Those blurring lines

The fact two people were trampled jockeying for positions towards the front of a line in Fresno, or that three separate scuffles broke out over the course of five days injuring seven individuals standing in line outside a Dallas suburb's Best Buy pales to what happened outside a Cleveland Circuit City early Thursday night.

That's because the line of tireless shoppers, each vying to be one of the lucky few to come away with a Sony PlayStation 3 after sales of a limited number were to begin 12:01 Friday a.m., were attacked around 10:15 p.m. by two suicide bombers resulting in the deaths of at least 35 and the wounding of 60 others, many seriously.

Of course, none of this happened. It's just part of the blurring of reality that begins whenever long lines form. Whether it's the line of Iraqi men standing outside a Baghdad police station wanting nothing more than to work or the line of American shoppers outside a Cleveland Circuit City wanting nothing more than to play, it's sometimes difficult to discern where real life ends and video games begin.

Politicians continue to work on this. Meanwhile, thousands continue to die or get maimed with all the gore and realism of a video war game, only messier.