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Jack Thompson Disbarred
Sockatume writes "The Florida Supreme Court has approved Judge Dava Tunis' recommendations for the permanent disbarment of John B. "Jack" Thompson, with no leave to reapply and $43,675.35 in disciplinary costs. The ruling is a step up from the enhanced disbarment that had been suggested by the prosecution, which would have forbidden him from reapplying for ten years. Thompson has 30 days to appeal the ruling before the disbarment is permanent. Thompson responds to the ruling."
It's about damn time this poor excuse for a human being was disbarred.
Maybe now we won't have to hear about him all the damn time.
~t
Not that I see that as a bad thing...
this will give more time to sit around in front of the computer at home, playing video games
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
At first i was liek: ...
and then I LOL'd!
And then I realized I might miss his special brand of crazy...
and then I feared someone would take up his cause who may be articulate and not so full of crazy and we will end up in a much worse situation...
- "Scientia non habet inimicum nisp ignorantem"
Thompson always wanted to own a Bar. Now, armed with multiple US Supreme Court rulings that no state bar can do what it has done to Thompson, he is set to own that Bar.
Different kind of bar?
I always assumed his first name was Jack and his middle name was Ass. At least, that's how the voice in my head always said it.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
I bet he could blow off some steam with a nice session of GTA4, plow into a crowd of pedestrians with a bus and pretend they're the bar.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
jack did alot more than piss of some judges.
You mad
Now that Jack is defying the court order requiring him to have another member in good standing of the Florida bar to submit motions for him, what other sanctions can be placed upon him? Is there a more extreme penalty for him beyond permanent disbarrment?
Contempt of court, I guess...
Twelve years is a really long time to burn, eh? My biggest complaint is that I have to get a law degree to even sit for the bar. I suppose I have to grief over the ABA as well, now. They're the only ones I can think to blame for destroying the concept of "Reading the Law."
SIG: HUP
He was disbarred in Florida. Doesn't this mean he can still take the exam and be re-barred (okay, probably not the word, although anything involving Thompson and rebar sounds like fun) in any other state?
The Gamepolitics link is to the recommendation, not the approval. My bad. The correct link is this.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
1. Doesn't he mean "pwn" that Bar?
2. Thompson knew this was going to happen, so last week he file an action against the bar; now he claims his disbarment was retaliation. Nice pre-emptive strike last week, Jack -- too bad it's as transparent as day that it's unrelated to the numerous reasons the Florida Bar Association decided you're unfit to practice law.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
No, it takes filing tons and tons of frivolous lawsuits and wasting countless hours of court time and taxpayer money to get where he is at.
But now who will the teevee morons bring on to rant about how children who play videogames grow up to kill people? Well, maybe with the economy collapsing, they'll spend more time talking about stuff that matters...
How many states do you think let someone apply to the Bar if another state has this sort of ruling against the person.
From what I limitedly know about the Bar (in Indiana) is that once you've been disbarred in one state, you cant reapply in any other states.
Any lawyer types care to comment?
All it takes is pissing of the Bar and a few judges, and you've lost what you made with 12 years of college.
To be fair, he did more than that, he did his darndest to further the stereotype of lawyers as being rabid, idiotic, greedy, power hungry attack dogs. More significantly, he was tying up a lot of time and wasting a lot of other people's money by using completely frivolous lawsuits as a soapbox. Then he was blatantly disrespectful to everyone else, even those who disagreed with him.
This isn't like being fired because you beat your boss at golf, this is like being fired because you lost your temper, took out an ad in the local newspaper saying your company kills puppies, and then took a shit on your boss' desk.
12 years? Only takes 7 to become an attorney. Four years of undergrad + three of law school. Although to many students the three years of law school may *feel* like eight years, it is actually only three :]
If you had super powers, would you use them for good, or for awesome?
Are you DEFENDING Jack Thompson?
Or rather, it takes a complete and utter disregard for the rules and meaning of the law that he swore to uphold and a complete disrespect for the legal system bordering on psychotic.
I'm sure the number of frivolous law suits he filed had nothing to do with it.
He's basically been harassing a number of gaming companies, wasting the courts time and overall been abusing his position.
It's his own fault he was disbarred and frankly it's about time. Unfortunately, he'll probably just move to another state and take the bar exam there, pass it and start up his wild law suits again.
Most people in the US spend 7 years in college to get a law degree. 12 years and you are doing something wrong.
Exactly. If all it took was pissing off some judges, he'd have been disbarred a long, long, LONG time ago. He demonstrated compete disregard for the legal system with meritless filings for YEARS, and as a result got exactly what he deserved.
I don't know about you, but my servers run on the power of cotton candy and happy thoughts. -Anonymous Coward
Every state bar requires a background check before allowing anyone to sit for the bar exam. The background check of Jack Thompson would reveal the Florida disbarment, and there is approximately a zero percent chance that any state bar association would let him sit for the exam.
If you had super powers, would you use them for good, or for awesome?
Why didn't they just steal a car and run him over?
Yep, it's not as if judges and the Bar only recently got pissed at him. He's been the thorn in the side of the Florida legal system for years and years. He just got way too cocky and he finally is now paying for his years of shenanigans.
Won't someone please think of the children? -- Helen Lovejoy
He did what with the piss of some judges?
"There can be little doubt that union activities lead to continuous and progressive inflation." F. A. Hayek
"Sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes, well... he eats you."
That kind of bar. I think.
...the system actually works on occasion.
You sound like you've thought this through. ;-)
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Meh...All this means now is that he'll run for the senate. After all being a disbarred loon is a perfect qualification considering the company he'd be keeping.
It has seen the end of Jack Thompson,
It has seen the end of a RIAA lawsuit,
The end of copyright cops,
The end of Comcast's forging of RST packets,
It will soon see the end of the Empire itself!
You mean, there is a law against that? If there is, it violates my first amendment right, I am suing you buddy.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Without his constant idiocy and paranoid delusions of grandeur?
Regards, Ian
Maybe you think everyone should be able to do whatever the hell they want whenever they want, and if people don't like it, they can piss off?
Actions have consequences. When you screw up, you have to pay the price. I know, making people pay for their mistakes is taking away their freedom to be douchebags. Obviously these professional associations, by holding their members to certain standards, must hate our freedoms.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
I mean seriously - this is just too good to be true.
Jack Thompson disbarred. The RIAA loses its first court case on their "making available" theory.
I'm waiting for the OMG ponies to show up.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
So today we have stories in which the DOJ opposes becoming the Federal Copyright Cops, the RIAA loses a couple hundred thousand dollar lawsuit, and Jack Thompson gets disbarred. To quote Perfect Strangers: Now we are so happy, we do the Dance of Joy!
