Aussie Attorney General Says Gamers Are Scarier Than Biker Gangs 409
Sasayaki writes "South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson claims, in an interview with Good Game, that gamers were more of a threat to his family than biker gangs. This is the man who has been the biggest opponent to Australia receiving an R18+ rating for video games and who has the power to veto any such law introducing it."
Well, i guess so... (Score:5, Funny)
if you are a bag of Doritos.
Re:Well, i guess so... (Score:5, Insightful)
To be fair, the context was that a gamer slipped a threatening note under his door. I think in general, zombies are scarier than my next door neighbor, but if my next door neighbor says he's going to burn down my house, and zombies remain fictional, temporarily my neighbor becomes scarier than zombies.
It's not a statement that should have been made by a politician in public though, and since he's keeping censorship going, he deserves whatever he gets (quotes taken out of context AND the threats). Furthermore, for him to fairly make the comparison, he needs to try banning motorcycles and then telling us which is scarier. I don't know much about motorcycle gangs, but I think they probably wouldn't have slid a note under his door, I think they would have slid a note on the end of their boot up his ass.
Re:Well, i guess so... (Score:5, Insightful)
A gamer allegedly slipped a threatening note under his door.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Threatening?? (Score:5, Informative)
Here is a copy of the note itself
http://imgur.com/CeACw.png
How does this constitute a threatening letter?
"Dear Mick, I Can Has R18 Rating Pls? kthxbai"
Screen shot Taken from http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/02/16/2820930.htm (not by me)
Talk about the media taking it and running with it and blowing out of proportion
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Gamers as a whole are unlikely to approach someone's home and leave a PHYSICAL note. Most gamers have enough concept and paranoia of the real world law (just see what happens if one of their buddies mentions they got a 'cease and desist' type notice for pirating a game or movie) that they generally do not like doing things that might bring the real world authorities into play.
Well, there are stupid gamers in this world, just like there are stupid attorneys-general.
Re:Well, i guess so... (Score:4, Informative)
And it's not just little lies about "bikers roasting cats".
He has also brought in a law (since revoked) that required that people blogging about elections to publish their name and address, and to support that law claimed that a certain blogger was "not a real person" - an invention of the Liberal Party.
Prejudiced the trial of people by claiming they were "pure evil - have no hope of rehabilitation".
So he has a history of "discovering evidence" to support his extreme views
He has a law degree - and spent a couple of years working for a newspaper (until he was "removed" for fabricating stories)
So he should know about checking your facts, and, the existence of police.
I believe the appropriate comment is "sucked in!".
Re:Well, i guess so... (Score:5, Interesting)
To be fair to the guy, if he's worried about threats to his family, none of that matters.
Of course, the fact that he uses ridiculous rhetoric (apparently he claimed bikers cooked a cat on a grill in his district; even though it wasn't a cat, wasn't in his district, and no bikers were involved) doesn't help matters. However, threatening the guy is the exact wrong way to go about fixing the Aussie rating system. Gamers making threats will just reinforce the stereotype that gamers are dangerous, giving him more reason to oppose adult classifications for games.
So, to everyone in Australia, the guy who made that threat is fucking it up for the rest of you. Maybe you should beat him up, or something...
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So, to everyone in Australia, the guy who made that threat is fucking it up for the rest of you.
I'd argue that it's mostly the target that is fucking it up for everyone else. He was blocking it well before the claimed threat. Banning all adult games for sale to because one gamer threatened you is incredibly bad justification for an incredibly bad move.
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Of course the matter isn't being investigated by the police. So I'm inclined to believe that this is another politician lying, which parliamentary privilege gives him the right to do (it also gives politicians the right to expose dangers and corruption without fear of retrobution, which is why it is unfortunately needed). No one in Australia is taking this guy seriously.
This is just proof that Atkinson is scared o
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Hells Angels (Score:5, Funny)
I hear a challenge Hells Angels/Mongols/Pagans/Insert your club here. This guy just called you all a bunch of pussies!
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Re:Hells Angels (Score:5, Funny)
"TANGENT ATTACK! CHEW ON MY SATANIC PI! ONE THOUSAND DEGREEEEES HYPOTENUSE!"
"NOOO This value is... not... real.. not... possible!Gngngngnn.Must... Resist..." *faints*
Hell's Angles declared winners.
Re:Hells Angels (Score:5, Funny)
according to TFA their 'biker gags' are called 'bikies'.
wtf?
makes sense now... who would be afraid of a widdle bikie-wikee gang?
