Jack Thompson Calls Cops on Penny-Arcade 913
Anon1001 sent us the latest developments in the ongoing saga between Miami Attorney Jack Thompson and Penny-Arcade. So far the story goes that Jack has filed a wrongful death suit against Rock Star, claiming that GTA is a cop killing training simulator responsible for the murder of a pair of cops. He also
offered $10k to charity if anyone who would develop some ridiculous murder spree game. When someone did it, and he changed his mind and Penny-Arcade donated the cash instead. All of this is being documented on the Penny Arcade website, in phone calls, rants and comics, as well as an 'I Hate Jack Thompson' T-Shirt. (Note, Slashdot's parent company owns ThinkGeek).
He has now
called the cops claiming harassment. Update: 10/18 17:40 GMT by Z : It seems like this confrontation has been brewing all summer. The most recent altercation is just another link in the chain made by Thompson's reaction to Hot Coffee and his crusade against the Sims 2. Further, PA has put up the scan of the letter to the cops, and a photo of the check.
Disbarrment (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Disbarrment (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Disbarrment (Score:5, Insightful)
I wonder what makes people go into these modes. It's like they don't feel there is any reprecussion to their actions. They are real-life trolls.
IANAL & YANAL (Score:4, Insightful)
How, pray, does an attorney get disbarred for being a loonie? Half the western governments would lose representatives, MPs, etc. on that claim. More to the point:
He has now called the cops claiming harassment.
He will now harass PA and the thing is, he knows full well how to do it and could make PA suffer in the short run.
I have no doubts he has nary a leg to stand on, bringing this all upon himself by raising himself to a Public Figure, which surrenders certain protections.
Re:IANAL & YANAL (Score:5, Informative)
Why, dear reader, by doing exactly what the parent poster indicated:
"He keeps dancing around direct legal threats, because he knows what will happen."
We tend to call that "barratry" here in the US. And yes, it is actionable.
But he'd make a GREAT politician... (Score:5, Insightful)
GREAT in the sense of successful, of course, not in the sense of "good for the people."
You all are taking note of what he's trying to do, right? He's trying to transform the gamer community's reaction to his lunacy into attacks on his cause, which is, at least in his mind, protecting innocent kids and brave police officers.
It's just a matter of time before it becomes a real simple equation:
Disagreeing with Jack Thompson = Helping to kill cops
At that point, it becomes really easy to pass laws banning the types of videogames that Jack disagrees with. (Then movies, then web sites, maybe even books...)
Yep, he may be just a lawyer right now, but he clearly has higher intentions in mind, and he's using skills that have been taught very well over the past few years to get elected. It doesn't take too much gray matter to realize that soccer moms outnumber gaming advocates by a pretty wide margin, so who would you rather have included in your base?
The crying shame of it is that given America's record of picking leaders lately, he'll probably succeed, unless at least a few people not just read Slashdot, but actually act on what they read here.
Send a message, folks, and get out and vote. And not just for the big elections every four years. Vote in your Congressional elections. Vote in your state elections. Vote for your local councilmembers. Spread the word and get your friend to vote. Don't be afraid to use that fancy gaming machine to write a fickin' letter [vote-smart.org] now and then. What do you say, can we please stop the ensuing madness to come before it gets started?
Jack wants to protect children and cops. Hey, I do too, I just happen to think he's going about it all wrong. The question in my mind now is: Who will protect the rest of us from Jack?
Re:But he'd make a GREAT politician... (Score:5, Insightful)
Someone should tell Thompson that in general, kdis and cops don't need protections over and above the ones they receive now. Kids have parents and cops are armed. If having supervisors or weapons are insufficient protections, then your society is collapsing and no further regulation is going to help.
Of course, no one listens to this point of view. It's crazy. Even more importantly, it's UNELECTABLE.
Re:But he'd make a GREAT politician... (Score:4, Informative)
Kid's Violence Levels [bolt.com]
Re:But he'd make a GREAT politician... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:But he'd make a GREAT politician... (Score:4, Insightful)
Typically political power trancedes the institutional facades of power.
Re:But he'd make a GREAT politician... (Score:5, Funny)
Your argument implies corruption at every level of government. On what facts are you basing this assertion?
My guess would be the last ~10,000 years of human history.
Re:But he'd make a GREAT politician... (Score:5, Insightful)
Think so? I'd be willing to bet that for every soccer mom, there's a soccer dad who squeezes in some GTA:SA after mom puts Ashley and Courtney to sleep at night.
Signed,
The guy who's playing Silent Hill 4 once his preschoolers drift off later this evening.*
* My wife is an NHL nut and hates soccer, but that's beside the point.
