What is wrong with this man?

Jack Thompson needs to be stopped.

Most of you will probably have no idea who I'm talking about unless you're anyway interested in the video gaming community, so I'll give you some background. Jack is prominent Florida attorney who in the past has made waves with some scandelous comments. In the last year, Jackson has filed a lawsuit against Take Two Interactive, the makers of the contraversial Grand Theft Auto series. Thompson claimed that 18-year-old Devon Moore shot and killed three police officers after he was arrested for stealing a car because of what he learned from a video game. There have also been other lawsuits, all filed by victim's relatives. My question is how do children obtain these games (as it cannot be purchased without ID stating you are over 17 at retailers), even though the game sports a mature rating. Why aren't they being good parents and actually paying attention to what their children play? It doesn't seem like a difficult decision to make.

That is my main beef with Thompson though. He recently threw down a gauntlet game developers: make a game that he designed and he'll donate $10,000 to the charity of your choice. The game? A father goes on a killing spree after his son is beaten to death by a baseball bat by a killer that learned it from a video game. I wish I was making this up. The victims of the killing spree are a CEO of Take One Software, an obvious jab at Grand Theft Auto's creator, her entire family, game store employees, and any police that get in the way. Sounds scary and vicious, yes? It wasn't immediately clear why Thompson wanted such a game to be made, as what good to him would another violent game have?

Well, someone took him up on the challange. Thompson then rescended on his offer, saying that it was only satire and video game players obviously couldn't understand his "keen wit." Does that keen wit include making false promises for a charitable donation and then going back on your word? After learning of this, authors of the popular web comic Penny Arcade made a donation to a charity in the same amount in his name. It was a very nice and honorable gesture, so Jack Thompson reported them to the police, claiming they were trying to extort him. He even called artist Mike "Gabe" Krahulik and reported screamed at him the entire time, saying he would sue so fast it would make his head spin.

While I could maybe accept this eccentric behavior from any old loony, this man is an actual lawyer and should have some sort of reputation to uphold. He stands behind some code of ethics, yet he makes verbal attacks, threats, and threatens people with police action. I'm not sure the Florida Bar Association would actually like to have this man representing them.He not only spouts misinformation, he does it with a malicious zeal that frightens most people. I can take comfort in the fact that his fifteen minutes cannot last that much longer and eventually the media will stop using him as a reputable source.

If President Bush wanted to confuse everyone with his nomination of Harriet Miers for Supreme Court Justice, he certainly achieved his goal. Meirs’ nomination has come way out of left field, as many people, including myself, believed that Bush would nominate someone in the same vein as Justices Thomas and Scalia. Now,. Everyone is struggling to form an opinion of Miers, who has barely so much as a trickle of a paper trail as to what her opinions might be. While her resume posted on findlaw.com is clearly impressive, will she be ready for her first judicial job on the most important court in the United States? And more importantly, what impact will she have on the court?

In an interview with the Dallas Morning News, Jerry Clements, a Dallas lawyer said of any hidden agenda’s Miers may have: “There's just nothing hidden there. I promise you.” While that fact may be comforting, it still leaves no clues as to what Miers feels on important issues. The biggest concern for me is Meirs’ lack of published opinions relating to any of the issues that have been subject of landmark cases decided by the Supreme Court. I do know that she is obviously like minded to the President, and that she will share his strict constructionist views, which he mentions in an Associated Press Story.

Her religious background is also an important factor in cases related to abortion. While Miers may not have any public statements regarding her thoughts on abortion, she is a very active member of a evangelical Christian church that condones abortion, according to another Dallas Morning News article. It is very hard for me to assume that a person who takes their religious personal views of abortion so seriously would be able to separate that from their judicial rulings.

My conclusion is to sit and wait for the Senate hearings, as maybe those will give us more insight of the thoughts and ideals of this woman. Then again, maybe they won’t, and President Bush will have snuck in a confirmation successfully based on the fact she has no paper trail.

Blogging in disasters

Using any of the disasters or terrorist attack events to comment on the unique role that citizen journalism can play in providing first-hand news accounts during times of emergencies and disasters.

Thanks to disasters such as 9-11 and the London bombings, citizens have realized that they have the power to shape the news broadcasts by capturing the story immediately. Most of this has to do with the decrease in price and wider availablity of portable media devices. Cell phones are becoming a seeming necessity, and every new model has a camera included. While the camera technology is still crude (at least in America), it is still enough for everyone from morning commuters on the subway to 13-year-old kids to capture pictures and even video with very little effort.

This situation played out in the London subway bombings on July 7, 2005. Those trapped on the trains that blew up snapped pictures and 30 second video clips with their phones while waiting to be rescue, and those photos were quickly distributed and picked up by TV news stations, newspaper websites, and blogs all over the internet. These images had a greater impact on viewers than those taken by professional photographers because they were taken by actual citizens who were there as the bombs went off and survived the event.

Along with photos, mainstream news sites became more interested in letting citizen's speak their mind on their website. Many websites such as the BBC, CNN, and the New York Times featured prominently a section of letters from readers, either those that were describing the bombings, or those that just wanted to send condolences to the victims. In the past, the only text that appeared in these places was written by paid staff writers, but members of the media realized with the increased access to technology, more people wanted to e-mail their stories, and other readers were responding positively to that.

It seems that a disaster is necessary for this shift toward a more active citizen base to occur. Before, people had the tools and technology to capture whatever they wanted, but never is the need so powerful than when facing danger, and never will there be such a captive audience. After this, people will realize what powerful media-shaping tools they hold, and they will probably be less reluctant to use them.

It's alive

Hi y'all.

Tis is my first post, I guess, which means that I don't have anything remarkable to say. i'm sure I'll have a lot more, but right now it's 9:30 a.m. and all I can think about is needing some caffeine.