You can take away our freedom to use assault rifles on innocent civilians, but you cannot take away our right to do the same in Grand Theft Auto IV.

That is the gist of a Supreme Court ruling handed down on Monday, which struck down a California law that would have banned violent video games from being distributed to minors. In this first ever case revolving around video games, the Court ruled the ban would violate the free-speech rights of video game retailers and gamers alike.

Justice Antonin Scalia, in writing the majority opinion, said, “Our cases hold that minors are entitled to a significant degree of First Amendment protection.” The Court ruled that video games are a form of art, just like books, movies, comics, etc. Therefore, they deserve the same First Amendment protection granted to those other art forms. Scalia goes on to point out that stories have contained gruesome, violent images since the beginning of time. He cites Grimm’s Fairy Tales and The Odyssey as perfect examples of violence that are a regular part of childrens’ education. I am glad to see the Supreme Court strike down this ridiculous law. While my own video game days are a thing of the past, I still appreciate the entertainment value found in this modern, interactive form of storytelling. Action-adventure stories have existed throughout human history, and it is awfully hard to tell such stories without depicting violence. Similarly, throughout human history, there have existed children who face possible moral corruption at the hands of violent stories. While the method of telling violent stories has evolved, video games are no more corrupting to youth than older methods. Studies examined during the case showed that children exposed to violent video games did display higher levels of aggression, but the same was true for children who spent time watching Bugs Bunny cartoons. That is right, beloved cartoon icon Bugs Bunny is corrupting our children. I guess we should not be surprised, when he is not getting Elmer Fudd to shoot Daffy Duck in the face with a shotgun he is wearing dresses and makeup. No way children should be allowed anywhere near a murderous transvestite rabbit.

If you are going to ban the sale of violent video games, you have to start banning other violent forms of storytelling; but that is something the Supreme Court has rejected in the past. Censorship of obscenity and sexual conduct in art has been upheld, but violence is considered too nebulous by the Court to be banned in the broad way outlined by the California law.

The bottom line, as it always is in cases like these, is that parents need to accept responsibility for the actions of their children. No parent should be buying Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty for their child unless they are sure their child can handle it and can differentiate between reality and video games. That is why we tend to start children off easy. We show them Looney Tunes or read them Grimm’s Fairy Tales first. Talking animals and mythical beasts doing harm is easier to accept as fake than the realistic humans depicted in modern video games. Once a parent is sure of the child’s mental cognizance to differentiate, the parent can start introducing the child to more complex, sophisticated and even violent content for entertainment.

I have personal experience with this. I have watched and helped my younger sisters graduate from SpongeBob Squarepants cartoons to the books and films of Harry Potter and (shudder) Twilight. Even I have yet to find the courage to risk the latter series, but that might have more to do with the fact that I have good taste.

Common sense dictates parents should be able to control their own children and that government has no need to slap penalties onto companies for attempting to make a profit through storytelling meant for mature, responsible adults. Unfortunately, common sense is not all that common, which is why we see the Supreme Court having to decide cases like this one.

For now, avid gamers can relax and know that Big Brother will not be taking away our access to virtual worlds where you can kill prostitutes with a baseball bat, rip the heads off monsters and head-shot a terrorist with a sniper rifle. Game over.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Tiger Woods play to the best of his abilities. Excluding one magnificent week at the Masters this year, he hasn’t been at his best since that memorable 2008 U.S. Open he won at Torrey Pines on a bum leg.

If you haven’t turned on ESPN in a while you may not have noticed, but Woods hasn’t played since he withdrew after nine holes of the Players Championship last month, hampered by injuries. Woods has cited nearly every joint in both legs as a reason why he can’t play. Between tournament app- earances, he’s usually on crutches and in a walking boot. During appearances, he plays more like an Eldrick than a Tiger Woods.

Woods has finally realized that rushing rehab to participate in a tournament rarely produces a positive result. This month he skipped the Memorial, a tournament he’s won four times in the past, and the U.S. Open, in which he is a three-time champion. This week he sits out the event he personally hosts, the AT&T National.

There have been bright moments in his absence, but it’s not the same. Still, the game of golf is surviving without Woods at his best.

We’ve had the chance to see young stars rise, uninhibited by his dominating presence. We watched a gap-toothed South African named Louis Oosthuizen win the 2010 Open Championship as the world media scrambled to figure out how to pronounce his last name.

At Congressional Country Club this month, we watched mop-topped 22-year-old Rory McIlroy run away with a U.S. Open title, smashing scoring records as he went wire-to-wire in an amazing show of skill. But for that special week in April, we were reminded of the power of Woods as he roared around Augusta National trying to earn his fifth Masters title. Trailing by seven shots entering the final round, Woods — wearing his familiar red shirt that was for so long symbolic of dominance — quickly closed the gap and, for a few hours, it was like 1997 again with golf’s greatest hero.

