Jack Thompson, idiot at large, has deduced that the Maryland police should be focusing their attention on violent video games in order to catch the Maryland sniper. He appeared this morning on the Today Show (which is always willing to give morons a soapbox) discussing all the "obvious" connections between these murders and video games. Is Jack Thompson a detective? An expert on shooting and marksmanship? An expert on video games? No, he's the moron lawyer who tried to sue game makers after the Paducah shootings in Kentucky.

Thompson's basis for blaming video games? Here are his "reasonings":

1) "One-shot one-kill" is the basis for numerous video games. Actually, I play a lot of games and I've found this to be completely untrue. In most of them, the goal is simply to eliminate targets, and it doesn't matter how many shots you use. And of course, those video games that do have this aspect borrow it from real life sniper training. In other words, this is a case of art imitating life, not the other way around. But like most fools, Jack Thompson is flabbergasted by the concept of cause and effect. "One-shot one-kill" was not invented by video games.

2) Games have "God mode", which reflects the message found on the discovered tarot card. Tompson explained that while playing games in god mode, your targets never shoot back. This is, of course, a completely inaccurate statement. In games with god mode, this setting merely makes you invulnerable to enemy fire. That little inaccuracy aside, delusions of divinity have been around for centuries before video games, and they have often have been linked to mass murder. Did Son of Sam ever play a video game in which he took orders from a talking dog? Did Jim Jones play a video game where he poisoned Kool-Aid? Did David Koresh play Quake in "Jesus mode"? And of course none of this explains the tarot card, something not exactly common in FPS games.

3) Video games teach you how to shoot. This is the argument he used in his attempt to pin Michael Carneal's school shooting to games like Quake and Doom. It's also his most assinine and ridiculous position. "Even though he'd never fired a handgun" Thompson says in defense of his assertion. What he doesn't mention is that Michael Carneal had received firearms training on shooting a rifle, and had also practiced with his murder weapon before the shooting spree. He also doesn't explain how a video game is going to teach shooting fundamentals when it's all about moving a mouse and crosshairs on a screen. Do you know any video games that teach trigger squeeze, the single most important aspect of accurate shooting? I don't. Do you know any that encourage proper hold, the use of a rest or skeletal bracing? I sure don't. Even the arcade games with rifles have them mounted so that weight and other things aren't a factor. How many games do you know that teach proper breathing control? I've only ever seen a few that even try to simulate it, one of them being the Army's "America's Army." Even that, though, can't compare to the real thing, and doesn't take into account synchronizing with your hearbeat in order to achieve maximum accuracy. And you know how many games I've played that include accurate bullet drop or wind deflection? Zero. I have never played a game with either of these, even though they are two of the most basic aspects of long-range target shooting. Accurate shooting can NOT be taught by video games. As both a gamer and a shooter, I can attest to this simple fact, as can anyone else who has any experience in both subjects. To assert anything to the contrary merely demonstrates a person's total ignorance.

Jack Thompson is a pathetic hack who is simply trying to drum up some exposure by cashing in on a series of horrific crimes. In his Today Show interview, he explained that he'd been trying to contact the Maryland police on the sniper case, but hadn't yet received any reply. Good. That means that they have some intelligence up there. What does Thompson expect them to do? Go to Counter-Strike message boards and post "d1d ne1 h3r3 sh00t p33ps in m4ryl4nd???" Maybe they should be focusing their attention on trying to find a mass murderer. You think?

I've added a new section to my site (retiring the horribly neglected Gun of the Week). You'll see it up there: "Interactive Fiction". The reason I've added this are pretty well covered in the section. It's also my current project as I finish off what will hopefully be the last update to Night's Edge: Wet Works. What, no mod for UT2003? Possibly, though the idea I had for a rune-style mutator is kind of mutually exclusive with the built-in adrenaline, and I'm kind of tired of spending months of work on something no one plays. I won't rule out the possibility of helping out on another UT2003 project, but I won't be doing my own. Anyway, my hope is to start entering the annual IF competition every year. It's a shame I started so late, I've just missed this year's contest.

A lot of people (Europe, especially) have expressed concern... okay, let's admit it, they've been "horrified" at the Iraq-related comments coming from the Bush administration lately. All around the world, various nations have condemned the idea of a preemptive strike against Hussein for his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and his defiance of the U.N. inspection resolution. A lot of people are suggesting that Bush simply wants a war to raise his popularity and that's it.

But look at the result. Iraq is, for the first time in years, finally talking about letting inspectors back into the country. Of course they're not talking full access yet and they're currently demanding an end to sactions first, they're still back at the table. In addition, countries all over the world are exerting more pressure on Iraq to comply with the U.N. resolutions. Some because they want to avoid needless violence. Others, I imagine, just because they want to spite the U.S.

But what prodded this all on was the war rhetoric coming from the White House. And maybe this was their goal the entire time. A little saber rattling to get Iraq back in line.

Sweden's health becomes political issue

And people wonder why a welfare state is so vigorously opposed here in the United States. It's not that people don't have compassion, it's that they recognize that a system like this is so easily abused.