In this time of Blackwater and Glenn Beck, a more classic kind of villain still persists.

October 8, 2009 12:57 PM

"I wanted that kid to lose sleep that night," a grinning Xinos says Wednesday, as he invites me for a nearly two-hour interview in his Mercedes-Benz in the gated Oak Brook community where he lives. "This is the real world and the lesson, you folks who brought your kids here, is if you want something, pay for it."

Related (but fictional).

posted by ignignokt (114 comments total)

Christ, what an asshole.
posted by odinsdream at 1:00 PM on October 8, 2009 [18 favorites]

At least the guy is being honest, huh?
posted by the dief at 1:02 PM on October 8, 2009

He campaigned, successfully, against a plan to bring subsidized housing for seniors into town by declaring, "I don't want to live next to poor people. I don't want poor people in my town."

Wow... just... wow...
posted by brundlefly at 1:03 PM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

You know, just the other day I was seized by doubt.

"Guilty", I said to myself, "as it stands, there will likely be at least one person who's upset when you die."

Now, that's a hell of a thing, isn't it? What on earth would I ever want to be mourned for? So I set out to find a role model- someone whose behavior I could imitate and take cues from to ensure that when I die, I go unmourned and cheerfully forgotten.

Thank you, Mr. Xinos. You have shown me the way.
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:04 PM on October 8, 2009 [33 favorites]

Welcome to one small glimpse into the libertarian's dream. Google Ron Paul my ass.
posted by hippybear at 1:05 PM on October 8, 2009 [25 favorites]

This Xinos character sounds like something out of a bad sci fi movie. Starring Tom Cruise.
posted by brina at 1:06 PM on October 8, 2009 [3 favorites]

Wow, what a colossal prick.
posted by Artw at 1:08 PM on October 8, 2009

At least the guy is being honest, huh?

True. Most right-wingers would couch what they do in weaselspeak. He should be lauded for his honesty, if only because it clarifies to everyone the injustices folks like him commit on a daily basis, and motivates people to an appropriate response.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:08 PM on October 8, 2009 [13 favorites]

Libertarian codger makes little girl cry, promotes class-warfare. Film at eleven.
posted by bonehead at 1:09 PM on October 8, 2009 [5 favorites]

Xinos, who says he never had children in part because he wasn't sure he'd be able to support them, sprinkles the F-word throughout his conversations. He dismisses a recent library event involving dogs with a blunt three-word rant in which he bookends swear words around the word "that."

The reason was because he couldn't support them. Well thank god he had the mental/verbal abuse thing down because gosh darn it, THAT is @#$# good @#$# parenting, @##@$!!
posted by stormpooper at 1:10 PM on October 8, 2009

We could start renaming facilities with the word "public" in them to "socialist".

"the socialist bus system"
"the socialist library"
"the socialist municipal pool"
"the socialist road system"
"a socialist forum"
posted by idiopath at 1:11 PM on October 8, 2009 [24 favorites]

He dismisses a recent library event involving dogs with a blunt three-word rant in which he bookends swear words around the word "that."

This is my favorite part of the article because I can just see the author sitting at his computer at three am, staring at the screen, racking his brain for the perfect way to sneak "Fuck that shit" into his story.
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:12 PM on October 8, 2009 [47 favorites]

I can't even fathom the kind of person that might be "anti-library."
posted by fire&wings at 1:13 PM on October 8, 2009 [10 favorites]

Growing up Greek-American, I've always suspected that greek blowhard asshole look-at-me-I-made-a-lot-of-money types were the worst of said types. This goes in the GREEKS ARE JERKS SOMETIMES file. For my dad.
posted by vrakatar at 1:14 PM on October 8, 2009 [3 favorites]

Dude sounds like a jerk, but journalistically...

"I wanted that kid to lose sleep that night," a grinning Xinos says Wednesday, as he invites me for a nearly two-hour interview in his Mercedes-Benz in the gated Oak Brook community where he lives

Mercedes? Gated community? Was he twirling the ends of his waxed mustache as he spoke? The details seem so over-the-top as to beggar belief.
posted by drjimmy11 at 1:14 PM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

@idiopath, you missed one.

"sociaist hair".

