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Jack Thompson Is Doomed (Let's Point And Laugh)

Great tale of the PA encounter on the front page there.

Conversation one is where Jack Thompson asks Gabe if Gabe has ever donated to charity. Of course, we have - it's usually a couple Gameboys a year for Child's Play, but the "take" from the distributed gamer metamind is over five hundred thousand dollars in two years. This answer did not satisfy him. He suggested that if Gabe mailed him again, he would be sued so fast that his head would "spin," and that he, Jack Thompson, had given more to charity that Gabe could even imagine. Gabe isn't very good at math, so he may have a point. I'm told that humbers larger than ten give him a headache. What's more, his donations were more valuable, because he wasn't some flush-with-cash game company. Which I guess is relevant to us, because... Well, I guess it's not relevant.

Then he hung up.

Usually when a person threatens us with a lawsuit we don't really pay attention. The fact of the matter is that rude people and idiots often try to threaten people by gesturing wildly at the edifice of the legal system. But this man is actually a lawyer, and also demonstrably crazy, and he apparently has time to call random people who mail him on the phone so maybe he's looking for something to do. In any case, we aren't a flush with cash game company, so at the very least my cohort wanted to excise this erroneous statement from the record.
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Threaten a lawsuit over an email? What a loon.
 
I actually corresponded with Mr. Thompson through email. This was about 10 to 12 months ago. I wrote in my email the most common defense of video gamers. That I am a video gamer since my childhood and I'm 'normal' and never been arrested or felt the urge to curb-stomp a hooker.

His reply went something like: "How do you know you're 'normal'? You most likely are not."

I expect to see Thompson go off the deep end or either do a complete 180 soon. He's got the world against him now... can he sink any further or will he just snap and start playing/reviewing video games for IGN???
 
LoGradeChili said:
I actually corresponded with Mr. Thompson through email. This was about 10 to 12 months ago. I wrote in my email the most common defense of video gamers. That I am a video gamer since my childhood and I'm 'normal' and never been arrested or felt the urge to curb-stomp a hooker.

His reply went something like: "How do you know you're 'normal'? You most likely are not."

I expect to see Thompson go off the deep end or either do a complete 180 soon. He's got the world against him now... can he sink any further or will he just snap and start playing/reviewing video games for IGN???
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He's probably just gonna die of a heart attack because he's all wound up about nothing.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_(attorney)
In an interview with the Sun-Sentinel, Thompson expressed his views on Islam [30][31][32][33]:

"The Bible doesn't promote killing innocent people," Thompson said. "Grand Theft Auto does. Islam does."
"Islam promotes the killing of innocent people," Thompson said. "The Quran requires the infidel, whether Jew or Christian, to be killed. Â… That's a core essence of the religion. Â… Muhammad was a pirate who killed infidels and who advocated the killing of infidels. Not a nice guy. Osama bin Laden is in keeping with his fine tradition."
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There's a really easy way to make Thompson go away. Anyone care to guess how? :lol
 
LoGradeChili said:
I actually corresponded with Mr. Thompson through email. This was about 10 to 12 months ago. I wrote in my email the most common defense of video gamers. That I am a video gamer since my childhood and I'm 'normal' and never been arrested or felt the urge to curb-stomp a hooker.

His reply went something like: "How do you know you're 'normal'? You most likely are not."

I expect to see Thompson go off the deep end or either do a complete 180 soon. He's got the world against him now... can he sink any further or will he just snap and start playing/reviewing video games for IGN???
Click to expand...

Thompson seems to operate under the circular logic of clever idiots.

"You're insane!"

"No I'm not!"

"Only insane people could deny your brand of insanity, so protesting my accusation proves you're insane!"

Sadly, this kind of reasoning is used all the time in any number of subjects. It's the old "you wouldn't protest my invading your privacy unless you had something to hide from decent people!" argument put forth by groups that want to collect information on citizens.
 
ManDudeChild said:
I'm taking 2 points away ... AND your spider-man costume.
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Well, you gotta admit, killing him is a real easy way of getting rid of him. It's just the repercussions that would be difficult.
 
