A murderer from Central Casting

You may have read of the Louisiana state trooper who was shot and killed yesterday after stopping to help a stranded motorist. From the AP article:

Senior Trooper Steven Vincent, 43, died Monday, a day after an apparently stranded motorist shot him in the head and then stood over him to tell him he was going to die soon, state police said.

Authorities plan to charge Kevin Daigle with first-degree murder in the trooper’s slaying. Vincent had been trying to help a man whose pickup truck was stuck sideways in a ditch, Col. Mike Edmonson said.

Killing someone who is only trying to help you is a particularly vile form of murder. And standing above him to tell him he's about to die is about the most vicious form of gloating imaginable.

Now it turns out that Daigle is also suspected of having murdered his roommate right before killing Vincent. This would, technically, make him a serial killer. 

I was struck by this photograph of Kevin Daigle taken after he was in custody:

He really looks evil. There's not only no remorse in that expression, there actually seems to be a look of triumph. He's looking straight into the camera lens as if daring us to do something about it. His eyebrows have a somewhat devilish arch. And he has those thin lips I keep seeing on Caucasian sociopaths.

Plus, he has that triangular shape to the top of his head -- a vestigial sagittal crest -- which I keep seeing on violent men. 

I was surprised to read that Daigle is only 54.   

And I was glad to read that Louisiana has the death penalty. Hopefully he'll never get to be as old as he already looks. 

Sociopath alert: Shaun King

Shaun King has been dubbed "Dolezal II" by a number of outlets this past week for having perpetrated a similar scam.

What kind of person keeps up a long-running subterfuge like that? A brief glimpse into King's life, and his own words, as reported in this CNN article, tell you all you need to know: he is indeed a sociopath. A few excerpts (in italics):

"I refuse to speak in detail about the nature of my mother's past, or her sexual partners, and I am gravely embarrassed to even be saying this now, but I have been told for most of my life that the white man on my birth certificate is not my biological father and that my actual biological father is a light-skinned black man," he said.

Have you ever heard the expression, "He's the type of guy who'd throw his own mother under the bus"? Meet Shaun King. King is essentially trying to maintain his scam here by calling his own mother a whore.

Note that he says he "refuse[s] to speak in detail about the nature of my mother's past" -- what a gentleman! Also note that he claims to be "gravely embarrassed." Except that sociopaths don't feel embarrassment.

Shaun King's statement is even less credible given that he looks just like "the white man on my birth certificate," Jeffery Wayne King:

If in fact Jeffery Wayne King were not his biological father, that would be a remarkable coincidence.

"It is horrifying to me that my most personal information, for the most nefarious reasons, has been forced out into the open and that my private past and pain have been used as jokes and fodder to discredit me and the greater movement for justice in America," King wrote [on his blog at the Daily Kos].

But the one who "forced" this "personal" and "private" information out into the open in the first place was King himself, by claiming to be black.

Wrapping oneself in the flag is typical sociopathy. King tries to imply here that those who have exposed him as white are trying to discredit the movement for "justice" in America. This is a time-tested technique for trying to deflect attention from oneself.

King later Tweeted, "This attack isn't about me so much, but is about derailing Black Lives Matter and the movement against police brutality."

Translation: if you claim King is white, you are supporting police brutality.

CNN's Don Lemon exchanged text messages with King on Wednesday night and asked him directly whether he was black or white.

"Initially, he did not answer but later referred to himself as biracial," Lemon said. "But then when I asked him if that's what it shows on his birth certificate I did not hear back from him. No answer on that."

It takes a little while to get your lies together, which is why sociopaths are often slow to answer personal questions.

In one of a series of tweets Wednesday, King said, "First off, the key facts about my biological relatives are all wrong. They tried, but my family, like many of yours, is one big mess."

After all, all families are just big, complicated aggregations of imperfect humanity, are they not? So why should his be any different?

He also compared his situation to President Obama's "birther" controversy. "In essence, what is happening to me now, is like conservatives demanding Obama's long form birth certificate," he tweeted.

Yet another tactic from the sociopathic playbook is equating oneself to someone perceived (by some) as noble and exalted. In other words: Don't you even see? I'm another Barack Obama!

(Note to Shaun: next time, aim for Nelson Mandela.)

On Thursday, King wrote: "Never have I once identified myself as white. Not on forms, not for convenience or privilege, and not for fun and games, have I ever identified myself as white. I was never a white guy pretending to be black. Not once, ever, did it occur to me that I was being phony or fraudulent or fake."

This sort of overemphasis is also typical of liars: Never…once…not…not…not…ever….never..not once, ever. And it wasn't enough to say that it never occurred to him that he was being phony. He had to say that it never occurred to him that he was phony OR fraudulent OR fake. (What's the diff?)

