John Prezioso

Street: The duty of judgement of other men was given to men BY GOD. How do you tell a juror to not use his or her religious beliefs to decide someones fate? Our jury's would me made up exclusively of atheists! You apparently have something against religious people. We are not incapable of making a decision based on facts, evidence, and law just because we have a different set of beliefs. Wow, talk about intolerant.... quote:That is as warped a view of the biblical teachings of Christ... as the radical muslums who tie bombs to their butt and kill in the name of "ALLAH" Clearly your ability to make comparisons is warped beyond all reason. Don't EVER put words in my mouth and say I would ever presume to speak for God.

CAN-SPAM??? This has GOT to be a joke, right?

How many "heroes" in the real world were without faults and flaws? It is these that makes us human!

Yep. I'm still studying. Thanks for your patience.

The evidence, by all accounts, is the only thing that the jurors considered in declaring the accused guilty. The Bible was consulted during the sentencing phase. I see nothing in the world wrong with this. And Lost, you are, in my opinion, misrepresenting the concept of not judging lest you be judged. As individuals, on a spiritual level, we cannot sit and itemize someone else's faults without having our own laid before us. The parable of the splinter and the plank is relevant here. We can be totally oblivious to our own shortcomings while happily detail what is wrong with everyone else. Man's duty to justice, however is illustrated throughout the Old Testament. God allows men of righteousness to sit in judgement of others not because they were without sin, but because they were doing God's work by upholding justice throughout Israel. This kind of dichotomy is prevalent throughout the Bible. God decreed that a man could not take it upon himself to kill another man, and yet he helped the Israelites, the NATION of Israel, conquer their enemies through war. I for one am comforted knowing that people still take the duty of being jurors seriously enough to consult the HIGHEST authority.

I find it sad that people who defer to Bible beliefs are apparently viewed by our court system as incapable of performing the basic citizen-duty of being jurors. Aren't God-fearing people Americans, too? Last I checked, we are still one nation under God.

Now this is different: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,162746,00.html I didn't know the jurors were prohibited from doing this. 12 men and women came to a decision -that should be it.

Hey Jag, when I was stationed at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard I lived in Port Orchard, not too far from Gig Harbor, and had a shipmate buddy who lived in Puyallup. (How DO you pronounce that, anyway?) Man does it rain alot there! Beautiful summers up there, though! Best of luck with the moving extravaganza! Be careful when you get out to Seattle though... the people are a little liberal...uh, I mean, strange!

quote: Originally posted by Lost In Space Take the parent into a back room and give them the old interrogation under a desk lamp routine to find out if they are buying this product for themselves or their child or a relatives child etc.... LOL! No, but I have personally witnessed kids themselves purchase 'M'-rated games without a parent/guardian around. This would be a good place to start.

I tend to waffle a bit on this issue. I mean, as a father, I can only control what my son plays in MY house. Who knows what he plays when he is over his friends' houses. He did let slip once that he played GTA 3 a couple times over a bud's house. When I think about it though, I tend to view the sex and the violence in games as borderline childish compared to what is on TV (not cable either - just regular TV), in music, and in movies. The hypocracy is rampant. I always wondered why sex and violence were always grouped together in a pair when talking about THINGS THAT ARE BAD. I mean, really, they are 2 COMPLETELY different things. But, again, being a dad has put things into a different perspective for me. Personally, I raise my children as Christians. What a game like GTA does is counter the message I am trying to convey to my son about how to deal with other humans. Sex has a purpose and in genral is a wonderful thing, but can be abusive and damaging when done for the wrong reasons or between the wrong people (i.e. date rape, adultery, teenage pregnancy, etc.). Violence, while ALWAYS damaging to somebody, also has a purpose as a last resort when in the right context (defending one's own life, family, or nation.) But there IS an obvious difference between killing an enemy on the battlefield and killing a hooker and getting your money back. The problem is not so much the contradiction, but the levels of influence. Let's face it - with a 12 year-old boy, a seemingly out-of-touch (and decidedly "uncool") parent cannot really compete with the level of exposure a kid will allow himself/herself to videogames. Or TV. Or movies. Or music. The answer is NEVER censorship, as we all can agree. But it sure would be nice if somehow, ALL of the retailers who sell games intended for "mature" audiences would actually take the initiative to refuse to sell "Manhunt" to young children. Do I want government regulation for this? HELL NO!!!! The government really needs to stay the hell out of our business, as once they get a foothold, there's no end to the level of regualtion they will try to achieve. They just can't help themselves. But until retailers are taken to task for not adhering to the ESRB ratings (which really need to be fixed themselves), there's just no incentive for them to turn away paying (albeit underage) customers. What it comes down to is that I need to find a way to ensure my son is mature enough to understand that essentially "what happens in the videogame, stays in the videogame...". I dont have the luxury of assuming because violent videogames didn't turn me into a mass murderer that they won't have some detrimental effect on him, as the pressures on a young man in today's society are FAR greater than what I was exposed to. The key has to be involvement by my wife and me, not anyone else. But a little help in the form of enforced ratings sure would be nice.