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Great. Now that he doesn't have all that lawyer stuff taking up his time he'll be able to save the children full-time by being a consultant or lobbyist or something.
Yes, I'm very happy at the news of Jack's disbarment, but at the same time, I fear he will find a new place to espouse his, err, "opinions" at fox news. They picked up Karl Rove, so Jackie boy seems like such a perfect fit.
.... Please give him a cup of hot coffee to calm him down?
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
Jack Thompson has only himself and his repeated unethical behavior to blame for flushing 12 years of college down the drain. He is exactly the reason that we need associations such as the bar and the AMA.
I want to be really clear here: disbarrment is beyond uncommon. It's happened a handful of times, nation wide, in the last few years. Even suspensions are difficult to get. Most bar proceedings that go anywhere result in, at most, a public slap on the wrist and a note on your record.
Even suspensions are survivable.
Jack Thompson, among other things, submitted porn to the courts, accused multiple judges of bribery in open court and public filings, violated numerous ethical rules regarding practice without a license, good character, etc. He falsely represented himself as being the lawyer for criminal victims, profited off their suffering, and then lied in court about it. He accused other lawyers of just as bad offenses, without a shred of evidence. On a more personal level, I can confirm that years ago, he physically broke into at least one lawyer's office to drop of papers and "scare" them (I know the lawyer personally).
Jack Thompson is a festering boil on the hide of the law.
"Stumble before you crawl"
I don't know about law, but in various health care professions (I keep my chiropractic license for pro bono patients) and licensed engineers (I know a few), one of the first questions they ask on any application for a license is something along the lines of
"Has your license to practice ever been suspended or revoked in this or any other jurisdiction, or has any [insert profession] board taken disciplinary action against you? If yes, please provide a detailed explaination."
That usually means that if you were booted in one jurisdiction, your chances of being licensed in another jurisdiction are sufficiently close to zero to be indistinguishable from zero for all practical purposes.
Oh, and if you are found out to have LIED on that question, your license is automatically revoked (at least in SC) and you're fined heavily. For some professions, that's even a felony and includes jail time.
Would you defend a doctor that frequently kills his patients due to mistakes, or an engineer that signs off plans for buildings that fall down and kill everyone in them? Disbarring Jack is like this. He has, over and over and over, shown he is not willing to follow even minimal proffesional behaviour when practising law.
Yeah, well it was a response that was meant to be tongue-in-cheeck. Thanks for the response though Creepy-boy :P
OMG PONIES!!!!!11!!!11
Say, friend, you got any more of that good sassparilla?
What's the value of information that you don't know?
Of course, no one would *ever* suggest that our national political environment is characterized by "constant idiocy and paranoid delusions of grandeur" - mainly because they'd be likely to wind up on the Terrorist Watch List if they did so. ;-)
"My strength is as the strength of ten men, for I am wired to the eyeballs on espresso."
and soon I won't be the only one who can say that.
Now that Jack is defying the court order requiring him to have another member in good standing of the Florida bar to submit motions for him,
From TFSCD, "The Court approves the corrected referee's report and John Bruce Thompson is permanently disbarred, effective thirty days from the date of this order so that respondent can close out his practice and protect the interests of existing clients. If respondent notifies the Court in writing that he is no longer practicing and does not need the thirty days to protect existing clients, this Court will enter an order making the permanent disbarment effective immediately. Respondent shall accept no new business from the date this order is filed."
It looks like he is disbarred 30 days from the date of notice, not immediately. They do graciously allow him to be disbarred sooner if he wishes.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
How many of those other bachelor degree types have jobs where they can easily cause completely innocent people to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars defending themselves or go to jail?
There are many, many professional fields where if you make potentially life-threatening decisions, you are expected to remain in good standing with some sort of professional society. Professional engineers and medical doctors, for example, can be permanently banned from practicing their profession if they prove that they're bad enough at it.
It may not be "cool", but our society has determined that it's better than leaving an incompetent individual with the power to destroy hundreds of other peoples' lives.
Like, say the medical field?
If you look over the history of Mr Thompson, you'd realize this was not the result of one incident. The Florida Bar gave him ample opprotunity to get back on the straight and narrow and he ignored it.
You need a licence to practice law. It demonstrates that you have an understanding of not just the knowledge, but also the principles and ethics of the profession. You need a licence to fly a plane. You need a licence to practice medicine.
If there's a pilot who habitually endangers the lives of passengers, I don't care how many hours he racked up flying, he has demonstrated he does not have the responsibility to be behind the wheel of hundreds of tons of steel hundreds of feet in the air. Does this mean he should be employable as something else? No. Just not as a pilot anymore.
If there's a doctor who consistantly endangers the lives of patients, I don't care if he practiced at Johns Hopkins, he's shown contempt for the responsibilities of his job and should have his licence revoked. Does this mean he's unemployable elsewhere? No, just the medical profession.
It's a GOOD thing these fields are able to police themselves; they know the most about their field. I wouldn't want 12 random people to judge the acts of a lawyer acting as a lawyer: I'd want OTHER lawyers, who know the details and intricacies of the profession, to determine if he's stepped out of bounds
So a Rabbi and Priest and Jack Thompson walk into a bar.
The Rabbit goes, "oy what is this?"
The Priest Goes, "Ouch that hurt!"
Jack Thompson says, "I am going to sue the bar!"
Then he gets Disbarred.
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
... and you've lost what you made with 12 years of college.
Fat, Drunk, and Stupid is no way to go through life, Son.
Sincerely,
Dean Vernon Wormer
Faber College
If you have something that you dont want anyone to know, maybe you shouldnt be doing it in the first place -Eric Schmidt
The only way to win this game, Mr Thompson, is not to play. -W.H.O.P.P.E.R.
I believe I heard that Jack Thompson discovered that many of the judges in FL did not sign their oath of office.
Bringing liberty to the masses. - http://freetalklive.com/
He was the perfect straw man to attack, he had no brain, and was easy to attack.
He will be missed.
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
I am speaking from my understanding as a licensed chiropractor. (I don't practice any more except for pro bono cases. I much prefer my computer-related work now.)
The _theory_ behind a professional licensing board is that members of a profession that requires extensive and specialized education are the only ones qualified to make informed judgements regarding the practice of that profession. These judgements include, but are not limited to, appropriate standards of practice including what would be considered "unprofessional conduct".
This is intended to protect the public from unqualified and/or unscrupulous practitioners. Usually, this works well. However, it is possible for the boards to become "good ol' boys' clubs" in which they are more concerned for each other than the public. Fortunately, this is usually rare. Many licensing boards include a "member of the public" (that is, someone who is _not_ licensed in the professon) in order to help prevent such abuses.
