"A Nightmare On Elm Street" -- A Look Back

I'm planning on seeing the new "Nightmare on Elm Street" this weekend, so I thought it would be fun to do a reflection on the original series of movies.

In 1984, a small studio called New Line Cinema released a film that would bring us one of our most enduring horror movie icons next to Jason Vorhees.  "A Nightmare On Elm Street" was released to big box office and would put New Line Cinema on the map (earning the nickname "The House that Freddy Built").

Watching the first film today, you can see why -- the acting was above average for this genre of films, you had a really scary monster at the heart of the story, and you wonder how the kids are going to survive.  It follow the rules for a great "Monster In The House" film: It's got its "monster" (Freddy Krueger), it's "house" (the dream world of the kids from Springwood), and the "sin" that brought the monster to them (the parents burning him alive in his home).

(By the way, since I recently purchased one of the greatest screenwriting books ever -- "Save The Cat" by the late Blake Snyder -- you'll see me using terms now such as "Monster in the House" more often in my reviews)

The story is very simple -- kids are haunted by the same monster, not understanding how it's happening or how they can stop it.  Robert Englund (who starred in "V" prior to this and has made a name for himself in starring and directing horror movies) really makes you scared of Freddy Krueger as you're watching it.

After this, there wouldn't be a really decent "Nightmare" film for awhile (although on its own level part 3 is pretty fun to watch), with filmmakers making Freddy a horrible stand up comedian in later films.  Wes Craven would finally come back to the series and direct "New Nightmare," where the film would break the fourth wall and have the makers of the "Nigthmare on Elm Street" crew be stalked by their own creation.

"Freddy Vs. Jason," a film that was a long time in coming, basically played on the arguments that I would have with friends in the schoolyard of who would win in a fight.  The bulk of the film was standard slasher fare, but I did enjoy the final fight at the end between the two characters.  I'm still hoping that at some point they make the movie version of "Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash."

So what am I hoping for from the new version?  That they kept true to the original ideals from the original film, for starters.  Although I do know of some anticipated changes that they're planning on making between the two versions, such as having Freddy be an actual child molester in this film (or is he? -- one of the themes is the incidents that lead Craven to change Freddy from a molester to a child killer for fear of exploiting the child center molestation hysteria going on at the time), I really hope that the film is still scary and that any updates enhance the film over ruining it.

Things aren't looking good at the moment for the new version (Roger Ebert already gave the film 1 star, but then again he gave "Kick-Ass" 1 star a couple of weeks ago). But I will bring back my review once I see it tonight or tomorrow.

First in a Series: Senate Candidate Jim Bender

This is the first in a series on candidates writing on what issues they think are most important in this campaign.


Jim Bender is a candidate for U.S. Senate.  He's been a businessman and an entrepreneur for 25 years, and has been married to his wife Susan for the past 28 years.


The following post is in Bender's own words on the topic of illegal immigration.


by Jim Bender

We can’t fault people for wanting to come to America – it is the greatest country in the world.  We have excellent hospitals, a great education system, and an immense entitlement-driven welfare program – all of which is a further enticement for people to come into this country.  The incentives are so great, many will choose to come illegally, and many will succeed.

Legal immigration has always been an asset to our economy, and we need more of it.  We must streamline the process, allow more legal immigrants to come to America, and we must dramatically expand our guest worker and visitor programs.

But all of those efforts are for naught, unless we first address the problem of illegal immigration.  We must create jobs for citizens first.  We must restore the rule of law.  We must secure our borders.

There’s a lot of blame to go around, and we need to focus on where we can make a difference.  I’m campaigning to be a US Senator because I see the problems, and I’m ready to be part of the solution.  I won’t be pointing fingers at people and looking to the past.  I’m looking to the future.

For decades, the federal government has been promising to enforce our immigrations laws, but it has measurably failed to do so.  This has placed enormous pressures on the States, who are ultimately burdened with the immediate consequences. Government policy and lack of enforcement is responsible for this problem more than any other cause.  The Congress has been busy crafting legislation that distorts market forces and creates twisted incentives for employers and for immigrants to flout the law.

