National Lampoon's Afghan Vacation
Mr. Griswald...sorry, Mr. Powers promises to give an in-depth interview in the coming days.

"In a brief interview Monday night with The Huntsville Times, Bowers said he would answer questions about his past reluctantly, and only to set the record straight. "I really would rather not have the publicity," he said. "The worst I have done is nothing, but that has nothing to do with the stories I've been reading in the papers."

All together now-- "Huh?" "The worst I have done is nothing"--what in the world does that even mean? And if it doesn't have anything to do with what he has read in the papers, again you just have to say "WTF?"

"There were cigar-size burns on top of burns," Bowers said. The wounds have begun to scab, and no longer hurt, he said. The initial burns caused great pain, he said, "but after the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth burn, you don't really have pain. You get used to them."

This may very well be true, but I keep getting the vibe from this guy that he enjoys seeing himself as being able to withstand terrible torture. One earlier story had him saying that his captors were angry when he did not cry when threatened--"He didn't like the fact that I wasn't acting scared. He hated the fact that I didn't cry." Sorry, but this sounds like a case of self-aggrandizement and childish prevarication. Maybe I'm wrong. He could be a pathological liar. The SUNY Upstate Medical University website describes it thusly:

"A pathological liar believes in the lies, at least at the time that she or he is talking. Their stories tend to be very dramatic. They often portray the person as being smarter, braver, more attractive, or more interesting than she or he really is. Sometimes people begin to catch onto pathological liars because of obvious flaws in the stories. A fairly young man will describe his heroics in the Vietnam War. A homely woman will talk about all the men who fell instantly in love with her. Sometimes the flaws may be more subtle and it may take a knowledgeable person to find them. Often it happens that a pathological liar will be caught by someone who really was a pilot, really lived in Africa, or really was a fashion model. Suspect a pathological liar if:

* the stories seem too dramatic or unrealistic

* the lies seem to serve no purpose except to impress people or

* the lies can easily be shown up

Maybe I'm wrong, and I really hope I am. But when it quacks like a duck, it probably ain't an Afghan warlord.
posted by Terry at 4:20:00 PM