He is actually crazy (Score:5, Interesting)
One example: in 1988, he ran against Janet Reno for DA of Dade County:
Thompson's unique campaign message was that Reno was unfit for the job because, as a closeted lesbian with a drinking problem, she was great candidate for blackmail by the criminal element. Jack never explained why this remained a threat even after he exposed her "secret." Reno cruised at the polls.
Re:He is actually crazy (Score:5, Interesting)
The Wikipedia article [wikipedia.org] on him also includes this curious tidbit:
Following the Flores case Thompson became prominently involved in First Amendment issues, particularly concerning the possible effects of sexually violent material. The Florida Supreme Court ordered that he undergo psychiatric testing during this campaign, which he successfully passed. He later quipped that this made him one of the few sane lawyers working in the state. The specific reasons that prompted the court to require Thompson to be tested, and on what grounds they compelled him, are unknown.
Re:He is actually crazy (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Disbarrment (Score:5, Informative)
I would do it myself, but you have to be in some way involved with the lawyer (client or opponent) to file a complaint, it seems.
Re:Disbarrment (Score:5, Informative)
John Bruce Thompson
Member in Good Standing Eligible to practice in Florida
ID Number: - 231665
Firm:
1172 S Dixie Hwy Ste 111
Coral Gables Florida 331462918
Phone: 305.6664366
Fax:
E-Mail: jackpeace@comcast.net
County: Dade
Circuit: 11
Admitted: 05/31/1977
From the Florida Bar Association [floridabar.org] web site. Don't sue me, Jack!
-h-
Re:I tried to email him :( (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Disbarrment (Score:5, Informative)
Speaking of names (Score:5, Funny)
Translation: "Jack, you are about to be ridiculed like no other person in the history of the internet. Before this is over, you will be embarassed to speak your own name outloud, former friends will openly laugh in your face, children and animals will mistrust you, and you will reflexively spit at your own reflection out of disgust. And just when you think that things can't get worse, or perhaps it's all over, the fun will begin anew. "
Or, to paraphrase: "Jack, baby, you really fucked up."
Re:Penny Arcade Address (Score:4, Funny)
I'm sure we'll all send our prayer to your office [google.com] most of us really think you need all the help you can get. You seem to be losing your grip on reality, and are suffering some kind of delusions of grandeur and just a bit of a suicidal in the way you've gone and made your self a highly visable target; alarmingly a realativly simple google search on your office address turns up as the number one link, your complaint against California-licensed attorney, Mark Geragos who was attorney for Scott Peterson in his murder trial; that complaint as required by California law not only lists your office address and phone number but your home address, home phone number and cell phone number.
We are begging you to realise life is not a video game, you have no free extra lives in the bank, when some whacko finaly tracks you down and puts a bullet in you it will most likely hurt you very badly or kill you, Please be careful
Eh.... (Score:5, Funny)
What the fuck does that even mean?!
Re:Eh.... (Score:5, Informative)
Penny-Arcade accused him of playing a "shell-game" and donated the money themselves, satisfied that Jack's orginal proposal had been satisfied to the letter.
Re:Eh.... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Eh.... (Score:5, Funny)
Wait, someone already wrote a book about that.
I guess we skip directly to the step about retracting our offer and suing anyone who mocks us.
The idea was (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Eh.... (Score:5, Funny)
Well, the editors don't, so why should he?
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Rockstar Bites Back (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Rockstar Bites Back (Score:5, Funny)
Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wow (Score:5, Informative)
<imitation type="loser jack">
No, he didn't! no he didn't! no he didn't! [vgcats.com]
The VG cats guys started it when they replied to the email he sent them!
</imitation>
What about VGCats? (Score:3, Informative)
What an idiot. (Score:5, Funny)
Beautiful... (Score:5, Funny)
In the same sentence he's call them idiots he gives the wrong web address.
Now that's liebel (Score:5, Funny)
Poetic justice (Score:5, Insightful)
What does this man think he's going to accomplish? His vitriolic actions are very unlikely to change anyone's mind about the issue of video game violence. I teach argumentative writing and rhetoric to college students; one of the first things we teach is to know one's audience. Very few people of the ultra-conservative persuasion, however, need to be persuaded - they already are fanatically against video games that contain violence, sex, etc.
And his tactics - wilfully distorting the truth, branding video game makers as murderers, setting up straw men to attack in his ravings about violent entertainment - well, I doubt anyone who's played the games he's targeting is going to burn their copy of GTA because of the things Thompson is saying.
