Disbarred!

Alright, I'm sure that most gamers have heard this already, but Jack Thompson has been disbarred! I have a mixture of feelings about this, simply because I despise the man and all of his methods, but the I think Tim at Ctrl-Alt-Del summed it up nicely:

If I may interject into all of the "Ding dong, the witch is dead" chanting, I just wanted to put a little perspective on Jack Thompson's disbarment.

As much as you may "hate" Jack Thompson, it should be important to remember that he was not disbarred for speaking out against video games. We as gamers have not won any significant battle here against the idea, the belief that video games are the root of all society's ills. Jack Thompson was disbarred for the way he presented his opinions, in a blustering, overly sensationalist and irresponsible manner.

So yes, while this may be a blow to his credibility and hamper his tools as an anti-video game violence advocate, I sincerely doubt this will silence him. And there are plenty more lawyers and politicians out there just like him.

Though you may want to envision Jack Thompson as the figurative "head" of the anti-video game sentiment, and that that head has just been decapitated, try to keep in mind that he was just one particularly vocal appendage of a many-limbed beast.

I agree here. I would like to go a step further and state that I believe that this is not only not the end of the anti-video game sentiment, but I really don't think we've heard the last of Jack Thompson. Just because the man is no longer allowed to practice law, it doesn't mean that he won't still get plenty of air time with the media.

Sure, he's been punished for breaking the law, for abusing his position, and for being a complete ass. That doesn't mean that he's been silence, it also doesn't mean that he's going to back down from his position, and now that he's no longer concerned about disbarment, I'm sure he'll actually no longer feel compelled to censor himself at all, which means he could be, if anything, even more viscous than ever.

People like this, completely off the mark and out of touch with reality, make me feel so much pity. I have no problem with an opposing opinion, and I respect differing perspectives, but this man takes it to such an extreme, spewing lies, skewing facts, repeating misinformation, and just being wrong. How someone can behave as he does, even spitting in the face of people who try to support his position when they point out his mistakes and errors, in the hopes of keeping themselves looking sane, I just don't understand.

Either way, he got what he deserved, he brought it on himself, and while a part of me feels sorry about his losing his ability to practice law, that part is so very infinitesimal that it is completely overshadowed by my smug chuckle and general feeling of happiness over his getting his just desserts.