I was sitting in the press box of the USF Baseball Stadium that afternoon, watching as the Bulls beat Rutgers 7-3. Yet even in a room full of people tasked with watching the baseball game, everyone had an eye on what Woods was doing. As players walked toward the Athletics building following the game, they asked if Woods had really come all the way back to take a share of the lead.

Moments like that are the reason why Woods should take his time getting healthy. Golf fans deserve to see a healthy Woods compete the way he did when he took the sport by storm a decade ago. Whether that means sitting out the rest of this season or even longer, the sport will be better off if he rests.

A young Best Buy customer picked up two CDs and went up to the cashier. He gave her a credit card. It was declined. He gave her a second credit card. Again, it was declined. He gave her a third and a fourth. Only the fifth went through.

This extreme scenario, which N.C. State U. lecturer Ed Weems recounted, is all too relatable to college students. The average student graduates with $4000 in credit card debt and almost $20,000 in student loans, according to PNC bank and the N.C. State Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid.

Consumer Reports recorded that student loans have recently surpassed credit cards as the largest source of debt in the U.S. and it’s likely to reach $1 trillion this year, meaning 2011 seniors will hold the largest average debt to date for college students.

“A lot of people have it in their head that, ‘It’s ok if I borrow a lot of money because I’m going to get a degree, and I am going to make a lot of money,’” Kathryn Zellmer, collections specialist at the University Cashier’s Office, said. “Let me tell you how many engineers call me and tell me, ‘I thought that if I got an engineering degree from N.C. State I’d be set for life.’”

With the struggling economy and job scarcity, students who borrow are having more trouble paying off their debts. Yet with University tuition more than doubling since fall 2001, more students are turning to loans for school: from 13 percent of undergraduates in 2001 to more than 47 percent in 2011, according to University Planning and Analysis reports.

Rachel Cruze, public speaker on finances and face of best-selling author Dave Ramsey’s youth-finance product line, said there is concern for the toll the mounting debt and interest takes on students’ futures.

“Your income is your number one wealth building tool,” Cruze said, “And if it’s tied up with monthly payments because you’re in debt, it’s going to be a lot more difficult to become wealthy.”

The economy is not the only issue. Cruze and Zellmer point to lifestyle and wrong assumptions about money as major contributors as well.

“[Students] live their lives in the moment and don’t think about how the four years they are in college can affect the next 40 years of their life,” Cruze said.

To get on solid financial footing, Melissa Hart, personal finance professor in the College of Management, suggests everyone fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form because if nothing comes of it, only a couple hours will be lost.

Hart also said to borrow no more than your first year’s salary after graduation in your chosen field. In other words, don’t borrow more than your field will help you pay back. Cruze also said she recommends the hundreds of scholarships, both publicly and privately funded, that take only a few hours to apply for.

Maria Brown, associate director at the Cashier’s Office, said there are options to fit your needs. There is a monthly payment plan that allows students to pay what they can afford and lessen the amount of loans required.

“If you can afford a couple hundred dollars a month, get that much in loans and then do a monthly payment plan,” Brown said. “Over four years, those little payments you’ve made will have added up.”

Cruze, however, said she recommended eliminating debt altogether.

“There are plenty of jobs that college students can do to make money in order to pay for school,” Cruze said. “You might have to make sacrifices in order to pay cash for school, but it will be worth it when you’re 30 and all of your friends are still paying for college.”

Zellmer said she believes that eliminating debt isn’t practical for those putting themselves through college, certainly not without sacrificing the coveted four-year college and dorm experience. However, especially if a student is undecided on a major, Zellmer said there are plenty of options.

“There is nothing wrong with going to a community college first and dipping your feet in exactly what you want to do and how you want to spend your money,” she said. “After all, your degree is still from N.C. State.”

Other ways to avoid debt are things students don’t usually think about at their age: budgets and emergency funds.

“Write your income at the top of the page and then write down all your expenses – rent, groceries, utilities, books, eating out – and total them at the bottom,” Cruze said. “If your income is greater than your expenses and you live within your budget, you will be on the right track. If your expenses are greater than your income then you need to look at cutting some of your expenses or increasing your income.”

Hart said this is an easy way to avoid the scenario of having $20 or $30 in your pocket, it disappearing and you not knowing where it went. Credit card management becomes even more logical.

“Pay your card off every month on time,” Weems said. “If you can’t afford to pay it off this month, don’t buy it.”

Creating room in your budget isn’t necessarily as hard as it may seem. Many students think their iPhone is a necessity, according to Brown, when a simple $10 per month pay-as-you-go phone will suffice.  Hart pointed out that a night on the town would not go under the “food” budget entry.

Cruze said she suggests an emergency fund of at least $500 to cover that unexpected doctor’s appointment, a plane ride home or a blown tire. A few extra hours to save an emergency fund can allow you to do as Cruze recommends—cut up the credit cards.

“You have to make sacrifices, which include getting rid of the credit card and saving for emergencies so you don’t use the credit card as a crutch.”

