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The young men who opened fire at Columbine High School, at the movie theater in Aurora, Colo., and in other massacres had this in common: they were video gamers who seemed to be acting out some dark digital fantasy. It was as if all that exposure to computerized violence gave them the idea to go on a rampage — or at least fueled their urges. But did it really?

Social scientists have been studying and debating the effects of media violence on behavior since the 1950s, and video games in particular since the 1980s. The issue is especially relevant today, because the games are more realistic and bloodier than ever, and because most American boys play them at some point. Girls play at lower rates and are significantly less likely to play violent games. A burst of new research has begun to clarify what can and cannot be said about the effects of violent gaming. Playing the games can and does stir hostile urges and mildly aggressive behavior in the short term. Moreover, youngsters who develop a gaming habit can become slightly more aggressive — as measured by clashes with peers, for instance — at least over a period of a year or two. Yet it is not at all clear whether, over longer periods, such a habit increases the likelihood that a person will commit a violent crime, like murder, rape, or assault, much less a Newtown-like massacre.

[Commentary] Modern-day Republicans make no secret of their passion for dismantling public institutions. And now they are after the United States Postal Service (USPS), a bedrock American civic institution that is older than the Republic. This month, Postmaster General Patrick Donahue announced that Saturday delivery of mail would end in August, to save an estimated $2 billion a year. This follows plans to close more than half of the mail processing centers, and the cutting of the workforce by some 200,000 since 2008. While done in the name of making the USPS solvent, this is death by a thousand cuts. As the American Postal Workers Union President Cliff Guffey noted, “USPS executives cannot save the Postal Service by tearing it apart. These across-the-board cutbacks will weaken the nation’s mail system and put it on a path to privatization.” Why blame Republicans? The media report the Post Office is dealing with losses of nearly $16 billion last year. E-mail and online bill payment have contributed to declining levels of first-class mail. The private delivery companies, FedEx and UPS, have captured a lot of the high-end corporate business. Isn’t the postman just like the milkman, a relic of a bygone age?

[Commentary] In a parallel universe, President Barack Obama, a progressive Democrat, says the following in his State of the Union address…

Creativity is central to our prosperity and progress. The Constitution recognized this by granting Congress the power of “securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” Copyrights give creators a financial incentive to produce new works. But, as artists from Walt Disney to Jay-Z have demonstrated, new works also build on the past. Locking up creative works for generations hampers the progress copyrights are supposed to encourage. And the retroactive extensions of the past few decades have convinced too many Americans that Washington cares more about corporate interests than about the public good. I will therefore send a bill to Congress restoring the copyright terms in effect before 1976: 28 years of protection renewable for another 28 years. The bill will also include a requirement that copyrights be registered with the Library of Congress so that we don’t lose track of their owners.

Dish Network will sell its spectrum if current plans to find a partner to create a wireless network don’t work, Chairman Charles Ergen said. Dish has “billions of dollars of spectrum” that could become available, Ergen said at a conference in Dana Point, California hosted by AllThingsD.

The company is seeking to create a wireless network that can deliver video, voice and data to its customers, Ergen said. A network is essential to Dish’s plans to deliver video to its satellite television subscribers both inside and outside the home, he said. Dish is offering $3.30 a share for a minority stake in wireless carrier Clearwire. “We would admit we failed and try a new approach,” Ergen said, if efforts to partner with a wireless company aren’t effective. “We would hang a ‘for sale’ sign on the spectrum.”