Where Politics And Video Games Collide

I apologize for the Wall of text, but I've got a recent exchange with our favorite quest from the insane asylum. You know how he's been peddling the "fact" that Jeffrey Weise had a heart rate of 60BPM (by watching a CCT nonetheless)? Well, either Weise was a world-class athlete or he suffered from a condition known as bradycardia (abnormally slow heart rate). I'm not sure how someone like Weise (who did look slightly overweight and most certainly not athletic) could have a RESTING heart rate under 60BPM. Just read the exchange and you will understand all. I think I just shot his theory about that and teabagged it a few times.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradycardia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heartrate

Jack Thompson's illogical "facts" FTL!

"Are you sure your FBI friend knows his stuff? Children and adolescents tend to have higher heart rates than full grown adults. Adults typically have a heart rate of 70BPM and adolescents (like Weise) tend to have a heart rate of 80BPM. Of course, heart rate varies from person to person, and exercise can lower your heart rate. Mr. Thompson, I am going to assume that you agree that Jeffrey Weise did not look like an athletic youth. If what your FBI friend told you was true, then Jeffrey Weise would suffer from a condition called Bradycardia. This is a condition in which the RESTING heart rate is under 60BPM for an average ADULT. Most people with heart rates under 60BPM who do not suffer from Bradycardia are trained athletes. What I'm saying is that your "Video Games Lower Heart Rate Killing Efficiency" theory doesn't work logically. What you're FBI friend told you was that Weise had a lower heart rate when he was running around shooting people than his heart rate at rest. Doesn't make so much sense now, does it?

As for the excision, Cho's own roommate denies that Cho was ever seen playing video games on his computer. He also stated that Cho was frequently engaged in word processing programs. Compound this statement with the fact that Cho was an english major, and it begins to make sense. Mr. Thompson, whose opinion about Cho's computer habits should I believe, his roommate or yours? Ask yourself that same question.

Finally, I'd like for you to consider for just one second that there are compelling reasons other than video games for these murders. Let's look at the infamous Hi Fi Murders that were committed by Pierre Selby and William Andrews. As you might remember, they imitated a scene from the movie "Magnum Force" in which a prostitute was killed when she was forced to drink a bottle of drain cleaner. There was an uproar over the scene, and many viewers condemned the movie for the murders. During the trial, it was discovered that Selby and Andrews were searching for an efficient way to murder their victims. During the trial, Selby and Andrews admitted they were looking for an efficient way to kill their victims, and if they had not viewed that scene they would simply have chosen another way to dispose of their victims.

I read the MSNBC article you appeared in earlier. You stated that if Cho had not been "trained" by Counter-Strike, he would probably not have killed 32 people. I believe that you are incorrect in this assumption. Had the school been locked down immediately following the double homicide, Cho might not have killed 32 people. Had police been brought in immediately, Cho might not have killed 32 people. Had Cho not been able to legally purchase a Glock 19 and Walther P22, Cho might not have killed 32 people. Had Cho been involuntarily committed (after he was described by a judge as an imminent danger to himself and others in 2005), Cho might not have killed 32 people. Mr. Thompson, you seem to ignore the important facts about the Virginia Tech Massacre, and why it occurred. I believe that if you continue to pursue a link between the Virginia Tech Massacre and violent media, you will only drive your credibility into the ground."

The Washington Post’s Virginia Tech Cover-Up

By Jack Thompson © 2007

Nearly a decade ago Washington Post reporter Michael Isikoff uncovered President Clinton’s “sexual relations with that woman” Monica Lewinsky. The Post stalled on printing that story, which spawned a newsroom confrontation between Isikoff and his editors, so Matt Drudge broke the story out from under the Post and Isikoff. Well, the Post is at its cover-up games again, but this time it’s worse.

On Monday, April 16, at 3:10 pm I was on the Fox News Channel being interviewed by Bill Hemmer about one possible piece of the Virginia Tech massacre puzzle. I explained to Hemmer that the worst school shooting in world history, until Monday, was in Erfurt , Germany , at the hands of Robert Steinhaeuser who literally trained on the violent shooter game Counterstrike to kill 16 and then himself. I said we might find a similar violent video game component at V Tech because, significantly, eyewitnesses said the shooter was incredibly calm and methodical in stalking his prey, just as have other video gamer student rampage killers. That was the case in Paducah whose victims’ families I represented.

The FBI Agent heading the investigation of the Red Lake ( Minnesota ) high school massacre by Jeffrey Weise told me, “We could tell from the surveillance video that his heart rate was not above 60. He had rehearsed this. He was so calm and methodical. .He had done it before. The video games we know he played are the only explanation.”

Tuesday night, the Washington Post published an Internet version of an article which contained the following:

"Several Korean youths who knew Cho Seung Hui from his high school days said he was a fan of violent video games, particularly Counterstrike, a hugely popular online game published by Microsoft, in which players join terrorism or counterterrorism groups and try to shoot each other using all types of guns."

Fox News asked me to come back Wednesday morning and explain, basically, that I had been right and what the significance of this finding was. When I got to Miami ’s Fox News bureau, the bureau chief said to me “ New York is calling. They say they can’t find the Counterstrike paragraph in the Post article.” I said, “That’s because it’s not there anymore. But watch this and please tell New York to do the same thing.”

I went to www.washingtonpost.com, with the bureau chief looking over my shoulder and simply typed in “Counterstrike” in the search engine window. Bingo! Up pops the above paragraph which had been excised from the article. You can still see it now, at the time I am writing this piece at 9:30 am on Friday, April 20 by conducting the same search. The Counterstrike excision is at http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/NewsSearch?sb=-1&st=counterstri.... The Post forgot to excise the excision.

What’s going on here? I asked the Washington Post’s “ombudsman,” Deborah Howell, with a phone message left for her Wednesday. Late yesterday she left the following message on my answer machine, which I shall save until the day I die:

“Mr. Thompson, what you saw was an early version of a story. It was replaced later by more reporting. Several reporters did look at the video game part and concluded that it wasn’t important enough in the whole thing to include.”

This was a story entitled “Shooter Described As Eccentric Loner by Students, Teachers.”

Let’s see now, Cho’s immersion in the specific game that trained Germany’s Steinhaeuser to accomplish what is now the second highest school massacre body count in world history “wasn’t important enough” to help explain how Cho pulled this off, but the following in the new, edited story is? Get a load of this:

“Cho's sister, Sun Cho, graduated from Princeton University with a degree in economics in 2004 after she completed summer internships with the State Department in Washington and Bangkok. A State Department spokesman said Sun Cho works as a contractor specializing in personnel matters.”

What does the above paragraph have to do with Cho’s possible motivation and profile? Nothing. Yet it is precisely the length of the excised or “spiked” Counterstrike portion.

The news media are increasingly owned by entertainment companies. Liberals who infest both worlds don’t want you to think that adult-rated entertainment, containing violence and sex, has any behavioral consequences. The First Amendment protects everything, right? Wrong. The Supreme Court doesn’t say that. Further, the American Psychological Association says violent video game play increases teen aggression.

Cho trained on shooter games to kill 32 innocent people and himself. More “Columbines” and more “V Techs” are on the way. There’s going to be plenty of blame to go around when they occur, and some of the blood will be on the hands of those who cover up the reasons why “V Tech” happened.

Jack Thompson is a Miami lawyer who has spent the last 20 years opposing the distribution of adult entertainment to minors.

Jack Thompson, Attorney

"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."

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