update on Jack Thompson’s career

One year ago today, Jack Thompson was disbarred from practicing law.   For those who have anything to do with video games or just enjoy playing them, that was a victorious day.  Thankfully, we haven’t heard much from him since.  He gives gaming and Christianity a bad name.

But now there’s some current news about him.  He just issued a news release saying his ban from practicing law is invalid and he will begin to practice again on October 1, 2009.  As usual, he’s stretching (and inventing) “facts” that aren’t valid.  (And if you read his letter at the link, know that his claims aren’t all factual, either.)

Jack Thompson might’ve made a few good points, like that kids shouldn’t be able to buy M-rated video games, but he went way beyond what was reasonable.  If you aren’t familiar with him, let me give a few “career highlights”.  I’m getting these from this article: 10 Great Moments in Jack Thompson’s (Failed) Career.  But be forewarned that the article has some explicit language in it, so view only if you don’t mind that.  Hence I’m making a summary (because I know some of the regulars here don’t want to read that).

At the start of his career, Jack Thompson tried to become the state prosecuting attorney in Florida.  He went up against Janet Reno, who was the current attorney.  He passed her a note that said, “I, Janet Reno, am a:”, followed by 3 boxes: heterosexual/bisexual/homosexual.  That sounds like something you’d do in junior high, when you really have no idea of what is proper and/or tactful.  She walked over to him, dissed him, but put her hand on his shoulder while telling him he was stupid.  And as you’ll see with Jack Thompson, this is only the start — he does not know when to stop.  He filed a police report claiming that her touching him on the shoulder constituted battery.  That’s basically admitting that he needed police help against a 50-year-old woman.   Jack’s career only went downhill from there.

In 1990, Thompson attacked the rap industry, and he claimed he was Bruce Wayne, a.k.a. Batman, in his fight against the evils of rap music.  But this isn’t just verbal nonsense — he wore a Bat-watch and mailed out copies of his driver’s license with pictures of Batman edited in.  Note that at this time he is a certified, legal lawyer in Florida.   (Somehow he would stay certified for another 18 years!)

Doom screenshot -- does this look like a military-style murder simulator?

In 1997 he filed a lawsuit against the makers of Doom, MechWarrior, several other games, most of Hollywood, and porn websites, claiming their influence caused kids to become evil.  Fortunately the case was dismissed before it even started.  He claimed Doom was an extremely accurate military-style murder simulator.  If you’ve played Doom, you know better.

Every time there was a school shooting, like at Columbine and Virginia Tech, Jack Thompson was there, claiming video games were the cause.  And even when there was no proof found, Thompson never backed away from his allegations.  He can’t be bothered to let facts interfere with his statements.   I remember when Virginia Tech happened, that Thompson was on TV that day blaming video games before anyone even knew who the killer was or why he did it, and then it was found that he didn’t even play video games.  (I wrote more on that here.)

Years later, Jack Thompson offered $10,000 to charity on behalf of anyone who made a game representing the murder of Paul Eibeler, who was the boss of Take Two (which makes the Grand Theft Auto games).   When someone took him up on that, he backed away, saying it was just satire.  So he offers money to charity, then takes it away.  Doesn’t sound like a funny joke, does it?  But wait, there’s more!   A website called Penny Arcade donated the money on his behalf to the Child’s Play charity for sick children.  What is Jack’s response?  He called the police.  Why?  Because two men had donated their own money to charity.

In 2008, the Florida Bar Association finally had enough of Jack Thompson, and they ordered him to attend a disbarment trial.   He had to prove that he hadn’t been using the legal system as his own personal soapbox.  They also ruled that any further legal proceedings filed by Jack had to be cosigned by another member of the Florida Bar, which means he can’t use the legal system unless supervised by a responsible adult.  To this, he immediately filed an appeal without a signature.

