Cash4Gold and Consumerist

I'm sure everyone on the internet has heard about this story already, but for those who don't know about it, here it is.

Cash4Gold, who advertises that they pay "top dollar" for gold you send them, is suing two former employees and consumer site The Consumerist over claims that the "top dollar" figure is false advertising. The two employees had posted on a blog and a forum about the practices of Cash4Gold.

Consumerist, now being part of Consumer Reports, employed a different technique to test the employees claims by buying some relatively cheap gold, getting them appraised at pawn shops, then sending them in to Cash4Gold to see what they paid (along with two similar companies). The verdict -- Cash4Gold and the other companies didn't pay top dollar.

Now, to try to counter the bad PR, the Cash4Gold PR person's job has been going into overdrive to try to counter the claims and erase the damage of the story.

Too late. Story's out there all pink and naked.

Moral of the story: don't piss of The Consumerist.

10 Questions: Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

I'm sure a lot of you have been following this case. Gates, a Harvard University professor in Cambridge, MA, was arrested at his home after a neighbor called police and told them there was a robbery in progress (it was actually him trying to get into his home after forgetting his key). Details are still a little sketchy, but from what I gather, Gates called the police officer who arrested him for being belligerent with him "racist," while the police department stood behind the officer.

Then at his health care presser last week, Obama commented on the case when asked a question about it, stating that he didn't know very much about it, but that he thought the officers acted "stupidly." This, of course, set off a firestorm.

Over at DPUD, blogger plebian found this article from before his arrest. As he said, take from it what you will. But when you're consumed by the issue of race (my take on it), you start to see any action as "racial" or "racist."

Jack Thompson Strikes Again

One thing I thought I wrote about but apparently I didn't was how disbarred wanker Jack Thompson tried to get legislation passed in Utah twice before making it a criminal offense to sell an M rated game to a minor, then tried to get a new bill through that would make it illegal if a store advertised that they didn't sell M rated games to minors, but were found to do so.

After the House and Senate in Utah passed it, the governor ended up vetoing it over concerns that the bill would make it too easy to get M rated games in the hands of kids because then the companies can skip putting a rating on the game to avoid the whole thing.

Thompson is now threatening to criminally prosecute every member of the Utah legislature because he didn't get his way.

It has been more than a month since Gov. Jon Huntsman vetoed Jack Thompson's video game bill, but the disbarred attorney continues to wage an e-mail war with various Utah government officials. In his latest and most bizarre salvo, Thompson has threatened to have the entire Utah legislature - all 104 House and Senate members - prosecuted by the F.B.I. for violating his civil rights.

GamePolitics readers will recall that in April State Senate President Michael Waddoups asked Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff (another favorite target of Thompson's vitriol) to look into prosecuting Thompson for alleged spam. The Senate President was offended by an Easter morning e-mail from Thompson which included a screenshot of a pair of strippers giving GTA IV protagonist Nico Bellic a lap dance. Last week Thompson wrote to the F.B.I.'s Salt Lake City Field Office seeking the prosecution of Waddoups for supposedly infringing on his right to petition the government.

Here are some of the other articles that I wrote on Thompson. The guy is just so focused on his cause that he doesn't know where to draw the line, so he keeps crossing it.

I don't think this will be brought up in the Utah legislature again. ButI wonder if he will do the same thing to the Louisiana legislature if it gets out of committee and gets voted down there?

How Seriously Can Jack Thompson Be Taken These Days?

He's about to be disbarred in 4 days, yet wanker Jack Thompson is still filing motions complaining that the video game industry is out to get him.

So what is Thompson complaining about this time? That sites such as Kotaku, GamePolitics, and video game companies have been colluding to get him disbarred.

Yeah, right.

The court filing is here. As you will notice, it has a lot of pretty pictures. Maybe he can get a career as a children's storybook writer. But, I digress.

I have a feeling this will get thrown out as soon as it crosses the judge's desk -- Thompson can't file anything without the signature of another attorney.

I Shouldn't Be Looking At These Stories

I don't know why I did, but I clicked on it. All it does is have me worried about my upcoming birth experience. And now it's going to be in my head.

CINCINNATI — An Ohio jury has awarded more than $20 million to a woman whose baby was stuck in her birth canal for 13 hours.

A jury found doctors negligent Monday for trying to push Heather Grow's 9-pound baby through in 1997. The process squeezed her head. The baby was eventually delivered by Caesarean section.

Grow's attorneys argued during a medical malpractice trial that the baby suffered brain injuries. Doctors had told Grow months earlier that she had a narrow pelvic arch.

