I thought I'd never vote for a vampire, but...

So, in the last election, we Minnesotans briefly enjoyed the company of a vampire running for governor. Unfortunately, Jonathon "The Impaler" Sharkey was arrested before the election and we missed out on the potentially amusing spectacle.

Somehow, though, he is now free (damn those cunning vampires!), and is planning to run for president. As a most interesting and admittedly tempting part of his campaign platform, he is promising to impale GW Bush if elected.

He's crazy, I wouldn't have given him a chance, but dang if he didn't come up with a vote-getting idea. They're cunning, those vampires, they've had centuries to think up these plans. If he tossed Cheney in as a bonus, he might just sweep the election.

More like this

An exploding aardvark whispered in my ear that we have a new candidate for governor here in Minnesota: Jonathon "The Impaler" Sharkey. Honesty is very seldom heard nowadays, especially from a politician. So, I am not going to break from political tradition. My name is Jonathon "The Impaler" Sharkey…
With nearly 20 months to go before the election itself and 10 months before even the first primaries, I'm already bored with the Presidential election of 2008. None of the current candidates does anything for me. One's a total lightweight who's in no way ready to be President, and I utterly loathe…
Annals of McCain - Palin, XLI: how I palled around with terrorists: No one who knows me would ever consider me a domestic terrorist. I am, in fact, a pacifist. You may think that's naive, but it would be a real stretch to consider my pacifism to be the same as terrorism, even if you think it helps…
While Presidential gamesmanship is all the rage, with even Kansas trying to move its primaries earlier to get a bite of that apple, major moves are under way lower down on the ballot. Perhaps most significantly for Scienceblogs readers, Bill Wagnon, current chairman of the Kansas Board of Education…

Actually, he does promise to impale Cheney too. Well, "Chaney," actually (I guess vampires can't spell very well). Others that he promises to impale include Osama Bin Laden (whom he promises to impale at Ground Zero), Fidel Castro, Donald Rumsfeld, Shirley Phelps-Roper, O. J. Simpson, Louis Farrakhan, and the entire Speedway, IN Police Department.

The headline when I click through to the Columbia Chronicle says that Sharkey is a santanic (not satanic) vampire-- does this mean that he worships Santana?

Or alternatively, he's a bloodsucking Father Christmas.

...the politically-motivated Van Helsings, led by Miroslav Milosevic (no relation), gave themselves up to cops after attacking the deceased despot in his grave in the eastern town of Pozarevac. Milosevic popped his clogs back in 2006, while on trial in a UN war crimes tribunal for various unsavoury activities connected with the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia.

Miroslav Milosevic said "he and his fellow vampire hunters acted to stop the former dictator returning from the dead to haunt the country". His team explained that the wooden stake had been "driven into the ground and through the late president's heart".

As for his "threat" against the President, it's really more of a campaign promise. Keep in mind that he's only said he would impale Bush after he became president himself... and haven't we all learned by now that "if the president does it, it means that it is not illegal"?

And don't forget to include Karl Rove, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and my compatriot Alberto Gonzalez (who considers quaint the Geneva Conventions, and torture of prisoners of war acceptable; by his own expressed ideas, impalement would be an acceptable punishment)in the future impalement list.

Those secret service people sure are silly. They previously investigated a teenager rock band in a high school talent contest for singing "Masters of War", by Bob Dylan. It's a great song with a great message. Some of the parts that made the SS (what a coincidence in terms!) nervous might be:

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy

You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly

You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher

You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could

I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon

And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead

I think they found that the shoe fit...

In other vampire-related news, do check out the decidedly cool vampire who plays a central role in the new Peter Watts novel, "Blindsight." This is no cheesy, I-vant-to-suck-your-bluuud vampire, either. Watts, a former biologist, creates a reasonably plausible backstory where vampires really existed (as cannibal predators), went extinct around the Pliestocene, but nevertheless remained embedded in our collective unconsciousness.

In the book, set in the near/middle future, the vampires are reconstituted through advanced genetic engineering (a'la Jurassic Park) because we need certain traits and advantages they have.

All the characters are totally creeped out by the vampire (with good reason). Along with the other plot elements, he adds a satanic fizz to an already potent mix of claustrophobic horror.

Actually, I think this guy hasn't been using the proper vampire sun screen. Isn't staking supposed to used "on" vampires and exsanguination the proper means for the vampire to do someone in? lol

Kagehi, you (and a number of other people) may be missing the historical reference to Vlad the Impaler, a.k.a. Vlad Drakul, an actual historical figure who was the inspiration for Dracula.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_the_impaler

The real guy who was mythologized into Dracula, the most famous vampire, was known for some rather severe punishments, particularly impaling a lot of folks.

Jonathon seems to know his precedents better than most of the article-writers. (And his predecedents, such as Vlad III and "Chaney.")

Geez, dontch'all ya'll watch Buffy? A "Santanic" vampire worships (or draws his power from) Santa. One who worships (or draws his power from) Santana would be a "Santanaic" vampire.

San-TAN-ik .... San-tan-AY-ik ...

It is a subtle, but important, distinction.

James Blunt, on the other hand, is clearly a Nemcovayan.

Ribozyme: Maybe the band should have played "Idiot Wind" instead?

A vampire planning to impale Bush and Cheney?

Good grief. Whatever happened to professional courtesy?

Well, in his defense, he did say that he would try Bush for his crimes and then impale him.

Apparently even vampires have more repect for the law than Bush does.

He sounds better than Pawlenty.

By ecostudent (not verified) on 14 Mar 2007 #permalink

Hat tip to jackd for the link to the Peter Watts vampire presentation (above). Highly recommended if only for the hilarious self-serving corporate tag lines in the lower corner!

Paul W: I have it on the (limited) authority of a Romanian-born classmate that Vlad the Impaler is remembered as a hero in Romania because he was tough on crime, prostitutes, etc.

As for this nut case ... actually, I would have prefered that Mr. Bush be Saddam and Milosovic's roomies in some prison at the Hague, but ...

I'm saving my vote for the guy who promises some good public flensing.

"As for this nut case ... actually, I would have prefered that Mr. Bush be Saddam and Milosovic's roomies in some prison at the Hague, but ..."

That could still be arranged...

Might be a little.... pungent.

Should I be sad that I'm the first to notice this? The reporter couldn't even bother to spell lycan correctly - he went for "Likens", which I'm sure is the hooked-on-phonics phonetic spelling.

By Xanthir, FCD (not verified) on 22 Mar 2007 #permalink