Bravo, Penny Arcade, for helping him do what he'd end up doing anyway: alienating anyone who might have listened to a more logical or reasonable argument against game violence, and generating more media attention for Rockstar Games et al. so they will, in turn, sell more games and continue creating popular content. For a lawyer, Thompson seems to have missed that one little maxim: "any press is good press."
Re:Poetic justice (Score:5, Interesting)
This is exactly what the constitution guarrentees me, you, and everyone else the right to do. Whether or not they deserve it, it's certainly within my constitutional rights. See Jerry Falwell for relevant details.
Jerry Falwell! (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, it's entirely possible he's crazy (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Paranoid delusions, or delusions of persecution, for example believing that people are "out to get" you, or the thought that people are doing things when there is no external evidence that such things are taking place. 2. Delusions of reference - when things in the environment seem to be directly related to you even though they are not. For example it may seem as if people are talking about you or special personal messages are being communicated to you through the TV, radio, or other media. 3. Somatic Delusions are false beliefs about your body - for example that a terrible physical illness exists or that something foreign is inside or passing through your body. 4. Delusions of grandeur - for example when you believe that you are very special or have special powers or abilities. An example of a grandiouse delusion is thinking you are a famous rock star.
Well he certianly seems to think people are out to get him, he seems to have delusions of reference as well, and he sure as hell has delusions of grandeur as he seems to think he's a great crusader against evil. He meets various other criteria as well:
# disorganized thinking # difficulty understanding # difficulty expressing thoughts # difficulty integrating thoughts, feelings and behavior
Now of course I am not a psychologist (though that is what my degree is in) and even if I were, you cannot diagnose a condition like schizophrenia from things over the Internet, but there's enough irrational behaviour that it certianly gives me cause to wonder. The man may honestly be clinicly crazy, and if that's the case, his rationale for his actions isn't likely to make sense to anyone.
Don't make a martyr of him (Score:3, Insightful)
No, this is exactly what he wants. All this 'public lampooning' feeds the beast. There is no bad publicity for this guy. Like that cheesy Merlin mini-seires from 1998, the only way to destroy the evil witch is to FORGET JACK THOMPSON. Turn your backs. Ignore him. If he wasn't controversial, producers wouldn't be seeking him out an putting him on news shows. The game news media attraction to him,
Bar sanctions needed (Score:5, Insightful)
Cyberstalking (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course, like everything Jacko does, it's never gotten to court. If he actually let it get to a court of law he'd be thrown out forcibly.
Re:Cyberstalking (Score:5, Interesting)
So let me get this right, if the people who email him just add "and don't email me back" to end of THEIR initial email, HE cannot legally respond? Sounds like FUN.
-Em
Re:Bar sanctions needed (Score:3, Funny)
I believe this [floridabar.org] is the proper form.
Superiority (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm also surprised that he hasn't been more thoroughly bashed by Penny Arcade. I would have expected some sort of Fruit F*cker episode gone wrong.
Hah (Score:4, Funny)
I remember a spot in GTA 3 where I could hide under an overpass and the cops would all jump off the top to their deaths...this would continue indefinately and I found it rather amusing. And now that I know that this is what would happen in real life, I'm going on a crime spree rampage during which I'll wipe out the town's entire police force by crouching near an overpass.
Re:Hah (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Hah (Score:5, Funny)
- To start your rampage, you'll need weapons and armor. Civilians can get shotguns, pistols, kevlar vests, and double-ended dildos (for hand to hand combat, of course...) from their local police station.
- Stealing a cop car is a great way to start a murder rampage. The best way to do this is to find a car with one cop, and try to open the passenger door. The cop will unlock both doors as he gets out, and leave the keys in the ignition. You can then get in through the passenger door as he runs around the car to catch you, and drive off.
- If you only commit a minor crime, such as bludgeoning a hooker to death with a double-ended dildo in the middle of the street, the police will forget about you in a few minutes.
- For more severe crimes, such as beating a police officer to death with a double-ended dildo, you will have to duck into various dark alleys until you find one marked with a star that will cause the police to forget about you.
- If the heat gets too hot to handle, try spray painting your car so the police won't recognize you. Changing cars won't work, though. The police aren't dumb, you know!
- If you do lose the police by spraying your car, refrain from immediately bludgeoning one with your dildo, or they'll recognize you. You have to be patient. It can take up to thirty seconds for the police to forget about the dozens of cops you killed.
- If defeat is inevitable, try to let an on-foot officer catch up to your car so he can arrest you. Despite the trail of destruction behind you and the cop guts stuck in your tire treads, the officer will forgive and forget for a measely $100 bribe. You'll be dropped outside the police station without any of your weapons, so make sure to run back inside and re-arm.