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Yeah, Aussie slang is pretty easy to get the hang of, merely cut the word in half and add "ie" at the end of it. That probably amounts to 95% of Aussie slang
In the case that a citation is required, is it enough to say that I am Australian
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For the other 5% you cut the word in half and add "o": lebbo, abbo...
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Australian slang is all about making everything have two syllables. 'Bike' has one syllable, so we add '-ie' to make it two. Lebanese has three syllables, so we take the first syllable and add '-o' to make Lebbo.
It gets a lot more surreal when we apply this kind of abbreviation slang to things that are already slang. The best example being 'seppo', which is abbreviated from 'septic tank' which is cockney rhyming slang for 'yank'.
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I hear a challenge Hells Angels/Mongols/Pagans/Insert your club here. This guy just called you all a bunch of pussies!
The bikers are running a candidate for Attorney General against him.
Maybe the biker candidate should co-opt gamers by advocating their cause.
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That originally popped into my head as a joke, but I think it's actually true! See also his recent law banning anonymous speech.
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This is the same idiot?? All is explained!
Yep. If you see any news item these days that can be summed up as "retarded Australian legislation and/or ban", just assume it has the Michael Atkinson seal of approval.
I like some previous post's suggestion that he try to ban or "rate" motorcycles according to how gang-like they are, and see how far that gets him, with the Hell's Angels or anyone else.
Will his rating scheme be 1-4 grilled cats?
Hey, we got some of them in Amsterdam (Score:4, Funny)
Me and some gamer mates are going to beat up the Amsterdam chapter of the Hell's Angels. I mean, we are thougher then them right? What could possibly go wrong? They are wusses and I will make sure to tell them loudly and clearly, what are they going to do? None of them has scored as many kills in Counterstrike as I have.
Anal Bum Cover? (Score:2)
Re:Hells Angels (Score:5, Funny)
No, that's SATA N DEATH 666. It's a SerialATA specifications group who is concerned that SATA will reach 666 MB/s, and that this would indicate the coming of the Apocalypse by bringing one of the Four Horsemen, Death.
Bwahahaha! (Score:5, Insightful)
Where does Australia find these whack jobs? I mean, either the guy is a paranoid schizophrenic or a mental retard.
Re:Bwahahaha! (Score:5, Funny)
He's a politician. What do you expect - he's probably both?
Re:Bwahahaha! (Score:5, Informative)
Atkinson's got very vocal opposition among biker gangs and gamers.
The reason he feels gamers are more of a threat to his family is because a gamer left a threatening note under his door one night. No biker has done that.
Put yourself in the same situation. What would you consider a more present threat to your safety -- a set of organizations who is opposing you politically (the biker gangs are putting forward their own candidate to run against him), or a set of individuals, one of which has made a threat, in writing, at your home?
Context is everything. The submitter, the editor, and all of the early posters like yourself should do yourselves a favor and (1) read the fucking quote before misattributing words to someone and (2) understand the context in which those words were said.
I'm addicted to slashdot, obviously so if you see my post history. But I'm sick of it becoming the geek tab of fark.
Re:Bwahahaha! (Score:5, Insightful)
As a politician and (assuming Rudd isn't running everything) a setter of policy, it's his job to look beyond personal anecdotes. If he's making policy based solely on the fact that some nutjob left a note on his door, and he can't get past that, then he has no business being in a position where he does form policy. I'm sorry someone made some sort of a threat, but if he's suffered that significant an emotional scarring from it, perhaps he should recuse himself.
Re:Bwahahaha! (Score:5, Informative)
Australia must be a land of lolly pops and fluffy clouds, because I'd wager the Attorney General of any other reasonably large country on this planet probably receives a bag full of hate mail ever year. I can only imagine the kind of stuff the US Attorney General gets.
Re:Bwahahaha! (Score:4, Informative)
s/country/state/g. This is a state-level Attorney General, not for the entire country. (US has state-level AGs as well, fyi)
Second, there's a difference between getting nastygrams sent to your office, where they can be filtered by functionaries, and a nastygram sent to your home.
That said, this guy's holding an irrational position if he wants to avoid violence getting in the hands of teenagers, imho. Better off allowing R18+, and then pushing for more games to be rated R18+, so that fewer of them are given to children by parents. Of course, he prefers the 'head-in-sand' approach.