The employment laws and regulatory systems in America are so intrusive, complex, and costly that many companies are discouraged from hiring citizens.  They’re asked to absorb substantially higher costs of labor in the name of adhering to Washington policy.  Millions of small business owners are making hiring choices, and inexpensive, regulation-free labor is an insidious temptation.

To turn around these serious problems, I have a concrete plan to reduce unemployment, re-establish our sovereignty, and secure new hope for immigrants and employers who are willing to abide by the law.

In the Senate, I will spearhead the efforts to restore integrity to our government and to protect the rights of our citizens.  And I can say with full certainty that the very first step in our solution to the problem of illegal immigration will be to secure the border.

Securing the border is the only way to guarantee that our efforts can and will have any impact.  Then, we can look to reforming our policies to establish the proper incentives to encourage people to obey the law and work hard.

I Need Some Honest To Goodness Opinions On A Personal Writing Project

I have been working on this script for awhile (since Junior year of my undergrad -- around 2004) on and off when I could find time for it.  I finally finished something resembling a draft, but I need some help with it.  I am hoping you out in the reading audience can help me with this.

The name of the script is called "ZombieMart."  It takes place in a Wal-Mart type store (it's written in the script as Wal-Mart just as a placeholder for the time being), and is basically a zombie movie.  Except that our heroine has watched enough zombie movies to know what to do and how to guide her comrades to safety -- if they would only listen to her.

Anyway, there are aspects of the script that are conservative in nature -- I actually wrote the whole thing based around one scene involving the dilemma in the Sportswear Department (you'll have to read it to see what I mean -- I don't want to give any spoilers).

My problem is that in order for this to be a movie script, it has to be at least 120 pages (a minute a page), and currently it's only 69.  I don't know what to add to it other than a few more zombie attacks.  I was thinking of adding some more moments between our lead Simone and her manager/stepfather Richard, but I painted myself into a corner with that relationship when I had him practically in a coma once he gets bitten early on.  And if there are other changes you can suggest that would be great, as well.

So, here's the script.  Let me know what you folks think in the comments or at scooppc11 at yahoo dot com.

May 20th is "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day!"

This was started by Dan Savage, got picked up by Michael Moynihan, and now everyone is promoting it.

So here's the deal.  I plan on drawing my own depiction of Muhammad (don't expect anything resembling anything artist quality -- I'm a writer, not an artist), and am inviting all three of you who read this blog to have your own depictions, as well.  I'll be accepting pictures until May 18th at scooppc11 at yahoo dot com, and make sure to put in the subject line "Muhammad."

On "South Park" and Censorship

I've been dealing with a backache and allergies since yesterday, so this is the first chance I've had to make a comment on this.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone -- YOU ROCK!

Very few of the mainstream outlets are commenting on this save for CNN and Fox News, but the creators of "South Park" are involved in a bit of a controversy again over another two part episode that recently aired, and it looks like it's having some potential long term consequences for what will be aired and streamed in the near future.

But here's a bit of history before we get into talking about this episode:

1) July 4, 2001 -- The airing of the episode "Super Best Friends." In the episode, the group of kids join a cult started by David Blaine, and are eventually rescued by the Super Best Friends, which include Jesus, John Smith, Buddha, Krishna, Sea-man, and Muhammad, who has "the power of flame." Muhammad was shown in his full glory, and no threats were made over the episode.

2) April 5, 2006 -- "Cartoon Wars" airs, the first of two parts. The episode has the town of South Park in a tizzy because the show "Family Guy" is about to show Muhammad on their show. The first part ended with the guys asking if Comedy Central would "puss out" or allow them to show Muhammad. In the second part, we got our answer -- Comedy Central opted to censor the image of Muhammad instead of featuring him on the show.