King is not only innocent, he is, like OJ Simpson, absolutely, 100 percent, not guilty.

And, since we already know King is lying about his race, for him to say it never occurred to him that he was lying is simply another lie. In any case, describing his own feelings, falsely or not, would hardly constitute proof of his veracity.

Another charge against King is that he lied about being the victim of a hate crime 20 years ago when he was a high school student in Versailles, Kentucky.

King said he was beaten by a "racist mob of rednecks" so badly that he missed almost two years of school while recovering from fractures to his face and ribs as well as severe injuries to his spine. A Forbes magazine profile called it "one of the first registered hate crimes" in Kentucky history.

"In March of 1995, it all boiled over and a racist mob of nearly a dozen students beat me severely, first punching me from all sides, then, when I cradled into a fetal position on the ground they stomped me mercilessly, some with steel-toed boots, for about 20 seconds," wrote King.

"I had fractures in my face and ribs, but most badly damaged was my spine. I ended up having three spinal surgeries and missed 20 months of school over it. My entire family endured this deeply painful time in my life ranging from the surgeries, the brutal recovery, physical therapy, and professional counseling. It was rougher than my words will ever do justice."

The Blaze disputes King's claims, citing police reports and witness statements that describe his injuries as minor and the incident as a fight between him and another person, not a beat down from a racist mob. The Blaze also reported that the FBI didn't have any record of hate crime incidents reported in Versailles in 1995.

According to the Blaze report, the detective assigned to the case said that witnesses reported that King threatened to break a female student's neck if she didn't repay him the $8 he felt she owed him, and shoved her against a wall. The girl's ex-boyfriend then defended her and got into a fight with King, which resulted in "minor" injuries to King.

Falsely claiming to be a victim is of course another typical sociopathic behavior. And it's exactly the kind of hoax you'd expect from someone who wrongly labels his own mother a whore.

You needn't be part of "a racist mob of rednecks" to recognize that Shaun King is a sociopath. 

Gorilla muscle

I stumbled across this picture of a gorilla yesterday --

-- and was struck by how much his musculature resembled a man on steroids. From time to time, usually in connection with various athletes, I've pointed out that the most common steroid signatures for men are (A) the emphasis they bring to the definition between the pectoral muscles, (B) humped, convex trapezius muscles (the ones running from the shoulders to the neck), and (C) notably convex deltoids, especially for Caucasians (who generally don't get them otherwise). Other signs include convex but well defined stomach muscles.

Here is are two more indicative photos of gorillas:

If you Google-image "before and after steroids" you'll get a lot of pictures like these:

Both men show the typical transformation.

(What would happen if you put a gorilla on steroids?)

It seems that men who go on steroids want to get in touch with their inner gorilla. Or, at least, their outer gorilla.

Can't say I blame them.

But it all looks more natural -- and therefore more magnificent -- on a gorilla. The humans, with their store-bought muscles, mostly just look silly.

My testosterone level

I had my first checkup in four years a week ago. I asked the doctor if he could get my testosterone number along with the usual set of statistics when they analyzed my blood sample.

A few days ago my doctor reported back that my testosterone level was 502 nano grams per deciliter, or, as he put it, "perfectly normal."

I then looked it up and found that the average healthy adult male ranges from 270 to 1070, but that after the age of 30, testosterone tends to decline roughly 1% per year.

I had, of course, secretly been hoping that my number would come in above average, so was a little disappointed to be so middle of the road. I suppose I can still hope that they caught me on a day when I was at low ebb (levels do fluctuate).

Then again, maybe they caught me at high tide.

But, the doctor confirmed what I had always suspected: I am merely average.

In any case, that finding confirms that this is in fact not a ballsy blog, merely an honest one.

Two serial killers in one

Commenter "Runner Katy" recently alerted me to the above woman, 68-year-old Tamara Samsonova, who evidently murdered 14 people and is thought to have eaten some of them.

Women serial killers are extremely rare. The most famous is probably Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute who killed several of her johns in order to rob them. There have been a couple of female landladies who killed their tenants in order to be able to cash their pension checks. And a few women have been given the label after accompanying their serial killer husbands or boyfriends.

But a woman who is a lone serial killer without a financial motive is almost unheard of. From what's known so far, Tamara Samsonova seems to be one such, and has admitted as much in her diary. She started at a relatively advanced age, too, which is also extremely rare.

Samsonova seems to have incorporated elements from a couple other infamous serial killers' playbooks into her modus operandi.

Many of Samsonova's victims had their lungs removed from their bodies; she is thought to have eaten those, and possibly other body parts -- just like Jeffrey Dahmer.

And she claimed she was "tortured" by a maniacal spirit which forced her to perform these gruesome acts -- just like Son of Sam.