Normal disbarment was for 5 years, but for Jack, they made it “enhanced disbarment”, citing 27 violations of professional misconduct.  That meant he couldn’t practice law for 10 years.  His response to this was to walk out of the proceedings, and he accused the judge of not having the authority to hear this case.  Realize that this case was from the Florida Supreme Court, and he said they don’t have legal authority over him.  This sounds like somebody who has lost touch of reality.  But, as I mentioned before, these crazy situations with Jack Thompson keep going and going and going.  He also accused the judge of being mentally unbalanced, and he started using phrases like “killing three thousand people“.  Given that this happened after 9/11, one shouldn’t use such phrases, particularly around law enforcement officials.  This childish act resulted in U.S. Marshals being dispatched to his home.  His behavior also resulted in a permanent disbarment from practicing law.

In his appeal to the judge who disbarred him, he said, “She is just making this stuff up as she goes” and “Maybe Dava Tunis is mentally impaired” and he called her a “raving wild woman … who had become unhinged”.   He also wrote a letter after the visit by the Marshals, saying “the purpose of that visit was to intimidate and harass me”.  And now the FBI won’t even talk to him anymore, after so many fraudulent claims.  Thompson wrote about that: “The FBI has done nothing and refuses to talk to me. … With all respect, either the FBI takes this seriously — the computer hacking, the criminal use of lunacy proceedings, the whole nine yards… or I and others will do what we need to do.”  I really don’t think it’s wise to threaten the FBI…

Jack Thompson’s written objection to his disbarment trial references the Holocaust and lynching of blacks, in comparison to how he’s being treated.  He manages to compare himself to John the Baptist and Jesus.   And he said the people who run The Florida Bar are fascists.   He told the judge she was a liar.  He says he’s being persecuted because he’s a Christian, and while such things do occasionally happen, in this case it’s because Jack Thompson promotes fraudulent lawsuits and participates in unprofessional behavior (including name-calling and threatening people).  He said they hate him without reason.

I could go on, but if you want to read more, there’s many more examples on the Internet of how he’s done stupid things and threatened people.

best YouTube video – Shingo Mama no Oha Rock!

Somebody online said they found the best YouTube video, so I had to watch it.  I don’t have time to find the best videos.  If you’ve ever perused YouTube for a while, you’ve undoubtedly discovered that some videos are not funny or not interesting or of low quality.  (Those are often referred to as crap.)  But that said, there are some great videos there, and when someone says they found the best one, I figured it had to be something special.

It’s a music video of a song called “Shingo Mama no Oha rock!”, and, well, it’s unique.  I’ll give it that.  I’m embedding it below, for your viewing pleasure.  I do have to warn you, though — it’s not for the faint of heart nor the faint of butt.   The backgrounds can give you a headache, and the dancing can give you gas.  (At least, that was my experience.)  So don’t say you weren’t warned.

About 30 seconds into the video, I’m starting to wonder if I’ve been had.  I mean, this is like the Macarena gone bad.  But this recommendation was from a blog that I’ve read for about a year, and there’s still over 3 minutes left in the video, which is plenty of time for something awesome to happen, like some explosions, ninja fights, car chases, etc.   So I keep watching.

About a third of the way through, the singer and dancers explode!   Well, that was something.  But they come back.   So obviously that was fake.

About halfway through, the music pauses, and James Brown comes out!  This so caught me by surprise!  I mean, THAT WAS RANDOM!  I’ve listened to a lot of James Brown’s music, and that was the furthest thing from my mind during this song.  I have no idea how he got involved in that video, except that it probably involved a LOT of money.

While trying to find an English translation of the lyrics, I found an interview with the artist, and he said he wants kids to have dreams.   He said when he gets rich from his music, he’s going to buy a castle in Europe, move it to Tokyo, put a panda in the castle’s garden, and name the panda “Oha”, which translates to “Good Morning”.  So every time they sing (or shout) “Oha!”, they’re saying “Good Morning”.  While researching this, I also found out that this song hit #1 on the pop charts in Japan.  And the special guests during the chorus are Japanese TV celebrities.