(dedicated to that dick Xinos).
posted by davemee at 1:15 PM on October 8, 2009 [11 favorites]

It's easy to be a libertarian when you're old and rich. You've already been raised and educated at someone else's expense, and you're coasting along on luck and talents you didn't earn, while attributing all your success to the two hours of hard work you did that one time in law school.

I want to see the FPP where the kid fires back, ranting against the rising costs of Medicare and the fact that no one paid as much into the system as they'll be getting out of it at the end of their lives, all while taking the reporter on a two hour tour of the neighborhood on her Schwinn ten-speed. "You want a feeding tube? Pay for it, gramps."
posted by anotherpanacea at 1:16 PM on October 8, 2009 [46 favorites]

As usual, village politics attracts the very worst kind of people. I'm always suspicious of the douchebag who actually WANTS to be on the condo board, city council or board of supervisors. Really? Because municipal politics is so important?

Meanwhile, a very real quality of life issue is left to people who think that the entire notion of a municipally supported library is a threat to their civil liberties.

Hey, he reminds me of those assholes who don't have kids who vote down school funding. Right. Because you don't have to live in the world.

Let's egg his house!
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 1:16 PM on October 8, 2009 [2 favorites]

"I understand that my philosophy is conservative," Xinos says, adding that government just needs to catch bad guys, put out fires, fix the streets and make sure buildings are sturdy.

So, why exactly should the library pay for itself, but the streets should be free? Streets lead to commerce, but libraries go hand-in-hand with education that allows jobs to exist in the first place.
posted by explosion at 1:16 PM on October 8, 2009 [9 favorites]

Sorry but the Chicagoist's headline is much better:

Oak Brook Man Hates Libraries, Children, Puppies
posted by stormpooper at 1:16 PM on October 8, 2009 [31 favorites]

Google Ron Paul my ass.

I'm feeling lucky: "Ron Paul can kiss my black ass"
posted by bonehead at 1:16 PM on October 8, 2009 [2 favorites]

He's only the front echelon of the problem.

Keep in mind he GOT ELECTED! There's a whole bunch of utter motherfuckers involved in this process who enabled and encourage this.
posted by Lord_Pall at 1:17 PM on October 8, 2009 [4 favorites]

Oakbrook is basically a club of large estates, famous for its golf course and polo club. It's surprising that they have a public library at all --- I mean, you can't really stop the riff-raff from coming in, right?
posted by goethean at 1:19 PM on October 8, 2009

Some people aren't content just to let you starve to death; they want to kick you while it happens and then charge them for their time.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:19 PM on October 8, 2009 [2 favorites]

charge you, rather.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:19 PM on October 8, 2009

Crotchety 69-year-old lawyer-turned-home-association-president works to build empire over which to rule, lawn to shoo neighborhood kids from.
posted by The Lurkers Support Me in Email at 1:21 PM on October 8, 2009 [2 favorites]

Keep in mind he GOT ELECTED!

Well, only to president of the home association of his gated community. King of the jerks, and all. He failed to win a seat on the village council, and if goethean's comments are right, that means he must either be extreme even for Oakbrook, or just a huge asshole in person (or both!).
posted by wildcrdj at 1:21 PM on October 8, 2009

you can't really stop the riff-raff from coming in, right?

Like little kids and all of their riffing and raffing and crying and whining. Boo hoo, little scamp. Take your riff and raff and begone. Go back to the ghettos of nearby Darien or Westmont!

Man, I can't find a pic of this guy anywhere. I have to see what he looks like.
posted by stormpooper at 1:21 PM on October 8, 2009

I, for one, welcome our new illiterate overlords.
posted by not_on_display at 1:23 PM on October 8, 2009

What low taxes gets you
posted by Artw at 1:23 PM on October 8, 2009 [3 favorites]

I can't even fathom the kind of person that might be "anti-library."

C.f.: A large portion of human history.
posted by odinsdream at 1:27 PM on October 8, 2009

Some people are just have bad hearts, it seems.
posted by Benjy at 1:28 PM on October 8, 2009

I heard about this just as I was listening to last night's Daily Show, where Jon Stewart interviewed a young man from Malawi who had built a windmill to generate electricity for his home using a bicycle frame and a picture from a library book.