To the end, her only concern was for herself. She told the assembled reporters, "I knew you would come….It's such a disgrace for me."

Despite her words, though, she seemed completely unashamed, as is shown by the way she blew kisses to reporters in court. (See video here.)

Despite her commonalities with Dahmer and Son of Sam, as far as is known, Samsonova was not particularly interested in either of them. She was, however, reported to have been obsessed with prolific Russian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo:

And like Chikatilo, Samsonova had those thin lips I keep seeing with Caucasian serial killers:

(I know it makes no sense, and I can't explain why that would be, but I keep seeing it, as I've said several times elsewhere in this blog.)

In a way, Samsonova is scarier than most serial killers simply because you never expect it from a little old lady. It's almost as disconcerting as finding out that an 8-year-old is a serial killer. There's no financial reason for it, and there's no sexual reason for it. All that's left is pure, raw malice, of which there has to be more than the usual amount given the lack of other motivations.

There's simply a hunger -- literally, in Samsonova's case -- to kill.

Donald Trump's appeal

The more I listen to Trump, the more his honesty seems not just a breath of fresh air, but oxygen in a room which otherwise has none. The pre-digested pap we hear from afraid-to-offend-anybody politicians who utter only focus group-tested banalities is completely honesty-free -- and therefore suffocating.

Yes, Trump is a narcissistic buffoon. But no one beside him, Republican or Democrat, has spoken about immigration honestly. All we get from Democrats are little homilies about how we're a nation of immigrants, and the usual accusations of racism at the slightest hint of realism. And all we get from the other Republicans is talk of a big tent as well as a need for secure borders. This is nothing but a straddling of the fence their constituents want them to build.

If your main concern is not offending people, that pretty much precludes any sort of straight talk.

Judging from the polls, a lot of people seem to be responding the same way. Trump says something -- for instance, that John McCain is not a war hero -- which would sink any other politician, but then keeps rising in the polls. And it's not because the voters identify with New York real estate tycoons -- it's because Trump actually says what he thinks.

Of course, that same bluntness about immigrants extends pretty much to everything.

Trump's recent comment about Megyn Kelly, "She was bleeding from her eyes, she was bleeding from her wherever," is typical. If he feels you've insulted him in any way, he'll lash out at you with anything he can think of. Anything. (A thin skin may not be an asset for a politician, but it makes for fun spats.)

This morning he backtracked a bit by saying that he wasn't referring to her time of month, and that you'd have to be "sick" to say -- or think -- that. (Well, even Trump's honesty has its limits.)

He also said this morning that if elected, he'll be "phenomenal to women." (Not "fair" or "good," mind you, but phenomenal. Trump only uses superlatives when it comes to himself.)

The comment about Kelly's "wherever" was Trump at his most Trumpish. Eventually, his Trumpishness will be his downfall. But as someone said to me at the gym the other day, "If he got elected, how bad could it be? We do need to secure that border. And look at the alternative -- Hillary."

It could certainly be worse from an entertainment point of view. With his grandiloquence and bombast and inability to tolerate criticism, Trump comes across more like one of the more amusing African dictators. Or maybe Kim Jong-il.

Maybe if Angela Merkel obliquely criticizes President Trump's tactics, he can later explain to the American people, "The bitch was on the rag."

Then, when queried about his statement, instead of apologizing, he'll just shrug and say, "Well, she probably was. And, hey, she's a fat, disgusting little toad as well."

It probably wouldn't do a lot for international relations. But wouldn't you rather hear that than the usual lies and obfuscations you hear from politicians?

Self-reporting studies

A friend sent this article the other day: Provocative new study finds bullies have highest self-esteem, social status lowest rates of depression.

The researchers said that bullies in general tend to be more popular, get more sex, and have higher self-esteem.

I'm sure they have a point, and the "bullies get more sex" part of their conclusion is both tangible and quantifiable. But how do they measure popularity?

It's hard to put stock in any theory that doesn't define its terms better. "Bullying" encompasses a wide array of behaviors, and also two major categories: verbal and physical. You'd also have to categorize all the different types of verbal bullying. There's a lot of behavior -- like classic one-upsmanship -- which some might classify as bullying but others would not.

Virtually everyone would say that mocking someone for being in a wheelchair constitutes bullying. But is asking what someone got on his SAT's and then citing your own (higher) score bullying? Most would say not. But what about saying, nyah nyah, I had better SAT's than you? Or what about stating, I'm way smarter than you? Or how about calling someone a moron? Most would say that last constitutes bullying, but exactly where do you draw the line?

Do practical jokes constitute bullying? Some can be mild, and some can be cruel. Your perception of which constitute bullying might depend on whether you're perpetrator or victim.

