Government Hilarity

Okay: I work for the Feds, and I have forgotten some little quirks that happen when you work for such a huge organization.

First is: we do not have a lunch room. On every floor we do have a room, it has a sink, 2 microwaves, tables chairs, a fridge,and a  toaster. BUT we have no kitchen. We have .. ahem... "Interaction Nodes".  I cannot make this shit up. Not sure, but the rumour is that technically a kitchen has to have a stove, and has workplace safety issues, so we don't have a kitchen. We have "interaction Nodes".  And  EVERYONE calls them interaction nodes or the more colloquial "node".  ya. interaction node.

I saw an interesting article: Some stupid teenage girls trashed the home of some old lady (actually she owns some fast food chain in the US that I have never heard of). Instead of pressing charges, she BASICALLY grounded them... they had to read a good book and no TV or video games. As the wronged party she decided to give these kids a second chance to make sure that they don't have a criminal record, but  enforced a punishment within the law.  Now some site sort of took a bit of offense... saying maybe she banned games cause she thought it "led to sloth" or something like that.  Basically she must have banned the games, cause she thinks that games are evil.

I dont see it that way. I actually see it as effective. I mean if these girls loved Video games, what better punishment than to take them a way for a while.  It's almost like saying when my parents took away my phone as a teenager, they thought that what I was SAYING was wrong. Nope, they took it away cause they knew that it would make me think the next time I ... did whatever it is that I did.

What do you guys think? An inventive and effective punishement or is this old lady a game hating crone?  And if it is an effective punishemnt, why is the gaming community so touchy?