[bloodhounds] and the investigative obsession

Just finished watching the 2007 version of Zodiac, the story of the serial killer who left cryptic clues in California in the late 60s. The story you can follow for yourself but the angle I'm interested in concerns the stages of an investigation and where it bottoms out.

In the case of the Zodiac killer, the cop who leads the investigation obsesses and finally gives it away after compromising himself. The baton is taken up by a newspaper cartoonist, Robert Graysmith, who finds himself drawn further and further into the case, to the point where his knowledge of it is second to none but sadly, it is at a human cost:

Graysmith ... loses his job and his wife Melanie takes their children with her.

Jim Garrison springs to mind too:

Opinions differ as to whether he uncovered a conspiracy behind the John F. Kennedy assassination but was blocked from successful prosecution by a federal government cover up, whether he bungled his chance to uncover a conspiracy, or whether the entire case was an unproductive waste of resources.

Ditto The Winslow Boy:

Although the family has won the case at law and lifted the cloud over Ronnie, it has taken its toll on the rest. His father's physical health has deteriorated under the strain, as to some degree has the happiness of the Winslows' home. The costs of the suit and the publicity campaign have eaten up his older brother Dickie's Oxford tuition, and hence his chance at a career in the Civil Service, as well as Catherine's marriage settlement. Her fiancé John Watherstone has broken off the engagement in the face of opposition from his father ...

There are common elements to all such investigations:

1. Something kicks it off and somewhere along the line, certain coincidences or certain evidence pops up which reveal that there really is truth in it after all. This is the trickiest part because it often occurs to one or two people and no one else can see it, having not been privy to how it cropped up;

2. For some time the investigation runs on the fuel of the investigator's good history and reputation but now the counter-claims and things which just don't seem to check out come into it. This is a time when a lot of soul searching goes on and the point where the investigator feels like throwing in the towel;

3. The next stage is the key.  The investigated person or phenomenon slips up - it only need be the once, whether it be a sent letter, a mannerism, whatever - and now the investigator [s] is sure he's on the right track.   The fixation with nailing the bstd now kicks in but because he's so focused, the others look at him askance;

4. One by one, helpers and friends drop out, acquaintances start to accuse him of obsession, of a vendetta, of a personal dispute, of ego kicking in and of losing the plot ... but meanwhile, more and more evidence is being accumulated and makes the truth easier to see;

5. The investigator's behaviour has been altering for some time and maybe even his character ... or at least the part of the character required for the investigation becomes highly developed and sensitized, whilst the more social aspects die away. Wives leave and take the children but the investigator still can't leave it alone;

6. In the end, he has a damned good case and confronts the accused with it but unfortunately, the world has lost interest after so long and the pyrrhic victory is so partial and achieved at such a cost that one wonders if it had been worth it;

7. The investigator finally ceases and takes stock. It takes him a long time to get back a sense of balance and perspective and then he sees how he's been sucked into another man's agenda, a nutter who is still not convicted [Zodiac] and goes off to some other victims whilst the investigator can do no more. He's used up all his favours and no one sees that the accused has got away, to the latter's sardonic smile, with virtual murder.

Serial perpetrators do this - they suck others into their agendas and it's near impossible to make that break with the case and not give the perpetrators the oxygen of publicity and obsession which they crave to mask their inadequacies.   They even attract admirers and their ego now knows no bounds.

There is only one piece of justice in this.

Whilst the investigator, if he can stop early enough, can get back to some sort of normality and perspective, unfortunately, the perpetrator, though believing himself invincible, is actually being eaten up from within and he does come a cropper in the end, not from any final conviction nor public approbation ... but from within himself.

More and more cases go on and on and on.    Another example is Daniel Craig in Quantum of Solace.    See what I mean? If you let it, it just goes on and on, branching into new territory like a river into new tributaries.

Unless you stop it.

[bloody word verification] blogger seem to have learnt

Now I'm certain Blogger are taking the p--s with their word verification. Not complaining, mind but I've seen, over the past few days:

tiespons

fierher

pissere

conical

flitifi

sqidgi

At least it makes it much quicker to use and even adds a bit of interest to the soul-sapping process of bloody word verification.

[iraqi resistance] and the problem with subtitles

Hat tip Northnorthwester [lesbian football beer] who got it from Lilith Stuff.

[charity] when it is less than transparent

This is the first time I've linked to Conservative Home, to my knowledge but this is an article we all should read.

[blair house blues] exercise in pettiness

You've probably read of the brouhaha over Blair House, guesthouse for foreign leaders in Washington.