The overarching, simplest step to avoid unnecessary debt is to research, think through, and be deliberate about financial decisions, according to Cruze.

“Even though you’re in college, you still need to think about how your decisions will affect you later in life,” Cruze said. “Talk to anyone who has graduated and they’ll probably tell you the same thing. If you are able to graduate from college with no debt and a job, you’ll be well on your way to being a potential millionaire.”

Finally the people of Illinois have some closure in the Rod Blagojevich scandal.

And surprise, surprise he has been found guilty. At first this is a reassuring development. I say development because he has not been sentenced yet.

Don’t get me wrong, the verdict signals the closing of this unfortunate piece of political theatre for Illinois and many Illinois politicians are hopeful that politics in Illinois can return to doing what it was suppose to, serving the people of the state.

Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, said it best in a Herald & Review article:

“Lawmakers see opportunity for changes with verdict” when he said Blagojevich was more interested in personal gain than serving the people of Illinois.

“Rod Blagojevich abused the office of governor and made every attempt to capitalize on his public office for personal and political benefit,” Brady said. “His overwhelming conviction today should serve as yet another reminder that public officials are in office to serve the public and not their own personal interests and ambitions.”

Now the question will be does he get what he deserves?

Since he was more interested in getting the highest price he could out of President Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat, I think it is the least the judge can do to give him the maximum amount of time allowed by law.

After all this is a man that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said, among other things, Blagojevich was guilty of “shaking down a children’s hospital and squeezing a person to give money before you sign a bill that benefits them is not a gray area. It’s a crime.”

It has been reported in The Associated Press article “Jurors say guilty: Prosecution makes case on 17 of 20 charges, including selling Senate seat” in Tuesday’s Herald and Review that “experts” think he may get between 10 to 15 years.

Is that sufficient time for someone that ruled their elected office like a monkey drunk on power?

I think not. If he were an average person, chances are being convicted of 17 charges would get them more than 10 to 15 years.

How about we give him the maximum on the all counts and call it even. But we all know that won’t happen.

We also need to send a message to future and current politicians that betraying the public trust is unacceptable and will be met with stiff penalties.

Blagojevich spent more than two years parading around on television and reality TV shows. Anyone up against the charges and prison time he was should have been taking his situation more seriously, not prancing around on TV like a diva.

A movement is afoot in Florida to revolutionize our textbooks, and it’s time that we all got on board with it.

A recent article on the blog GOOD.is reported that Florida passed a new law requiring all public schools in the state to make the switch to e-textbooks by the 2015-16 school year.

This move will require an investment of a few hundred dollars in a Kindle, Nook or iPad. As the article points out, the digital textbooks are only about $10 cheaper than their hardback counterparts. An article on the website of News Channel 5 states that Palm Beach County School District officials could not put a total cost on switching all of their students to digital devices, but that the cost would top $30 million.

Gary Weidenhamer, a school district educational technology director cited in the same article, said the district would need to expand its Internet infrastructure to provide hundreds of thousands of students Internet access at the same time in classrooms. Adding that bandwidth would cost at least $9.8 million, according to Information Technology Director Deepak Agarwal. Despite an initial investment, there are several long-term benefits to making this transition.

E-readers can be used to obtain many books, which include classics, such as Romeo and Juliet. Because the copyrights of many of these classic textbooks are expired, they are part of the public domain. Students with e-readers can download these books for free, saving schools the cost of ordering hardback copies and paying high shipping costs.

Changing to this new technology will require that students be educated on the upkeep of these products. Schools can adapt to this not only by teaching students basics on how to care for these devices, but they also have the option of paying for insurance to cover damages. The article points out that a pilot program of this sort has already taken place at Clearwater High School in Clearwater, Fla., where parents had to pay a $20 insurance fee.

This fee is a small price to pay in light of the potential savings for schools. It also gives parents another safety net in case a student damages a device.

This change will, of course, come with some drawbacks. Students who are used to being able to highlight sections of their hardback books will have to adapt to new technology in order to do so. This may be one of the reasons that these textbooks have not yet been a hit with students.

In 2010, digital books made up only 3 percent of textbook sales, according to the National Asociation of College Stores. According to a column in USA Today, analysts say this is because digital textbooks really aren’t anything more than PDF copies of normal books. Students that are used to color-coding their textbooks and simply happen to enjoy the aesthetic quality of hardback books are less inclined to enjoy the new digital books.

Ultimately, however, the benefits of switching to e-readers greatly outweigh the cost — no pun intended. A recent study in USA Today found that second graders carry 5.3 pounds of books and supplies in their backpacks on an average day. Once these students get to sixth grade, the weight they carry increases to 18.4 pounds. A switch to digital books can save these students a good deal of back pain.

Digital textbooks will greatly benefit students and save schools money. Hardback books will always be with us, as well they should be. Making this change in our schools, however, is an important step toward providing a good education at a lesser cost.