And what about all the moral preening -- along with attempted moral shaming -- we see from liberals: they probably don't think of that as bullying, but it could be classified as such.

This blog could easily be accused of bullying. I make fun of all sorts of people, from FEMEN to fashion designers to Donald Trump. One man's truth-telling is another man's bullying. It all depends on which side of the fence you're sitting on.

Another vaguely defined term is "self esteem." Some people define "self esteem" at thinking you're good at a lot of things. But others define "low self esteem" as thinking you're good at things when you're not. Which is it? It's all too vague to be particularly meaningful.

It's all a little reminiscent of those articles you sometimes see on the internet with titles like, "Which countries has the happiest people?" How exactly do they measure "happiness?" They ask people if they're happy.

Gee, that sounds pretty scientific.

If you were to be asked if you were happy, how would you respond? You'd probably think, hmm, have things been going well for me recently? Then you might take a step back and think, am I content with my lot in life? But since we've only experienced our own lives, none of us really knows how our emotional set points compare to other people's.

Our general frame of mind is probably determined by the level of serotonin in our brains, our hormones, our energy levels, and various other neurobiological factors.

But do the researchers consider any of that? No -- they simply ask, are you happy? Then, they take people at their word. (How many people are motivated to lie one way or the other?)

All that said, there's probably something to this study on bullying. After all, we all do it to some extent. And the extent to which we do probably depends largely on what we think we can get away with.

But, I suppose that depends on how you define "get away with."

Bruce Jenner, sex symbol?

Writing Caitlyn's sister two days ago reminded me of how, after Jenner won his gold medal in 1976, women went crazy over him. I remember hearing a number of them talking about how incredibly sexy Jenner was.

I could never see it. He had an extremely bland and also slightly rat-like face:

To me, he looked like a cross between Pete Rose --

-- and Sandra Bullock.

And I'm not the type who's reluctant to say another guy is good-looking, as I've shown here and here and here and here.

In that last link, I described Sean Connery as the perfect amalgam of male beauty and toughness. Jenner was the opposite: bland to a fault, a him-bo with a Prince(ss) Valiant haircut.

In retrospect, we know why he came across that way.

Of course, now that a he's in full transvestite mode, he's even less appealing.

"Your dad bod is killing you -- here's how to fix it"

The NY Post ran the above article this morning. It's not particularly insightful or original; it merely advocates a standard course of diet and exercise. But the one interesting -- in fact, striking -- thing about the article is that it features the very first set of realistic before-and-after pictures I've ever seen.

A multitude of exercise programs promise miraculous results, with before and after pictures to match. But the before picture is always taken with straight on lighting, and the guy often seems to be sticking his stomach out on purpose while wearing a sad sack expression.

The after shot is inevitably with him holding in his stomach, at a flattering angle, with side or overhead lighting, and with a shaved chest. In some cases, the guy has obviously gone on steroids, which accounts for the "miraculous" nature of his transformation.

Anyway, kudos to the Post for running this realistic article, even if -- or rather because -- none of the after pictures are exactly inspirational.

Caitlyn's sister

You may remember Kelly Lebrock, the 80's sex symbol:

The other day I stumbled across a more recent picture of her:

Some of the change is obviously due to age, which LeBrock certainly can't be faulted for. But some of it is due to weight gain, which can have a weirdly masculinizing effect. When you look at the picture above, or this picture --

-- and then look at that famous Vanity Fair cover shot of Jenner --

-- you'll see a disconcerting resemblance. In fact, the only discernible differences are that Jenner has a thinner waist and arms, and perkier breasts.

With LeBrock, we're not even talking about a high testosterone, muscular female athlete -- the type you might see in the ESPN Magazine Body Issue -- who is touted as "beautiful" in order to make some feminist political point. We're talking about a woman who originally gained fame as an ideal of feminine beauty. There was certainly nothing masculine about LeBrock's waist-to-hips ratio or other contours here:

Back then, you'd certainly never have mistaken her for the young Caitlyn:

I've heard that Europeans mock us for the way so many American women look: masculine, with big implants.

Some of that may just be a matter of perception. But Americans do tend to get fat at a higher rate than Europeans. That may be partly because Americans smoke less. But it's also partly our diet, especially after decades of our government-advocated "food pyramid," which emphasizes carbohydrates and low-fat foods. That, plus the high sugar content of many processed American foods, inevitably lead to more obesity.

People seem to finally be waking up to the fact that a more Atkins-like diet is the way to go.

In the meantime, the only upside seems to be that Kelly and Caitlyn will be able to borrow each other's clothes.

Trump outdoes the original

It just struck me whom Donald Trump, with his blond eyebrows and supercilious expression --

-- reminds me of: 

The resemblance is more than physical. 

