Psychos

American Psycho:

"[Chris] Kyle left soon after [9/11] on the first of 4 tours of Iraq, as a Navy SEAL with an ambition to become a sniper. The book he wrote later makes clear he was gung-ho, full of simple Texas truths and wholesome Christian certainty. Dodging tracers in the helicopter on his first mission makes him fret: 'Damn, I thought. We're going to get shot down before I even get a chance to smoke someone'." (Review of American Sniper, Paul Byrnes, Sydney Morning Herald, 22/1/15)

Israeli Psycho:

"During the Israeli bombardment and shelling of the Gaza Strip last summer an Israeli soldier approached a 74-year-old Palestinian woman Ghalya Abu-Rida to give her a sip of water. He gave her the water, took a photo with her and then shot her in the head from a distance of one metre. He then watched as she bled to death, the Palestine Information Centre reported." (Israeli soldier gives water to blind elderly Palestinian woman for propaganda, then kills her, globalresearch.ca, 21/1/15)

Australian Psycho:

"'I think he [killed IS fighter Mahmoud Abdullatif] liked the extreme culture of Islam and I think he just wanted to be part of the violence,' Ms [Sashini] Senadeera [a former girlfriend] told Fairfax Media. 'I think for him Islam was just an excuse to behave like that.' At Brunswick Secondary College in Melbourne's north, Abdullatif and a group of Lebanese friends 'kind of ran the place' and bullied other students, she said. They were kicked out in Year 11 for failing class and causing damage to a neighbouring school. Abdullatif's father and uncle urged him to change his ways and he enrolled in a trade course and started going to the mosque more often but kept partying hard. 'He never really changed but he wanted to show people that he was extreme. I think a lot of them just get bored and want that life over there,' Ms Senadeera said." (Party animal and ladies' man, but still hungry for violence, Rachel Olding, Sydney Morning Herald, 21/1/15)