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At some point, perhaps while I was busy living a life, my country lost its mind. I'm not sure when it happened. This erosion of national sanity may have taken place while I was in school, working, or perhaps during my six months as a Sherpa in Dasharathchand. Now that I think about it, it was probably during my 5 years as a professional assassin in the Tokyo underworld. Anyways, my point is that the United States has lost its mind.

First off, we keep letting Bob Novak speak in public.

We've known that this is a bad idea since 1972. (High on acid my ass.) I fully admit that I am a bleeding heart liberal, but at least I grasp the subtle difference between true and false. In a perfect world I would have a logical argument clearly showing the damage that Novak has done to the country. However, it isn't a perfect world. Most of Novak's actions are so far out in crazy-crazy land that they defy even the most casual connections to logic. He has blow the cover of a CIA operative, then refused to reveal his source. Mind you, he demanded that CBS reveal their source during the controversy over President Bush's National Guard service. Turns out you only need to reveal your source if you oppose Robert Novak's ideology. He accused Richard Clark of being a racist. He compared the compromise in the senate over judicial nominees to the holocaust.

He got Karl Rove fired - twice. Karl Rove has no reflection. Novak must break the mirror.

I would have distracted myself from this lunacy with a nice game of San Andreas, but I can't seem to find a copy of the game anywhere at my local store. This bit of insanity has been with us for a while though. The puritanical avoidance of sex in this country goes back to the 1600's. Remember - we are a country founded by people so uptight that the British couldn't stand to be around them. We're perfectly comfortable with violence, signing our kids up for passes into R rated movies, but sex is a whole other subject. We'll drool over the NFL cheerleader clothed with three strategically placed strips of spandex on monday night football, but god forbid that sex gets in a video game.

Every person that is up in arms over this has obviously never played the game. Grand Theft Auto is not only incredibly violent, but it shows a complete disregard for society. Having played the game, I'm not at all surprised that there is some sex in it. Well... there's sex in it if you go through a complex, thoroughly geeky procedure that you would have never stumbled onto without google. It's as though Reservoir Dogs has a sex scene that can only be seen if you rewire your entire house, speak in polish for four days and then bathe in tomato paste. You're just not likely to go to all that trouble. Even if you did, no one has ever confused Reservoir Dogs with Babe

Then I talked to Jon. Jon works in the home entrainment industry. Jon has warned parents about the violence in Grand Theft Auto. I'm told that more than one parent has been shocked and surprised after learning about the game, and one parent refused to believe Jon. That individual later complained to Jon about the violence in the game.

Just remember, from the confused parent to Bob Novak and everyone in-between: they all get to vote.