Jack Thompson Claiming Games Industry in Collusion with DoD

mytrip brings us a Wired blog about Jack Thompson's recent press release, which claims an "unholy alliance" exists between the gaming industry and the U.S. Department of Defense. Game Politics also has a discussion of Thompson's main points. From Wired: "Jim Blank, the head of the modeling and simulation division of the U.S. Joint Forces Command, says that commercial games don't meet the demand of the military, adding, 'first-person shooter games really don't apply in this environment.' Blank's point is that game-like simulations are a valuable tool for training soldiers in situations that would be too expensive to simulate in reality."

So we've got old and false info? That it?

[Steeltalon]

Two points: First, War as glamorous and consequence free... Wow, I don't think that I ever heard about anything like that in movies that I've watched for my entire life and many of the books that I've read. Seriously, didn't this moron ever watch Patton? Secondly, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that the VT shooter was established to have not been a gamer. Granted, Fox News (never one to let the facts get in the way of their "reporting") opted to have him on right after the shooting, before any facts had been established, so that he could talk about how games were responsible for it. As I recall, however, the shooter's roommates said that they'd never seen him play any games. I really wish that the main stream media would out this guy publicly.

Re:And if you play really well, you get abducted..

[Nicholas Burns]

The Last Starfighter. I love that movie.

Wait

[MerrickStar]

If he's speaking out against the Department of Defense, a branch of the government, doesn't that mean he's in league with the terrorists?

Could it be, that one of the most complained about things on /. could take care of an other?

The Patriot Act gets Thompson tossed in Guantanamo for an unspecified period, then there's one less problem to worry about.

Probably too good to be true, but we could dream.

Decline in Violence may be linked to unleaded gas

[spineboy]

Small amounts of lead can stimulate people to behave in a more violent way. The majority of the decrease occurred in the early 1990's - roughly the age when when kids who were no longer exposed to leaded gas were in their teenage years. The vast majority of violent crimes are committed by men, aged from 13 to 40. So once the unexposed kids grew up, they diluted the violence pool so to speak, and have been lowering the rate ever since.

Re:and?

[Dragonslicer]

My Chumash translates tir'tzeach as "murder". My Hebrew-English dictionary translates "kill" as harag or hemit. My guess would be that "kill" is the incorrect translation.

Re:and?

[Sigma 7]

Christ was a complete pacifist in every way.

Not when he saw the moneychangers within the Temple in the week before his crucifixion.

Re:and?

[Courageous]

Wycliffe's translation, which was done into the Middle English in the 14th century, is one of the oldest known English bibles. It uses the Middle English word "sle," which as you would correctly suppose is indeed a precursor to the modern English word "slay". In modern English, "slay" is somewhat archaic, but has more of a connotation towards murder, than not. I would say that are likely correct. Many early English works of the Bible (including Wycliffe's) were not translated from the original written languages at all, but rather were translated from Latin translations. Translations of translations. Errors would undoubtedly occur.

C//

Re:Mussolini != Hitler (?)

[Artifakt]

To really Godwin a thread takes an inappropriate comparison. Generally, it's hyperbole that indicates a Godwin - i.e. Jimmy pulls the wings off of flies, and somebody posts "He'll grow up just like Hitler. One day it will be six million flies!". So it's actually hard to Godwin this thread.
        It's a fair comparison, not hyperbole at all, to take what some of the founding members of the neo-conservative movement have said, and the fact that some politicians have claimed to be inspired by those people, and compare that, not to Hitler in general, but to Mussolini quoting Machiavelli, or even Hitler quoting Von Clausewitz. When someone talks to a nation's leader about repeating a lie often enough that the public believes it's the Truth, there's no exaggeration at all in comparing that someone to Gobels. Whether that makes the leader more similar to Hitler or not is something for the listener to infer if he wants to, not part of what's actually being said.
        In the same way, Jack Thompson isn't a U. S. senator, but he's a politically committed lobbyist, what most would call a Washington insider, so it's only a moderate stretch to compare him to McCarthy. He's tried to turn this issue into something that will give him tremendous political power, so comparing his desire for power with Hitler's desire isn't really hyperbole either. Someone would have to greatly exaggerate his chances of success or number of followers to be drawing an inappropriate parallel.