This is what libraries do. Getting people information for ESL classes and GED classes and job-hunting sites is what libraries do. And anyone who thinks that's not worth paying for can go to hell.
posted by Jeanne at 1:28 PM on October 8, 2009 [44 favorites]

As a fellow Greek-American named Constantine, I confess that if I had gone my whole life being nicknamed "Connie," then I, too, might have grown up angry and bitter like this guy.

Thanks, mom, for pre-emptively nicknaming me "Dean" specifically to head off that potential problem.
posted by deanc at 1:29 PM on October 8, 2009 [3 favorites]

I sure hope the Daily Show has a feature lined up on this guy. T'will be priceless, I say.
posted by fungible at 1:29 PM on October 8, 2009

What low taxes gets you

I didn't realize our taxes in California were low at some point. When was that?
posted by The World Famous at 1:29 PM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

Xinos, who says he never had children in part because he wasn't sure he'd be able to support them,

Also perhaps because he couldn't find a woman willing to endure the thirty-six seconds of porcine grunting followed by a frenzied "Who's your John Galt, baby? Who's your John Galt?"
posted by dersins at 1:31 PM on October 8, 2009 [29 favorites]

If anybody has a time machine, now might be the time to go back 60 years and give this guy a hug.
posted by uncleozzy at 1:32 PM on October 8, 2009 [4 favorites]

A poor kid who grew up in Berwyn and worked in his dad's cafeteria in Chicago, Xinos went to law school and served in the Marines.

This is what I don't understand....presumably he went to public school? And presumably he received federal aid either in the form of grants, scholarships, or loans, and then he went to law school......and he spends his time closing a library????

All the good someone with his background and education could do....and yet making 11 year olds cry and hoping they don't get sleep that night is how he chooses to spend his time.....
posted by zizzle at 1:32 PM on October 8, 2009 [4 favorites]

Ruthless Bunny—

I'm always suspicious of the douchebag who actually WANTS to be on the condo board, city council or board of supervisors. Really? Because municipal politics is so important?

Meanwhile, a very real quality of life issue is left to people who think that […]

Wait, wait, which is it? Is it so unimportant that only a douchebag would be interested, or is it a very real quaity-of-life issue?
posted by hattifattener at 1:33 PM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

adding that government just needs to catch bad guys, put out fires, fix the streets and make sure buildings are sturdy...

Um, yeah. And how do we learn how to do those things? ... keep going, Connie. You'll get there one day.
posted by mrgrimm at 1:34 PM on October 8, 2009

"I understand that my philosophy is conservative," Xinos says, adding that government just needs to catch bad guys, put out fires, fix the streets and make sure buildings are sturdy.

This guy's a shitty libertarian. He doesn't realize that police, fire, streets, and buildings could ALL be privatized, too!

If you don't pay the fee, the police won't protect you. So you call 9-1-1 screaming that you're being murdered? Too bad if you don't have an account! This has the added bonus of discouraging criminals from attacking paid police clients, since it's so much easier to get away with killing someone with no account.

If your house catches on fire and you don't have an account with the fire department, they will rush to the scene and douse your neighbor's house to prevent it from catching on fire, while they watch yours burn to the ground. You see, your neighbor has an account and you don't. Then they'll charge you to pay for the water damage to your neighbor's house, since you caused it.

And the streets! All roads should be toll roads. All clients of the streets corporation will be issued an electronic meter that deducts funds constantly as you spend time on the roads. Any non-client (a car on the road without a meter, or funds on the meter) will have his/her car's engine killed. Or, if they were a pedestrian, an electric shock will be administered! The wonders of wireless technology--how could we have a free market without it!

Finally, building codes--there's no need for these absurd bleeding heart policies. Any information about the strength of a building will be contained in its price--an apartment building on the verge of collapse will cost less to rent than a nice, fancy one. The market will provide for regulatory companies that certify which buildings are sturdy (no need for the government to do it, therefore), and economic theory--which is based on mathematics and therefore impossible to deny--proves that these regulatory companies will be fair and won't end up being captured by shady landlords! What a perfect world we've created!