Not sure its been mentioned here (Score:5, Informative)
Libel, bannination (disbarment) (Score:5, Interesting)
Extortion factory? That's not a stated opinion, that's stating a (supposed) fact. Better get your own law team together, because libel's a bitch. I'd like to see how many lawyers it will take to get Jack off.
Re:Libel, bannination (disbarment) (Score:5, Interesting)
Jack to Judge: "Your honor, these youths tried to extort me $10K by donating $10k to a charity in my name!"
Disbarilarity will ensue.
Re:Libel, bannination (disbarment) (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Libel, bannination (disbarment) (Score:3, Insightful)
First, it can be expected to be taken seriously - after all, the guy is a lawyer, and he is filing a complaint with the police. So either he expects that statement to be taken seriously or he's filing a falce claim.
Second, he's an attorney lodging a complaint - extortion has a very specific legal definition and meaning, it isn't a word an attorny lodging a complaint with the police would be throwing around lightly. He either is actually accusing them of extortion or he is incompetent and is
Because you all need to be protected... (Score:3, Funny)
When I think of Jack Thompson... (Score:4, Funny)
Hopefully when the phoned up the police to ask them to arrest the Penny Arcade guys, the police officer on the phone said "You do your job pencil neck, don't tell me how to do mine!"
If he's aware of the t-shirt..... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why not tone down the rhetoric and give him the type of attention he deserves, which is NONE whatsoever?
I would be amused (Score:5, Insightful)
What would be really amusing to me is if they discovered, in 20 years, that untold psychological damage to children was done by The Sims. People spending all day running households like gods, torturing and killing families and developing these horribly twisted personalities. I mean, take a horribly violent, depraved movie -- for example, Saw, and ask what game the creators would probably enjoy playing?
In all seriousness, I think people are both more fragile and more resiliant than they're usually credited with. We handled torturing animals with sticks in the backyard 50 years ago, and we'll handle GTA. And I was going to say something about child-rearing, but then I realized that the last thing anyone wants is more advice on raising kids from a childless twentysomething, so I'll leave it at "the world is probably not coming to an end".
Re:I would be amused (Score:3, Insightful)
Funny enough, the attempt to censor violent media has long been the crusade of the democrats. Tipper Gore became pretty well known when she went after violent lyrics in rap music in the 90s.
Re:I would be amused (Score:4, Interesting)
Ooo! Ooo! I'm one. I'll try to answer.
ranting about games and sex causing social decline
Oh wait. No, I don't buy that line. Uberconservative Republican hacks like Senator Hillary Clinton [dailyillini.com] might want our tax dollars to investigate violence and sex in games, but I'm one conservative who does NOT. LESS governmenting spending on this bullshit.
"Yeah! I mean, do you know what's happened to rates of violent youth crime and teen pregancny in the last ten years?" They always answer that they're at unprecedented levels
Hmmm. Maybe I'm NOT conservative, because I don't believe that either. It's the George Bush cronies and conservative right-wing nuts like Senator Clinton, Howard Dean, and John Kerry [factcheck.org] who have recently been found playing up false numbers for activities that we generally frown upon as being measures of moral decay in our society. No, Republicans, screw you, I'm not buying into that line.
and then are thrown off when I tell them that they've actually been falling quite steadily.
Amen brother. And what's been happening for the last 10-15 years? Unprecedented prosperity, even when you consider the recession a few years ago. Crime rates almost always drop when people are making more money.
Teen pregancy is even at its lowest rate since we began taking statistics in the '40s, down from the all-time high in 1991.
Go go gadget condoms!
What would be really amusing to me is if they discovered, in 20 years, that untold psychological damage to children was done by The Sims. People spending all day running households like gods, torturing and killing families and developing these horribly twisted personalities. I mean, take a horribly violent, depraved movie -- for example, Saw, and ask what game the creators would probably enjoy playing?
uhhh.. The Sims 2 is actually on the list of morally reprehensible games that Jack is crusading against. Seriously.
Jack Thompson interview and comments (Score:5, Informative)
"Let me tell you something, idiot."
This utter professionalism is well-reflected in the text of his fax to the Seattle police.
"There are a bunch of computer geeks out there who think..."
"These idiots have been so careless as to..."
I can only imagine what some of his non-game-related correspondence is like.
Also, this has probably been posted before, but here it is again: the ChatterBox interview [chatterboxgameshow.com] with Thompson. Lunacy thrown into the sharpest relief.
