Forget Obama, John McCain, Palin, Biden, Ron Paul, Bob Barr, Ralph Nader, what this nation needs now is some Jack Bauer.
Coming off the underwhelming, but tolerable season 6, the show looks to be going back to its roots. It doesn’t look like they’ll be using the “catastrophic” event scenario (thank god), but instead make it personal. Tony vs. Jack, it’s going to be a fight for the ages.
Enjoy the new trailer.
The Tarry Tate commercials originated back in 2003, during the Super Bowl. Ever since Terry Tate has shown up here and there, most recently at a Palin interview…. 
Skip To About 0:40
and of course there’s the ol’ reliable Superbowl commercial. Kind of makes you wish there was a Tarry Tate watching the office.
I was driving through a neighborhood on my way to the University of Kentucky Wildcat football game (beat Arkansas 21-20, w00t!). I noticed that through this subdivision that nearly everyone on the street had a political sign in their yard. It was uncanny, there had to have been atleast 60 houses, and about 80% had political signage in their yard. I won’t give you poll numbers, but I was really hoping that all of the McCain signs would be on the left side of the street, with Obama on the other. So I could tell them all that they had it wrong.
I’m not going to harp on politics from a personal standpoint (although I think neither candidate should be president), but I want to talk about political affiliation. And just how far do people go in terms of representing their political beliefs through signage. Some keep it conservative enough, and just put a single sign up, to show their support for a candidate. Others will slap a bumper sticker on their car, and leave it up for too long of a time. I saw a Dukakis sticker the other day on the road; it’s a true story.
One of my favorite recent stories was the man who put dog feces in the back of a man’s truck, because he had an oversized political sign in the bed. Read the story here, I really don’t want to harp on the details.
Are people really that personal with their politics that they resort to those tactics? Like the people who notice their neighbor has a sign of their opponent, so they show “more” support by putting two signs up.
I’m not trying to say that supporting a candidate is wrong. Political debate is one of the great freedoms in this country, and why we’re so diverse. But do we really need to ‘out-sign’ each other, and dump excrement in each others’ trucks? It’s in this writer’s humble opinion that one of the things hurting our society the most is that people have too many beliefs, and not enough ideas. People become so blinded with what they think is right, that they refuse to see anything from another perspective. When I see the doubled up political signs, and multi bumper stickers, that’s what runs through my head.
So, are you someone who supports your candidate through signage? Will you double up on your signs if you see a neighbor supporting your candidate’s opponent? Was the dog feces thing a good idea? Either way, I’d like to hear back from you.
Politics, there’s hardly any other word that can make me sigh more than it. Radio, television, internet; these are all places where politics rears its ugly head and it’s something I get tired of fairly quickly. At least from the mainstream aspect of things.
When I pick up a video game controller, I can be secure in knowing that it’s one place I’ll be safe from political advertising. Or is it? It has been reported that Obama has launched an ad campaign that will see his ads plastered over a slew of EA titles. The most notable is in Burnout Paradise, where Obama’s ad/face will be featured on many of the billboards in the virtual city. This makes me sad personally because I really like Burnout: Paradise, and I don’t want political advertising making its presence known there.
I’ve been against a lot of in-game advertising since its conception. I know some will say it adds to ‘immersiveness’ of the games, but do we really play video games to feel more in the real world? I know that when I put a game disc into my system, I’m doing it to become part of something outside the conventions of the real world. In Burnout: Paradise for example, it’s all about driving cars really fast and in some instances pulling off crazy aerial stunts. So when I’m doing 3 aerial flips with my Ferrari looking sports car, do I really want to see Obama’s face and be reminded of what’s happening in the real world?
In game advertising before this latest example was all about selling products. Now its shifted to getting a political message out to the masses. And I’m not talking about in-game politics, but real life politics. Which to me, there’s nothing more sad and depressing than the current political system.
So, I’ve expressed my general feelings towards Obama’s political advertising. Now where does my frustration and anger need to be directed at? Should I completely blame Obama for wanting to get his message out to gamers? Even though he’s mentioned before that people need to get off their couches and stop playing games. Or is it EA who’s profiting off Obama’s big dollars and they’re the ones to blame?
The truth of the matter is that the problem even goes beyond Obama and EA. But to encompass the overlying problems would require more than just one blog post, so let’s keep the focus just on these two. In this situation both are sharing my anger and frustration equally. My main anger towards Obama is the statements he’s made about video gaming in the past, yet he doesn’t mind trying to score some votes through its advertising. EA gets the brunt of my anger because even though Obama paid for the adspace, there had to be someone else out there that was willing to pay equal to what he was offering. Specifically companies without a political agenda.
People who aren’t into video games will probably say I’m over dramatizing the situation. As a gamer who’s been going strong for about 20+ years, I think I have a cause for anger, and concern. Like I mentioned earlier, video games are one of my great escapes from political agendas, and ideas, and basically everything that sucks about the real world (I’ve overused it haven’t I?). So when a media platform that I love and enjoy starts to adopt this kind of advertising, I can’t rightfully sit by and not voice concern.
Ok, I think I’ve went on a political rant long enough. For those who think I’m trying to pick on Obama please know that if this were McCain I would be writing the same article with a different name at the beginning.
So, if you work in a cubicle or large open area with numerous desks sometimes there can be tension. Sometimes work can bog you down so much, you forget to have fun. In times like that, busting out a “That’s What She Said” joke is all you need. Here’s a YouTube video from the NBC show, “The Office” that puts the greatest “That’s What She Said” moments into one video.
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