All FPS gamers have been there – you’re playing online and having a terrible set of matches. You can’t hit anything. You’re getting killed over and over by some punk who knows he’s the best. And god forbid you’ve got to also deal with the s**t-talking that goes on with online gaming. It gets bad. The cloak of anonymity makes normal people into jerks – and when one of these guys starts popping off calling you every name in the book (you know, Rand McNally’s “Book of Insulting Names”), you hit rage-level quick.

One guy in England was having a day like this – but instead of muting his adversary, he went the extra mile. Literally. Mark Bradford, a 46 year old unemployed father of three went a couple miles actually. Bradford was playing Call of Duty: Black Ops on his PlayStation 3 console, and playing online with a s**t-talking 13 year old. Bradford (somehow) found the minor’s address, drove to his nearby house, and choked him out. Bradford was stopped by the boy’s mother, who pulled Bradford off her son.

So, on one hand, Bradford is totally lame for assaulting a kid over a video game. He’s a father. I mean, for crying out loud, he’s a father. If he’s so quick to hunt down a person he met in a casual online game, you wonder what kind of violence he’s capable of with his own kids.

On the other hand, 13 year olds shouldn’t be playing any Call of Duty franchise game (it’s rated “Mature” in the US and “PEGI-18” in the UK). So – though my opinion of lameness would stand for Bradford if he assaulted an adult over a video game, I certainly think that the boy’s mother should be somehow reprimanded for letting her kid play a PEGI-18 game. Honestly, I just want to keep saying PEGI-18.

I mean, I’m not trying to say this is the boy’s fault at all – but hey man, you play an adult game, there’s adult consequences. Kidding. Probably.

BTW, Bradford admitted to one count of assault and he lost 5,000 XP overall.

“…people whose dads were involved are more upwardly mobile.” So says Dr. Daniel Nettle, a dude (and a doctor, presumably from that prefix) that conducted a study on paternal influence back in 2008.

It’s not like we haven’t been saying this, oh, I don’t know, for a year now. No one ever listens to 8BitDad though.

The Bangor Daily News links the 2008 study in England to British Prime Minister David Cameron’s August 11 speech to the House of Commons, in which he mentioned the weakened family unit as a reason for the recent riots in London. The Prime Minister suggested that families aren’t teaching their kids right from wrong, and that if and when parents are around, they don’t care where their kids are and who they’re with. “The potential consequences of neglect and immorality on this scale have been clear for too long, without enough action being taken,” Cameron said.

Just a couple days ago, we covered Cristina Odone’s op-ed about gang members’ lack of fathers causing the riots (directly or indirectly). Seems as if this opinion of a father’s influence to steer kids away from trouble and toward success is more popular than we thought!

Sauce: Bangor Daily News

Jamie Cumming, a 34 year old dude from England is a proud expectant father – but let’s not go high-fiving too hard just yet. It’s Cumming’s 15th child, via his 13th partner.

I’ll keep the obvious joke about his name to myself.

Lorraine Cumming, Jamie’s 55 year old mother, is angry with him. She’d like for Jamie to stop having kids, and get a job so that he can take care of the kids. Right now, Jamie, in true gentleman form, is letting his ex-girlfriends worry about applying for benefits alone. What a gent.

Would it be out of line to suggest that Cumming is sterilized?

Sauce: The West Australian (Yahoo)

Gordon Ramsay took time out of his schedule to lay down a lawsuit against his father-in-law and former executive chef, Chris Hutcheson. In the 42-page court document, The Register reports, Ramsay accused Hutcheson of ” hiring IT expert Kevin Fung to use keylogging Trojans to steal passwords from several computers.”

Ramsay had fired Hutcheson last October. Ramsay alleges that Hutcheson added his wife and son to the payroll without approval, and withdrew a pile of money to fund a double-life with another partner and two children.

8BitDad got a hold of Ramsay’s schedule for the work-week, and here are the highlights:

• Monday: Scream “This wellington is RAWWWWW.” Have editors create montage of me throwing food and yelling “RAW!”
• Tuesday: Tell a chef that he/she is a donkey.
• Wednesday: Sue in-laws.
• Thursday: Shut down the Blue kitchen.
• Friday: Let two chefs go instead of one, and tell everyone to get some rest because it’s going to be a long day tomorrow.

Family businesses are a difficult mix of, well, family and business. We’ve reported on the brighter side of family business, but as Ramsay and his in-laws illustrate, things don’t always end well.

Journalist, broadcaster and author, Cristina Odone, seems to think so. Odone says that since the rioters in London are primarily gang members, we can, as Harriet Sergeant had reported back in April, think of gang members as “youngsters without male role models.”

In that case, England is in trouble. One cannot simply just build a building or start a program that will end the threat. Fathers in England (and worldwide) need to involve themselves in their childrens’ lives if they aren’t already.

Is Odone right? Are these riots a byproduct of a lack of fathers?

Shem Davies is 29, unemployed and overjoyed. He and his 30 year old ex-girlfriend Kelly John just celebrated the birth of their granddaughter.

Their daughter Tia gave birth last month at 14 years old. The father, Jordan Williams is also 15. The new baby, Gracie, was delivered via Caesarean section at only 2lbs after Tia battled pre-eclampsia, and is still in an incubator at the hospital. Tia recently celebrated her 15th birthday at the hospital, which has got to be so much better than you know, going to a movie or having a sleep-over with friends.

Shem recently went to the hospital to see his granddaughter – and the nurses wouldn’t let him in, thinking there was no way this young dude could be the grandfather. Awesome. That’s how you know you’re at the right place in life.

Gracie’s dumbass father, Jordan, says he understands responsibility. He was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying “I’m captain of the school rugby team and that’s like having 14 kids.”

/FACEPALM

Good…luck?

Sauce: Daily Mail

Former Royal Air Force instructor and father, Steve Graham, is climbing the world’s most dangerous mountains in the name of charity.

The 38 year old engineer from Darlington, England took on this task because his two sons, Sam (10) and Max (3) were both born prematurely and spent a lot of time in intensive care. Graham and his wife Hollie received so much help from Bliss that Steve wanted to give back. His plan is to donate £5,000 to Bliss – and is currently up to £1,470.

Graham’s latest climb was Alaska’s Mount McKinley, where Graham and his team had to turn back shy of the 18,000ft peak. The team ran out of food after a 12-day stand-off with the extreme weather conditions.

If you’re interested in reading the rest of the story, hit the sauce below, or if you’re interested in donating, check out Graham’s fundraising page at JustGiving.

Sauce: Northern Echo

Move along, “Teen Mom!” On July 27, MTV UK and Ireland will start a series that follows six young fathers in the United Kingdom. The first-time fathers were all taped for three-months as they experienced the good and bad parts of fathering children young.

It’s interesting to see MTV choosing fathers over mothers in the UK. MTV’s “Teen Mom” series is popular in the United States – did they do some research that found the UK to be more interested in fathers? I got a hold of the PR people that deal with “Teen Dad” and unfortunately, I’ve been waiting for a reply all week about why fathers were chosen over mothers. All MTV Networks Europe could do was send me a press release describing the six dudes the show will follow.

The UK’s office for National Statistics says that last year, 41,325 teenage boys in England and Wales under the age of 18 became fathers. This helps make the UK the teenage pregnancy capital of Europe.

U jelly, American fathers? The UK is far more interested in hearing a dad’s story than the US. Sucks to be us, bro.