Jack Thompson is a friggin idiot... again...

U.S. Attorney, and computer game-hater, Jack Thompson is on a quest. A quest to ban computer games completely. And having not succeeded previously, he is now taking new methods in use. Prior to the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, he sent the following letter to Take-Two exec. Strauss Zelnick's mother:

Dear Mrs. Zelnick:

Your son, as you may know (or maybe you don’t know), is Chairman of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., whose most popular video games are the Grand Theft Auto murder simulator games banned in some countries but sold to children here.

Your son last week was reported to have said the following about Grand Theft Auto IV, due to be released Tuesday, April 29: “We’ve already received numerous [GTA IV] reviews, and to a one, they are perfect scores. My mom couldn’t write better reviews…” Taking your son’s thought, I would encourage you either to play this game or have an adroit video gamer play it for you. Some of the latter gamers are on death row, so try to find one out in the civilian population who hasn’t killed someone yet.

What you will see in your son’s game, if this iteration of GTA is anything like its predecessors, is incredible interactive violence aimed at police officers (whom you can shoot in the head and see the blood spray), innocent bystanders (whom you can run over with your car just for the heck of it), and of course the plentiful female prostitutes you can have sex with and then filet with a knife or stomp with your feet in order to get your money back. Experts note that the recent plethora of cop killings is caused in part by your darling son’s entrepreneurial energy. There are three policemen dead in Alabama because of Grand Theft Auto. I was on 60 Minutes about it. I hope Strauss has provided you with a flat screen tv to see the grief of the bereaved families that fills the screen.

The pornography and violence that your son trafficks in is the kind of stuff that most mothers would be ashamed to see their son putting into the hands of other mothers’ children, but, hey, your son Strauss has recently assured the world that he is “a Boy Scout, everybody knows that.” I’d love to see the merit badges that Scout Troop handed out. Is there a Ted Bundy merit badge? If so, your loving son deserves one now. It should be red and green, for obvious reasons.

With Passover having just come and gone, it is appropriate to note the following from the Old Testament, Proverbs 22:6:

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

Mrs. Zelnick, did you train up your son, Strauss, to make millions of dollars by pushing Mature-rated video games to children? Any kid can go right to little Strauss’ corporate web site and buy GTA IV with no age verification. Strauss is even marketing the new Grand Theft Auto IV on World Wrestling Entertainment tv shows seen by millions of kids. If you trained up Strauss to do this, then shame on you.

But maybe the explanation for your son’s corporate sociopathy is to be found in Old Testament Proverb 29:15:

“The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.”

Maybe you, Mrs. Zelnick, were so taken by your handsome son that you spared the rod and spoiled the child. That would explain why he has brought you, by the way he presently acts, “to shame.”

There’s another mother you would do well to talk to. Mrs. Crump in Alabama had a son who was a police officer. He’s now dead because a teenaged boy unwittingly trained himself to kill him on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. She has a grief she carries every day that only a mother can know.There are other such mothers in the heartland of America whose inhabitants your son simply sees as commercial targets.

Your son, this very moment, is doing everything he possibly can to sell as many copies of GTA IV to teen boys in the United States, a country in which your son claims you raised him to be “a Boy Scout.” More like the Hitler Youth, I would say. Happy Mother’s day, Mrs. Zelnick, which this year is May 11, two weeks after your son unleashes porn and violence upon other mothers’ boys. I’m sure you’re very proud.

Sincerely, Jack Thompson


I noticed that he apparently has no problem with youngsters watching wrestling - no not traditional wrestling, but the WWF one, where people team op 2-3 against one, smash guitars and chairs and whatnot in eachothers faces - but that's just a show... it's entertainment. It's only pretend, right?
- just as computer games, you moron!

Besides - the games come with a rating that basically means "do NOT let your underage teenage kids play this, or we're not responsible if they grow up to be schoolyard killers". A rating that most parents choose to ignore.
I think Jack Thompson should go on a quest to put warnings on ignorant parents instead, so the rest of us will know who's kids are likely to blow a gasket at some point.
Why don't you quest against those idiot clerks who sell the games to kids not old enough to play those games?