Both men revel in their wealth, in fact boast of it. 

Goldfinger hosted guests at his Kentucky horse farm.

But Trump has Mar-a-Lago:

When James Bond asked Goldfinger what the golf club secretary would have to say about Goldfinger's having ordered Oddjob to decapitate a nearby statue, Goldfinger replied, "Oh nothing, Mr. Bond. I own the club."

Trump can say the same, three times over. The Trump Organization owns and operates the Trump Turnberry hotel and golf resort in Scotland, the Trump National Doral in Miami, and the Trump International Golf Links in Ireland.

(Whether Goldfinger was vain enough to name his golf club after himself is not known.)

Goldfinger showed absolutely no respect to Bond, despite Bond's heroic service to his country.

Trump recently disrespected an even higher-ranking American war hero.

When about to be disemboweled by that laser, Bond asked Goldfinger if he expected him to talk. Goldfinger replied, "No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!"

Trump has been similarly blunt about an entire class of people: illegal immigrants. (If you prefer, you may substitute the word "honest" for "blunt.")

Neither man is exactly a feminist. Goldfinger liked to surround himself with beautiful women, including Jill Masterson (whom he later had painted gold) --

-- and Pussy Galore's Flying Circus:

Trump also seems to view beautiful women purely as decorative objects to surround himself with. He owns not only the Miss Universe pageant --

-- but the Miss USA pageant as well:

(Should Trump get the Republican nod, don't expect any of that "two for the price of one" nonsense about him and Melania.)

But, there are differences as well. Goldfinger was never called "the Auric." He never spoke of himself in the third person. And there is no indication he ever thought he should be Chancellor of Germany.

Goldfinger was actually, by comparison, a humble and self-effacing man.

Drones

Drones seem to be more and more ubiquitous these days. Amazon is supposedly considering delivering packages by drone.

From what height would these drones drop their packages? If it was from six feet or more, that would harm any fragile contents. But if they gently place them on the ground, their rotors have the potential to hurt humans. How would they guard against that? And how much would an injured person be able to sue Amazon for? It's not as if Amazon doesn't have deep enough pockets to attract the attention of a lawyer or two.

There have already been several cases of people injured by drones.

This Australian triathlete was injured when photographer's drone crashed next to her mid-race.

Singer Enrique Iglesias' hand was injured by a drone during a concert in Tijuana.

A number of people were received minor injuries from a low-flying drone at the Virginia Motorsports Park during the Great Bull Run (a local version of Pamplona).

So far none of the injuries have been serious. But take a look at this drone race and ask yourself if these objects couldn't cause serious injuries. They sound like huge mosquitoes, and look like malevolent flying spiders. But with those spinning rotors, they're really just flying knives.

As anybody who's ever had a model airplane can attest, control of a remote flying object is often far from perfect. Here's a compilation of crashes, if any proof of that is needed.

What happens the first time a drone get sucked into a jet engine and causes an airplane crash? A near miss occurred just eight weeks ago above New York City. Passengers are unlikely to take kindly to the idea of their plane dropping out of the sky because some photographer wanted an aerial shot.

And what about terrorists? How convenient would it be for them to deliver a small bomb to, say, Times Square on a Sunday afternoon? Or to a football stadium? Or to an outdoor concert? This wouldn't even require their presence. (And wouldn't the terrorists see this as poetic justice, given the number of deaths we have inflicted upon them via drone?)

These things will probably wreak all sorts of havoc in the near future.

Update: This article on the threat from drones just appeared on 7/25 in the Post. 

Donald Trump not a sociopath

On Saturday, the nation let out a collective gasp -- or chortle, depending on political affiliation -- when Donald Trump declared that John McCain is not a war hero. (“He’s not a war hero….He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”)

Virtually everybody was shocked and appalled that Trump would denigrate McCain's service this way. Whatever you think of McCain as a Senator, as a Presidential candidate, or as a human being, the one thing about him that is absolutely undeniable is his heroism in Viet Nam. McCain turned down the opportunity to be released from captivity early because he felt it wouldn't have been right to leave his fellow American captives behind.

This happened while Donald Trump was getting five separate deferments.

In a roundabout way, Trump's repulsive statement is actually proof that he's not a sociopath. If he were a sociopath, he'd be a lot slyer with his smears, a lot better at fooling people, and a lot better at seducing -- rather than repelling -- an electorate.

Yes, Trump is a narcissistic personality. In fact, far more narcissistic than most narcissists. He's just a walking, talking, bloated ego, always full of bombast, always full of hot air, and always full of himself. He is unable to open his mouth without boasting.

Yet there's something naive, almost innocent, about the way he brags. He seems to have no idea how off-putting he is, and what kind of impression he is making. He comes across a little like a five-year-old when he boasts, a five-year-old who has no idea the kind of impression he's making.