Re:Bwahahaha! (Score:5, Informative)
The article also mentions that in his scuffle with the bikers, he claimed they had BBQ'd and eaten a cat. Then was forced to admit he made it up. Why would you give him any credibility with regards to this supposed threat he received, when he has lied about his opposition in the past?
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Good point, but completely ancillary to the problem I was writing about. :)
FWIW, the bikers did indeed barbecue and eat a cat. This is no surprise -- cats are a common BBQ treat among bikies down under, second in popularity o
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And saying something damaging about someone you have a political axe to grind, without any proof, is pretty much the definition of "slander". Thankfully he reduced it back down to "hearsay a
Re:Bwahahaha! (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, I'm an Aussie who says "barbie", as does everyone I know. "Shrimp" OTOH is never used (and if I ever hear the term, I think of really tiny little prawns).
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Shrimp = short person, or the tiny prawns in a "shrimp cocktail".
Everything is NOT bigger in Texas (Score:3, Insightful)
BTW, Most Aussies including me enjoyed the first Crocodile Dundee but Hoag's lost his popularity with Aussies when he dumped his wife of 20yrs and ran off with the woman from the movie.
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plus fucking 1 on that score. How the hell did we end up with a religious nutjob for a prime minister?
Re:Bwahahaha! (Score:5, Funny)
FWIW, the bikers did indeed barbecue and eat a cat.
Which is in direct contradiction with the article that says:
He was later forced to apologise. The animal was not a cat, the incident happened at another location and bikies weren't involved.
So...what am I supposed to make of this?
It was not a cat, it was a pig. Those weren't bikers, they were Hawaiians. It wasn't a biker gang rally, it was actually a Luau. He wasn't even in Australia at the time, he was on vacation in Hawaii. OK, it all makes sense now.
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More to the point, why does a threat from one gamer automatically mean that gamers in general are more threatening?
Aussie Jack Thompson? (Score:3, Insightful)
Were he to say, "I am more worried about black people* than Mexicans because a black person slipped a note under my door." he would get eaten alive by the public outcry. Apparently, it's ok to generalize based on traits that are chosen rather than inherited...
Re:Bwahahaha! (Score:4, Informative)
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It's a requirement for aussie politicians.
I believe it's a part of their constitution.
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I mean, either the guy is a paranoid schizophrenic or a mental retard.
Why not both?
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I'm pretty sure the new North Americans were kicked out of England for being religious zealots, in which case I would say they are still here. It would appear that in both cases, not much has changed in either society.
I'm pretty sure... (Score:5, Insightful)
...it would be opposite if he was proposing a ban on motorcycles.
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The article states that he indeed, did:
Mr Atkinson was involved in introducing tough new laws to outlaw bikie gangs in South Australia several years ago.
At the time he said politicians and public officials had to put themselves "on the line" to take the gangs on.
How brave of him. Now he has to bravely face some teenager leaving a note at his door that most assuredly called him a "nigger faggot."
Article says he helped ban biker gangs (Score:2)
To be fair, the article does say that he banned biker gangs and he's suggesting that he's under more threat over this games business than he was over that. Given somebody has evidently been round his house, slipping a note under the door, I can understand why the guy might be freaked out.
But as you pointed out, he's only banned / restricted biker gangs, not motorcycles. Banning motorcycles because of biker gangs would have annoyed a larger section of the population, many of whom would resent being grouped
Re:Article says he helped ban biker gangs (Score:5, Insightful)
Even scarier - both (Score:5, Funny)
Biker gangs playing video games while driving - that's double scary.
But what about Biker gangs playing video games about biker games playing video games while driving, while driving???
Or what about ERR_STACK_OVERFLOW
Wow (Score:2)
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Furries biker gangs?
Holy crap Australians are kinky!
Anecdotal Evidence Disagrees. (Score:4, Interesting)
Gamers sometimes learn bad fictional behavior. (Consider the evil character paths in various D&D games.) Gamers frequently learn good fictional behavior. (Consider the hero character paths in many D&D games.)
In contrast, a chapter of Hell's Angels in Hamburg ran multiple houses for the rape of teenage girls and women held as slaves. (Sources: Victor Malarek's The Natashas, Terry Lee Wright's River of Innocents [riverofinnocents.com].) They were responsible for enabling thousands of rapes in the real world.
Yes, it's atypical for a biker gang. But all things considered, it's more rare for the gamer.
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Which is why we need another new law covering this....