The lawyers say the now 10-year-old girl has limited use of her limbs, has vision problems and is mildly retarded.

The doctors organization Group Health Associates says Dr. Lisa Yang "did everything medically possible to facilitate a healthy delivery."

I try to read my pregnancy books, too, to balance this out (they keep telling me not to worry and that everything will be fine). But it reminds me of my experience after I was stupid enough to go see "Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem" with my husband back when I was VERY early in my pregnancy. If you ever saw the film, besides the fact that they saved money by not hiring a lighting technician for the Alien/Predator fight scenes, there was a rather unnecessary scene featuring the Alien/Predator hybrid "impregnating" already pregnant women through their mouths, then having the little creatures burst out of their bellies. I realize it is not realistic, but after that it swore me off from seeing any movies where a woman is pregnant or gets pregnant because it's going to put ideas in my head. That's why I have yet to go see "Juno."

More Jack Thompson News

Note: You can find the stories at GamePolitics.com. Right now it's acting a little "buggy" for me, so when the page is working again I will link the individual stories.

Update: GamePolitics experienced an overload on the server with the news resulting from the interest in the second story, but is now working again. The stories are linked to the accompanying articles now.

Why do I keep writing about this guy? Because he brings out the worst in me, I think, considering that I play video games in my rare spare time.

Anyway, I was doing my usual quick scan before class, and knew I had to post it once I saw it. First of all, The New Mexico Appeals Court tossed out his lawsuit against Sony and Take-Two Interactive.

A wrongful death suit which sought $600 million from PS2 manufacturer Sony and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City publisher Take-Two Interactive has been thrown out by a New Mexico appeals court.

The 2006 suit, announced with some fanfare by Jack Thompson during a televised news conference, sought to blame a grisly 2004 triple murder on 14-year-old Cody Posey's play of GTA Vice City.

In December, however, a judge ruled that the New Mexico courts had no jurisdiction in the case, since neither Sony nor Take-Two had offices there. The ruling also held that New Mexico law did not support the wrongful death claim.

Following the initial dismissal of the case, the plaintiffs had 30 days to appeal - a deadline which was apparently missed. Today's Las Cruces News-Sun reports that:

A state district court judge... had dismissed the wrongful death lawsuit for failure to provide a valid legal basis for the damage claim. The Appeals Court tossed out an appeal of that decision, saying the notice of appeal in the case had not been filed on time.

Furthermore, the suit didn't take into account the fact that Posey's lawyer didn't rely on the "video games" defense but instead on his past.

While the appeal was dismissed on what amounts to a technicality, the entire premise of the lawsuit was a disgrace. As I outlined in a column for Joystiq, the killer, Cody Posey, was the victim of severe physical, sexual and emotional abuse at the hands of two of the victims, his father and stepmother.

In fact, the mitigating evidence was so compelling that the New Mexico juvenile court ordered him held only until he turns 21. Moreover, Posey's own attorney, Gary Mitchell, didn't want anything to do with the "video games made me do it" defense, saying:

I didn't see as it as a meritorious defense. I was far more concerned about the abuse Cody suffered over the years than any connection to playing a game on the computer.

On the heels of this, the Florida Court has recommended that Thompson be found guilty of 27 of the 31 professional misconduct charges against him.

In a report issued last week, Judge Dava Tunis writes:

After considering the arguments presented by the Florida Bar and the Respondent (Thompson), observing the Respondent's demeanor during the nine-day trial proceedings, and carefully reviewing the record consisting of four volumes of exhibits totaling 1700 pages and approximately 2400 pages of transcribed testimony, the Court finds that the facts, circumstances and evidence presented regarding the Respondent's conduct, supports a finding of guilt as to certain Florida Bar rules...

Tunis made 21 recommendations of guilt in relation to Thompson's participation in Strickland vs. Sony, an Alabama case in which the anti-game attorney represented the families of two police officers and a police dispatcher slain by 18-year-old Grand Theft Auto player Devin Moore.

Tunis also recommended that Thompson be found guilty on four out of five counts relating to his 2006 attempt to have Rockstar's Bully declared a public nuisance in a case before Miami Judge Ronald Friedman. An additional two guilty counts stemmed from a non-video game matter.