3) April 14, 2010 -- For their 200th episode, titled appropriately "200", Parker and Stone decide to revisit a lot of the storylines from the past 14 years. One of them being the Muhammad storyline from "Cartoon Wars." Still one of the "Super Best Friends," Muhammad can now no longer be seen in public because no one wants to get "blown up." The celebrities that have been mocked mercilessly over that time file a class action lawsuit unless they can get Muhammad. The Ginger Kids have their own plans for Muhammad, while in the meantime Cartman discovers that he was lied to as to who his father was, and goes searching for the truth. After the episode aired, a fringe Islamic group called Revolution Muslim "warned" (threatened) Parker and Stone on their website (since taken down) that they could end up like director Theo Van Gogh, who was murdered while filming a documentary on Islam and its treatment of women. So since this was a 2 part episode, where is the next week going to lead us?

This brings us to Wednesday night.

The episode "201" is about to air. The episode's going along fine. Then you might have noticed something right away.

The name "Mohammad" is bleeped out, as if his name was a vulgarity.

Then we get to the part of the episode where the kids do the "I learned something today" speech. And the entire thing is bleeped out.

Because I don't get cable, I was going to watch the show online. I was greeted with a notice that South Park Studios was not allowed to stream the show "at this time." So I had to find an alternate source to watch the show. In a bunch of entertainment articles that appeared, there was confusion over whether the additional beeps were another joke or if Comedy Central had something to do with it.

Parker and Stone released this statement yesterday afternoon.

In the 14 years we've been doing South Park we have never done a show that we couldn't stand behind. We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central and they made a determination to alter the episode. It wasn't some meta-joke on our part. Comedy Central added the bleeps. In fact, Kyle's customary final speech was about intimidation and fear. It didn't mention Muhammad at all but it got bleeped too. We'll be back next week with a whole new show about something completely different and we'll see what happens to it.

What gets me is the part where they say that the end speech didn't contain any mention of Muhammad but was censored anyway. So now Comedy Central is censoring any criticism for their decision.

Chickens.

Good news is that someone at Comedy Central has some balls to stand up to them.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
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www.thedailyshow.com
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I've already written letters to just about everyone in the chain of command at Comedy Central over this decision. I'm mad because this decision appeases the very people who want ALL Americans to be dead because they don't follow the Muslim "ideal" of Sharia law. They don't get that this will NOT stop, regardless of how many episodes they pull. THEY WILL NEVER BE SATISFIED. That is how terrorism works -- to scare you into doing something that THEY want. And in this case it looks like they succeeded.

I urge EVERYONE to write to the corporate suits at Comedy Central. If there's enough of an e-mail bomb, maybe they'll put this episode on the site uncensored (and also bring back "Super Best Friends," as well -- that episode has also been pulled since then). This is not acceptable to anyone who believes in free speech, and this either needs to be rectified as soon as possible or we need to support Parker and Stone more on this fight.

Levasseur Should Really Learn Social Networking Etiquette

State Representative Nick Levasseur (D-Manchester) can't seem to stay out of trouble.

After getting in trouble over comments regarding "two nukes wasn't enough" for the Japanese over their style of cartoons on Facebook, now a since disconnected MySpace page has revealed another comment that advocates gun violence against Republicans.

After the anti-Japanese comment erupted in the media, Democrat Party spokesman Derek Richer told the Union Leader, “We would expect [Levasseur] to step down from his seat if this happens again.”

But Democrats were silent on Sunday when the latest revelations came to light. On a cached version of his MySpace page (which has since been disabled within the last three days) Levasseur appears to list as one of his interests, “the hunting of neo-conservative Reaganites (a shooting sport brought to you by the republican party [sic] in more ways than one!)”

Levasseur -- what the HELL are you thinking??? You would think that in an election year he would be a LITTLE more careful about what to say in public.

Nothing on Facebook is private. Neither is anything on MySpace. The same rules in life should apply on social networking sites -- if you're a public figure, you should be VERY careful about what you say, because it will come back and bite you in the butt.

