Berko-blog

The list of notables scrambling to jump on the blog bandwagon is growing almost daily. Alongside has-beens like Margaret Cho and Andy Kaufman is none other than David Berkowitz aka the Son of Sam killer. His site is apparently hosted by the House Upon the Rock Christian Church in San Diego. But if Berkowitz has indeed converted to Christianity, he has by no means given up on a life of crime: most of his blog is pure thievery!

For those that, understandably, refuse to click the link, let me offer one example from the Berko-blog's sidebar:



What's that? A web poll? And uh, who's been running web polls on his site for more than a month now? Hint: look a little to your right.

The virtual stickup-job doesn't end there. Check out his sign-off on this post about gay marriage:

God washed away their sins. He then called each of them to be His children. And He justified every last one of them, just as if they'd never sinned (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

God is doing the exact same things today.

D.B.

D.B.? Ahem, isn't there another popular blogger out there that tends to refer to himself by his initials? Mr. Berkowitz, you're lucky you're already in prison for killing all those people in the Seventies, or I'd make sure you headed straight to lockup for swiping intellectual property.

Let's try, as hard as it may be, to look past these obvious appropriations and examine the substance of Berkowitz's writing. Take this excerpt from a post on gangs:

As an "oldtimer" in prison, it is very sad when I see young men in their late teens or early twenties coming into the system, especially when they have long sentences that stretch across decades.

I think the gang scene is all fake. It's a big lie. These guys kill each other over meaningless territories, over gang colors, or for some other ridiculous reasons.

Ah yes. I agree completely. The only legitimate reason to kill anyone is because you're receiving Satanic messages from your neighbor's dog.

Berkowitz is obviously a man who has a little trouble adjusting to the modern world, or at least what he sees of it:

So this evening I went outside again even though it was very cold. Winter has not left the foothills of the Catskill Mountains.

But going outdoors was for me another time to walk and pray and collect my thoughts. I felt that, earlier, I was going to lose my mind with all the yelling and the continuous blasting of "Hip-Hop" music.

By now, it's obvious what the former NYC bad boy's intentions are: he's clearly angling for the "cranky old coot" slot on 60 Minutes for when Andy Rooney meets the big ticker in the sky. Good luck with that, but somehow I don't think "A Few Minutes With David Berkowitz" is going to fly.

Of course, it's easy to take potshots at the Son of Sam killer. But as I found out earlier this year, blogging from prison is never easy. Were it not for my longstanding ties with the Nation of Islam, I doubt my laptop would've survived the weight room. Let's just hope that Berkowitz is given the space to finally find his own voice.

L.F.