Some of those charges included:

• Knowingly making a false statement of material fact or law to a tribunal
• Knowingly disobeying an obligation under the rules of a tribunal
• Communicating the merits of the case with a judge before whom the proceeding is pending
• Using means that have no purpose other than to embarrass, delay or burden a third person
• Engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation
• Engaging in conduct in connection with the practice of law that is prejudicial to the administration of justice, including to knowingly or through callous indifference disparage or humiliate litigants or other lawyers
• Making statements that the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard as to the truth or falsity concerning the qualifications or integrity of a judge

Thompson has his own case going against the judge, but I don't think the bar is going to work in his favor on this. But it looks like for now our PS3s and XBox360s are safe.

Woman Fired After High Risk Pregnancy

I wanted to point out this story if only for the fact that I can sympathize for this woman's plight.

April 28, 2008 -- Don't let the Red Door hit you on the way out.

That was the message from an Elizabeth Arden Red Door salon in Woodbury, LI, that fired an assistant sales manager for taking too much time off during her high-risk pregnancy, according to a lawsuit filed in Brooklyn federal court.

Sandra Madero, 35, of Valley Stream, said the company violated her rights and is suing the high-end salon for $4 million.

"I don't understand why they treated me like this," she said.

Madero became pregnant with her second child in 2005, while she said she was working 60 hours a week. When she began losing weight and having contractions, her doctor told her to cut back on hours.

Her bosses said that as a salaried staffer, she wasn't entitled to a lighter schedule, her suit alleges. Instead, she took unpaid leave under the Family Medical Leave Act, which allows pregnant workers to take three months off.

When the three months were up, she faced the same problem. Her doctor didn't want her working more than 30 hours a week - but her bosses wouldn't accept her taking on a lighter workload, the suit claims.

She used vacation days, and she was fired when those ran out - a week before her baby was born, the suit alleges.

A representative for Elizabeth Arden declined to comment.

Fark drew me to the story, but I sensed a little anger from the commenters in the thread accompanying this story. Some of the choice comments:

JoeBagadonutz

2008-04-28 07:00:01 PM

Yep, honey, sometimes you just have to make the decision to be a good parent or be a good employee. You made the decision, why whine about it now? Your employers have no duty to keep you on the payroll if you don't show up for work.

re-elect_jimmy_carter

2008-04-28 08:34:50 PM

pure tough nuts.

she already had a kid, she wanted another.

does the entire world have to bow down at the feet of every mother who decides to get knocked up?

BIRTH CONTROL OR GTFO.

Dubya's_Coke_Dealer

2008-04-28 08:36:31 PM

This is why I never hire broads. Them and their "female issues," got no time for it. Get to work.

Exceptions made of course if they can provide me with proof of sterility.

mtsofthemoon

2008-04-28 08:40:45 PM

Sorry but you reap what you sow... If some lady wants to get preggo and pop out some rugrats thats her perogative, just don't expect her employer to cater to her. She made the choice to have her damn baby instead of getting an abortion, so its her responsibility to make sure she can afford it.

She would have just robbed her employer of productivity by all that post-birth ooohing and aaahing that every woman around is gonna do when she came back to work with baby talk, baby pictures, and sleep deprivation.

Having a baby should be a priviledge not a right, just like having a job. All maternity law does is foster the sense of entitlement women have about having babies.

As someone who was laid off from her previous job three months into her pregnancy, I know how tough it is to be suddenly out of work in a critical point of your life. But some of the comments on the board were just plain downright mean. If I was going through a high risk pregnancy, I would hope that my employer would be more sympathetic to my plight and follow the laws when it comes to pregnant women on the job.

Keep Free Speech Alive in Canada!

From Ezra Levant, who successfully won a suit where he was accused of insulting the Muslim religion:

Today I was sued by Richard Warman, Canada’s most prolific – and profitable – user of section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act. As readers of this site know, Warman isn’t just a happy customer of section 13 and its 100% conviction rate, he’s a former CHRC employee, an investigator of section 13 thought crimes himself. In fact, he was often both a customer and an investigator at the same time.

And from Kathy Shaidle of Five Feet of Fury:

Richard Warman has brought almost half these cases single-handledly, getting websites he doesn’t like shut down, and making tens of thousands of tax free dollars in "compensation" out of web site owners who can’t afford to fight back or don’t even realize they can.

The province of British Columbia had to pass a special law to stop Richard Warman from suing libraries because they carried books he didn't approve of.

Richard Warman also wants to ban international websites he doesn’t like from being seen by Canadians.

The folks named in his new law suit are the very bloggers who have been most outspoken in their criticism of Warman’s methods.

Michelle Malkin has been covering this extensively on her site.

Let the Canadian bloggers know about their rights! Support the cause!