And that's why nobody took him seriously as a candidate.

(Honestly, in a weird sort of way, I almost find Trump's boasting cute. Funny, even.)

In any case, sociopaths aren't like that. They're far better at hiding their true natures, at paying lip service to the proper ideals, at putting up a false front of humility, and at reading people and telling them what they want to hear.

Trump is just a big fat kid with a lot of money -- who likes to boast about that money. And evidently his money makes him think he can kick El Chapo's ass, or convincingly criticize McCain's war record. Trump even sees his money as qualification enough to be President.

That's the nature of narcissism.

But not of sociopathy. (A sociopath might think those things, but he'd be too sly to actually say them.)

Different styles of sociopathy

A few days ago I got the following comment (which I've edited slightly) on the Do sociopaths love their children? post: 

A lot of these comments about sociopaths seem to confuse "that jerk that beat my kids, or the jerk who ran off with his girlfriend" with an actual sociopath. In fact, what they are describing sounds closer to borderline personality.

An actual sociopath is a person who cares about things, not people, and is driven to succeed at all costs, pushing aside whoever hinders their desires. They are willing to lie or cheat to get what they want.

I know this because I've studied this (and because I've worried that I might be one). I concluded after research that while I do lack some empathy, I have more in common with a schizoid (inability to feel emotions strongly) than a true sociopath. Don't confuse sociopathy with Asperger's, schizoid, autism, borderline, or any other personality disorder. It is characterized by deceit, indifference to the feelings of others, and malice.

Many sociopaths are in positions of power, where they can control the lives of others: police, politicians, etc. Quite a few are landlords. Think about this the next time you pay rent, and the guy raises it.

From my understanding, sociopaths develop in an atmosphere where love is not actually present, where parents use and abuse, and the child has no reason to believe anyone cares for them.

Given this, it is difficult to see a sociopath give genuine love to a child. If they do, yes, it is a sort of "extension of oneself" deal. Or in some cases the opportunity to control or use the child, or make a baby psycho of their own.

I replied:

Good points. I've noticed that while sociopaths are something like 3 or 4% of the male population, something like 30% of divorced women claim their exes were sociopaths. I guess it sounds more dramatic than "borderline personality" or some of the other diagnoses. I suspect the most common condition they faced was simply narcissistic personality disorder, which is far more common. (All sociopaths are narcissists, but not all narcissists are sociopaths.)

You give a good description of sociopathy, but keep in mind that there are different styles of sociopathy. You mentioned police and landlords, but the deceitful style you describe has a more white collar flavor to it. There are plenty of low level criminals who are sociopaths as well, and they just don't seem to care that much about anything (or anybody), just their next score, or their next fix, or their next rape or kill. They're dishonest and indifferent to the feelings of others, but also irresponsible (they don't care enough to get to a job on time, etc.). Plus there's the pathological liar style of sociopathy, which is characterized less by malice than indifference to others, but a burning desire to be the center of attention and be lionized, often for false reasons. (Think Munchhausen's Syndrome.) 

I want to expand on this a bit. It's always helpful to remember that there are different styles of sociopathy. At one end you have Anthony Lord (described in the previous post) or Richard Matt, described here and here. These guys are the type of sociopath who is always bristling with hostility, and there's never any mistaking their intentions. They were bullies when young, and they remain bullies after they become adults. 

There is also the Munchausen Syndrome-type of sociopaths. These people appear completely different from an Anthony Lord or a Richard Matt. They have pleasant demeanors, don't come across as angry, and generally aren't violent. But underneath there is the same absolute lack of humanity, the complete indifference to others. 

If you had seen Lacey Spears walking down the street, you'd never have felt threatened by her sweet smile and cherubic face in the least. But she ended up killing her young son (by injecting him in the stomach with salt) just so that she could get more sympathy for herself. Who but a monster could have done this? 

Or take Jackie Coakley, the false UVA rape accuser. She was an innocent-looking coed who, at first glance, blended right in on the Charlottesville campus. She, too, would appear to have nothing in common with Lord or Matt. She had no desire to beat people up, or shoot them, or dismember them. All she wanted was the attention she got from being a "victim." Yet at the same time, she couldn't have cared less if some frat boys had been kicked out of the university or even sent to jail because of her lies. Which indicates the same complete lack of conscience. 

Another common variety of sociopath is the con man. He generally lies because he wants something from you: maybe sex, maybe your money, or maybe your vote. 

The type of men who prey on lonely women and pretend to love them in order to take their money are an example of this type of sociopath. They have a number of different scams, but most boil down to (a) building a relationship with a woman by acting as if they love them (and extracting real feelings of love in return), and (b), somehow cadging money from them. No one would argue the utter lack of humanity of these men. 

