GTA Sex Flap Gives Record Hypocrisy Score

America's best-selling console video game is a little number called "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas." It's an ultra-violent rush through urban hell, as played out in fictitious Spanish-named California suburbs, and all named for an earthquake fault capable of unleashing megadeath on a scale no terrorist could imagine.

The violence is continuous, and extremely graphic. The good guy, a car thief named CJ, must commit mayhem on a level far exceeding anything you'll ever see from Iraq, even on Al-Jazeera. Body parts include those from cops, bystanders, hookers, and anyone else in sight.

You won't get any outrage on video-game violence from this blog. I've played these games, who hasn't, and I don't see myself turning into a homicidal maniac. In fact, CNN remains far more unsettling to me.

But the facts are the facts. GTA was and is a very violent game, and everyone played it. The game had its industry's version of the R rating (M for Mature). The stores didn't sell it to kids. Even so, 5.5 million people bought it, plenty of kids played it, and that was that. No harm, no foul.

Now, all these games have always had mods, wads, and other additions put out by users to make things more "interesting." One past user-written wad for a different type of game enabled the player to assassinate President Clinton, making a far larger mess than the JFK shooting ever did. Some grumbling, yes, maybe a Secret Service investigation, maybe not, but again no harm, no foul.

A while back, a mod called Hot Coffee showed up for GTA. It was a hack, but all it did was turn on a higher level of play at one point in the game.

In this new scene, you couldn't shoot the president, but you could do something apparently far worse. You could see people making love. You could see the act that creates life, and puts a little humanity into the otherwise hellish world of GTA. And yes, you could get a little horny buzz out of it all. Only a little, because the scene is PG-17 rated at best, and you can do just as well on HBO late at night.

Didn't matter... THAT did it!

The flap from the usual places has been monumental. Hillary Clinton issued an official statement (she's against it), then a call for tighter Federal censorship (she's for that). The Parents' Television Council demanded that the maker give refunds.

Finally, the game was reclassified adults only, the equivalent of X. Target, Wal-Mart, and Best Buy pulled it. The manufacturer put out a patch and will rework the game. It also revised considerably downward its earnings projection for the quarter.

And so, once again, a clear message has been sent about what America wants from its media. Killing, random death, carnage, mayhem, breakdown in social order? Cool. Love????? EEK!

Goddamn hypocrites.