Ten years ago today, 2,996 people were murdered, unleashing a pair of destructive, mutually reinforcing trends. To prove their relevance, terrorists keep trying to attack the United States at home. And the media and politicians react to it with hysteria, running in fear of getting blamed for a successful attack and perpetuating the gigantic, expensive, counterproductive National Security State. As awful as the snuffing of so many souls on 9/11 was, the second trend has often proved more dangerous than the first.

In case you haven’t noticed, hysteria is what the terrorists want. In fact, it’s th...

"Remake" is a dirty word -- except in videogames.

Rarely, if ever, do remade films and television shows garner even half the praise of the originals. Who'd want to watch Gus Van Sant's take on Psycho when Hitchcock's is next to it on the shelf? But videogames have been an exception. Taking the underlying game code and sprucing it up with modern-day amenities can, and often does, produce a superior experience.

With game budgets ballooning and too much risk becoming a deadly proposition, high-definition remasters of the classics have become a doubly sweet proposition for game publishers. You...