Think of the freedom in our utopia! If I don't want to spend my money on police protection, I don't have to. I have the freedom to buy airplanes or Mercedes-Benzes instead! Everyone will be perfectly free to decide how much of anything they want. But Constantine 'Connie' Xinos would NOT be allowed into this utopia, lest his big-government communistic ideas infect the populace. Everyone would HAVE to band together to KEEP THE COMMUNIST NAZI OBAMA EUROPEANS out!
posted by notswedish at 1:35 PM on October 8, 2009 [26 favorites]

I don't know about California, but income taxes haven't been this low since 1931.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:35 PM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

It would be great to find an email address for this guy.
posted by codacorolla at 1:38 PM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

This guy should be ashamed of himself.

But on the other hand thank God he never had kids-because, first, who'd want to be raised by such a person, and second, well, our gene pool doesn't need extra of that kind of attitude.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 1:38 PM on October 8, 2009 [2 favorites]

I don't know about California, but income taxes haven't been this low since 1931.

I know enough about California to know that the federal income tax rate is not the cause of California's budget crisis.
posted by The World Famous at 1:38 PM on October 8, 2009 [2 favorites]

"My idea of a perfect government is one guy who sits in a small room at a desk, and the only thing he's allowed to decide is who to nuke. The man is chosen based on some kind of IQ test, and maybe also a physical tournament, like a decathlon. And women are brought to him, maybe...when he desires them." -- Ron, from Parks and Rec.
posted by chunking express at 1:39 PM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

"He said Oak Brook had to "stop indulging people in their hobbies" and "their little, personal, private wants."

Man, I'd love to dedicate some serious time in Oak Brook to fucking with his hobbies and personal, private wants.

It's amazing how quickly people's tunes change when it's their interests tied off with a rubber band and placed on the chopping block.
posted by quin at 1:39 PM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

And as a (female) Connie myself, he doesn't deserve the name.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 1:39 PM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

It would be great to find an email address for this guy.

As much as this mandrakalos probably deserves it, that is almost always a bad idea. Not our job.
posted by vrakatar at 1:40 PM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

If anybody has a time machine, now might be the time to go back 60 years and give this guy a hug library card.
posted by Sova at 1:42 PM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

From the comments on that story:

And who will teach the policeman and fireman? Don't count on the schools to give future professionals who might save your life someday everything they will need to develop the necessary skills and character, Mr. Xinos. It takes a lot more than that. Without sources of knowledge and culture, a society becomes a wasteland. And eventually even those with all the money in the world, will find the world surrounding their gated communities so bad they are held hostage in the tiny worlds of their own making.

Quoted for TRUTH.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 1:43 PM on October 8, 2009 [6 favorites]

I was asking for the email address so that people outside of his small band of rich-ass constituents could write to him, and let him know what a prick he is. Not for any email flooding sort of intent.
posted by codacorolla at 1:45 PM on October 8, 2009

Some people are just have bad hearts, it seems.
posted by Benjy at 1:28 PM on October 8 [+] [!]


Or maybe the Grim Reaper was tapping him on the shoulder (Family Guy style mind you) telling him "Hey, Connie, quit being an asshole."
posted by stormpooper at 1:45 PM on October 8, 2009

Really? Does every fucking town have to have high tax rates and provide lavish public services? Listen, if a curmudgeon wants to prevent little kids everywhere from going to the library, that might be villainy. But if he doesn't want to pay for a library in his one particular little town, and so he tries to convince other local voters to go along with him? That's democracy in action. As long as they're not oppressive and dangerous, towns should be allowed to conduct experiments in living. Some can be more communal, with libraries up the wazoo. Some can be composed of private enclosures and golf courses. Communities can choose which way they want to go. Immigrants can choose what kind of community they want to move to. Posh towns are not like nation-states, where discontents may have neither exit nor voice.

I like libraries. Perhaps we have that in common. But this guy is not inherently odious because he doesn't want to pay for libraries. Obviously he's playing up the mustache-twirling here, but that's just ill-advised stagecraft, not actual evil.

Not every town has to be the town you want to live in.
posted by grobstein at 1:50 PM on October 8, 2009 [9 favorites]

"Nobody here likes those kind of people."