Since the licensing board controls who is licensed and, thus, who is allowed to practice the profession, unless otherwise allowed by law the highest sanction that they can impose is to bar the offender from ever practicing that profession again. Lighter sanctions (again, unless also allowed monetary damanges by law) include temporary suspension of a license for various periods of time or other license-related sanctions. I have heard of chiropractors having their licenses revoked and being required to re-apply as if a new graduate, including needing to take all of the exams again. I have also heard of chiropractors being required to take and pass classes to demonstrate an understanding of the areas that resulted in the disciplinary actions. (Fortunately, I have never been subject to disciplinary action by any licensing board.)
So, the theory is that the licensing board can revoke a license in order to protect the public from someone who is deemed unfit to practice the profession. For lawyers, for historical reasons, that licensing board is usually called the "bar" or the "bar association".
And I would _hope_ they would do thorough background checks on school teachers.
Although Burger King may decide he's unqualified.
In a shocking news report, it's being reported that Jack Thompson pissed on some judges.
/rimshot
Thanks folks, I'll be here all night!
Have a Bar called "Jack's Bar" and as you walk in there is a white haired lawyer that the bouncer is int he process of throwing out.
Bouncer: Sir you are being a nuisance to the customers please leave.
Lawyer: But.... I am a prominent lawyer in the community, I was on nationwide TV for crying out loud!
Bouncer: Shutup and get out, NOW!!!
Bouncer then throws the lawyer out on his his ass, get it, "Dis-Bar-ed" LOLZ!
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
This isn't like being fired because you beat your boss at golf, this is like being fired because you lost your temper, took out an ad in the local newspaper saying your company kills puppies, and then took a shit on your boss' desk.
Best. Analogy. Ever.
On a serious note. You're right. It is a good day! :-)
...so his plan all along was the same as that of most high-level Republicans?
...and then when your boss told you not to do that, so you told everyone at the company that she had it in for you because she was secretly a lesbian. And then you started posting photographs of members of the boss' family in the break room, and included several pages of hard core gay porn in the company's annual report.
Only to receive a stern talking to by the folks over at HR, and strong advice to seek the psychiatric help you so clearly need.
This is like doing all that and then still keeping your job, only to continue showing up to work with no pants on and pissing on the water cooler every single day for the next year, and _then_ finally being fired.
No sane person could possibly be surprised that this happened, only that it took this long.
This is like the third "suddenbreakoutofcommonsense" today. Is this a sign of things to come? Is the world actually getting better?
I thought it was because he broke the fax machine.
Even if we never hear from Jack Thompson again, it won't be long before there's another lawyer trying to make a name for himself by attacking video games. Unfortunately, it seems to be pretty easy for these types to get media attention. Let's hope that the next one in line makes as big an ass of himself as Jack did.
If all it took was pissing off some judges, he'd have been disbarred a long, long, LONG time ago.
If thats all it would take, then there would be a whole lot less lawyers in the world today.
Hmmmm... That gives me an idea....
'You mean, there is a law against that? If there is, it violates my first amendment right, I am suing you buddy.'
The government is bound by the first amendment, not your boss.
I doubt its over with him.
He will either become a lobbyist or a politician.
Jack Thompson wont give up that easy
Why exactly DO we need professional associations that one is compelled to be in? The AMA shows their true colors every so often too...
It takes three years to complete a law degree (four if part time), and most law schools don't deviate, except in very special circumstances (Robert Byrd, for instance, was permitted six years because he was serving in the Senate at the time). No matter how many years some slackers take to finish their Bachelor's Degree, it counts as four years' full time enrollment (15 hours per semester, etc.).
Seven years of college.
Terminal Professional degrees (like the JD or MD) have always been treated in a manner similar to guilds in that the State (government) lacks the level of expertise required to determine who is or is not a competent professional, and so leaves it up to the professional association. Thus, most states have laws requiring that those who wish to practice law (or medicine) be adjudged fully competent by the profession - which is why in the US, the State bar is usually sanctioned by the legislature.
"Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand" - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Is it just me, or is this post completely disuncomprehensional? OK, I expect to come
across legal gobble-de-gook that I don't understand on Groklaw... but on slashdot?
So... who is John B. (Jack) Thompson? What does "disbarred" mean? (I know what "barred" means. It means "not allowed to". So "disbarred" means "_is_ allowed to"....???) And WTF does this have to do with the price of carrots? ... or .... ?
OK, on the BBC, they _keep_ on telling us what "credit crunch" means... and where the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is... and it can get a bit annoying that they keep on explaining the bleedin' obvious, but this post takes the biscuit.
As Magee would say. Sheesh. WTF?! Rant over.
return 0; }
I worked as a Paralegal in Florida, we had a real sleaze bag attorney there who was Disbarred in Georgia for mishandling of trust funds and conduct unbecoming of a lawyer. (Not sure of the technical charges) He was able to re certify in Florida with little trouble, until he started stealing from client trust funds again. I think he is in Texas now.
Go home, nobody loves you. .
- The Blog
Someone get this guy some mod points - that's funnier than my original post. =)
Hats off to you, sir. You actually got a real LOL out of me. And yeah, I'm at work.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
I dunno, but Thompson is from Florida. There are people down here that still practice things like Voodoo and Santeria.
My blog
That some kind of Eastern thing?
Your courageous and selfless spelling corrections have made me a better person.
Dude, a State Bar is not a professional association that an attorney may or may not join. It is a governmental entity that regulates the behavior of its licensees. The man still has his law degree; disbarment means he can no longer practice law in Florida. The same standard applies to doctors: are you going to say that a doctor found to be incompetent by his peers should still be allowed to practice medicine? Perform surgery? Prescribe drugs?
The state must reserve the right to revoke privileges it grants to anyone it initially deems qualified to do more than vote. That extends to lawyers, doctors, and day care operators; even to hunters, fishermen, and operators of motor vehicles. None of these things are a *right*, regardless of your degree of education. These things are privileges, granted by a political body whose responsibility it is to ensure that the citizens over whom it governs, and who ask for these privileges, act responsibly. If we do not, we are not only violating our agreement with that governing body, but with a basic social contract to which we all subscribe as members of a community, state, and country; and then we no longer get to do those things.
That's the power we grant our governments: not to curtail our rights to act irresponsibly, but to ensure that if we do, we have to answer for it, because that kind of behavior is not just obnoxious, but potentially dangerous.
From what I limitedly know about the Bar (in Indiana) is that once you've been disbarred in one state, you cant reapply in any other states.
