What Will Chevy Do?
/If I were Chevy, I would see this as an opportunity. Don't know if they'll see it that way.
Buying Around Best Buy
/So I went to Union Square during lunch today to try to find the stuff I was going to buy at Best Buy yesterday when I got carded. Circuit City had a better telephone at nearly half the price.
EBGames had both PSP games I wanted at the same price. No annoying waiting for the cashier to remove the anti-theft devices (they didn't have any) and no requests for ID.
BTW, a few people asked me what the offending M-rated game was. It was "Midway Arcade Treasures," which contains emulations of 20-something coin-op video games that Midway put out. Included in that are the three Mortal Kombat games, which are rather gory. (I'm assuming that these are the offending games within the compilation. For all I know, someone could have a problem with Joust or Marble Madness.)
So, mission accomplished. And I got my phone for $50 instead of $90.
A Gentle Reminder
/Remember folks, when you want to sling venom anonymously in a public Internet forum (like in someone's blog comments, for example) be super extra careful to use a privacy proxy or some other method of masking your IP address. (Giggle)
Carded
/I got carded trying to buy a video game at Best Buy during lunch today. I was buying two games for my PSP and a cordless phone at the time. The counter person insisted that I show my ID. I refused, eventually leaving all my purchases at the counter and leaving the store without buying anything.
First of all, I'm 33 years old. And I probably look older. But that's not the point.
Remember incidents like this the next time some group of concerned parents says "We only want warning labels." Rating systems and warning labels become de facto censorship when retail chains take it upon themselves to refuse to sell video games rated "M" or movies rated "R" or music labeled "Explicit" to minors.
Most of us civil libertarians oppose government regulation of content because we don't want people telling us what we can and can't consume, content-wise. We begrudgingly accept warning labels so that parents can make appropriate choices for their kids. But it becomes censorship when retail chains are forced (or even when they voluntarily agree) to refuse sales to people because the rating system says it's inappropriate. That's the job of a parent, not a retail chain.
Say whatever you want about Best Buy, Wal-Mart or any other chain that caves to the censorship lobby. They're within their rights to do this. But I'm also within my rights to leave my purchases on the counter and refuse to buy when confronted with such situations.
Warning labels are censorship. Period. That's no longer a slippery slope argument. It's a fact. Parents aren't making the decisions here. Retail chains and censors are.
