In the wake of Illinois Governor Rob Blagojevich’s failed attempt to defend his 1st amendment-infringing anti-game law, it’s come out that the entire case was funded by money drawn from the Illinois Public Health Department and the Illinois Welfare Agency, to the tune of $1 million.
What was the health and welfare (read: food) of Illinois’ poor sacrificed for? The defense of some vain, opportunistic legislation meant to capitalize on public outcry against our generation’s newest scapegoat and perverter of children: videogames.
This act was old when it happened to comics and, before that, movies. The upshot of Governor Blagojevich’s defense? Similar legislation had already been attempted and rejected on the grounds of infringing the 1st amendment in other states.
There was never a chance this would succeed. Here’s one of our elected officials actually sacrificing us, the voting body, in an attempt to build a reputation on the videogame industry, a group notoriously weak in terms of defending itself politically.
Too bad they don’t teach you about this in your government classes in high school.