It's not necessarily that you can't reapply in other states, it's that in order to be admitted to the bar in any state, you have to pass a "character" review -- and before you start in with slimy lawyer jokes, remember that these people weren't slimy until long after they were admitted and learned how to game the system. Most attorneys are very ethical: just as with any profession, there are exceptions great and small, but because of the nature of the legal profession, violations tend to cause a much greater deal of harm and are much more public.
Anyway, an attorney who has committed such egregious acts against the profession that he is permanently disbarred in one state could NEVER pass this portion in another - who wants to invite such trouble?
"Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand" - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
I have no clue what are you so proud of.
Yeah, all those you fell for the obvious troll aren't that clever.
But you're just beyond pathetic, because obviously you're doing this because there's nothing more exciting in your life (my condolences), and because you think think that finding a few people among thousands on the site that fall for your stupidity is something to be proud of.
Jack Thompson, among other things, submitted porn to the courts, accused multiple judges of bribery in open court and public filings, violated numerous ethical rules regarding practice without a license, good character, etc. He falsely represented himself as being the lawyer for criminal victims, profited off their suffering, and then lied in court about it. He accused other lawyers of just as bad offenses, without a shred of evidence. On a more personal level, I can confirm that years ago, he physically broke into at least one lawyer's office to drop of papers and "scare" them (I know the lawyer personally).
The only real question that remains is why is that he only got permanent disbarrment and a $43K fine? And by that I mean, why didn't they string this man up a 50 foot pole by his genitals while publicly flogging him and simultaneously scratching their nails on a chalkboard mere inches from his head?
My blog
It's well within your rights to say such things, but it's well within your boss's rights to have you punished if they are untrue. Shitting on your boss's desk is probably not protected as speech at all, because it's more importantly a direct health hazard. HTH. ;-)
So.... you're promoting lying in court, making false testimonies, and being ridiculously unethical then?
By your standards, if a policeman goes bad and beings selling drugs and murdering for hire, he should get a raise?
Are you sure it's not this guy?
;)
"Teleporting Rodents with D-Cell Battery Displacement" theory -- IgnoramusMaximus (692000)
For Jack Thompson
Jack is already probably broke: his wife (an otherwise respectable woman and lawyer) is sick with cancer, and Jack has been unable to find work as anything but a commentator on an occasional news program for years. He wasn't paid for most of those appearances, most likely. His book didn't sell. That $43k fine was the limit of the legal options (you can't get punitive damages here).
Now, he's still open to civil lawsuits by other groups. For example, from my reading of the public documents about his settlement with Take 2, he's probably in violation of that settlement and could be liable for damages to Take 2/Rockstar. Similarly, he can still be sued for liable by people like Judge Tunis (whom he accused of bribery in his latest filings).
"Stumble before you crawl"
Apropos of diddly-squat: My brain is almost always in Spoonerism Mode so I first read the judge's name as Tuna Davis and thought, "Somebody's parents HATED that poor kid!"
I'm only wearing black until they come out with something darker.
We haven't seen the last of him, not by a long shot.
...and strangely enough, this is actually a good thing. At this point, we actually want to see his antics, because he has been publicly discredited in a significant way. Anti-gaming groups will suffer his stigma by association.
If he wants to further his cause, he would just quietly retire. However, he will not do this. He will continue to thrash around helplessly for years damaging the reputation of the anti-gaming movement.
Thank you JT, you are doing far more to advance the cause of computer gaming than many of us could ever dream of.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Sure, I'm a lawyer.
If he applies in a new state, he'll have to answer the "Have you ever been a member of a bar in another state?" question, and divulge the disbarment. If he does, it's unlikely the new state will accept him. If he doesn't, he might slip in (or might have, if he weren't so famous), but whenever it's discovered, he'd be kicked out and fined, much like what happened here.
Speaking as a lawyer, I'm embarrassed it's taken this long to get rid of the nuisance. At least the end result was appropriate.
The case disposition orders are available online [PDF format]:
SC07-80 The Florida Bar v. John Bruce Thompson
and
SC07-354 The Florida Bar v. John Bruce Thompson
First, tenure in primary or secondary schools is not a universal maxim. In some states it is illegal for a local public school district to offer tenure. In others, tenure only means the teacher gets a proper hearing and can still be fired for just cause.
Second, disbarment does not invalidate his law degree and certainly not any other degrees he has. He'll still have the degree, but he won't be able to practice. This is the same as having an MD and no medical license or an MS in civil engineering and no Engineer's license. He can still list the degrees he holds on any resume or c.v. and can advertise himself as having the knowledge. He just can't use it to serve clients for a fee or to argue cases in the courts.
Many other professions in fact have such provisions. In some states you can't be a CPA or can't be a licensed accountant if you're had a recent bankruptcy. Some police departments won't allow bankrupt officers for fear that broke cops are more easily tempted to accept bribes. Truck drivers can lose their licenses for speeding, driving too many hours without rest periods, faking their log books, or any number of other infractions. They can lose their insurance even if they are still licensed. Professional athletes and can be suspended or banned for gambling on their sport even if bets don't involve their team. Athletes can be suspended or banned for disrespectful behavior, for failing drug tests, or for refusing to take drug tests.
Drinks are on me!!!!
Every time you call tech support, a little kitten dies.
So does that mean someone can disbar the RIAA now?
Are we talking about Thompson, or the RIAA? ;) They sound hauntingly familiar.
Ding dong the witch is dead.
From his 'response':
With enemies this foolish, Thompson needs only the loyal friends he has.
I have some bad news for you, Jack: Your Mom and Dad don't count as 'friends'... and they can't stand you anymore either.
I felt earlier. It felt as if millions of Internet users suddenly laughed out loud at once. I doubt Jack will be content to leave it at this, though...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
...and there was much rejoicing! *yay*
This space for rent...
Obligatory link to a certain slashdot comment today
Copyright infringement is "piracy" in the same way DRM is "consumer rape"
I can only speak about what happens here in California, where I practice. That said, monthly, our state disbars 2-5 people, and suspends (or suspends with a suspended sentence!) about 4-8. As we have (I think) about 125k practicing in the state, that's (percentage-wise) pretty small. But it's certainly not beyond unusual. A month where no one was disbarred would be uncommon.
In other news, Jack Thompson will be appearing in R. Kelly's next video, "We Be Pissin' on the Justizzile System."
No, somebody who pretends to hold an opinion in order to provoke a reaction. Most of the time online, because in real life that kind of behavior would get you quickly excluded from the group, fired, or punched in the face.
Wow, how utterly gracious of you. Why, you're probably also doing other favours, such as by not farting in public and spitting at random people. The people around you sure must be feeling fortunate.
