Jack Thompson's Letter To Take-Two Exec's Mother

debatem1 writes "Apparently, anti-violent-video-games crusader Jack Thompson is at it again, this time writing a letter to the mother of Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two, the company that produces the GTA series of video games. In it he compares Zelnick to a member of the Hitler Youth, advocates beating the young Zelnick, and contemplates the existence of a Ted Bundy merit badge for boy scouts."

Chutzpah

[Ian Alexander]

The pornography and violence that your son trafficks in is the kind of stuff that most mothers would be ashamed to see their son putting into the hands of other mothers' children, but, hey, your son Strauss has recently assured the world that he is "a Boy Scout, everybody knows that." I'd love to see the merit badges that Scout Troop handed out. Is there a Ted Bundy merit badge? If so, your loving son deserves one now. It should be red and green, for obvious reasons.

This guy's got some fucking chutzpah, and not the good kind. This is out-and-out harassment.

tattletale

[shadylookin]

Shouldn't he have stopped trying to tattle on people to their mother a few decades ago? It's kind of funny when their little, but once you become a grown man it's kind of childish

Re:Like herpes

[mikesd81]

How fast you think it would take for him to file a lawsuit? I'd settle for the ability to blow up "Law offices of JT and partners".

Re:Let me be the one to say

[Samari711]

Given his track record doing the same kind of stuff to Howard Stern and Janet Reno among others it's a safe bet that the guy should have been locked up 20 years ago

Re:I hope

[Faylone]

More than that, he's a shareholder! http://www.joystiq.com/2005/12/22/take-two-gets-a-new-shareholder-jack-thompson/ [joystiq.com]

Re:Glory Hole

[LrdDimwit]

Well that's kind of what happens when the interviewer asks you a question, and you respond by saying "I'm not going to tell you that". (I believe it was 'which law enforcement agencies are you working with?') I mean, the whole point of appearing on the show in the first place is to answer the interviewer's questions! You shouldn't be surprised when, after you say you're not answering their questions, they throw you off the show.

This post is wrong

[wulfmans]

If you read tfa you will see that the email was actually issued to Zelnick's lawyer. Now i agree Jack Thompson is a tool and should should be banished to the south pole. But timothy should word his postings here to reflect the article in wired and not make this so sensational. Besides this article is from the 24th of LAST month.

Re:I hope

[Chris Mattern]

Well, no, he isn't, at least not directly. Unless he was buying stock from a public offering (which I assume he was not), he paid the former owner of the stocks, not the company, to own those stocks. This might indirectly fund Take Two since buying the shares pushes the price upwards, making any shares they might sell in a future public offering (or issue in some other deal such as a takeover) possibly more valuable, but Thompson himself isn't putting any cash in their wallets. In fact, if Take Two was paying dividends, *they'd* be funding *him* (I looked it up on Yahoo, and Take Two is not currently paying dividends). What it *does* do is make him part owner of the company, thus possessing certain rights such as attending shareholder meetings (which is probably why he bought the shares).

Re:No advocation of child cruelty

[danzona]

That is a nice 60s feel good redefinition. But the reference is originally from the bible:

He that spareth his rod hateth his son.

And it refers to physical discipline.

Re:Jack's utter lack of a sense of irony

[halber_mensch]

That being said, the Nazi deal just doesn't stick. He was basically forced into the Hitler Youth, and he ran away when they tried to enlist him in the army.

Yes, while thousands of young people of the time, including Jehovah's Witnesses, gave their life or were forced into concentration camps for refusing to have anything to do with fascism.

Now, I'm not a pope fan, nor even a fan of most religion, but this is an absurd remark. I find it in extremely poor taste to fault Ratzinger at age 14 in a highly subversive state because he (along with all German boys at that age) was put into the Hitler Youth; and then later adopted a spiritual life and became Pope. I'm sure you never faltered in your moral direction when you were an adolescent, right? Because, I mean, you're pretty much a functional, adjusted adult a year after you hit puberty, yes? With the extensive world experiences you've had by that age and all? And you probably had a firm grasp on the operations of your government, and could easily recognize subversion on the part of the state on yourself, your family, and friends, and have the willpower to turn your back on everyone around you. Yes, I'm sure you were a model of humanity at 14, and Ratzinger should have been easily up to the task, especially since I'm sure he had decided long before that he would aspire to the papal seat in his late adulthood.

Re:Like herpes

[nuzak]

He's already barred from making any further filings in the district of the Florida Supreme Court, so any further filings have to come from his representation. He's been ignoring the order, and has been repeatedly getting a polite form letter back from the court clerk notifying him that his motion has been duly roundfiled (or more likely, stored as evidence against him).

The Florida bar recently concluded a disciplinary hearing against JT. Though they don't make it public what exactly they're looking for, it's pretty clear they're settling for nothing less than disbarment, probably permanent. However, a final decision isn't expected til sometime in July.