Remember that Obama wanted to be in there, leading up to the inauguration, so his kids could go to school but Bush refused, saying that the house had been pre-booked? It was then booked to former Oz PM and MP Howard and wife for one night, on the occasion of "the awarding of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former British PM Tony Blair, Colombian President Álvaro Uribe" and Howard.

"Mr. Howard will be staying for one night as per the invitation," his spokesman told [the Australian]. "There's no entourage; it's just Mr. and Mrs. Howard. None of it is at the expense of Australian taxpayers."

Even so, Aussies appeared to be decidedly opposed. A Melbourne newspaper, the Age, in an online poll, found that, of 11,360 respondents, 82 percent said he didn't deserve the medal. (Prior winners were Tommy Franks, George J. Tenet and J. Paul Bremer.)

It seems to me that there is pettiness everywhere in this story, from the Obama snub through to 9,315 Australians. I wonder about Blair though, who was just as much a key member of the coalition of the willing. Could it have been his Labour label which saw him lose his place to Howard?

Another house to keep an eye on is Trowbridge House, being renovated for the use of former presidents who are in town.

Shoot me down in flames and maybe it's a legacy of my occasional proximity to a minister I worked with in Russia but protocols are protocols and IMHO, when a president or PM ceases active duty, no matter what he did or who he was, even Brown and Obama eventually, he should at least be accorded a few retirement perks out of recognition of past service.

There is a feeling about, amongst large sections of the citizenry, understandable but a bit short on understanding, that nothing be conceded, that the taxpaper owes zero to former heads of state, that they took enough of the taxpayer's money swanning about the world during their time in office.

I think this is mean-spirited.

While I wouldn't cry tears if Brown found himself bumped off or summarily thrown out on his neck, there are protocols which ensure some sort of dignity for the office, if not the person. They should be automatic and not linked to the incumbent.

While we're on it, the salary of £190 000 odd a year is ludicrously small for a de facto head of state - no wonder it can't attract talent, that job. It's not arguing for Brown here but for the dignity of the office itself.

Criminal wastage, such as Wat Tyler exposes, is appalling and needs to be roundly condemned but the perks of office - well why not? I'd like to think that all jobs have their perks and bonuses which make them rewarding, from air traffic controllers through to rubbish men. Well maybe not rubbish men, the bstds.

There's a danger of falling into the "politics of envy" trap here, of thinking we are equally, if not more deserving than that man over there, of begrudging the perks he enjoys. He might begrudge the few reamining perks you enjoy.

Tell you what, while I'm up in the air over Heathrow, about to land, if the air traffic controllers were on some perk or other, I'd say give it to them, give it to them, along with the brain surgeon who examines my head for running this post.

A Quick Tip for Digital Cameras

If you're going to have to transfer your images to a computer before coming back home (ie: to send via e-mail to family and friends) and there's a possibility you might be using one of those image readers (or even transferring directly from the camera itself), be sure to make sure your card is locked before beginning the transfer. I learned the hard way last year and lost all my photos of Barcelona and then some.

[ethical blogging] increasingly in demand these days

The whole question of blog ethics is a minefield. So glad the Devil's Kitchen posted on the topic because its owner illustrates exactly what Bloghounds is also trying to do.

DK points out that if you are shown to be wrong, you should at least concede it. Yes, yes and yes. Bloghounds believes that ethics means this type of thing, not that you need to be a goody-two-shoes, for whom butter wouldn't melt in the mouth.

Imprecate vocabulary and hitting hard, as long as you can back it up with sources, does not mean you are unethical. Making wild statements without backup is unethical. Shooting off at the mouth without some facts to point to is unethical. Threatening litigation at the drop of a hat, rather than arguing your case - I include that as unethical as well.

Like it or not, only blogs following scholarly standards, no matter how swearbloggy they are, are likely to survive in the long term [or at least keep readers coming back]. Everyone knows that.

Like it or not, we are coming into a period of official pressure to regulate and "clean-up" the blogosphere. We need to look to ourselves and clean up our own act first, the better to resist this trend towards regulation and sanction.

Bloghounds arose from the ashes of some very unethical behaviour from certain quarters which we won't rake over here. Its intellectual capital, the value of its very name, depends on ethics and that's why we go through a complicated process with new membership, with no beg pardons.

The value of your name is not established by bully boy tactics - it's established by how far readers accept your arguments and if yours are better, then they'll be believed. That's the ethical way to go and its the only way we're interested in.

[7 января] с рождеством Христовым

C Рождеством Христовым !

Сердечно поздравляю вас с Рождеством Христовым.