Dr_Cogent said:
Well, you gotta admit, killing him is a real easy way of getting rid of him. It's just the repercussions that would be difficult.
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Not if you accidently provoke terrorists to do it it isn't. ;)

Imagination: -10
 
J Tizzy said:
Muhammad was a pirate who killed infidels and who advocated the killing of infidels. Not a nice guy. Osama bin Laden is in keeping with his fine tradition.
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The RIAA/MPAA should use this in their next anti-piracy campaign
 
ManDudeChild said:
Not if you accidently provoke terrorists to do it it isn't. ;)

Imagination: -10
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OK, so what you do is get images out there of JT doing something to inflame the terrorists. Bam, he gets offed. :D
 
Keyser Soze said:
catlaugh8se.jpg
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:lol

Edit: I just saw PA's new strip... Check out the story behind it. Hilarity!

http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php?date=2005-10-14
 
Dr_Cogent said:
OK, so what you do is get images out there of JT doing something to inflame the terrorists. Bam, he gets offed. :D
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Any one of his anti Islam quotes could do that

I knew Thompson was a complete nutjob but I didn't think he was that far off the deep end. I mean sure...Anybody who refuses to look at the facts can see all video games/media as the sole downfall of today's society. But to try to provoke Janet Reno into a debate about her sexuality? Especially with a "Do you like me? [ ]Yes [ ]No" type letter! :lol To claim that she and several other prominent people are easy targets of blackmail and therefore shouldn't have any power only to attempt to blackmail them himself...Wow. Really...Why hasn't this guy been committed or at least disbarred yet?
 
ManDudeChild said:
Not if you accidently provoke terrorists to do it it isn't. ;)

Imagination: -10
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the terrorists would have done something by now if they actually cared about him, maybe a bomb letter or something


I'd rather see him locked up on a mental institution for the rest of his sad life

Sholmes said:
If he died tommorow, I think I might smile a bit. Just a little bit though.
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I'd open a bottle of champagne
 
Dave, it is laughable, it is absurd, that you have copied your email to Bill Gates, of all people. This is a guy whose Halo trained Malvo to kill in D.C. This is a guy who now has put all the Grand Theft Auto games on his XBox. This is a man who is going to release Bully when the coast is clear in the spring.
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This is probably the best quote from his letter to Dave Walsh. Thompson is grasping at straws. His end is nigh; all the more reason for us to laugh.
 
What a raving lunatic. He actually said that Bill Gates helped the DC sniper Malvo. Clearly, Mr. Thompson does not yet know what it feels like to have an XBOX sized foot shoved up his ass by Bill's lawyers. Bend over, Mr Thompson, and get busy dying.
 
Who would have thunk that videogames are the root of all evil? Reading his rants is like reading free association.

Games --> nazis --> Islam --> sniper --> politics --> God-->legal threats

The phrase 'batshit insane' has been used a few times here, and it fits.
 
Ecrofirt said:
Can someone tell me what video games Jack The Ripper was playing when he went around killing whores?
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Can someone tell me what video games Jack Thompson was playing when he became a raving lunatic and started assaulting anyone and everything associated with video games? Oh wait....
 
Liberals, like you, love to label things and then think that the labeling has accomplished something. If that had been the case, then Churchill's calling Hitler a Nazi would have ended the war. But no, people like me had to get into the trenches and stop the Nazis.
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So now Thompson fought in WWII, too? Or did somebody slip a tab of acid into his coffee while he was playing Call of Duty? :p
 
Jack Thompson is a complete disgrace; I'd kill to know which law school he "graduated" from. But, I've had to actually read his crap a lot recently due to a class assignment. In my sociology class, our teacher split us into groups to debate various "hot button" issues like gay marriage, prostitution, etc. My group is doing censorship, so of course I wanted to do my paper on censorship in video games.

In typical fashion, I find out this 40+ year old mother is in my group, and she wants to cover video games too. I was talking to her yesterday, and I swear she sounded like she memorized Thompson's BS. Of course, it became clear that she didn't know what she was talking after a bit. Her whole argument, that games should be censored since they can influence children to commit violent acts, is false because it's based on an invalid point; it's simply not true.

