The Man Who Wasn't There

I'm not one to hate people. My list of hated people is very small. But this guy is just going down a spiraling path of distatefulness.

Jack Thompson sues Omaha police chief...then doesn't. I cannot tell you how angry this recent development makes me.

Assuming that Jack Thompson isn't disbarred in the New Year (we can all cross our fingers, eh?), his new target is going to be linking the Department of Defense (DoD) to violent video games and their "unholy alliance."

Link.

He even sinks lower in my thoughts than he already was by attempting to link this "alliance" to the recent shooting at my local mall:

"One of the consequences of this collaboration [between the DoD and the game biz] is the increasing number of commando-style assaults by young video gamers, such as the recent “mall massacre” in Omaha, Nebraska."

This is simply asinine. To make that causal link, he'd have to completely ignore the other issues going on here including depression, being kicked from his family, an unstable family life, drugs, suicide attempts, etc. Additionally, there is no evidence that the games made by this "unholy alliance," by which I mean America's Army and Full Spectrum Army, were even played by the troubled kid. All we know was he played games. Considering how much gaming has been integrated into the culture, finding an average teen who hasn't played at least one video game is probably pretty difficult.

At any rate, this is just another attempt of Jack Thompson to stay relevant and keep his name out there. You can't be infamous if you aren't popping up every once in awhile and he's been quiet since his trial in November in which he could face being disbarred (God willing).

Really, I shouldn't be surprised of this. I mean, this is the man who's been saying that the world is against him and there's a vast conspiracy that's out to destroy him that includes Penny Arcade, the gaming industry at large, the ECA, Gamepolitics.com and porn lawyers.