Is this the guy who has it in for Penny Arcade?

Yes. And everybody else.

You had trouble with "piñata", I take it?

Wow, a tilde can surmount an "a". Who knew? -- I thought they were"n"-specific.

A tilde indicates nasalness of vowel in phonetics, as in the name of the best language ever. I don't know which actual languages use it in the alphabet.

Weird. I'd just copied and pasted the phrase in from the pdf of the filing. It displayed properly in Safari.

Shouldn't a Mexican's blog be set up to accept the ñ? ¡Jesucristo!

I can't begin to express how much I hate that guy.

Wait until you see his cheerleading video.

Imagine:

Rush Limbaugh, Jack Thompson, Michelle Malkin, and Ann Coulter. The men's ankles are handcuffed to the women's wrists and vice versa. They are in a room with perfectly frictionless walls. The room is filled with raw sewage to a depth of four feet. They are to remain here for all eternity.

Beautiful, isn't it?

Who knew Marin County was "just east of San Francisco"? (See Complaint, Para. 83).

Also, JT is (and this is just an opinion, and therefore not a basis for libel, Jack) delightfully insane.

"Ã"s and "õ"s litter the Portuguese language like dates in a fruitcake, but make the language much more tasty.

Polish, inexplicably, generates the same nasalization by slinging a backwards cedilla under the "e", as in "Dziękuję" ("Thank you").

As noted in his pleading "Thompson is now the only officially Bar-certified sane lawyer in Florida."

And I suspect that, like Gawker Media, Unfogged is likely to be sued by JT only if (i) posters here expressly indicate that JT should be shot, (ii) one or more posters from here contact JT by email or otherwise to threaten him, and (iii) Unfogged insists on leaving up all threatening posts despite a written policy to remove them.

Re: 14(ii)

Then I guess it would be inappropriate to note that JT included his email address in the complaint.

Seriously, though, he seems to have a habit of googling himself so a judicious use of the / might be called for. Like you do with De/nBes/te.

In sending documents to opponents, Thompson would frequently attach a photocopy of his driver's license, with a photo of Batman pasted over his own, just to make sure they knew who they were dealing with. Thompson said, "I have sent my opponents pictures of Batman to remind them I'm playing the role of Batman. Just like Bruce Wayne helped the police in the movie, I have had to assist the sheriff of Broward County."

13: The Polish diacritic is called an ogonek. It's often used in transcription systems for North American languages in which high tones are indicated with acute accents (which would get in the way of the tilde, at least on a typewriter).

i'm only up to the 3rd page and already he's pointed out the race of a judge (and not just any judge, but noted objectivist janice rogers brown).

OT, but have any of the moms or dads of preschoolers here watched "The W/iggles"? It's a wee bit g/ay, not that there's anything wrong with that.

OT, but have any of the moms or dads of preschoolers here watched "The W/iggles"? It's a wee bit g/ay, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Also, we should be covering the Spector trial. The defense is "The police are making a big deal about an accidental suicide because they're prejudiced against Spector."

"Thompson is now the only officially Bar-certified sane lawyer in Florida.""

Isn't it illegal to lie in these things? I have to say Thompson is now at much the same stage as Althouse: beyond a hilarious car wreck into a pitiful figure who really needs help. He has never won a single case related to video games and along with cynical politicians he's cost several states hundreds of thousands of dollars by promoting blatantly unconstitutional laws.

The Wiggles are the real deal. How do you come to find out about them, Emerson?

My favorite Thompson moment was when he was running for prosecutor against Janet Reno and kept implying that she was a lesbian. From the Wikipedia:

"Thompson gave Reno a letter at a campaign event requesting that she check a box to indicate whether she was homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual. Thompson said that Reno then put her hand on his shoulder and responded, 'I'm only interested in virile men. That's why I'm not attracted to you.' He filed a police report accusing her of battery for touching him."

Can someone be punished for barratry if they harass multiple people sequentially?