I can't wait until we present. It's going to be in debate form, so I'm going to have a blast ripping this weak argument up. I'm going to show the GTA "hot coffe" scene on a projector, lol. :lol
 
PhoenixDark said:
Jack Thompson is a complete disgrace; I'd kill to know which law school he "graduated" from. But, I've had to actually read his crap a lot recently due to a class assignment. In my sociology class, our teacher split us into groups to debate various "hot button" issues like gay marriage, prostitution, etc. My group is doing censorship, so of course I wanted to do my paper on censorship in video games.

In typical fashion, I find out this 40+ year old mother is in my group, and she wants to cover video games too. I was talking to her yesterday, and I swear she sounded like she memorized Thompson's BS. Of course, it became clear that she didn't know what she was talking after a bit. Her whole argument, that games should be censored since they can influence children to commit violent acts, is false because it's based on an invalid point; it's simply not true.

I can't wait until we present. It's going to be in debate form, so I'm going to have a blast ripping this weak argument up. I'm going to show the GTA "hot coffe" scene on a projector, lol. :lol
Click to expand...

Yea :lol :lol :lol :lol
Yea :lol :lol :lol :lol

You'll really help your case there :lol :lol :lol :lol
Ha :lol :lol :lol :lol
.
 
If there is ANYONE in this entire planet that could unite Sony, MS, and Nintendo fans...it's Jack Thompson.

So I'll be honest and say on the record that it'll be a sad day when he passes away.
 
Fight for Freeform said:
If there is ANYONE in this entire planet that could unite Sony, MS, and Nintendo fans...it's Jack Thompson.

So I'll be honest and say on the record that it'll be a sad day when he passes away.
Click to expand...

Your avatar is absolutely terrifying.
 
"The Bible doesn't promote killing innocent people," Thompson said. "Grand Theft Auto does. Islam does."
"Islam promotes the killing of innocent people," Thompson said. "The Quran requires the infidel, whether Jew or Christian, to be killed. Â… That's a core essence of the religion. Â… Muhammad was a pirate who killed infidels and who advocated the killing of infidels. Not a nice guy. Osama bin Laden is in keeping with his fine tradition."
Click to expand...


Sigh...
This tidbit, sadly, isn't just Thompson. I've seen this in local church's propaganda handouts here in Las Vegas and elsewhere. I'm sure it's not uncommon information around the US.

The truth is that Mohammed and his followers were once given sanctuary by a Christian king when he was being hounded for thier beliefs, and because of that and the striking similarities in their doctrine (which realistically, probably stem from the fact that his teachings came from the Bible in the first place, not from an angel in a cave), Mohammed's official view on Christians (and therefore Islam's) is to treat them the same way he was treated by that King.

http://al-islam.org/restatement/11.htm

I've done quite a bit of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies, as I used to be an interceptor/translator of radio transmissions from certain middle eastern countries. Thanks to that background, and my belief that Arabs have exactly the same mix of good people and assholes as any other race, I've occasionally been tagged by rabid Christians (like the guy handing out the anti-Islamic propaganda) as being unpatriotic, despite my contributions to US intelligence efforts--more than 99% of Americans have ever done for their country.

Er...that went longer than I planned, but anyway, the point is, I know what it's like to argue what should be a blatantly obvious truth with a small-minded, hateful individual.
 
GhaleonEB said:
Your avatar is absolutely terrifying.
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That's like the 3rd comment in 2 days!

Leondexter: I don't think you have to explain otherwise, people here aren't that stupid. Other than Theo van Cockles.
 
Is it just me, or does it seem JT lacks the ability to sound 'intimidating' when sending out all his lawyer-ish emails? Lots O' mistakes everywhere, bad vocab..etc etc. What kinda lawyer is he? ;/

Someone should go dig up some hardcore dirt on him :D
 
Fight for Freeform said:
That's like the 3rd comment in 2 days!

