Thursday brought about a judge’s ruling that Washington State’s ban on selling certain violent video games to minors violates First Amendment free speech rights. The ruling also stated that the ban was too narrowly defined. Interesting, considering that these sales are more of a perpetuation of violence than anything else. There are those who would say that such games are harmless, but I err more on the side of caution: I prefer to say that there is a fairly high likelihood that these games cause children to think that violence is somehow routine. I would agree that the ban is too narrow, but it seems to me that construing this as a First Amendment issue is a little questionable.

Lawyers are free to contradict me on that conclusion.

In other news, I’m now officially working for Evergreen’s Web Team and Access Services departments, as well as being on retainer for the Writing Center. The Web Team position is probably only for the summer, and I will be focusing on accessibility issues within the entire Evergreen site. The other two are both part of my Site Manager position, which I’ve been doing for the last year on behalf of the Writing Center. It’s nice to add another Evergreen department to the list.

Not much else going on. I’m looking forward to a camping trip with Amanda to celebrate our one-year anniversary. We leave for Larrabee State Park on Wednesday and come back on Saturday. Until then, we’re lounging around in Bellingham doing generally nothing.