The deeper you dig... (Score:5, Interesting)
I hope if the mainstream media begins to give Jack Thompson air time, since he is fast becoming a "celebrity", these past deeds are brought up. To ignore them does not accurately portray his real character.
- shadowmatter
Wow, this would be the perfect time... (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, wait a second [amazon.com].
He's not even very good at being threatening (Score:3)
"This story is completely false and defamatory. Take it down or else." [penny-arcade.com]
And Tycho's reaction to it:
"It is critical to establish that this letter isn't anything to worry about. We've been sent worse by better."
Make your complaints known! (Score:5, Informative)
Center for Professionalism:
Carl J. Zahner
czahner@flabar.org
Terri Anderson
tanderso@flabar.org
Paula Stephenson
psteph@flabar.org
from http://www.floridabar.org/TFB/TFBOrgan.nsf/54E05C
How lawyers "solve problems" (Score:3, Insightful)
If only... (Score:3, Informative)
Florida Bar
Complaints - Phone
- Attorney Consumer Assistance Program
- (850) 561-5600 + 1 + 5673
- ACAPflabar.org
If only there were a ton of witnesses to his wanton bullying who were willing to corroborate these claims and perhaps get his license to practice law suspended.
Well, I can dream can't I? =)
Re:If only... (Score:3, Informative)
Jack is evil (Score:3, Funny)
From PA's site (Score:5, Interesting)
Dear God and Jesus,
My name is Jayhawk88, but then you already know that. I know I haven't been the best person in the world, and I don't go to church very much, but if you could see to it that this Jack Thompson v. PA feud receives national media attention, I promise to be a good Christian from now on. I will give to the needy, love my fellow man, and praise your name if you will give me Jerry Holkins debating Jack Thompson on The O'Reilly Factor.
Support Jack Thompson! Buy GTA! (Score:4, Funny)
If JT wants anyone to play his game, and get vicarious revenge on the game industry, they have to purchase GTA to play it.
Well, I don't own a copy yet. Guess I'll go get one.
BTW, if your reply to this post defines "irony" for me, I'll fucking stab you. Damn, video games do make you violent!
Where's the game? (Score:4, Interesting)
So what ever happened to the game?
My Personal Experience Dealing With Jack Thompson (Score:5, Interesting)
While Jack Thompson's lawsuit was grinding its way through the court of appeals, another copy-cat attorney by the name of John DeCamp decided to sue us (Meow Media) for the Columbine shootings [freedomforum.org]!
Soon, every attorney with expensive car payments was jumping on the bandwagon, in [what I perceive as] an effort to collect a "nusiance" settlement from us and other defendants. In fact, this practice became so common and popular that PBS FrontLine ran a feature story [pbs.org] on our collective plights.
Fortunately, when the Court of Appeals ruled in our favor on the Paducah lawsuit (and reaffirmed this when they rejected the appeal for reconsideration), the other defendants were quick to drop their lawsuits, else face an action sounding in tort. However, that too required attorney fees and retainers for each case, in each particular venue.
For those of you who have not yet gone through lengthy and cumbersome litigation... there is not much you can do to recover the costs involved with defending yourself from most tort litigation. Sure, we could turn around and sue the families of the deceased children who were killed by the shooter... but that's not exactly good publicity, nor does it make for a sympathetic jury.
So here I sit today, a few hundred thousand dollars poorer, watching history repeat itself.
Re:Ah-Hahahahahaha! (Score:3, Funny)
(ducks)
Re:Thank god someone is doing something... (Score:5, Funny)
*10k meaning a 10k text file composed of the words "Jack Thompson is a twit" , as opposed to 10,000 in money
**This is satire , a parody of Jack Thompsons Parody ***
*** This , like J. Thompsons Satire is poor Satire .
Re:boobies? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Fascinating, but who hears it? (Score:5, Informative)
+Led the campaign against the 1989 2 Live Crew album "As Nasty As They Wanna Be", and later, Ice T's "Cop Killer."
+Filed with the FCC regarding the contents of a 2003 edition of Howard Stern's radio show resulted in Clear Channel Communications being fined $496,000 in 2004.
+Filed, in 1999, a $33 million federal products liability lawsuit against several entertainment companies, including Time Warner Inc., Polygram Film Entertainment Distribution Inc., Palm Pictures, Island Pictures and New Line Cinema, Atari Corp., Nintendo of America, Sega of America Inc. and Sony Computer Entertainment on behalf of the parents of victims of the 1997 Paducah schoolhouse shootings.