Ah yes, the "I'm such a wonderful gift to humanity" argument, which every troll makes. My guess is that this is another example of the cognitive dissonance somebody explained in another article. "I think of myself as a decent person" and "I behave like an asshole online" are a bit self-conflicting. The way is of course to imagine you're actually doing people a favor.
Sorry to disappoint you, but the website would do perfectly fine without your helpful services. I belong to another community where haven't had somebody like you in maybe 3 years, and we're doing perfectly fine so far.
10/10
Epic troll.
And then said "What? You're firing me? Why?" And then sued the company for wrongful dismissal. And, when you lost the case, then accused the judge and/or jury of being part of a vast conspiracy arrayed against you that was intent on suppressing your religious freedom.
It's hard to overstate the degree to which Thompson has pissed off several judges in a variety of jurisdictions for breaking the rules. It's quite the legal accomplishment.
Jack Thompson disbarred. On my birthday.
Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me...
Check out my sci-fi book "Lacuna" at http://goo.gl/MVxX8
How hard is it to get disbarred? John Yoo, the lawyer who wrote the opinion saying it was fine [to] torture people, *he* hasn't been disbarred
Methinks your example proves only that the system is broken.
I'd personally prefer to keep the sleazy underhanded self-righteous crusaders against entertainment, and disbar the sleazy underhanded crusaders against the Constitution.
Those who can't, sue.
Those who still can't, and lack common sense, decency, and sound judgment, sue anyway.
What's sobering is that Thompson knows enough about criminal law to skirt it and continue to harass the court system with his antics. I hope he has the arrogance and cojones to defy every order placed on him by judges from here on out, so he is put away for a long time on consecutive contempt charges.
What is also sobering is the fact that he didn't get nearly as much visibility as he wanted; this way, the entire nation would have known that a prominent voice in the anti-game violence camp has been thoroughly discredited.
In any case, game developers will continue to push the emotional and technological envelopes, because that is exactly what makes the big bucks.
"We are Microsoft. You shall be assimilated. Competition is futile."
Have you actually been following the cases? Thompson has done more than just to piss off some judges. In many cases, he crossed the line of professionalism. The problem with Thompson is that you are his personal enemy if you oppose him in anyway whether it was your job or whether you simply ruled against him. If you read the judge's opinion against Thompson, you would see that. And the ABA (not AMA) had nothing to do with this: The Florida Bar has disbarred Thompson. Other states will not accept you as an attorney once one state disbars you.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Now the state of Florida can finally get back to holding people accountable for their own actions.
Hey, I NEVER took out an ad in my local newspaper saying my company kills puppies!
And then you started posting photographs of members of the boss' family in the break room, and included several pages of hard core gay porn [theregister.co.uk] in the company's annual report.
Not goign to click on that link!
Jack is already probably broke: his wife (an otherwise respectable woman and lawyer) is sick with cancer, and Jack has been unable to find work as anything but a commentator on an occasional news program for years.
I wonder.
Is it right to make his wife suffer for his antics? The fine and his obvious financial distress would probably mean that her medical treatment would suffer. Sure- she doesn't have to stay married to him, but most people would admit that this kind of loyalty deserves to be rewarded- in other ways than painful, long, often-humiliating death.
My second thought is that, honestly, this might make a good plot for a video game. An honest, well meaning lawyer's wife becomes ill... and the only way he can think of to raise enough money to pay for her illness is to do the despicable- sue enough people, say and do outlandish things to create enough controversy to get on the news for paid appearances. At the end of the day, our rugged hero dejectedly climbs into bed, miserable and hating himself for what he's done but determined to save his beautiful wife...
It would be called Grand liTigation Approach, set in The City of Vice. And yes... there will be urination on spinal columns.
Check out my sci-fi book "Lacuna" at http://goo.gl/MVxX8
given that your state is about 10% of the population of the country, you could extrapolate those numbers to 25-50/mo nationwide and 300-600 per year. But yeah, that's not many.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
Let's get one thing straight: the only revoked his right to practice law and tie up the courts with harrassment lawsuits. His right to be a loudmouthed ignorant unenlightened a-hole is still intact. Trust me, you will see his name again, probably as the founder of a non-profit against electronic media.
Oh, but in some ways, twisted ways, he's right. This post has seen 250+ comments, while what I might consider a more worthy one below it, discussing the best of independent game development, has a piddly 20.
It's kinda like my sig.
You can get 15 minutes of fame, but you can go down in history for infamy.
"The timing of this disbarment transparently reveals its motivation: This past Friday Thompson filed a federal civil rights action against The Bar, the Supreme Court, and all seven of its Justices. This rush to disbarment is in retribution for the filing of that federal suit. With enemies this foolish, Thompson needs only the loyal friends he has." This is what Thompson's press release says.
Yes, because a punishment most likely in the works for weeks is obviously because of a problem not even a week old. It couldn't have *anything* to do with the fact that he is a an idiot with no sense of what America REALLY is. Nope. Never.
Also, who the FUCK would be friends with this moron?
Show this to your friends and family that don't know what a real hacker is
It's redundant because all he had to do to communicate his tag idea was to submit the tag. Why post a message to notify us the message was tagged, when we can just read the tag?
Unless of course GP was just claiming the credit.
DRM: Terminator crops for your mind!
To be fair, he did more than that, he did his darndest to further the stereotype of lawyers as being rabid, idiotic, greedy, power hungry attack dogs. More significantly, he was tying up a lot of time and wasting a lot of other people's money by using completely frivolous lawsuits as a soapbox. Then he was blatantly disrespectful to everyone else, even those who disagreed with him.
Sounds like a lot of career politicians.
Not to defend Thompson, consider the following charges:
Doesn't this list make him sound like a pretty typical Slashdotter?
To rephrase the judge's decision:
<singing>Hit the road, Jack, and don't you come back no more no more no more no more, hit the road, Jack, and don't you come back no more!</singing>
I debated with myself for a bit whether to mod you or reply. Reply won. I read the wiki link to Treasury Secretary Paulson. I'm a life long Democrat but nonetheless found much in that bio to admire. You should be ashamed for having posted that link as if to suggest that Paulson should be compared to Thompson in virtually any shape, manner or form.
Note: To those that are considering a 'Woosh' reply to this comment, I will say that I considered the possiblity this was just some obscure sense of humor, but could come up with no plausible way to see this comment as funny.
..."fatality".
a zealot loses his soapbox.
I can understand about wanting to keep violent games out of the hangs of small children, but that is really up to parents to decide. If he had campaigned instead on reforming the rating system (not just for video games, but all media) then people probably would have listened.