I hear that AG! (Score:4, Funny)
Or if I actually make it to a gas station and am fueling up, one of em might come over, push his glasses up or adjust the tape holding them together, asking what if I'm gonna reserve the new StarCraft! The horror!
I always feel much safer knowing that the guy next to me on that bike on the highway has a full body tattoo and a mustache, and so does his girlfriend on the bitch seat! I mean, at least they're not gamers, right?
* PS - This is intended as a lame attempt at humor, don't hurt me, I play games too! >.>
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Soo.. (Score:5, Insightful)
What he's saying is, every person under 30 who lives in Australia is scarier than Biker Gangs?
Does he ever leave the house?
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Does he ever leave the house?
Of course he does.....with a large, well-armed security detail.
Re: Try scambaiting. (Score:2)
For the ultimate thrill and hundreds of death threats, try pulling a few freight baits and get a scam gang to pay thousands of dollars for trash and insults.
http://thescambaiter.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1132 [thescambaiter.com]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzz1tNppsIM [youtube.com] Warning adult theme and language
This guy lost count of the death threats. ;-)
He has an ax to grind after the loss of $4,000 due to a bounced check. He grinds them well.
If you wondered about all those scam emails, this is the place to see how they all work.
Fa
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Not anymore! Too many gamers out there!
Veto? (Score:5, Informative)
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On the other-hand, the AG isn't normally allowed to continue to enforce laws that have been repealed. Having the power to veto bills that change laws in ways he doesn't like would effectively give him this ability (limited to any override process).
Re:Veto? (Score:4, Informative)
This is a STATE AG, and for the relevant changes the approval of all the states AG is required.
Atkinson is the holdout.
He is the darling of the Right faction of the Labor
party, which confusingly used to be left wing before they sold out.
Please note in au liberals are the conservative party!
Of course! (Score:3, Funny)
Well....Yeah? (Score:2)
And Bikers would be more of a threat to me than terrorist if I tried to outlaw motorcycles.
Christians would be more of a threat than street thugs if I tried to ban religion.
It's stating the obvious here....
WTF? (Score:2)
ok... (Score:3, Funny)
This bloke is a dill mates.
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"He was later forced to apologise. The animal was not a cat, the incident happened at another location and bikies weren't involved."
Wait, what?!
"Oops, my bad, it was a cow, not a cat. And it wasn't at my house, it was at the local Burger King. And I guess it was just a family of 4, not bikers. But it looked so delicious that I was understandably confused!"
What a tit (Score:5, Insightful)
In short, "biker gang" is not shorthand for dangerous thug. Nor is "gamer" shorthand for brainwashed serial killer. And while we're at it I'm pretty sure that "Australian politician" doesn't mean paranoid, misinformed and dangerously ignorant jerk"... but I could be wrong.
Just a thought Mr Atkinson but perhaps your ill-considered bigotry is what causes people to take such a dim view of you. A single gamer harrassing you is more likely indicative that you've pissed someone off personally than that all gamers are out to get you and your family. Gah.
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And while we're at it I'm pretty sure that "Australian politician" doesn't mean paranoid, misinformed and dangerously ignorant jerk"... but I could be wrong.
It does actually, though it means it if you drop 'Australian' from there too.
is he right? (Score:2)
I think he is!
Thats to say... I agree that biker gangs are about as ridiculous of a thing to worry about harming your family as video games.
Unless you have lots of contact with a biker gang, or have 1%er in the family, or have some other factor which makes you more likely to be involved in biker gang violence (maybe you are a meth addict with a penchant for not havening the money?) or maybe if you live next door to a particularly disliked gang member or chapter president, then... really.... what a stupid th
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Ok, I am going to fucking shut up now.... I got p0wn3d:
Wow...um.... so if you live in Australia...do worry about the biker gang party.... holy shit.
-Steve
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You know, I always thought Mad Max was a futuristic post-apocalyptic film series, not a documentary on the Australian socio-political scene.
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Most 1% er's people see are actually posers. I've been an official photographer for most of the BIG motorcycle events in the eastern half of the USA and real bikers that are real 1%er's are far and few between.. Most of the time you have a 1%er poser. someone that wants to look like a badass but in reality is a big pussy that wants attention. Problem is at Sturgis these posers get their asses kicked by the real 1%ers because they try and pull their bullshit in front of them.
a Real 1%er when you find one
This guy is going to piss him... (Score:3, Funny)
This guy is going to piss himself if he meets a gamer that's in a biker gang.