+Most recently has taken his tirade against videogame publishers Take Two (Grand Theft Auto series, Bully et. al.), Capcom (Killer 7), and EA (The Sims. Yeah really).
A great interview with Jack by Chatterbox Video Game Radio can be found at: http://www.chatterboxgameshow.com/jack.htm [chatterboxgameshow.com]
This guy has really made himself a credible source for irrationality and brought many smiles to sane peoples faces.
Most comment points excerpted from Wikipedia.org
Re:Fascinating, but who hears it? (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem is that he *IS* rational, and makes a rational argument. Just many people are so hell-bent on attacking the guy that they forget this fact. He bases clear sound and logical arguments.
The problem is that his whole argument is built upon certain premisses that just don't coincide with any reality that I'm aware of. He claims that people "train on GTA to kill cops"? What part about GTA lets me pick up a gun and use it to kill a cop? It may train my behavior, but it doesn't train those skills that I need to shoot a weapon with the accuracy that people like, the Columbine shooters exhibited.
When I loaded up this radio program I was ready to hear some crackpot wizzing away again like all the other crackpots out there. But this guy isn't like that. He's intelligent, and sane. He's just using some fantasy pixie-dust premisses that support his preconceived opinion that artistic violence envokes violence in the audience.
I wonder what he'd have to say about the real Grimm Fairytales... "Of course we started the Crusades, just look at what they were teaching their kids! After a decade of training on stories of knights kill things and wolves eating small children, they had the whole skillset needed to launch a massive compaign to regain the Holy Land!"
Re:Fascinating, but who hears it? (Score:5, Insightful)
Are you kidding me? The mainstream press loves this guy. The hot coffee mod "scandal" is but his latest whipping boy. This guy has scored a lot of prime time interviews and news stories on major outlets since the early '90s with, among other things, demands that 2 Live Crew's "As Nasty As They Wanna Be" and Ice T's "Cop Killer" be banned (those were big news items at the time), been a major factor behind several indecency fines Howard Stern received from the FCC, and been a part of damn near every news story on the dangers of violent video games.
This is the guy who insisted that Columbine was caused by DOOM being a "murder simulator". He has sued, among others Time Warner Inc., Polygram Film Entertainment Distribution Inc., Palm Pictures, Island Pictures and New Line Cinema, Atari Corp., Nintendo of America, Sega of America Inc. and Sony Computer Entertainment under Federal Product Liability laws after a different school shooting
His allegations led Dateline NBC to report that Lee Boyd Malvo, the beltway sniper, had "trained extensively using Halo".
He has been interviewed numerous times on CBS, including one famous instance in which he compared Doug Lowesnstein of the ESA to Joseph Goebbels.
He has appeared on 60 minutes to discuss how Grand Theft Auto (he alleges) trained a young man to murder two police officers.
No, the problem is most definitely not that the media is ignoring him. Quite the opposite, really.
Re:Fascinating, but who hears it? (Score:3, Funny)
I'd also love to hear him explain how using the BFG trains you for anything at all.
Re:Well, the T-shirt is a little much... (Score:3, Insightful)
If you say that a group of people are vile sinners who are going to hell, you can bet damn right that group of people is going to publicly disagree with you. I don't really see the problem.
Re:Well, the T-shirt is a little much... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd be much more inclined to wear a t-shirt that said "I pity Jack Thompson", or "I blame Jack Thompson's Parents".
Re:Well, the T-shirt is a little much... (Score:4, Funny)
(And sued for harrassment)"
"Jack Thompson thinks I'm an Idiot Gamer.
(I think he's a Senile Douchebag)"
"Common Sense 16, Jack Thompson 0"
"Jack Thompson is a senile old moron."
"(Picture of an ambulance being chased by a car)
Jack Thompson: Turing Tragedy into Profit since 1975."
Re:Well, the T-shirt is a little much... (Score:5, Insightful)
First off, nothing good is EVER accomplished through hatred. Rather, hatred is the cause of so many problems we face today. Glorifying hatered on a t-shirt is counterproductive, and reflects VERY poorly on the reasonable cause the shirt represents. Which leads to my second point...
It's hard to take people seriously when they make a public spectacle of themselves. Face it: the only point of such a t-shirt is to attract attention and elicit a response. Around here we call that "trolling" and such behavior is appropriately dismissed as irrelevant. It should come to no surprise that such behavior offline is similarly disregarded.
I DO hate Jack Thompson (Score:5, Informative)
Hatred is a human emotion. So unless you bleed green and you have pointy ears, chances are you had a taste of it.