NowHampshire pointed out, though, that despite these comments the Democratic leaders have not spoken out in it, and Levasseur is still in his job. That tells you a lot, doesn't it?

2010 Election Season

Since we're in primary season, I thought that over the next few months I would do a special feature here at ConChrist where I'll let the candidates speak their minds.

Right now, here is a list of Republican candidates that are currently running (list courtesy RedHampshire):

Bill Binnie (US Senate)

Bob Bestani (CD-1)

Bob Guida (CD-2)

Charlie Bass (CD-2)

Frank Guinta (CD-1)

Jack Kimball (Governor)

Jennifer Horn (CD-2)

Jim Bender (US Senate)

John Stephen (Governor)

Karen Testerman (Governor)

Kelly Ayotte (US Senate)

Mike Castaldo (CD-1)

Ovide Lamontagne (US Senate)

Rich Ashooh (CD-1)

Sean Mahoney (CD-1)

If I'm missing anyone from this list, let me know in the comments or at scooppc11@yahoo.com.

And I would like to apologize to Karen Testerman for a misspelling in one of the earlier TEA Party posts -- I listed your last name as Testa. That was partially because of my hearing and because I couldn't find the card that you gave me.

Anyway, what I am going to do is write to the candidates above and make the offer to have them write a guest post stating what they think is the most important issue right now in the state of NH or nationally and what they propose to do about it. Whoever responds will have their answers posted up here. And we will see what happens from there.

Review: "Kick-Ass"

In his review, Roger Ebert gave "Kick-Ass" one star, saying that the film was "morally reprehensible" because of scenes involving the character Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz).

He has to lighten up a bit. Especially since Hit-Girl was one of the best characters in the film. But more about her later.

But the movie isn't really about her, anyway. It's about our hero Dave Liszenski (newcomer Aaron Johnson), a high school kid who idolizes the superheroes he reads about in comic books. After he and his friends get mugged while someone watches helplessly, Dave decides that he's going to be a superhero. Donning a green scuba outfit, he disguises himself as "Kick-Ass." After his first attempt fails (and his classmates start to think he's gay because he was allegedly found naked when the paramedics found him), he dons the costume again and manages to save a man from some thugs. The melee gets filmed and put up on YouTube, getting the attention of everyone in the city, and inspires other people to be costumed superheroes. It also attracts the attention of Hit-Girl and her father Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage), who are "real" superheroes.

To address one of the major controversies started by the Red Band trailer for this film -- yes, Hit-Girl uses language in this film that no 11 year old should use (at least tell that to the parents in my neighborhood, where I hear this kind of language from kids YOUNGER than 11 who shout it in the street all the time). And yes, her fight scenes are pretty violent (one killing in particular got gasps from the audience when I went to see it -- this one is also in the Red Band trailer). In recent interviews, Moretz said that she was looking forward to playing Hit-Girl again, despite all the violence and language she was allegedly exposed to in the filming of the movie (according ot Wikipedia, in regards to the language, after reading the script she told director Matthew Vaughn that there wasn't anything in the script she hadn't heard before because she had four older brothers). You need an actress who is very mature for her age to pull off a part like this and not have it affect her. And considering that Moretz has been in at least one horror film prior to this that no one had an issue with (the Amityville Horror remake a few years back), I don't see what the issue is.

On top of that, Moretz does an incredibly good job with the part -- her performance suggests a girl wise way beyond her years. And as violent as her scenes tend to get, they're also pretty well done.

In fact, the whole cast does a great job. Johnson plays Kick-Ass/Dave as kind of wimpy but with a good heart. Cage seems to be channeling William Shatner in his delivery when he's costumed superhero "Big Daddy." Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who plays friend/rival Red Mist, captures the dual nature of the character -- someone who wants to expose Kick-Ass's real identity, but at the same time doesn't want to see him get hurt in the process.