Is the story in 24 for real. 'Cause if so, I have to re-evaluate Janet Reno in the awesomeness department.

25: I don't know about Florida, but in North Carolina, the answer is absolutely -- State v. Batson, 220 N.C. 411 (1941).

Interesting nugget: Blackstone defined barratry as "the offense of frequently exciting and stirring up suits and quarrels between his majesty's subjects, either at law or otherwise."

Sweet.

Oh, good ol' JT. It's like the Universe, in its infinite wisdom and benevolence, decided to create a walking, talking demonstration of that old saw about giving someone enough rope. Eventually someone is going to charge his primary caregiver with running an illegal freak show.

26: Yes, for real and it's difficult to overstate the awesomeness of Janet Reno. I wish I could find video of the entire sketch, but I can't. Also, she has (or at least had at one time) 35 peacocks and peahens, all named Horace.

22: beyond a hilarious car wreck

No, no, he's still a hilarious car wreck.

It seems Jack Thompson is a boy named "sue." Apostropher, that should get you sued.

Yeah, put me down for the Janet Reno fan club too.

Is the story in 24 for real.

From the horse's ass mouth.

Clownae, I was visiting my grandnephew.

Everyone knows where Janet Reno went to college, right?

...Now don't go getting any ideas, Teo -- she's a married woman! (I think)

Janet Reno has never been married.

Jesus, that is really, really great. You know how parodies may be kinda funny to anyone, but they are often much better if you appreciate or at the very least are familiar with their targets? This isn't parody, and for that matter I'm not a lawyer, but I've read enough stuff in legalese to know that this could have been written by a committee of Martians. For example, the final of his six (but not exhaustive!) complaints about the Florida Bar Association's "brazen efforts to impose its unique agenda not only upon its members but also upon the residents of this state," is the accusation that the association:

Supports full and complete state funding for the arts and the arts education programs in Florida, as well as the continued existence of the Corporations Trust Fund, and urges the Florida legislature to continue and increase the funding of these arts programs and organizations. [emphasis added]
Are these people kidding? First of all, what does state funding for the arts have to do with the practice of law? Secondly, where have these people been for the past twenty years so that they missed the public outrage over government funding of the "Piss Christ"--the taxpayer support of the placement of a crucifix in a jar of urine. Plaintiff Thompson was on Oprah as one of five guests on the topic, for Heaven's sake (is plaintiff allowed to say that?), and apparently The Bar elites missed not only that show but the entire national debate on the issue.

I think that somewhere, somehow, some of those mosquitoes in the Everglades are carrying a disease sort of like a nonlethal form of rabies. Others are encouraged to quote their favorite parts.

this could have been written by a committee of Martians

That was my reaction, but I wish I'd come up with that phrasing.

Be that as it may, the Justices are literally denying Thompson access to the state court system through which he is entitled at least to seek relief for the ongoing illegal, unconstitutional misconduct of The Bar. This type of arrogance by state officials in a southern state is precisely why the United States Congress passed the civil rights laws, also known as the "Ku Klux Klan" laws. Thompson is targeted not because of his color but because of his faith and his conservative politics. The American South is known for this type of nonsense.

Indeed, if there's anywhere someone is likely to be persecuted for being a conservative Christian, it's the American South.

The Lord knows a Christian can only get a fair shake in New York City.

41: What happens in New York City stays in New York City.

"Plaintiff Thompson was on Oprah as one of five guests on the topic, for Heaven's sake (is plaintiff allowed to say that?), and apparently The Bar elites missed not only that show but the entire national debate on the issue."

So the Florida Bar Association is evil because it doesn't watch Oprah?

22: I don't know what the penalties would be, if any, but I wouldn't call it a lie anyway. It depends on how you parse it, or maybe his grammar is a little off (it wouldn't be the only part with a mistake in grammar/punctuation/logic/common sense), but he is indeed trying to make a true statement with that quote. Thompson probably is the only attorney in Florida who had to get a psychologist to say he was sane to avoid decertification. When I phrase it like that, though, it's not nearly as flattering to him as he seems to think, nor nearly as much a discredit to the bar association.