If he had campaigned to educate parents to know what the ratings meant, then people probably would have listened.
I have no pity for this man. I do pity us senseless, seething, violent masses that let him do his thing and run himself into oblivion. I mean, what are we going to talk about now?
He can still appeal. Wouldnt it be easier to just drown him in a vat of warm whale spunk?
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
| You sound like you've thought this through. ;-)
Na, saw it in a videogame...
THE WORLD IS GOING TO END!!!! eventually.
Also, who the FUCK would be friends with this moron?
At least one group dedicated to censoring videogames has specifically tried to distance themselves from his antics
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/jack-thompson-is-blasted-by-pro-family-group
So short answer: not even his allies want to be allied with Jack Thompson.
A troll is only successful if it gets a good reaction. On my part I'm just relaxedly sipping tea here and waiting for a compile to finish. Got to pass the time somehow.
There is one, actually, all I have to do is to mark you as a foe, and problem solved. Additionally it'll lower your score for most people who friended me as well.
You must be confusing me with somebody else, I haven't been on perlmonks in years and never did anything of importance there.
Like I was saying, you must be confusing me with somebody else. There's more than one vadim on the net.
"What is this? What are they doing? They can't do this to me!!! Don't they know who I am? I'm Cyrus Redblock, Cyrus Redblock!!!"
Bow-ties are cool.
There's really some quite sad points in the full ruling against Thompson [PDF]. Testimony from the judge in Alabama, Judge Moore, is presented at length. He talks about how Thompson's false accusations of influencing cases affected him, and how deeply he was offended by it, both personally and because of the reaction in the rest of the community. Because Thompson was representing himself, Thompson got to directly question the judge about it in the disciplinary hearing. It couldn't have been easy for the judge to sit there answering questions in cross examination from the same idiot that he booted out of his courtroom. You can just tell that the judge didn't quite know what to do with someone so irrational and malicious as Thompson, and who wouldn't comply with his orders in Alabama. The judge was getting multiple faxes and messages every day in his courthouse, and it is a small courthouse -- he only has one assistant. Thompson was sending the same offensive stuff out to everyone in the media, and they were calling the courthouse too. He turned the place upside-down.
All of this was AFTER Thompson had been ejected from the court case -- lost his status as a lawyer in Alabama -- and after Thompson had misrepresented the status of his application to participate in the first place. Basically, he made a filing in the case over which Judge Moore was presiding, but Thompson hadn't actually applied yet to be treated as a lawyer in Alabama! Upon properly applying, the judge said okay, but eventually he couldn't put up with Thompson's antics. Unfortunately, as has come out in the hearing, Thompson had also neglected to truthfully answer the question that asks about prior disciplinary hearings: have you been subject to prior disciplinary hearings is a pretty clear-cut question, isn't it? Thompson said "no". Had he truthfully answered the question he probably wouldn't have been allowed in in the first place. It's pretty unbelievable stuff.
In the end, Judge Moore made the complaint to the Florida Bar, which he says was the first time he had ever filed a complaint about any lawyer.
And it just keeps going! I mean, I knew from the media reports that Thompson was bad, but those reports scratch the surface. If you read through that 169-page report, it's just astonishing! The guy is MEAN. NASTY. Let alone questions of professional conduct, the guy is a cruel and contemptible bully. I had significant sympathy for him before, because I figured he was merely insane and in need of professional counseling, but his behavior is vicious. The malice in the things he did is just awful. I thought permanent disbarment was going overboard as a reaction. To permanently take away someone's livelihood is a pretty brutal punishment, and I figured 10 years would be sufficient for him to get help and a clue.
But no, he deserves it all. I still think he needs professional help, I hope he gets it, and I have pity for his mental condition, but for what he has done and the harsh repercussions from it, I have no sympathy at all. Some kind of serious punishment is fully deserved, and it would be irresponsible for the bar to let him continue to practice. He shows no remorse at all, and has indicated he intends to continue. What choice did they really have?
Why post a message to notify us the message was tagged, when we can just read the tag?
Unless of course GP was just claiming the credit.
Because it takes more than one person applying a particular tag to get it to appear on the list. By posting "I applied this tag" you can get other people to apply the same tag.
Bow-ties are cool.
Thanks. That cleared that up. He really does sound like a loose cannon, rather than a professional.
JACK THOMPSON IS A GOOD COP!
Bow-ties are cool.
I swear to god, I'll pistol whip the next guy that says shenanigans.
Thank you. I was going to say exactly that, but now I don't have to be redundant.
Maybe I should, just to actually earn the mod... Then again, that comment would probably get modded insightful.
Mess not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.
The phrase is 'pass the bar', and I would find it likely that the various other bar associations would ban him from doing so as a result of his reputation, if nothing else. Why would they want a disgraced lawyer?
Hey Farva what's the name of that restaurant you like with all the goofy shit on the walls and the mozzarella sticks?
Nobody is "compelled" to be in the AMA.
He will make a killing writing law books full of misinformation for the far right-wing lay person.
The courts did him a favor.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
I wonder if he has Borderline Personality Disorder, but IANAPP (I Am Not A Psychiatrist or Psychologist). I'd be interested in hearing from an expert. Even better would be Thompson getting the expert medical help he so badly needs.
I laughed.
As someone who is neither a democrat or republican (British). It was funny, it is the perfect time for a joke on the person who might be mishandling funds being the Treasury Secretary joke.
For fuck's sake lighten up, the gp isn't not comparing Paulson to Thompson the gp's just having fun.
If this were really happening, what would you think?
> You sound like you've thought this through. ;-)
If you're going to get fired, you should do it with style...
+1 Concise and well said
That's how to make a point. I wish I could present a case so clear, wise and persuasive
If this were really happening, what would you think?
> You mean poor Republicans having to fix a problem caused by Democrats that started all the way back with Carter?
Carter? He didn't pass the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Those are 3 Republican names on that bill and it's what allowed these meltdowns to create a domino effect. I notice you didn't cite any evidence for your claim, though. Are you saying that Carter founded AIG or something?
> Have you seen any calls for congressional hearings? Investigations? Know why? Because the Democrats can't find any Republicans to blame it on.
Really? I'm pretty sure they did.
> The NYT tried to blame one of McCain's aides but their article was quickly debunked as total crap. I'd love it if one day the media started getting sued for the crap they invent.
You mean the one paid with to lobby for them until last month? No, I haven't seen anyone "debunking" that. And they can be sued. But you have to prove their claims were untrue.