It takes a lot of nerve from a hypocritical asshole second-generation American old white conservative lawyer suburbanite gated community guy to use the phrase those kind of people. What, the few dumped-on classes you don't yet belong to? He'll be a genuinely old person soon, too.
posted by mikeh at 1:51 PM on October 8, 2009

I know enough about California to know that the federal income tax rate is not the cause of California's budget crisis.

Maybe not the primary reason, but perhaps it's a contributing factor to the problem, though. California has been the recipient of an incredible amount of federal largesse since the 1950s, from education to highways to defense contractors to, most recently, stimulus funds. That money has to come from somewhere; as that dries up, threads unravel.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:56 PM on October 8, 2009

California's big problem is that approving new spending is no harder than it is for any other legislature, but approving new taxes is teeth-pullingly hard. It's a classic example of wanting everything while being unwilling to pay for anything.
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:57 PM on October 8, 2009 [4 favorites]

Some people just have bad hearts, it seems.

That link isn't as silly as you might think: being cruel and unkind to children is horrible for your heart because it deprives you of relationships or is a sign that you are already deprived.

Having few or no close relationships is probably worse for your heart than classic risk factors like eating lots of fatty foods and failing to exercise. The stress of lack of human connection and from feeling "low in social status" is associated with high cholesterol and arterial plaque, which can lead to the heart problems he had.

Having few or no close friends/family is linked with early mortality via these causal pathways and others related to not being able to have your stress modulated by people.

Having strong relationships, OTOH, can extend your life as much as a smoker who quits would do so.
posted by Maias at 1:57 PM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

As long as they're not oppressive and dangerous, towns should be allowed to conduct experiments in living.

If the only residents were adults who had a free choice to live there and the ability to leave whenever they wanted, I would possibly agree. But there are children who live there, and people who don't have the ability to leave, and they do not deserve to have their lives worsened because other people are selfish, short-sighted assholes.
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:59 PM on October 8, 2009 [5 favorites]

Those who come up here with tears in their eyes talking about the library, put your money where your mouth is," Xinos shot back. He told Sydney and others who spoke against the layoffs of the three full-time staffers (including the head librarian and children's librarian) and two part-timers to stop "whining" and raise the money themselves.
[...]

He campaigned, successfully, against a plan to bring subsidized housing for seniors into town by declaring, "I don't want to live next to poor people. I don't want poor people in my town."

Well, then: stop whining, put your money where your mouth is and help them out of poverty.
posted by RikiTikiTavi at 1:59 PM on October 8, 2009

A poor kid who grew up in Berwyn and worked in his dad's cafeteria

Something in this sentence doesn't add up...
posted by rodgerd at 1:59 PM on October 8, 2009 [4 favorites]

Why bring this kind of small-minded local villain to Metafilter? I can't do anything about him; I can't express sympathy or support in any meaningful way the library or its 11-year-old patrons. What was the point of linking this on the blue for those of us who don't live in or near Chicago?
posted by Fraxas at 2:02 PM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

"...he crossed that line between everyday villainy and cartoonish super-villainy."
posted by Mayor Curley at 2:03 PM on October 8, 2009 [5 favorites]

Way to go, asshole in Oak Brook. You know what some of those "poor people" that you don't want in your city did when they faced a library closure?

They raised money.

At the end of August the community library in Robbins, a suburb on the south side of Chicago, faced closure because of lag in state tax collection. The librarians solicited donations and the donors stepped up and contributed money. Congressman Bobby Rush helped to provide grant money. They were able to stay open until September.

Then in September Dwayne Wade, who is an NBA player who grew up in Robbins, donated $25,000 to the library. They're still struggling, but it's obvious that a lot of people see the value in keeping the library open.

You may not recognize what they're doing because you've never tried it, asshole in Oak Brook, but let me help you out: they're behaving like grown-ups. They don't bully the weaker kids and then drive their big wheels back to their playhouses and talk about how all the other kids are stupid. You talk about the real world, asshole in Oak Brook, but like most others who invoke it, everyone knows that you've never deigned to visit.