These days, there is no good reason to be afraid to buy online via credit card. Many, maybe even most, credit card fraud and identity theft happens to people who never put their credit card online. Your CC# is ALWAYS online, in some datbase somewhere just waiting for some hacker to grab it. Or in some dumpster outside some doctor's office written on a claim form waiting for someone to come pick it up. Or maybe lost by some idiot parcel carrier. The point is, you really are at no more risk buying online than if you don't. As always, abstinence is the best prevention!

I'm not going to read any more of these posts, lest I get worked up into a murderous rage. Someone who would look to profit from suffering on this scale just can't be a human being.

Exactly. Having alcohol legal and pot illegal is asinine. And, no, this does NOT mean both should be made illegal.

So much for the "AWAKE" people, Huh? I guess it's just us "sleepyheads"!

No need to apologize for your beliefs. But your obsession does seem a bit - obsessive. Anyway, imo, you are 100% correct about the addictiveness (or lack thereof) of marijuana. Not that I have any experience or anything. Nope. Not me. No way.

LOL! Yeah and that's where you'll find him, nine times out of ten...

quote:Originally posted by STREET Oh Yeah..BUSH-WAR-ITES...are doing it internationally...why NOT do it at home.Just wait until the good ole WAR on TERROR reaches this plateu...or maybe it already has. ROFLMAO!!! Street, it's downright hysterical how you need to illustrate your obsession with this topic regardless of its utter irrelevance to the topic at hand.

quote:Originally posted by STREET second, the whole incident will prove detrimental to the legitimacy of the asexual/transgendered peoples and their medical conditions,especially within the christian conservatives closed minded understanding of society, gender, and biological sex. You have a pretty subsatantial misunderstanding of Christian conservatives imo.

Hi guys. As requested, I am posting my availability for training and matches. As the plant I work at is in the middle of a large maintenance shutdown I am mostly unavailable until Monday, but I will be ready for training very soon after. Be advised I live in the Central Time Zone. (Memphis,TN USA). I am currently on a rotating shift schedule, so my availabiltiy is always going to be a little different from week to week. But I know my schedule way in advance so determining availability for matches is easy. I will read over the Command School Syllabus until next week, at which time I will announce my readiness to begin training.

What do you mean "offensive"? You can actually smell me from where you are? Rats, I'll have to shower...

Oh, and welcome to the 3000AD community!

Jack Thompson is simply a media whore. That's it. He realizes that if he makes outlandish claims about videogames, the idiot media gets all orgasmic and points their cameras at him. He, in turn, gets orgasmic as well, says something even more stupid, and you end up with anti-videogame orgy.

Hey Crunch -you might try taking a stab at coherence!

Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay was what the movie should have been. It was one of THE biggest surprises I have ever experienced in gaming. I mean, it was phenomenal.

Good! My first mission - a success!!