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a question of visuals
The good news for the day is that the vile Radovan Karadzic has finally been captured (and, to their enormous credit, by the Serbian authorities themselves rather than by any external/international organization).
While reading the Beeb's report on this and letting out the occasional cheer, I was struck afresh by how normal Karadzic seems -- at least in photographs. I could see him slotting happily into my circle of friends, if only at the nice-chap-I-met-down-the-pub level:
In short, he looks like the kind of guy you might imagine bumping into and having an interesting conversation with -- perhaps even a professionally unsound but highly enjoyable game of pool. Hell, on the face of it, I'd buy him a pint any time. He most certainly doesn't look like the kind of person who'd order, or at the very least condone, some of the worst acts of mass murder Europe has seen in the decades since the end of WWII.
Hm. He appears like the kind of fellow you'd be happy to share a beer with.
American voters might want to think about this one.
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As to the dragons of Manhattan, I got the book, inscribed 'All best'.
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I'm glad to hear the book reached you safely!
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He does look normal. Of course, you chould say that about Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy and most other famous homicidal maniacs of our time. And you could say that about our current president as well. But yes, usually the genocidal maniacs have a certain look of crazy about them: Hitler, Amin, Sadam, etc... Very bizarre fashion sense, all.
BTW, I feel the need to tell you that I find your "tags" endlessy entertaining. :)
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I do realize that the worst psychopaths tend to look just like the rest of us (and that often people who look like psychopaths turn out to be the kindest and gentlest of souls!), but Karadzic's appearance conveys unusually strongly the illusion of someone sensitive and interesting.
My real point was, of course, that people who vote according to who they think they'd like a beer with are likely to end up with a Karadzic . . . or a Bush, who, to judge by body-count alone, is of course far worse than Karadzic.
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And this mentality of judgment by appearance is so readily embraced by the media that it makes the media itself very, very dangerous.
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"On the other hand, Bush's weasely eyes have always given me the creeps."
Ditto! But for a while I told myself crossly not to judge him by appearances . . . about a week, I think.
"And this mentality of judgment by appearance is so readily embraced by the media that it makes the media itself very, very dangerous."
Very much agreed. And they promote the imbecility of the public's "like to have a beer with her/him" judgements -- as witness all that drivel about Obama not being good at bowling and his preference for pool being "elitist".
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I know, it's wrong of me to care, and I don't really, but at least it's some positive drivel for the mindless media hordes to latch onto for a while.
My contempt for modern media knows no bounds. I can go on and on about this.
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"On the upside, Obama scored an awesome foul shot, nothing but net, in front of our troops in Iraq the other day."
I've missed a lot of news the past week or ten days, because my daughter's been visiting from the UK. Do tell me more about this! Enough, anyway, for me to google the story. Pretty please.
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Apparently, the "regular" news shows aren't too interested if it isn't embarassing (I thought that was the job of the comedy shows!) How typical. I couldn't find anything on CNN about this.
I did, of course, locate it on youtube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ExOQRLuWGhc
And apparently he's done it before, in 2007:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=daH0ltD20A0
This they don't cover, but a lousy bowling score is big news.
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Many (and belated) thanks for the links!
PS
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The alarming thing is that, if you follow the link hutch0 gives in the comment immediately after yours, you find out how Karadzic looked in his hippy disguise. I know for an absolute cast-iron dubious factoid that I've seen this guy in the dealer room at UK sf conventions . . . Next time I do so I'll have to challenge him!
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"No, ma'am, that's not a typo in the sign outside. It really should read 'homopathy'."
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`barking mad' was one of Bell's kinder descriptions of him
Well, perhaps I'd have enjoyed playing cricket with him, then!
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Or a howzatzer . . .
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I bet that wasn't a criterian during Prohibition elections -- talk about social engineering that failed.
Love, C.
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"Why in heck is whether or not you'd like to have a beer with someone a valid criterian for choosing the POTUS?"
My point precisely. But it got Il Buce "elected" twice.
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I can imagine. My ex-father in law was a psychiatrist, and among his patients was the serial killer Dennis Nilsen (sp?). Donald told me Nilsen was the most charming, intelligent and humorous of men, and was extremely popular in the high-security hospital where he was incarcerated. A similar picture emerged from the book about Nilsen, called something like Killing for Company.
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