The shirt is an expression of how the wearer feels about a public person, the wearer could be a hypocrite and pretend he meerly dislikes, or disagrees with Thompson, but if we do hate him for consistently attacking our character based solely on our preferred passtime, and his attempt to ban our passtime, then the shirt is simply expressing our feelings in a perfectly reasonable way.
I hate that fucker Jack Thompson.
There, I said it.
So? (Score:5, Insightful)
I hate the fact that his vitriol and assinine attacks getting him national attention on 60 Minutes.
I hate the fact that he is even allowed to get away with the very behaviors that he accuses others of simply be the fact that he's a lawyer. As such he should be help to HIGHER standards than those without professional legal training.
I hate that he uses his "position of power", his lawyership, to be a bully.
I hate his total inability to grasp reality and basic concepts like cause and effect.
I hate is blameshifting.
I hate his haircut.
And I LOATHE anyone making any preconceived conclusions about me without any personal knowledge of who I am or anything else, a practice entirely too common from corporations, politicians, and grandstanders these days.
Re:Well, the T-shirt is a little much... (Score:3, Insightful)
And he's saying they're vile sinners who are going to hell!
I think hate is the appropriate word in that case.
T-Shit is fine, just like Bush or Kerry T-Shirts (Score:5, Informative)
The geeks calling his house and such IS harassment, but Penny Arcade isn't liable for that. Nowhere on their site do I see his contact info or directions to contact him. In fact they say "You're all asking me for Jack's Email and or phone number and I respect that. The problem is that I can't give that info out."
As far as I can see, Penny Arcade is in the clear.
Re:T-Shit is fine, just like Bush or Kerry T-Shirt (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah, but the random link immediately underneath that to vgcats *does* have his email and phone number, so they're giving it out indirectly in a reasonably obvious way.
Not that I think they're completely off-base, but I don't think they're completely in the clear either.
Re:T-Shit is fine, just like Bush or Kerry T-Shirt (Score:4, Informative)
This has been the subject of extensive case law and precedent over the years. Ultimately it is decided by a jury if the case makes it that far.
Here's some elucidating info:
And some futher explanation of 'public figures':
I think in this case, Mr. Thompson is certainly a 'limited public figure' and as such would have a much higher burden of proof in a libel or slander case.
Harassment however is a whole other can of worms.
What law/rule/statute would it be breaking to make/wear/sell a t-shirt that said 'I hate John Smith'?
None as far as I know. (IANAL) However you might be treading on thinner ice if you walked around with a t-shirt that said "John Smith murders kittens." or "John Smith is a homosexual."
Re:T-Shit is fine, just like Bush or Kerry T-Shirt (Score:4, Funny)
But what if the t-shirt says: "Tom Jackson is a dyslexic mother fucker"?
Re:Well, the T-shirt is a little much... (Score:5, Funny)
Have you ever considered that you might hate them, too, if you just took the time to get to know them?
Re:Wow (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Wow (Score:3, Informative)
well they didn't directly but they did link post this:
You're all asking me for Jack's Email and or phone number and I respect that. The problem is that I can't give that info out. The fact is that Jack had time to call me after I sent him a sarcastic email. I have no doubt in my mind that he would try and pull some legal bullshit if I post his phone number.
Did I ever mention how much I like VG cats? [vgcats.com]
Check out the "VG cats?" link whic
Re:Wow (Score:5, Informative)
Just because a donation is made in his name doesn't mean that he made it. To take a deduction on a charitable gift you actually have to document that you gave a charitable organization some of your money or goods of a certain value and they received it from you. In this case, PA (depending on how the company is actually structured and where the money actually came from) will probably get to take a deduction.
The only case where a pure cash donation to charity can really be advantageous to your bottom line is if you are teetering on the edge and the deduction will drop your AGI into a lower bracket. You may also be able to help yourself if you can figure the donation in as an adjustment instead of a deduction (but this is not an easy set of rules to meet). You can also sometimes receive beneficial tax credits that when you donate in specific ways or to specific organizations such as with tsunami relief in 2004.
A handy deduction tip: Give your old stuff away to charity instead of having a garage sale. If you are already itemizing your deductions anyway (most homeowners are in this boat) the tax savings from the deduction at a reasonable declared value will bring you more than taking pennies on the dollar from spendthrifts at your sale. Plus, you dont have to pay taxes on the income from the garage sale (since there is no income).
Pot. Kettle. You don't understand tax law either. (Score:5, Informative)
I don't know the answer to that question, but your post shows that you don't know anything about tax law either.