And those old testament quotes are just fantastic. The old testament is just full of nice little sayings about how you should dicipline your offspring by violent means. Right. What do you honestly think, Jackie dearest, will spawn troubled kids, hmm? Kids who have been beaten, or kids who have been playing computer games?
Sociopaths usually comes from troubled homes.

So once again bravo, Jack Thompson. You've managed to make a complete ass of yourself - but hey, at least we can always count on you to deliver.

You're so keen on eliminating the computer games industry, but you never will. You will eventually pass away, knowing that you spent half a lifetime on a futile quest. Time you could've spent with your loved ones.
- isn't it time to give up, Jack? You can't win. Just face the obvious and get over it.

...and this is Reno Kiilerich in puppet form...

Screw Brutal Truth - THIS is grindcore!!

Stuff it where the sun don't shine...

I'm just back from a nice workout, followed by a trip to the tanning salon, where I noticed an add for various sun lotions. Especially one caught my attention. The description said something like: "For skin types 2-4 (and you're meant to refer to a chart here). Allows your skins pigmentation to absorb as much colour as nature allows."

- so in other words it's a product that allows nature to do what nature does? But doesn't nature do that anyways? When was the last time nature asked permission?

Sounds like either a bad marketing ploy, or a text writer who needs to be slapped a bit around with a large trout.

...the bells..... THE BELLS......

I think I made a mistake - moving closer to the local church, that is. The old appartment was close to the church, but there was a block in between and the bedroom was facing away from the church - on the backside of the building.
The new appartment however, only has a half block between it and the chuch, and my bedroom window is facing more towards the church than away from. And spring is coming, which means I've started to sleep with the windows open. So every weekday at 7am I get this weird ringing sensation... oh wait - it's the chuch bells telling EVERYONE to get the fuck up! Extremely annoying (and loud) when you occasionally wan't to catch another 30 minutes of sleep. Or if you're in bed, sick. Or if you have the day off. On sundays you get to sleep a little longer, but then at 9.30, 9.45 and 10am it's hell's bells again.

Why can't the chuch just broadcast a signal to a receiver instead? Then all the church-goers and people who like the bells can enjoy them in the privacy of their own home through such a receiver, and the rest of us can sleep in. That'd be sweet!

No, it cannot wait 'till my birthday!

Gimme! NOW!

Call me rusty...

I've started playing guitar again. Something I didn't quite think I was gonna do, only a few years ago. But I was introduced to Line6 and their POD product range, and I must admit I was impressed. I ended up buying the smallest of POD's (the pocket POD) which has something like 32 amp emulations, 32 speaker cabinet emulations and various guitar effects like distortion/overdrive, reverb, delay, tremolo, flanger, phaser etc. And it cost me hardly anything.
But Within the last 6 months or so, me and Mike has started toying with the idea of playing again, so I wen't and bought a Line6 Guitar PORT,

which is basically a USB soundcard and guitar-interface. It came with some decent recording software too. On top of that, it is based on the emulations of the POD XT (which is the large POD) so it has even more presets and possibilities than my pocket POD. And you can buy/download more presets and more speaker/effect/amp models. Sweet!

I must admit that the thought of sweating in a moist basement for hours 2-3 times a week, does not appeal to me anymore. But the creative process does indeed, and it has gotten a whole lot easier in this digital age. So I've started creating a bunch of riffs and half songs - some better than others - but thats the beauty of it. I can now just copy/cut/paste and arrange/rearrange my music, and store whole tracks, parts or just single riffs on the computer. Yes - I am amazed. And my arms are sore. After 10 years of not playing, I'm a bit rusty. But I'm playing 1-3 hours a day so hopefully I'll get back to proper form again.

I'm not gonna upload anything publicly just yet - I'm not entirely satisfied with the "products" yet. There are some limitations to the software I need to find workarounds to. And I'd really like the opportunity to get my ideas past a REAL drummer first. I'm sure me and Mike will be able to improve on the material quite a bit.

- with a little luck, there'll be a new addition to the menu of this site later this year...