As far as the violence goes -- it gets a wee bit much in parts, but overall it's about at par with a typical Tarantino film, only played a lot more for laughs.

As a final warning, this is NOT for the kids (which I reiterated with my husband when I got home and my 12 year old stepdaughter was there). There's very strong language, there's extreme violence, and there's a few sexual situations thrown in (one scene has Dave in a back alley with a girl having "clothed" sex with her).

But it was a hell of a lot of fun to watch.

To The New People Coming Here

Welcome!

I haven't checked to see if there's been an uptick of readers, but for those who are coming here after talking with me at the TEA Party rally in Manchester, let me tell you a little about myself.

1) The name of the blog is short for "Conservative Christian," which is what I am, and is also in dedication to my late father, who used "conchrist" as his e-mail name for the longest time. The "Christ" part of the name is pronounced like if you were to shorten "Christian."

2) My last name is is pronounced "Ing-ham." Not "In-gram" as in Laura Ingraham. There's no "r" in there, but people just want to pronounce it like there is. Be thankful that I don't use my maiden name -- Chauvette. :-)

3) I'm a mom of an almost 20 month old, and a stepmom to a 12 year old girl and 15 year old boy.

4) Currently I am a graduate student at Plymouth State University, working on my Masters in Education in English Education, optioning in both Teaching Writing (my main goal) and 5-12 Certification (my backup). I'm slated to be done after the Winter 2011 term, so hopefully by the 2011-2012 school year I'll have a job in a school somewhere or privately tutoring.

5) Because of my courseload and child care, I post when I can. And despite my recent posts I do post about politics, but I also discuss pop culture, as well. The recent anime posts are primarily because it's caught my interest as of late -- I'm working on a unit plan around learning about Japanese culture through film and literature, and two of the things that I'm using are anime and manga (Japanese comic books). But when I find something truly interesting to note politically I post it.

6) As you might guess, my political leanings are in the conservative range, except for when it comes to free speech and the First Amendment, where I am very libertarian. I hate porn, but I wouldn't try to censor it because it's "free speech," for example. I don't think anyone's rights should be infringed in this area, so my feeling is that if you don't like a television show or movie because of what's in it, there's something called the "off" button. I feel this way because if you start censoring everything, it may get to the point where the last thing to be censored is The Bible.

So enjoy your time here, and again, welcome!

Final TEA Party Roundup

I had some things to get to this weekend, which is why I am posting this now -- a roundup of posts from around the NH blogosphere from the people who were there.

Granite Grok -- here, here, here, here and here.
Pun Salad
NH Insider -- Here, here, here, and here.
News from the Northwoods
Libertarian Leanings
Citizens for Reasonable and Fair Taxes -- here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. (She was liveblogging next to me, aand I am sorry that I didn't think to introduce myself at the time)
Angry Seafood -- here and here.
Radioactive Liberty
America's Watchtower -- here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Weekend Pundit

Thanks again to Skip Murphy from Granite Grok for inviting me to join Bloggers Row!

More TEA Party Goodness

This is going to be more of a narrative from my end on this -- I'll post links to reactions on speakers and such when they get posted, because chances are I probably couldn't capture the excitement of hearing some of the speakers as much as those who write for Granite Grok or some of the other blogs. For now, this was my personal experience.

I left for Manchester around 4pm because I had to wait for my husband to get home so he could take over child care duties for the Little One. I've brought him to events in the past, but now that he's 19 months old and walking, I knew he wasn't going to sit still if I stuck him in a stroller for this one. Maybe next year.

Anyway, got there and went to immediately find Blogger's Row. I ran into Chan from Weekend Pundit (whom I hadn't seen since my first appearance on Meet The New Press), and also got to meet Paul Sand from Pun Salad and Chris Cameron from Radioactive Liberty and Angry Seafood. (Later in the night I had a really nice chat with the blogger from Take Back Orford, NH, who is now on the blogroll). I said my hellos to Skip Murphy from Granite Grok, and was asked by another tea party member where my son was since she had never seen me without him before.

