech victims are picked thoroughly clean for political red meat, it’s no surprise to find violent video games joining an ever-expanding list of whipping boys, from obvious candidates like deinstitutionalization and the gun culture to (yes, really) feminism and atheism. Killer Cho Seung-Hui may have played Counter-Strike in high school, you see.

I think porn and violent videogames are good for America’s children. And unlike the critics, I’ve got empirical evidence!