http://news.bbc.co.uk/…

The Oasis guitarist said it was a “pity scumbags are taking over our streets”, and claimed video games were partly to blame for violence.

He said: “In my day, status was trying to be somebody, do you know what I mean, not trying to kill somebody?”

The star said knife crime was a problem across the UK, not just in London.

The 41-year-old added: “I was up in Liverpool for a week a couple of weeks ago and even on the news there it’s every single night.

“I don’t even know what Cameron or Gordon Brown are going to do about it. I was watching a documentary on Panorama and another one about kids carrying knives and violence.

“One of the lads, a little lad, made a telling comment.

“The guy said, ‘Do you not think there’s anything better for you in life?’

“And he said, ‘Yeah, there probably is but I’ve never known anything else’.”

Gallagher also revealed that he and partner Sarah McDonald were worried about their children growing up and said they talked about knife crime in bed at night.

“People say it’s through violent video games and I guess that’s got something to do with it.

“If kids are sitting up all night smoking super skunk [cannabis] and they come so desensitised to crime because they’re playing these video games, it’s really, really scary.”

Eighteen teenagers have been murdered in London so far this year.

In response, the capital’s Metropolitan police force have set up a task force of 75 officers, dedicated to fighting knife crime.

My theory? The warfare/welfare state is sucking the responsibility and drive out of these kids and they have nothing to strive for. That is what is leading to the increase in knife crime. That and the ban on guns probably doesn’t help as it makes it easier likely to get a knife to commit your violent crime then a gun. At least for the lower end crime. I’m not claiming guns aren’t still relatively easy to get. In any case… if videogames and pot made kids want to stab people… the USA would have several million of them running around.

This game gets better and better.

Right click and hit play.

Game play footage: http://www.telltalegames.com/strongbad

http://www.missoulian.com/…

Although it’s against state policy for employees to play games like solitaire on their office computers, it’s left to each department to decide whether to keep or remove games from the computers.The issue arose recently at the Child Support Enforcement Division in the Department of Public Health and Human Services.

Division employees received new computers, but without the games like solitaire, hearts and minesweeper that come with the Microsoft Windows software package. These games had been on the division’s previous computers for years.

Some union and nonunion employees complained that the games weren’t on the new machines, said Lonnie Olson, division administrator. They said some other divisions in the same department had games on their computers.

“I said if they want them, we’ll put them on,” Olson said, adding that he wanted to make sure division employees were treated the same as others in the department.

An anonymous tipster who said he worked in the private sector criticized Olson’s decision.

“If state employees have time to play computer games, then there are too many state employees,” the tipster said in an e-mail to the Helena Independent Record. “As an employee in the private sector, I would run the risk of losing my job if my boss caught me playing games on my computer.”

Olson said he wasn’t aware of anyone abusing the privilege during work hours.

So they hang out before and/or after work to play MS Windows games? I think I agree with the private tipster. However, given the “services” the Department of Public Health and Human Services generally provides I’d rather them playing minesweeper than doing their job.