I also ended up running into someone that I hadn't seen since the Sarah Palin visit in Laconia in 2008 -- she was standing right next to me during the event and we chatted it up for awhile before she showed up. (She's the blonde with her back to the camera that was behind me in the picture I've posted up here before of Palin signing my son's onesie) I told her that I still showed that picture off where I could, and that the little 2 month old she saw at the rally was now 19 months old and walking. Then I jokingly added, "Pray for me," which got her and Chan laughing.

During the evening, Skip would bring around people who were running for office in various locations and introduce them to us. My notes and cards are in the car which my husband has at the moment, so the only names I can remember right now are Ovide Lamontagne and Mary Landry. I'll update this post later with other people I met last night. But I was getting a kick out of it because I was starting to feel like a "real" reporter again.

I started to leave around 7 PM because I knew I was going to have to walk back to my car (I had to park it close to Elm Street two side streets away from Victory Park). Now, before the event, as I was going down Elm Street I started to hear a strange noise. I thought it was another major car issue so I tried to find a parking spot so I wouldn't be driving the car too far and I would figure out later.

When I got back to my car, it started out fine. So I started to drive, and heard the noise again. Before I could pull over, a gentleman came over to my car from the sidewalk and told me that my tire on the passenger's side was flat. So I pulled over on the next street and started to make the attempt to replace it.

Luckily while I was in the throes of getting started a group of people -- two men and a woman, whose names I didn't catch -- saw what I was about to do and offered to help. Which I gladly accepted since I had NO clue what I was doing. The woman let me use her cell phone to call my husband, and I let him know that I was going to be late because I had to get the tire changed. When they replaced the tire, they discovered that the spare needed more air, so they took it to the nearest gas station to fill it up and see if it made a difference.

So to those three people last night, again I thank you.

Because I had the spare, I had to drive home all the way to Franklin very carefully, so to keep myself from going over 50mph I stayed off the highway as much as I could. I felt like I was trying to drive in snow again.

So other than the flat tire last night, it was a good night overall. A lot of energy from the big crowd that was gathered there. No infiltrators that I could see.

Time for a TEA Party

Tonight I was at the Tax Day TEA Party protest in Manchester as part of Blogger's Row. I wasn't able to type while I was there, but I did get some pictures. I'll do a more thorough follow-up with links to other people's posts tomorrow. For now, here are some of the pics that I took.

Chan from Weekend Pundit (right) showing off his sign:

One of the things they had there was a message board advertising the event. Here are just a couple that happen to be my personal favorites:

This one is a two parter:

Former NH Governor Gordon Humphry got the crowd going with a mysterious prop that he had covered up before the event. Along with getting the crowd energized, he revealed his prop to be that of the new place where our tax money is going under the current administraiton:

And one final series of pictures, this time showing how big this crowd was.

Wait a minute...do I see what I think I see in the background? Let's get a closer look...

I did! I did! It's an African-American person at a TEA Party! In New Hampshire, no less! Someone call Keith Olbermann and tell him there are such thing as black conservatives!

(To whoever this person is...no disrespect meant. We welcome all.)

I'll have links to everyone else's take on this tomorrow, but I did want to thank the three TEA Partiers who helped me to change my tire before I left to go home.

Watch This Space April 15th

I was invited by Skip Murphy at Granite Grok to join them in Manchester for the April 15th Tax Day TEA Party in Blogger's Row. So, naturally, I said "yes."

Posting on the day of the event may be light on my end because I may have to borrow someone else's laptop since I won't have one of my own. But I will be taking plenty of video and pictures to post up here afterwards.

Meth Lab Blows Up, And I Was Almost There

Well, since I live in Franklin, I kind of have to write about this.

I'm including the map so you can see the proximity of all of this from where I am as I'm telling this story. Click on the locations.