Oh, and Gramm was one of McCain's economic advisers. I haven't heard anyone say that he had nothing to do with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, but who knows? I hear they got rid of him after the "nation of whiners" bit, but then they floated his name as a possible Treasury Secretary. McCain has bad luck with his economic advisers. They got rid of Carly Fiorina after she said McCain couldn't run a company like HP (though neither could she, to be fair!). McCain still thinks of her as a "role model" though.
> Poor Democrats are having to face up to the brutal reality that their beloved socialism doesn't always work so fucking well. A few hundred years of history should have made that obvious though.
This is why Europe and the Euro haven't been kicking our ass, right? And if it's so bad, why are the _Republicans_ buying 80% stakes private companies with public money?
If you hate Socialism, I'd think you'd hate that this generation of Republicans are turning out to be rather like Nixon, the Republican who went so far as to impose wage & price controls...
Anyhow, I won't waste more time arguing with you. We just had that article about how you'll rationalize all of this away anyhow. So toddle off or I'll frown.
Jack Thompson is a festering boil on the hide of the law.
In other words, he's a lawyer...
Jack T has been quoted as saying "If you strike me down I'll become more f-ing crazy then you can imagine"
Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master.
We should get a fund together to send this guy a bunch of quarters. From the looks of it he'll be having a lot of free time in the near future to spend in the arcade.
Now that you have been disbarred, I am sure your not feeling too well. You know you don't have anything if you don't have your health. So I suggest making an appointment with this great doctor I know, that will fix you right up. His name is Dr. Jack Kevorkian.
Don't rush me, Sonny. You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles.
I mean, what kind of power do we grant these professional associations that a suit can summarily take away their livelihood?
These are basically peer organizations and getting kicked out requires some pretty egregious violations of ethical guidelines and/or laws. And these organizations exist for some very good reasons. Doctors, lawyers, financial consultants, accountants, certain engineers (among others) all are licensed to practice by these organizations in order to ensure a base level of proficiency and to keep the good name of the profession intact. Without the ability to remove bad apples from the practicing in the field, every member of the profession can be negatively affected by the actions of a few. Furthermore it keeps a base level of confidence in the general public about the expected level of professionalism. Yes bad things can still happen but at least there is recourse against those who bring the profession into disrepute even if they fall short of conduct that would have them thrown in jail.
This isn't like being fired because you beat your boss at golf, this is like being fired because you lost your temper, took out an ad in the local newspaper saying your company kills puppies, and then took a shit on your boss' desk.
The filthy dmose is always wining career move.
Folks, this man is a good example of what happens when you deprive your childhood of videogames. So please, for the love of god, let you children game.
The above poster is somewhat out of touch it appears. All they need to be fired is for their employer to see their facebook photo with the caption "drunken pirate". The scandal that follows is enough to keep them from being employed as a teacher elsewhere. The other thing is any sort of suggestion of sexual misconduct with students - now it's an instant loss of career. However, in the old days they would just be moved about from school to school until everyone knew the secret and then change career to preach racial hate on radio.
We don't pay a flat tax.
But we won't ever pay off the federal and SS debt.
The feds are printing money. China is roaring. The Arabs are looking at their swimming pools full of dollars and starting to realize they've been taken for the fools they are. Eventually the and the Chinese will stop buying T-bonds and dump the ones they've got. The dollar will tank. The euro will follow. Nobody will be happy.
Know what? It serves us all right. Every nation in the first world spends it's tax money like drunken sailors with gold cards. The bill has to come due. When the debtor can print money the outcome is always the same.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
The requirements for entry into most state bars are actually pretty stringent (except for NJ, but that's a whole different story). I think I most states if you're disbarred in one state, you can't gain admittance in another.
As an Australian I find it a bit weird that the bailout is going to give money to some profitable banks here (eg. NAB) that are not in any sort of trouble. It's nice for the US taxpayer to give that to us but we really don't need it - perhaps something less than a shotgun approach would be a bit less of an April fools story.
Also, how many of those are PERMANENT disbarments? Like was stated, the ten year injunction disbarment was considered very severe, let alone making it permanent. Now I'm not saying that he would have gotten BACK in after ten years, but making it permanent is saying that they believe there is no hope he will ever reform his ways. I believe THAT'S what makes this extraordinary.
1,143,357+ more to go.
Si vis pacem, para bellum! For evil to succeed good men need only do nothing!
I don't know who Jack Thompson is, nor do I care, I am a frequent ./er and I enjoy reading the articles. However I am sick and tired of the anti-Christian pollution that clogs threads on this site. Some of you even take it so far as bashing on unrelated threads.
For a bunch of people who whine about Christian intolerance and judgment you sure are intolerant and judgmental yourself. How about we keep our hatred to ourselves and stick to the topics. Talk about hypocrisy. And before you try to insult my intelligence or my mental capacity keep in mind you are speaking to a post-graduate student in Computer Engineering who ranked top of his class in both grad school and undergrad while married with children, working full-time running my own business. See your model of "uneducated", "irrational", "intolerant" Christians is flawed. I am not the extrema of the data set either. If you weren't so busy feeling proud about your own "superior" intellect (which has yet to be proven by many of you), maybe you would have time to actually get to know some Christians personally instead of busily spouting your stereotypes.
I know plenty of dumb closed-minded Christians, and I know of plenty dumb closed-minded secular people as well. Everyone has flaws, everyone has an agenda.
While you argue "don't push your beliefs on me, you are pushing your beliefs on them". Keep that in mind.
So why don't we all grow up and stop acting like Nazi's. Everyone knows you hate Christians and you think we are stupid people that should be wiped off the planet. Enough of it.
Mod this down and prove my point please.
Well apparently logic doesn't apply to you, since you expect the non-existence of god to be proven, and logic can't do that. Proof of non-existence of anything is inherently impossible by logic.
The scientific method comes closest to what you seem to be demanding, as it can disprove testable hypotheses and hence declare the theory from which they stem to be invalid. But since "god theory" has never offered a testable hypothesis for the scientific method to tackle, it's even less than an invalid theory.
That's as good as it gets. God stuff lies somewhere in the vicinity of nonsense, delusion, or insanity.
The unfortunate side-effect of free speach is every once and a while you're going to have to see something you don't approve of. Either counter the argument, as you've sort of done here, or move on, but don't expect the world to bend to your demands just because you're offended. This is America, and you can't go around silencing people just because you think they're mean.
You need more psychedelic art in your life. rhesusmonkey.deviantart.com
Not a third party. This is the First Party. Being a lawyer is being an officer of the Court, and of the law. You are granted special liberties that others don't have in order to do your job. You can see evidence that is not available to the public, you can get access to private records, you can even arrest people (in the case of prosecutors).
