wraggster
September 11th, 2006, 18:08
News via Spong
Jack Thompson ramped up his anti-Bully campaigning again this week, telling an interviewer on OUT-LAW Radio that "...America is becoming the land of the free and the home of the utterly depraved". This of course is great news for SPOnG's news team, as we clearly love writing these eyes-to-the-ceiling, news-that-writes itself updates on any new bits of hilarious nonsense that emanates from Thompson's scrambled mind.
The anti-videogaming campaigner's latest rant relates to last week's tragic school shooting in North Carolina. Thompson believes Alvaro Castillo, the troubled teenager responsible, was brought up in a 'culture' of violent games, having been a regular player of such games since he was eight years old.
"This youth Alvaro Castillo, you can go on the internet and see portions of his video which is a suicide note," said Thompson. "He's killed his father and he goes to his school and shoots up his school and he's talking at length about the violent entertainment he's been obsessed with since he was eight years of age and I now find from speaking with a family friend that some of the entertainment was violent video games.
"It's yet another example, you can add this to Columbine, Paducah, Jonesboro Arkansas, Wellsboro, I could go on for half an hour giving you the names of schools that sound like battlefields in World War II. We have reality being infected with virtual reality," Thompson continued, barely concealing his glee.
He told the interviewer that the situation in the US needs to be remedied by copying the laws surrounding the sale of games with adult content in Europe, noting that: "In the UK, you embody in your laws the notion that there is certain adult entertainment that shouldn't be sold to kids," he said. "No one is trying to ban it outright, but as it stands now, regardless of the rating that the game may get, anyone of any age will be able to buy it and that is just very dangerous. America has become the land of the free and the home of the utterly depraved."
The annoying thing is that SPOnG agrees with Thompson's basic objective - in that violent games should clearly not be sold to minors. However, we disagree with his scandal-mongering approach and his tendency to try to make political capital for himself by making use of these types of tragedies to further his campaign.
Going on to comment about the extensive gun ownership in the state of Florida, Thompson also said: "I live in Miami, I'm not giving up my gun because if somebody comes in my house I want to be able to kill him... Unfortunately, when you have a country that is awash in guns, you have got to do something about the stimuli to use those guns."
Jack Thompson ramped up his anti-Bully campaigning again this week, telling an interviewer on OUT-LAW Radio that "...America is becoming the land of the free and the home of the utterly depraved". This of course is great news for SPOnG's news team, as we clearly love writing these eyes-to-the-ceiling, news-that-writes itself updates on any new bits of hilarious nonsense that emanates from Thompson's scrambled mind.
The anti-videogaming campaigner's latest rant relates to last week's tragic school shooting in North Carolina. Thompson believes Alvaro Castillo, the troubled teenager responsible, was brought up in a 'culture' of violent games, having been a regular player of such games since he was eight years old.
"This youth Alvaro Castillo, you can go on the internet and see portions of his video which is a suicide note," said Thompson. "He's killed his father and he goes to his school and shoots up his school and he's talking at length about the violent entertainment he's been obsessed with since he was eight years of age and I now find from speaking with a family friend that some of the entertainment was violent video games.
"It's yet another example, you can add this to Columbine, Paducah, Jonesboro Arkansas, Wellsboro, I could go on for half an hour giving you the names of schools that sound like battlefields in World War II. We have reality being infected with virtual reality," Thompson continued, barely concealing his glee.
He told the interviewer that the situation in the US needs to be remedied by copying the laws surrounding the sale of games with adult content in Europe, noting that: "In the UK, you embody in your laws the notion that there is certain adult entertainment that shouldn't be sold to kids," he said. "No one is trying to ban it outright, but as it stands now, regardless of the rating that the game may get, anyone of any age will be able to buy it and that is just very dangerous. America has become the land of the free and the home of the utterly depraved."
The annoying thing is that SPOnG agrees with Thompson's basic objective - in that violent games should clearly not be sold to minors. However, we disagree with his scandal-mongering approach and his tendency to try to make political capital for himself by making use of these types of tragedies to further his campaign.
Going on to comment about the extensive gun ownership in the state of Florida, Thompson also said: "I live in Miami, I'm not giving up my gun because if somebody comes in my house I want to be able to kill him... Unfortunately, when you have a country that is awash in guns, you have got to do something about the stimuli to use those guns."