Leondexter: I don't think you have to explain otherwise, people here aren't that stupid. Other than Theo van Cockles.
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You never know...there aren't enough arab gamers, that's for sure. They could get discriminated against in a place like GAF. :-)

About your avatar--I've been meaning to ask, who is that guy and why do so many people have him (or parts of him) in their avatar? It's creepy, sure, but I don't 'get' it.
 
Ecrofirt said:
Doesn't he associate himself with Hillary Clinton?

How can she possibly want to be associated with someone so crazy.
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Because people ignored him, allowing Thompson to become known as a trusted expert on video game violence and legislation, rather than being known as a religious-nutbag sociopath?
 
Ecrofirt said:
Can someone tell me what video games Jack The Ripper was playing when he went around killing whores?
Click to expand...

Stuntman.


If people would just ignore this guy, he'd eventually go away and start blaming the dairy industry for World War 2. Just ignore him.
 
Tellaerin said:
So now Thompson fought in WWII, too? Or did somebody slip a tab of acid into his coffee while he was playing Call of Duty? :p
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Haha, yeah for a second I thought he was promoting COD. Someone should seriously call him out on that and WWII games. I showed my grandfather, who fought in Normandy, COD and he was amazed how good it was and now he wants to buy it for my younger underaged cousins. His thinking is that is a great way for them to have some kind of taste of how intense the war was for him and his friends.
 
APF said:
Islam != Arab
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No, but you don't see non-arab muslims taking much of the hate. Nobody's hating on, for example, some prominent American sports figures who've converted to Islam. That's why I'd call this racism more than bigotry. When someone like Jack Thompson talks about muslims, believe me, he means arab muslims.

And when I mentioned arab gamers, that's exactly what I meant: arab gamers. You wouldn't agree that they need way more videogames in the Middle East? :)
 
m0dus said:
I think you're confusing GAF with OA. And there are plenty of Arab gamers, believe me. They just don't have thick accents and ratty beards like this douchebag Thompson likely assumes. :lol
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No, I mean it. There may be 'plenty' of Arab gamers, but there's not enough. There's a terrible shortage of videogames in the Middle East.
 
Leondexter said:
No, but you don't see non-arab muslims taking much of the hate. Nobody's hating on, for example, some prominent American sports figures who've converted to Islam. That's why I'd call this racism more than bigotry. When someone like Jack Thompson talks about muslims, believe me, he means arab muslims.
Click to expand...

No, I think he means Muslim Muslims. In fact, I'm 99.9_% sure of it. Unless you really believe he holds a special brief for Persians, Turkmen, Kurds, Uzbeks, Pashtuns...

People can hate whole religions, especially adamant believers of other religions. I know accusing someone of racism is more sexy than religious bigotry, but let Occam's Razor do it's magic here, ok?
 
APF said:
No, I think he means Muslim Muslims. In fact, I'm 99.9_% sure of it. Unless you really believe he holds a special brief for Persians, Turkmen, Kurds, Uzbeks, Pashtuns...

People can hate whole religions, especially adamant believers of other religions. I know accusing someone of racism is more sexy than religious bigotry, but let Occam's Razor do it's magic here, ok?
Click to expand...


It's a mix. But I still say the haters go for arabs more specifically, simply because they're identifiable by sight. You can't spot a muslim by looking at someone. Sure, if someone's a christian who believes that you should hate all non-christians (which, by definition would make them not a christian, but...), then they hate "muslims", not "arabs". But someone that closed-minded needs a simple way to identify the object of their hate, so they go by race. To them, arab=muslim. Non-arabs (or rather, people who don't 'look' like muslims) probably have to identify themselves to get hated properly. On the other hand, even arabs who are not muslims (probably even christian arabs) get the evil eye.

Now that's all in my experience with hateful assholes, which has been more than I wanted it to be, but still not a great deal. But having been exposed to it, you then do spot shades of it in more reasonable people from time to time, which is scarier. I try to make a point of sharing my own experiences with people like that. The real jerks can't be helped, usually.
 
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