The next video clip has the interview with the artist, plus the video with the lyrics in Japanese and in English.  He’s singing about the importance of a good breakfast, and other such things.  It’s definitely randomness, which is why I had to post it.  And FYI, the video becomes more amusing as you watch it more, especially if you starting singing along.  OHA!

So now that you’ve watched it, let me know what you think about it.  Was it the best YouTube video ever?

overeating and inactivity doesn’t make you fat

I’ve always heard that eating too much and not getting enough exercise will make you fat.  That seems reasonable to me.   But I read somewhere online that this isn’t true.  Check out these “facts” someone posted:

The basic assumption here is that people become obese due to overeating and inactivity. This isn’t true. … Obesity is a disorder of excess fat accumulation, not overeating and not sedentary behavior.

Consuming excess calories does not cause us to grow fatter any more than it causes a child to grow taller.

Exercise does not make us lose excess fat; it makes us hungry.

We get fat because of an imbalance — a disequilibrium — in the hormonal regulation of fat tissue and fat metabolism.

So if I understand it, I’m not overweight because of overeating and being lazy, but because of excess fat accumulation.  And exercise doesn’t help you lose weight but actually makes you fatter because you’re hungrier!  (This sure sounds like that “Important Doctor” fellow, but it was someone else.)  And it’s my “hormonal regulation” that is to blame.  Hmm…

If you’re curious what that guy recommended to do to lose weight, his solution is to eat less carbs.  Although I thought he said consuming excess calories doesn’t make us fatter, so I don’t understand.   I just know that according to what that guy said, it’s not my fault!

how to enjoy wrapping presents

I enjoy wrapping presents, but I sometimes get tired of doing it the traditional way.  (Why do I have to conform to what is “normal”?  Plus randomness is fun, as evidenced on this blog.)  Also, one of my pet peeves is when people are able to easily guess what is wrapped.  When I wrap presents, particularly for my brothers, they aren’t going to guess what’s it in.  I’ve employed various techniques to disguise it, such as including rocks, pennies, bricks, pine cones, etc., inside the box.  And of course, the box should be one other than what the actual gift came in.  You want to vary the size, weight, and sound it makes.   There’s no anticipation if they already know what it is before opening it.

One year I put pennies inside a hard plastic case inside the main box, so when the present was shaken, it would make a crashing sound that happened after the normal sound, so it sounded like it was broken.     I’ve also made presents exceedingly difficult to open before, using numerous packagings and duct tape.   Some of my presents cannot be opened in under a few minutes.   That helps people savor the moment… 

But beyond disguising it, I like to make it look unique.  One thing I’ve started doing is saving the scraps of wrapping paper from other gifts to use on one package.  Last year I did this on two different presents, which are displayed below.  (Click the images for a larger picture.)

present #1

Present #2, top

Present #2, side

Present #2, bottom

Hopefully this inspires you to be more creative with your wrapping this year.  But a quick word of warning: not everyone appreciates this “art” the same way.  It seems to work better on brothers and male friends, rather than parents, grandparents, and in-laws.

impressed by throwing shoes

The other day an Iraqi journalist in Baghdad, Iraq, took his shoes off during a speech by President Bush and threw them at the President (and now faces up to 15 years in prison).  That’s crazy, right?   But the story has taken an even crazier turn.  An Egyptian man was so impressed that he has offered his 20-year-old daughter in marriage to that journalist.  The father said, “I find nothing more valuable than my daughter to offer to him.”  The daughter is okay with this idea, saying, “This is something that would honor me.  I would like to live in Iraq, especially if I were attached to this hero.”

To that, I have to say, WHAT?!?

Even if you agree with the journalist’s idea of throwing your shoes at President Bush, how can you support it THAT much?  That guy is NOT a hero!

The world is a crazy place…