Chicago Sun-Times article

Library Journal article
posted by burnfirewalls at 2:05 PM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

[A few comments removed. Do not post people's physical addresses here.]
posted by cortex at 2:08 PM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

Compliments on super quick mod action.
posted by Artw at 2:08 PM on October 8, 2009

Mercedes? Gated community? Was he twirling the ends of his waxed mustache as he spoke? The details seem so over-the-top as to beggar belief.

Oak Brook isn't really a town in the conventional sense. There's no downtown business district, public rail, etc. It's supported by a large upscale mall and suburban office parks, including McDonald's corporate headquarters (which is lovely, btw). The majority of housing is indeed in gated communities, and many of the residents own a Mercedes or three.

I can't believe Connie Xinos is still around. My grandparents lived in Oak Brook for about twenty years during which my grandfather was retired yet very active in the community. Connie Xinos was the bane of his existence. I don't remember directly why, I was too young to take in the details at the time, but he used to be in a quarrel with him over something almost every week.

Happy about making a young girl cry? That fucker can go pound sand.
posted by MarvinTheCat at 2:13 PM on October 8, 2009 [4 favorites]

Really? Because municipal politics is so important?

Only if you live somewhere.
posted by regicide is good for you at 2:22 PM on October 8, 2009 [10 favorites]

This guy is the reason some of us get involved in local politics (Home Owners Associations and such). I don't get paid, I don't get perks, and I sure as hell have better things to do with my time, but the one year I wasn't on the Board, they spent all our money, tried to fire the property manager and did some shady-seeming things with the election that ended in a lawsuit. I'd like to stop serving, but I'm afraid to.
posted by BeReasonable at 2:38 PM on October 8, 2009 [2 favorites]

The GE Volunteers Foundation often makes donations to public libraries, senior citizen centers, food pantries -- the type of places where "those people" tend to gather. The 2007 $15k donation made to Bell Gardens Library resulted in $415k of matching funds.

GE is the parent company of GE Imatron. Imatron was founded by Dr. Doug Boyd, who invented Electron Beam Chromatography. Dr. Boyd is currently the chief scientist at GE-Imatron.

In 1997, 57-year-old Constantine Xinos, a criminal defense lawyer from Oak Brook, IL, underwent an EBT scan. The scan showed that one artery was almost completely blocked; an angioplasty and two stents forestalled a probable heart attack.

Mr. Xinos, in light of your beliefs and your outspoken honesty about those beliefs, I'm calling on you to repudiate GE's support of the institutions you are opposing. Boycott them and their products. Demand an operation that will remove the stents and re-block the artery. I hereby pledge the first $50 to support the cost of this operation.
posted by joaquim at 2:38 PM on October 8, 2009 [18 favorites]

[A few comments removed. Do not post people's physical addresses here.]
posted by cortex at 2:08 PM on October 8

Yes, please don't post them here. They can be emailed to me instead.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 2:39 PM on October 8, 2009 [5 favorites]

I eagerly await part 2 of this story, when the evil cartoon villain gets his comeuppance and learns his lesson.
posted by liquidindian at 2:39 PM on October 8, 2009

I grew up in Oak Brook and spent many, many childhood hours in the Oak Brook library. I still have fond memories of the friendly librarians who let me check out stacks of books almost as tall as I was. That library was instrumental in forming my deep love of reading.

I want to drive back to Oak Brook and punch this guy in the face.

"This is the real world and the lesson, you folks who brought your kids here, is if you want something, pay for it."

Oh, right. I want to drive back to Oak Brook and pay people to punch this guy in the face.
posted by poq at 2:52 PM on October 8, 2009 [14 favorites]

[A few comments removed. Do not post people's physical addresses here.]

In 1997, 57-year-old Constantine Xinos, a criminal defense lawyer from Oak Brook, IL, underwent an EBT scan.

Seriously, Scooby gang: don't do this here. It's one thing to laugh a bit about libertarians, it's another thing to stalk them on the internet and rehash their whole life story.