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And for that matter, how does he know the threat didn't come from a gamer who was also a biker?
Shh, don't tell him... (Score:3, Insightful)
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That a bunch of gamers got together and raised 1.7M dollars for charity...
By smuggling drugs or weapons?
Its the truth!! (Score:2, Funny)
Believe me there is nothing more scary than 24 angry players with huge repair bills, and no epic loot.....
I'd have to agree with him... (Score:2)
However, if they did exist and a biker gang were trying to break into my house, I'd want a bunch of gamers with me. I mean, if there isn't already a training simulation out there with that story, I'm sure there will be one soon.
Coming soon from Big Lizza
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Yeah, it's always good to have a few fat slobs to cover your escape while you run out the back door.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Gang (Score:3, Funny)
You don't wanna mess with the Yu-Gi-Oh! Card-Gaming Gang [google.com].
Oh, great; there's MORE of these wackos? (Score:3, Insightful)
So basically, this guy is to Australia what Jack Thompson would be to the US if he ever got into a position of power. Guys like him would probably faint at the words I typically use to talk and think about them, not because of any actual obscenities, but because phrases like "enemies of freedom" would remind him too much of the way them thar turrists talk about the West.
That said, I can't help but wonder if maybe JonKatz was onto something. Not even 15 years ago, gamers and geeks of all kinds tended to be seen as mostly harmless: bumbling and socially-inept, but generally well-meaning (albeit odd). We were condescended to, and even bullied from time to time, but we were more or less given the benefit of the doubt.
That's changed, and it hasn't been for the better. The condescension and bullying haven't really gone anywhere, but now there's a palpable sense of fear mixed into it. We're seen as ticking time bombs, holding on by a thread that a pin drop in the wrong direction could snap. Some see us as pre-murderers, others as pre-rapists, yet others as pre-saboteurs, but the common thread is clear: we are sleeping monsters to be tiptoed around.
The stereotype is of course false, or at least it's no more true than it's ever been for any group of people. But like the old stereotype, the new one wasn't born in a vacuum. Gaming and geekdom have always had a few Creepy People doing Creepy Things, but it's only recently that they've risen to the forefront. That's our image problem, and it would do us as a group a lot of good to think about why it happened and how to reverse it, before people like Thompson and Atkinson manage to do it for us.
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What happened to the far right "impose morality and open media on the government, and leave the citizens in charge"?
Can we mod our gov -1 redundant?
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Re:The guy's right (Score:5, Insightful)
this guy thinks that gamers are generally more dangerous than bikers in order to discredit him.
Quote:
He didn't say "from a gamer" he said "from gamers", as in the whole group. As opposed to the outlaw motorcycle gangs, as in their whole group. He feels that gamers are more dangerous than bikers. If he's never received a death threat from anyone but a gamer, then perhaps he's justified in feeling that way, but I'm seriously surprised that this is the first death threat an AG would get.
I do have to say that the motorcycle gangs have a better long term plan than the gamers do at this point. Someone should start a gamer party and run for election on the grounds that you actually know something about what you're trying to regulate.
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No. That generalization of his quote is incorrect. You are correct in gernealizing from "a gamer" to "gamers" -- but you are incorrect in generalizing from his family being at risk to other families, or individuals, or all of society being at risk.
Considering that he claims a credible threat was made against him by gamers, and none by bikers, you can see his rationale for believe that *his specific family* is more threatened by gamers.
That does not mea
Re:The guy's right (Score:4, Funny)
It's not a generalization. He said "I feel that my family and I are more at risk from gamers than we are from the outlaw motorcycle gangs who also hate me and are running a candidate against me".
Of course, this "note" could easily be bogus, like the cat incident. Perhaps it will turn out that the note wasn't slipped under his door, it was placed on his refrigerator. It wasn't written by a gamer, it was by his daughter. And it wasn't a death threat, but a grocery list.
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I think it's all a load of bullshit.
1. The contents of the note haven't been made public, so we don't know how threatening it really was. My guess on the contents: "I want my left 4 dead 2 you fucking fucker"
2. There is no indication that the police have been involved. If Atkinson was actually scared of the supposed death threats you'd think he would have called the cops.
3. It is currently legal to leave a note under someone's door, even at 2am.
4. He is more at risk from bikie gangs than gamers. SA has some
+3 reaction adjustment (Score:2)
Awesome idea! Who do we know that has an 18 charisma to head up the party?
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