I'm surprised at all the Christian-hating going on here, and all the sympathy for the Florida Bar Association!

This guy may be a kook with an aggressive vicitimization complex, but that doesn't mean that the FBA and the Florida State judges don't have it out for him, that they are justified in doing so or that Thompson's criticisms have no merit.

Why should the FBA be using member dues to take positions on political questions such as funding for the arts?

And doesn't Thompson have a point that kids who snap have conditioned themselves to violence - and practiced - on violent games? I'm not sure what we should do about that, but is he totally off his rocker?

is he totally off his rocker?

He thinks he's Batman, dude.

all the Christian-hating going on here

Nobody has said anything bad about Christians, Tom. We've said the notion that the Florida Bar Association is persecuting him because he's a Christian, rather than a kook (which he unquestionably is) is silly.

First they came for the Batmen, and I said nothing, because I was not a Batman.

And doesn't Thompson have a point that kids who snap have conditioned themselves to violence - and practiced - on violent games?

I have fired real guns and I have manipulated any number of hand-held controls for video games. I can assure you that, despite the obvious visual similarity, a Playstation controller or a keyboard makes a piss-poor substitute and the auto-aim features of any number of FPS games probably make their frequent players worse at shooting real guns because they encourage sloppy aim. If you want to argue that kids may turn to games to express their violent desires, fine, but videogames are pretty awful at training them to actually carry out violence and, last I checked, violent urges and their real-world expression predate the introduction of any game platform in existence.

Your and ol' Jack's view that games train kids to commit violent acts, extended only slightly further, would have to encompass a belief that apostropher is qualified to oversee the colonization an alien world (Alpha Centauri), that I can shapeshift into a jungle cat to increase damage output per second since I practice doing it all the time (World of Warcraft) or that my boyfriend knows how to drive a go-kart at high speed and throw turtle shells at the same time (MarioKart).

As to whether the Florida Bar should refrain from encouraging funding of the arts, well, one would assume that if most of them objected they would handle that internally. I don't tell them what to do with their money anymore than I tell my dentist what the ADA should do with its cash. If you want to change the policy goals of the Florida Bar I suggest you become a member.

Should you choose to join the bar to attempt to shape their policy, by the by, I suggest you start prepping for the exam with a few rounds of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. It's for the DS so it's conveniently portable.

"Nobody has said anything bad about Christians, Tom."

I know apo; just kidding.

"violent urges and their real-world expression predate the introduction of any game platform in existence."

Yes, but the point is that the video games are commercially intended to exploit and encourage those urges. The question is whether this is a good thing.

videogames are pretty awful at training them to actually carry out violence

Dude, you need to play Virtua Cop with the light gun controller on Sega Saturn... man, I loved that game in law school, and although I have no proof of this, I'd bet it actually does help your aim when you shoot a real gun. (Plus, it teaches the valuable lesson that shooting civilians is bad: hit an innocent bystander, lose a life point.)

Nah, Tokyo Tom, Christians suck. Never be surprised again.

How many of these guys are there in Japan? Do the Japanese realize who they have in their midst? Shouldn't they be warned? They're a naive, innocent people when they're not pillaging and raping. As an American I feel responsible.

Video games exploit violent urges and fantasies, but they're not training for violent rampages any more than they're training in fire magic or I can really roll up all the cars and lampposts(Katamari Damacy). And there just doesn't seem to be a good correlation between playing video games and becoming more violent. Mass rampage killers play video games. So do pacifist grad students.

Not that the fantasy is wholly harmless. I'd say that half of the armchair jockeys, criticizing the VA Tech victims for failing to swing from the chandeliers and take down the gunman with their massive Spartan thighs like Jack Bauer would have, have an unrealistic idea of combat and firearms and whether if your first plan fails you're allowed to reload your saved life game. But button-mashing isn't training for shooting.