And if you are going to rehash his life story, don't skip the honorable bits. Yes, he was a dick. But he was also a Marine. If he was 57 in 1997, he likely served in Vietnam. Why don't you dig that up? What did he suffer there? What made him so bitter?
posted by anotherpanacea at 3:00 PM on October 8, 2009 [2 favorites]

Fucking Oak Brook. I've got family there; they're mostly not assholes, but the town gives me the creepin' fantods, and not just because that's where my gramma's funeral was held. I believe that while I was milling around there, my general remedy for the banal evil was that the town should be gassed while everyone slept.
posted by klangklangston at 3:02 PM on October 8, 2009

If he was 57 in 1997, he likely served in Vietnam. Why don't you dig that up? What did he suffer there? What made him so bitter?
posted by anotherpanacea at 3:00 PM on October 8

Going by Xinos's attitude towards others, he probably raped and murdered Vietnamese civilians - He's not the type to suffer, as he clearly feeds on suffering. No wife? Hates kids? Spends all his time in his little gated community serving as the president of the HOA? This is textbook low-status male stuff here, despite his wealth, and I would be shocked beyond belief, honestly, if he didn't have shit in his closet so evil and fucked up it makes this newspaper article seem tame.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 3:15 PM on October 8, 2009 [6 favorites]

"The socialist bus system"

There are alternatives to socialist bus systems
posted by acb at 3:16 PM on October 8, 2009

Oak Brook isn't really a town in the conventional sense. There's no downtown business district, public rail, etc.

Thats hardly unusual. There are an enormous amount of towns like that in suburbia everywhere (especially the no public rail part --- that probably describes the majority of American towns).
posted by wildcrdj at 3:19 PM on October 8, 2009

If your house catches on fire and you don't have an account with the fire department, they will rush to the scene and douse your neighbor's house to prevent it from catching on fire, while they watch yours burn to the ground. You see, your neighbor has an account and you don't. Then they'll charge you to pay for the water damage to your neighbor's house, since you caused it.

I recall that once (in Victorian Britain perhaps?) this was pretty much how it works. If you paid the fire brigade levy, you got to put a fire brigade shield on the side of your house, so that they would know to save your house if it catches fire, or to defend it if your unprotected neighbour's goes up.
posted by acb at 3:23 PM on October 8, 2009

Optimus Chyme, I'm not sure if you noticed, but your comment about him raping Vietnamese civilians replaced a deleted comment about him having raped a girl in 1990, a la the Glenn Beck meme. I didn't mean to invite speculation about his war record, I was asking you to try to think of him as a complete human being and not a stereotype.

This guy isn't Glenn Beck. Throwing rape and murder accusations around is just... well, it would be silly if the speculations weren't so serious. We're talking about a town council meeting, for God's sake!
posted by anotherpanacea at 3:24 PM on October 8, 2009

ἐδάκρυσεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς. Edakrysen ho Iēsous.
posted by tommasz at 3:30 PM on October 8, 2009 [2 favorites]

acb - Gangs of New York would be where I saw that.
posted by Artw at 3:34 PM on October 8, 2009

Wow. Just when you think you've seen the worst of 'em.

If they have any business acumen to speak of, [non-FOX news org] should hire this asshole and give Glenn Beck a run for his money.
posted by Sys Rq at 3:36 PM on October 8, 2009

Though I imagine the pre-1833 set up in London mentioned here may have worked similarly.
posted by Artw at 3:36 PM on October 8, 2009

@anotherpanacea Re: Marine

It only takes one vile act to erase a lifetime of good one. Simple as that. I don't have his service record on hand, but since the words "Decorated" or "Purple Heart" or "Silver Star" or "Anything of Honor" appear near his name anywhere on the internets, lets assume he didn't serve with distinction and shouldn't be lauded for anything more than having his education paid for by Tax money he thinks was theft.

Okay?
posted by NiteMayr at 3:38 PM on October 8, 2009

ACtually given that he was in his late 20s in the 60s he may have served in the watershed hears between Korea and Vietnam, so it's likely that he did his duty, got his education paid for via Tax Dollars and went on to Defend pedophiles in court. Truly, a giant amongst men.
posted by NiteMayr at 3:41 PM on October 8, 2009 [1 favorite]

Ah, here we go - Fire insurance marks.

