Mark Steyn: The psychological profilers haven't hit the sniper yet

The Sunday Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | 10/20/2002 | Mark Steyn

[leadhead]

These commentators demand/deserve the respect I give a slug in my garden.

[Spyder]

(Re serpentine) Anyone wanting a good demonstration of how to do this should rent the video of Brigadoon (1954) and study the scene where Gene Kelly runs diagonally through the heather to Cyd Charisse while singing the verse of Almost Like Being in Love.

Personally I prefer the scene from The In-Laws with Peter Falk and Alan Arkin - "Serpentine! Serpentine!"

[Jonathon Spectre]

Well, he could be a "troubled loner". Except they're now saying there might be two of them. Maybe they're two troubled loners, and they're troubled because they're loners and aren't used to working as a pair.

Steyn set us up the bomb. No, wait, I mean Steyn IS the bomb. Satirical analysis doesn't get any better than this.

[briant]

"As one expert analyst apparently said on BBC's Newsnight the other night in response to his fellow experts' analysis, "It's all sheeyut.""


Why is the British news media so much more entertaining than our own?

[leilani]

WOW! Is Mark Steyn really as stud-muffinish as your new ping-shot would suggest? I've never seen him in real life. I almost don't WANT to know what he looks like, because in my mind's eye, he's PERFECTION! (But he's really kinda sorta cute in that picture, isn't he?)

[STD]

The only comment that Mark did not make was that the pathetic TV analysts fail to drawn a portrait of anyone remotely connected to the crime.

[STD]

You mean the current Jonathan Edwards who's responsible for people communing with dead spirits through a medium. Not the famous evangelist who sparked the "Great Awakinging" in 1826. Does anyone here feel that our God has an awesome sense of humor.

[MeekOneGOP]

[MeekOneGOP]

heh heh ! Good job !

[The Great Satan]

Well, he could be a "troubled loner". Except they're now saying there might be two of them. Maybe they're two troubled loners, and they're troubled because they're loners and aren't used to working as a pair.

This is the wittiest Mark Steyn in a while, and that's saying something.

[dasboot]

Yes, and yes.

[dread78645]

Both cartridges could have been taken from a firing range where many people shoot and just leave their expended cartridges because they are inexpensive and these people dont bother to reload them ..it isnt cost effective...These could very well have an innocents persons prints on them

Yep. That'll be my bet.

He/she is using a bolt-action and after fire, doesn't work the bolt for another shot. No need, the terror is the bullet out of nowhere.
No movement to attract attention, brass stays with the weapon. Whatever the law found was "salt" to throw off them off ...

[Amelia]

Steyn Hall of Fame! This is a good one!

[Cicero]

In times like these, I prefer talk radio to talk TV. On the TV talkshows, it's non-stop psychological speculation. On the radio phone-in shows, the talk is all of bullets and angles and which semi-automatic is chambered for which calibre.

[arthurus]

Likewise, the fact that he hasn't killed since Monday may be due to those aerial surveillance "drones" the Pentagon's loaned the local cops. Or because having killed nine people in 11 days - 9/11, geddit?

I think that the symbolism may be relevant but was not intended. When the numbers reached that point the shooter9s0 may have said hmmm... good place to stop.

[MeekOneGOP]

Yeah. Especially now that there has been a 12th victim now in Ashland, Virginia......

[arthurus]

maybe. Actually these guys are not likely to be conforming to any patterns that people who read lots of whodunnits are used to.

[Joan912]

Mark Steyn is my favourite writer ever since the untimely passing of Edward Zehr (may he rest in God's peace).

[Agent Smith]

Where is Miss Cleo when her country needs her?

[ArcLight]

Compare this excellent piece to anything Maureen Dowd has written in the past year or so. Never mind the ideological differences. The real difference is that Steyn can actually write. There's no original reporting here, but there is a genuine engagement with the facts of the story. Steyn has read a ton about this issue, and his analysis of the data results in some fresh insights, and some truly clever jests. Maybe we should send copies of Steyn's columns to Mo Dowd...