Этот великий праздник объединяет и сближает семьи, поколения и народы в стремлении к духовному преображению и обновлению, в желании делиться друг с другом теплом.

Рождество для миллионов людей служит непреходящим символом чистоты, искренности, человечности и милосердия. В прекрасные рождественские дни наши сердца наполняют вера, надежда и сострадание, вдохновляющие на свершение добрых дел, оказание помощи всем, кто в ней нуждается.

Пусть праздник Рождества придаст вам силы для осуществления самых заветных желаний и планов. Пусть наступающий год порадует новыми достижениями, принесет в каждый дом спокойствие, взаимопонимание, благополучие и любовь.

Желаю вам крепкого здоровья, успехов в делах, счастья и мира.

For non-Russians

January 6th here is Epiphany but January 7th in the East is Christmas.

Today I received a message from someone special and then another [plus photos] from someone else special in Russia and so this is one of those days, Orthodox Christmas, when things get a bit shaky in my psyche. Some years back I chose to follow the January 7th Christmas as it seemed altogether better, as I've tried to explain to my friends over here.

Let's face it, at the end of the previous year, we're all knackered and the last thing we need is the enforced smiles and jollity. It's much better to go off and do something nice with family or partner, to let all the worries fade away and then, invigorated in the new year, you can address yourself to Christmas. An added bonus is that the traffic is lighter then and people are in a better frame of mind.

However, the western tradition dies hard and thank goodness people are still celebrating it here at all.

What I particularly liked about this day was that I got to visit grandparents and that meant a scrumptuous luncheon and a little wine. Unfortunately, it was also a time to make me reflect on where I was and how precarious were all our lots and this is how I'm thinking right now.

The words above in Russian are quite beautiful and basically wish you peace, prosperity and happiness.

Who could argue with that?

[real life] about to curtail this blog

Most bloggers who've been at it for some time would claim that Real Life transcends any blog matters and yet it seems to me, from what I've seen, that many bloggers cannot let it go, even when they run out of things to say.

Let's face it, our blog is probably the only forum where more than our immediate circle get to hear [or read] our views on matters. That's at least so for the political blogger. The food and garden blogger is a different creature but his or her motivation might be the sense of community in that corner of the sphere. That's a motivation for many political bloggers as well.

Real Life does intrude and any day now it's going to with me.

Not to put too fine a point on it, when I go, my internet connection goes too. I don't think it's going to be a total thing, as there is always the local library membership which allows an hour a day and so I'd aim to keep one post up a day but it is going to severely curtail the research time. Quite frankly, I shouldn't be spending hours in the local library when I need to be out following the recovery plan.

I can't see it ever being permanent or even a hiatus but it's certainly going to be a dent in the output for some time, for very necessary reasons and it must be any day now. I now have a commitment to Bloghounds as well and there are advertisers starting to trickle in who are expecting the blog to be maintained.

I don't know how many of us consider our loyalty to the readers either; after all, a reader is a person who clicks in from time to time to see if anything interesting is happening but each of us, in these troubled times, does like to see certain faces in the blog firmament and are sad when they drop away.

So that's the current state of play.

[iran] are they gun running to gaza

The allegation that Iran is providing arms and assistance to Hamas has been denied as "illogical" by many pundits. Gaza is sealed, they say and so it is just not possible for Iran to get in there.

Here is another point of view:

Reva Bhalla, a Middle East analyst with the private intelligence firm Stratfor, said Iran uses a sophisticated Hezbollah smuggling network to get arms to Hamas.

"Basically, you'll have a bunch of Hezbollah agents who will procure arms through Sudan. They'll enter Egypt under forged documents, pay off disgruntled Bedouins in the Sinai with things like light arms, cash, Lebanese hashish - which they can sell in the black market - and pay off Egyptian security guards as well so that they can travel covertly into Gaza to pass off the weapons shipments through Hamas' pretty extensive underground tunnel network," she said.

But most analysts agree that even if Iran is arming Hamas, it would produce little practical gain for Tehran other than to make life difficult for Israel. It is on the political front, they say, where Iran looks to benefit from the crisis in Gaza as it tries to project itself as the leader of the Islamic world.

Analyst Reva Bhalla said Iran is trying boost its standing in the region by embarrassing moderate Arab states.

"It basically makes Iran stand apart from the Arab regimes. And note that the Arab regimes are the most silent on this issue. Most are quite happy seeing Hamas contained, [they] really have no problem with the Palestinians being contained in the region by the Israelis. It's that huge disconnect between what you hear in the Arab street and what you see being actually discussed within these regimes. And so Iran is trying to exploit that," she said.