The Bar is the standard set by state and federal courts as a minimum requirement to meet so that you can possess those capabilities. This isn't a 3rd party telling you that you cannot practice your field any more, this is yourself not being up to snuff to do it in the first place. This is being a cop and shooting people indiscriminately for the hell of it. This is being a public safety official and accepting bribes. This is a mother drowning her infant child just because she felt like it. While all the preceding examples may be more serious, you can sure as hell bet that cop isn't going to be a cop again; that safety official isn't going to get that job again; and the mother's remaining children will no longer be under her care.
Third party, nothing. Jack Thompson asked the Florida Bar for their permission to have power. He abused that power, that power got revoked. He's not getting it back. The difference here is that Jack Thompson can still make use of his degree and education, he just can't do it with greater power available to him than the average citizen. He can be a consultant (most law degrees are possessed by legal consultants, and well paid ones at that), or he can write, or even retire should he so choose. The only thing he is not doing is being granted the powers incumbent to officers of the court. This is as cool as it gets, my friend ;).
Of all the Universal Constants, here's one I know: Nice guys finish last
Whoops, seems I forgot to directly answer your main issue...
The reason I mentioned proving the nonexistience of god, is because that's the only way someone can justify their belief that people with religion = deluded and/or crazy. There're reasons faith can be harmful, but the basic idea that a entity in the sky cares for us is imo about as rational as say believing in luck, or thinking that an item is worth more/less just because of it's previous owner. We all have irrational quirks and beliefs. I'd say we save the smugness for those who're obviously deluded and believe in false things, not those that have hope, as strange as their views may seem to us.
Just how big is this bar you have to piss? Is it kind like a kidney stone?
It was not a call to silence, it was a call to stop the hypocrisy.
You know, IAAL in the same county as Thompson and the thing that has surprised me by reading the stuff he's written is how poor his actual legal skills are. I'm not talking about his conspiracy theories or ideology or harassment, I mean the actual legal reasoning he uses is really pitiful. He cites cases but apparently doesn't understand them, he uses legal terminology incorrectly, he constructs completely faulty arguments that aren't even valid on their face. I really don't understand how he's practiced this long.
Day of Common Sense.
...and thanks for the fish
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
Did anyone else read the judge's name as Tuna Davis?
Just me? Ok then.
nop, i think he is now fu-bar
I suppose if "suddenoutbreakofcommonsense" is not considered too long for a tag, then "justifiableschadenfreude" is slightly shorter...
[command INSERTWITTYQUIP failed: insufficient wit]
Actually, I don't think they're seen as representative by anyone in, say, Western Europe. If you started foaming at the mouth about how "teaching the controversy" (about evolution,) or putting bible studies back into secular schools, or persecuting homosexuals because "God" told you so, here in Germany (and, I _think_, at least in France too) everyone would look funnily at you and wonder what mental institution did you escape from. The impression even among relatively religious people about the lunacies coming from America in the name of religion, isn't as much, "man, those are real christians, we should be like them", but rather along the lines of, "where did America go wrong?"
The last time any kind of fundamentalist bible thumping had any kind of street cred in Europe was during the Counter-Enlightenment of the late 18'th and early 19'th century.
The funny thing is that even, say, the Catholic Church, much as a lot of Americans like to think it must be like their own born-again zealots, actually went a very long time ago through what was called the "counter-reformation" to try to stop the tide of protestantism. They learned to be a lot more laissez-faire about, say, science and even sponsored such orders as the Jesuits. Which were and still are primarily an academic order within the church. Those guys actually run universities and research labs. From the very start, Ignatius de Loyola insisted on an academic education to high standards before one could join the order, in a stark contrast to the stereotype of ignorant and poorly educated clergy of the time.
At any rate, positions like ID or young earth are as foreign to catholicism as it gets. And that's just one of the denominations which, by and large, just looks funny at the bible-thumping puritans from across the oceans and think at best, "Lord, what have we done to you, to be lumped into the same category as _those_?" ;)
So, no, the USA fundamentalists aren't seen as representative by any christian except themselves. Just as they're not representative for the larger and more moderate mass of US citizens, I think. (Or hope.) Just because a group is loud and vocal, doesn't mean they represent anyone else but themselves.
And if anyone else decides to judge, say, the largely secular Europe by what the bible-thumpers in America say or do... well, I guess some things can't be helped. Some people are ignorant and ill educated everywhere, and if they want to believe something that hasn't been true for two centuries, it's not my problem.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Is it right to make his wife suffer for his antics? The fine and his obvious financial distress would probably mean that her medical treatment would suffer. Sure- she doesn't have to stay married to him, but most people would admit that this kind of loyalty deserves to be rewarded- in other ways than painful, long, often-humiliating death.
Look, here's the way I see it: she married him. I mean, she has to know, and has had to know for a long time that the guy is an asshat. And, despite knowing that he's an asshat, she stayed with him.
And if she doesn't know, then it's obvious that she's either very stupid or mentally derranged.
So, unless any part of that last sentence is true, then the fact of the matter is that it is her own damned fault and whatever happens to her is the consequence of poor choices. And, if, OTOH, she is either mentally incompetent or mentally handicapped, there are government programs that help with that. ;)
My blog
Far from it.
Misery loves company. Online misery loves unsuspecting random strangers.
Whatever you want to imply about the Catholic church, they are the biggest, most successful (and original one, since the Pope has a direct mandate from Jesus) of all Christian churches.
Martin Luther and all the funders of many other sects can claim they interpret correctly the word of god, but so could I, you, or anybody else (which is what actually happens), but St Peter is buried in Rome under the church that bears his name, if a big hint about who received the word from the Christian god was ever needed.
As a matter of fact in most of the world, Catholic=Christian, which will infuriate people from other denominations but you can't argue with facts like those.
Not that I care, since I am an atheist, but the contempt with which the Catholic church is treated in the US is frankly laughable.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Similarly, he can still be sued for libel by people like Judge Tunis (whom he accused of bribery in his latest filings).
TFTFY.
You are not the customer.
And I thought passing a kidney stone was painful; a whole bar . My little general just wilted ;-)
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Not to mention the judges. How exactly do you go about pissing a judge anyway?
And, BTW, before you think I'm just heckling you, I agree with your point even though it was modded -1 flamebait.
"Your honor, I move that the disbarred be teabagged."
"I'm going to allow this."
It's been pretty obvious for quite some time that he wasn't a high quality source for information. Is there a list of media outlets and organizations that used his quotes as fact, who published opinions from him, or otherwise enabled him?
I'll give the little ones some leeway - Mom and Pop newspaper have a shitload on their plates - but when a major newspaper or similar either doesn't do their homework or willingly ignores the facts, that's not journalism I'm going to support.