The only case where a pure cash donation to charity can really be advantageous to your bottom line is if you are teetering on the edge and the deduction will drop your AGI into a lower bracket. You may also be able to help yourself if you can figure the donation in as an adjustment instead of a deduction (but this is not an easy set of rules to meet). You can also sometimes receive beneficial tax credits that when you donate in specific ways or to specific organizations such as with tsunami relief in 2004.
1) "Dropping into a lower tax bracket" alone does not magically save you money. If you donate cash to a real charity, you will ALWAYS pay out more money than you will get back in tax deductions. The term "tax bracket" refers to your "marginal" rate. If you are in the 28% "bracket", it does not mean that you owe 28% on all of your AGI. The U.S uses what is called a "progressive" tax system. That means that you owe X% on the first $Y of your income, A% on the NEXT $B of your income, C% on the NEXT $D, etc. If you drop from $1 over the 28% line to one dollar under the 28% line (into the 15% range), you will have donated two dollars, and you will owe $.43 less in taxes, for a net cash payout (read money out of your pocket) of $1.57. Your charity dollars acutally go LESS far towards reducing your tax bill, the lower bracket you are in.
2) Tsunami relief did NOT give you special tax CREDITS. Instead, it shifted the deduction date deadline, which let folks take a DEDUCTION on their 2004 taxes for donations made in 2005. A credit is dollar-for-dollar reduction in the check you must cut to the IRS. A deduction merely reduces the amount that tax is calculated from.
A handy deduction tip: Give your old stuff away to charity instead of having a garage sale. If you are already itemizing your deductions anyway (most homeowners are in this boat) the tax savings from the deduction at a reasonable declared value will bring you more than taking pennies on the dollar from spendthrifts at your sale. Plus, you dont have to pay taxes on the income from the garage sale (since there is no income).
The "reasonable value" you are allowed to deduct for used household goods is supposed to be what the items would sell for at an establishment such as a thrift shop. Unless your local Salvation Army sells stuff 3x-6x more than a garage sale (depending on your marginal rate), you aren't going to end up on top by doing this.
Please actually READ tax law (or at least IRS publications) before giving out wacky advice like this...
SirWired
Re:Wow (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Ignore the bully? (Score:5, Insightful)
I wouldn't worry about it. Quoth Tycho:
It is critical to establish that this letter isn't anything to worry about. We've been sent worse by better.
A response that should, with any luck, inspire Thompson to further heights of lunacy to the amusement of all.
Re:Jack got the URL wrong (Score:4, Insightful)
I notice some people are calling him a Christian as well, and likewise, if he is a Christian, he's done an utterly poor job representing Jesus. I mean, he called (apparently, in satire) for a game where people piss on the busted brains of dead game shop employees? Oh yeah, that's real Christ-like there Jack. Nevermind the fact that Jesus said to refrain from taking people to court. Ugh.
Re:I once read... (Score:5, Informative)
Basically, the rationale is that an individual, or a group of like minded individuals, have an attraction to something which has been deemed by the rest of society as being "wrong". To counter this attraction, these individuals seek to eliminate, in totality, that which they are attracted to. In certain cases, where the elimination of the object of attraction is not possible, they seek to make that attraction and/or the slightest expression of that attraction illegal, in the hopes that if this is so, they themselves will no longer be attracted to it, and the burden will be lifted.
Sounds fine and rational on the surface, doesn't it? Therein lies the problem, which these individuals never dare to face: the attraction lies entirely within the realms of their own psychological makeup. Removal of the external representation ultimately does nothing to quell the attraction which lies within their minds and thoughts. If they truely thought that it would work, rather than eliminate the external sources, they would just remove themselves from societal forces entirely, either via suicide (in the extreme case), or through self-imposed isolation or exile (moderately extreme, but likely the classic method for dealing with the pains of society by individuals throughout history - is it any wonder why such practice tends to be part and parcel of most major religions?). In the case of the latter solution (because, after all, sucessful suicide would be a working solution), these individuals would quickly realize that the issues and troubles they (and others) face is within them, and can only be rectified through self-realization and self-actualization...
Is it any wonder that this sounds like the beginning of so many religions?
Anybody with half a rational brain can deduce this. Unfortunately, for many, they have to take the difficult route and either screw up the rest of society which has figured this out already via crazy changes to the law, or return from the wilderness after an extended stay to reveal their "revelation" to the masses (many of whom then agree and seek to follow, giving money and property at every turn) - only after they realize that it is all in their heads, and not much short of changing their worldview will change that.
The thing is, if they would just stop what they were doing, and love themselves for who they are, both physically and mentally, rather than continuing with their self-flaggellation at every turn, the world would likely be a better place overall...