Jack Thompson, overzealous moral legislation drafter and apparent censorship nutjob, has found it necessary to target our own Miss Utah. After weeks of harassing our state legislators by sending them e-mails of screenshots from some of the more provocative video game titles, Thompson, it seems, believes that targeting Miss Utah8212;Laura Chukanov8212;will somehow achieve his ends. He recently sent an e-mail congratulating her on her top 10 finish at the Miss USA Pageant and proceeded to warn her that she might somehow be prosecuted for sporting a bikini during the appropriate portion of the competition.
“Should you return to Utah to visit family and friends, you run the risk of criminal prosecution if Mr. Waddoups has anything to say about it,” Thompson said in the e-mail. “Most Americans would hate to see you, pictured below, swap your bikini for an orange prison jumpsuit, but Mr. Waddoups is on the prowl, and I wanted you to be forewarned.”
This comes after Thompson was warned several times by multiple state legislators8212;including Senate President Michael Waddoups8212;to remove their addresses from his mass e-mail campaign designed to encourage lawmakers to override Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.’s veto of a bill that would create penalties for stores that sell video games of a certain rating to children. The legislators were apparently offended at what they considered to be pornographic images in their inboxes.
This is yet another example of extremists on either side of the aisle (although certainly we’ve seen more outrageous figures on the right) doing everything but helping their cause. An overwhelming majority of state legislators agree with Thompson’s stance on video games since the bill passed easily in the legislature before being vetoed by Huntsman. However, they were forced to distance themselves from someone who makes statements so outrageous and incendiary that most Utahns would find him a bit too far right of center.
A sponsor of the bill, Mike Morley, R-Springville, even publicly distanced himself from Thompson.
“(Thompson) doesn’t speak for me nor do I condone or appreciate his actions nor some of his tactics,” he said.
A quick look at Thompson’s Wikipedia page and it’s clear that this man is no stranger to controversial stances and tactics, which generally involve a lot of offensive images and ideas apparently designed to stir up support for his various “culture war” causes. When will people such as Thompson learn that they do little to help their agenda and much to drive people toward the opposite stance?
John Hannon