View Meth Lab Location in a larger map

Before the papers reported it, I was downtown with my son getting him a haircut. The barber got a call on her cell phone -- it was apparently from a friend of hers to tell her about DEA agents at a house downtown. By the time Christopher's haircut was done, she got another call saying the place was on fire.

I almost went to go see, but decided that since my son wasn't too happy that I would bring him home. Just as I passed the post office, I could smell the smoke coming from the fire. By the time I got in front of my house, I could see one of my neighbors just at the top of the hill trying to check out what was going on (you couldn't see anything from there -- too many trees). Of course, the first thing I did when I got home was called my former bosses at The Citizen to see if they knew about this development.

So I kept my eye out online as to what was going on. This is one of the write-ups. Then another concern hit me -- Doug was going to have to take an alternate route home if they were still cleaning up by the time he got out of work, and I had class last night.

So this was an interesting e-mail I had to write to my professor: "I might be late for class because my husband may be delayed due to the fact that a meth lab blew up not too far from my house."

Luckily, the mess was cleaned up by the time Doug left for home. As soon as he arrived, he asked me about the fire. As soon as I told him what happened, he couldn't hold back his laughter.

Later that night, they released pictures of the suspects. Turned out we were familiar with one of them -- he worked at the Cumberland Farms down the street from us.

So basically, my day yesterday dealt with me being in my own personal lock down and wondering if I was going to make it to class last night or not because some dumbass decided to set his apartment on fire with a meth lab.

Lovely.

Why Are We Talking About "RapeLay" Again?

Thanks to Equality Now, "RapeLay" is in the news again. They're calling on the Japanese government to ban hentai games where women and children are sexually assaulted or raped within the game. This is because of a rise in people seeking out the game online for download since the initial controversy.

Brent Bozell from Newsbusters wrote a piece that was put up today on the continuing controversy over the game. Although I agree with him on certain aspects of what he's saying, the first paragraph annoyed the hell out of me.

Many -- too many -- red-blooded American boys grow up on Japanese video-game systems from Sony and Nintendo. Their cultural interests can extend into Japanese cartoons ("anime") and some even discover Japanese pornographic cartoons ("hentai"). How so? Boys play games and watch cartoons like the "Dragon Ball Z" series, but can quickly surf the Web and find related cartoon titles like "Dragonball X," only to learn they are hard-core porn.

Things that annoyed me:

1) Bozell makes the assumption that watching anime will lead to watching the hentai version of said shows. Being an anime fan, I have never been tempted to watch hentai, parody or otherwise.

2) There is plenty of family friendly anime out there. Films released by Hayao Miyazaki, for example, are a great way to introduce children to anime.

3) Being a stepparent/parent who is an anime fan, I can best monitor what is appropriate for my stepchildren as well as my son because it's an interest that I have.

4) The kids have to know what they are looking for. Simple solution: don't use the word "hentai" in front of your kids, and they won't know what it is and what to look for.

He goes on about the critics and those who are willing to defend the game. I'm not willing to defend it, but I realize it's a different cultural standard over there that allows hentai games like this to thrive over there. Japan has always been a very patriarchal society, with no real history of feminism.

In an interview on CNN, Cheryl Olson, who co-wrote the book "Grand Theft Childhood," told the interviewer that, basically, kids don't try to get their hands on games like this until there's a controversy surrounding it. She cited the "Hot Coffee" controversy involving "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," where spikes in downloading the mod for the game went up after politicians started making such a big deal about it.

And people who talk about this controversy forget one thing -- the game was not available for sale in the United States. It was only sold in Japan. Those who got copies here in the United States downloaded pirated "fansubs" of the game that, in some cases, contained viruses that crashed computers. The CNN stories talk about it being "pulled off the shelves," giving the person the impression that it was sold on store shelves here.

Bozell's final point in the article I can agree with -- parents need to be aware of what's out there. But we also have to be careful about demonizing an entire country's culture over a controversy that involves different cultures in two very different countries.