(And there are plenty of women who pull the same scam on naive men.) 

Another type of con man is the kind who wants your vote. Bill Clinton lies all the time in order to further his own ends. He hasn't the slightest discomfort with lying, especially about himself, and one of his biggest lies is to frequently attribute the noblest of motives to himself. Anybody so dishonest by nature essentially has no regard for others. 

In any case, the point here is that there are different styles of sociopathy. And just because someone does not come across like an Anthony Lord or Richard Matt does not mean they're not equally devoid of decency. 

A criminal who looks the part

The Portland Press Herald just ran this article about Anthony Lord, 35, who shot four people last night in northern Maine.

Some excerpts:

Two people died and three were injured, shot by a registered sex offender who led law enforcement officers on a high-speed chase and massive manhunt before being taken into custody Friday afternoon, according to Maine State Police.

Anthony Lord, 35, has been charged with two counts of murder and one count of kidnapping and may face other charges.

A 21-year-old woman who was allegedly abducted by Lord was found safe. Authorities said Brittany Irish was found with Lord in Houlton at the home of Lord’s uncle. The two know each other, but police did not say how.

One of those killed was Kyle Hewitt, 22, Irish’s boyfriend. The other was Kevin Tozier, 58, of Lee, who was shot when Lord allegedly stole a pulp truck from a wood lot in Lee, police said.

Irish’s mother, Kim Irish, 55, was wounded, as was Clayton McCarthy, 55, owner of the pulp truck, and Carlton Eddy, who was shot while driving his pickup near Irish’s home, police said...

Officials first received a report at 8:30 p.m. Thursday of a barn on fire in Benedicta, at a residence where Irish lives with her parents. Lord is a suspect in the fire.

At 4:40 a.m. Friday, authorities received a report that Kary Mayo of Silver Ridge Township had been assaulted in his home and had his guns and pickup truck stolen, allegedly by Lord. Ten minutes later, the windows at Lord’s brother’s residence in Benedicta were shot out...

Eddy, who drove by the burning barn and turned around in the driveway at about the same time, was shot in the shoulder through his passenger’s side window, police said.

Lord left that house with Irish, police said.

At about 5:50 a.m., an East Millinocket officer spotted the pickup and tried to pull it over but it sped off, police said. As the officer chased the stolen pickup, Lord allegedly started shooting out the window at the officer, police said. At some point the officer lost track of the pickup....

Lord was arrested without incident after a relative told police where he was, police said….Lord was described as about 5-foot-9, 263 pounds, with blond hair and blue eyes….

Lord’s 6-month-old son, Larry Earl Lord, died May 7 in Bangor. State police continue to investigate the circumstances of the child’s death, spokesman Stephen McCausland said. The State Medical Examiner has not determined a cause of death pending further studies, according to a spokesman for the Maine Attorney General’s Office.

The article goes on to describe Lord's lengthy previous criminal history dating back to 1999.

Suffice it to say, Lord was an extremely bad guy. Usually sociopaths just look like everyone else, which is how they fool people. But occasionally they look the part, as with Richard Matt, one of the two Dannemora escapees, whom I described here as exuding a "glowering malevolence." 

Anthony Lord definitely looks the part as well, and radiates that same glowering malevolence:

That face isn't hard to read. If you see a visage bristling with that much hostility coming at you, you pretty much know immediately to just get out of the way. 

In all three pictures, Lord looks as if there's nothing he'd love more than to kill the photographer. (Or you or me, if we were there.) 

He doesn't look all that fat, which probably means that a fair amount of the 263 pounds distributed over his 5' 9" frame is muscle. (All the scarier.) 

There's an expression: by the age of 50, a man is responsible for his own face. 

In other words, whether handsome or ugly, by the age of 50 a man's character will have emerged on his face. 

It only took Anthony Lord 35 years. 

"Jihad on US Troops Is Not a 'Circumstance'"

Michelle Malkin describes President Obama's reaction to yesterday's ambush of four Marines perfectly.

The contrast between the Left's reaction to the Charleston killings and yesterday's is, as always, illuminating.

Donald Trump vs. El Chapo

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's escape from a Mexican prison came at an opportune time for Donald Trump, who has attracted a lot of attention for his comments about illegal immigrants.

After the escape, Trump tweeted, "Can you envision Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton negotiating with 'El Chapo', the Mexican drug lord who escaped from prison?…"

(In a roundabout way, Trump was actually complimenting El Chapo here, by suggesting that the other American Presidential candidates were not the drug lord's equal.)

Trump, however, then followed up with, "…Trump, however, would kick his ass."

A Twitter account claiming to be El Chapo's then responded, "Keep screwing (with us) and I'm going to make you eat your fucking words you lousy white faggot."

(This response is more likely to have come from one of El Chapo's sons. Whoever it was who tweeted this evidently has not yet been swayed by the Norte Americano movement for gay liberation.)

All in all, it's made for a pretty entertaining mano a mano confrontation. This calls for a comparison between the two men on the various measures they seem to care about.

Net worth

Trump boasted about his net worth of 8.7 billion when he announced his candidacy last month. But Forbes magazine, a more impartial source, recently listed his net worth as $4 billion. El Chapo is said by Wikipedia to have a net worth of one billion; but that, too, seems inaccurate. Anybody who keeps $207 million in cash lying around one of his houses likely has a net worth far, far higher than that. And El Chapo's power has been said by some to exceed that of Pablo Escobar, who at his peak was supposedly worth $25 billion.

This one goes to El Chapo (with a low degree of certainty).

Real estate

Here, too, it's a little hard to compare. The only picture available of one of El Chapo's houses was this one of the Mazatlan vacation home which was raided:

It featured a manmade cave with hot tub:

And a private zoo with well-cared for exotic animals, including these black panthers:

El Chapo reportedly owns fifteen other houses as well as four farms, but pictures of those are not available.

Trump's most famous house was Mar-a-Lago:

But Trump often buys real estate as an investment rather than a place to live. He bought Mar-a-Lago in 1985, had it renovated, and in 1995 turned it into a club with paying guests.

His main residence is a three story penthouse at the top of Trump Towers...

….decorated, of course, in Louis XIV style.

This one goes to Trump, though also with a low degree of certainty since information on El Chapo's other residences or farms is hard to come by.

Dress

Trump dresses nicely, as befits a successful businessman. But his well-cut suits usually get overlooked because one's eye is inevitably drawn to that swirling monstrosity on top of his head:

It's also hard to get beyond his facial expression, which almost always seems to radiate unbridled egotism.

El Chapo often dresses in such a way that he would be indistinguishable from the mass of day laborers you'll find standing on street corners in many American cities:

Of course, Trump pretty much has to dress the way he does, whereas Guzman has no need to impress his cohorts with his duds.

Trump certainly gets the nod for fashion sense, but El Chapo is the better man for his evident lack of vanity.

(Since we're basically talking machismo here, the latter is probably more important.)

Personal taste

El Chapo's artistic tastes seem to run to gold-plated weaponry:

But if Louis XIV had had an AK-47, he'd probably have had it coated with gold leaf as well. And Trump, after all, did own the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City...

…which even Louis might have found a bit garish.

So this one is a tie.

Their women

Here's is El Chapo's current wife, Emma Coronel:

And Trump's current wife Melania at a similar age:

But here's Melania now, Botoxed beyond recognition:

Mrs. Guzman is certainly more attractive than the current Mrs. Trump (currently). Then again, the second Mrs. Trump, Marla Maples, may have been better-looking than either:

Still, it's now that counts, so by that measure, El Chapo wins.

Firepower

When it comes to who could more easily order a hit on the other, there's no question: this is El Chapo's world.

Of course, if Trump gets elected President, and has the US military at his disposal, the odds shift drastically. The Donald's election seems doubtful, despite recent polls, but if he ever did find himself in the White House, he would have the capacity to reduce all of Mexico to smoldering ruins. (And, truth be told, he does seem inclined in that direction.)

But, once again, it's now that counts, so El Chapo wins.

Freedom

Here, of course, there is no question: Trump is free to appear in public, and speechify to his heart's content, whereas El Chapo is wanted, and must scurry through various dirt tunnels in order to stay out of -- or escape -- prison.

Evidently one of El Chapo's biggest weaknesses is fine food. Often diners in some of Sinaloa's finer restaurants would occasionally find themselves surrounded by gunmen who would politely ask them for their cellphones. Then El Chapo would come in and order a meal with his henchmen. Once he finished, he would always foot the bill for the entire restaurant as a way to repay the diners for their inconvenience, then return their phones.

Still, Trump, who also has the look of a man who appreciates food, is the winner here.

Respect

The final, and perhaps ultimate measure, is how much respect each man commands in his own country.

In this country, Trump is widely viewed as a buffoonish blowhard, and his candidacy as an exercise in vanity. All sorts of people feel free to mock his hair, and even question whether it's his own. The now defunct Spy magazine regularly referred to him as a "short-fingered vulgarian." And how many headlines will read, "You're fired!" if Trump eventually drops out of the Republican race?

In his country, El Chapo is a folk hero who has had songs written about him.

Niccolo Machiavelli once said, "It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both."

El Chapo actually seems to have pulled off the trick of being both feared and loved in his own country.

Trump inspires neither emotion.

Winner on this count, and also overall: El Chapo.