Also it turns out that if you support public firefighters you are supporting slavery.
posted by Artw at 3:41 PM on October 8, 2009

Optimus Chyme, I'm not sure if you noticed, but your comment about him raping Vietnamese civilians replaced a deleted comment about him having raped a girl in 1990, a la the Glenn Beck meme. I didn't mean to invite speculation about his war record, I was asking you to try to think of him as a complete human being and not a stereotype.

For the record, I don't really care about the Glenn Beck thing and wasn't trying to provoke a comparison. I'm saying that based upon this Xinos's words, actions, and attitudes, he is much more likely to have been a war criminal during the Vietnam War era rather than some sort of good guy who was broken or fucked up by it somehow. People like him do not suffer pain, they are vectors for its transmission.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 3:43 PM on October 8, 2009 [2 favorites]

[comment removed. absolutely, positively do not put people's addresses and phone numbers in here for some sort of "let's get 'em" thing. not okay here, not ever, don't. thank you.]
posted by jessamyn at 3:44 PM on October 8, 2009

Is it "be more of a prick than Xinos Constantine" day on the internet or something? I hate to break it to you guys, but that's no kind of victory.
posted by Artw at 3:44 PM on October 8, 2009 [5 favorites]

It seems as though he's given cause and evidence to the parents of that little girl to sue for something like mental anguish. It'd be nice to see a lawyer take the case pro bono and the proceeds given to the library.
posted by stavrogin at 3:45 PM on October 8, 2009

BeReasonble: That's something I wish I had thought of when I moved into a condo run by idiots a while back. I'm not 100% sure it would be worth the time to be on the board, but every email that came from them filled me me with a "Oh, what kind of bullshit are these fools up to now?" kind of dread, so it very well could have been.
posted by ignignokt at 3:45 PM on October 8, 2009

I am living off of student loans and part time work, but i will send this town $100 if they kick that asshole out.
posted by djduckie at 3:46 PM on October 8, 2009

People like him do not suffer pain, they are vectors for its transmission.

Hey, you know what? It's usually both.
posted by regicide is good for you at 3:52 PM on October 8, 2009

People like him do not suffer pain, they are vectors for its transmission.

I just don't find this picture of human psychology persuasive. Sure, there are sociopaths, but they don't act like cartoon villains, they try to blend in. The people pretending to be Gargamel are playing that role for a reason.
posted by anotherpanacea at 3:55 PM on October 8, 2009

Wasn't this guy supposed to be visited by three ghosts?

We ought to call the agency and check up on that. I'd also settle for three teenaged home invaders who never had adequate access to educational or social services, but you know, whatever works.
posted by Countess Elena at 4:40 PM on October 8, 2009 [2 favorites]

. . . The people pretending to be Gargamel are playing that role for a reason.

True. He is obviously and pathetically trying to be some powerful mean bastard from his past who ruled everyone in his young life. Don't know who or when it was, but I'd bet money on it.
posted by Countess Elena at 4:42 PM on October 8, 2009

This guy's a shitty libertarian. He doesn't realize that police, fire, streets, and buildings could ALL be privatized, too!

posted by notswedish at 1:35 PM on October 8 [13 favorites +] [!]

eponysterical
posted by granted at 5:49 PM on October 8, 2009

"socialist hair"

Speaking of socialist hair...
posted by granted at 5:53 PM on October 8, 2009

ignignokt, worth it is a little strong, but I have found that I get a certain sense of satisfaction from it. I highly encourage everyone to give it a whirl, at least once. If just one person had been willing to stand up to this ass...
posted by BeReasonable at 5:54 PM on October 8, 2009

Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas.
posted by EarBucket at 5:59 PM on October 8, 2009

Was he twirling the ends of his waxed mustache as he spoke?

Another site I frequent also had a post about this, and someone observed that "he's a living Disney villain!"
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:14 PM on October 8, 2009

More on the cost cuts from this article:

Library Associates Companies, a private company, was hired by the Village Board to find ways to cut the library's budget without affecting services. LAC released a report in August and mentioned the library's director, saying Klinkow-Hartmann's "demonstrated loyalty to her staff" would be one factor that would make changes at the library difficult.

Problem: Head Librarian demonstrates loyalty to staff.
Solution: Fire the Head Librarian.

Good job consultants!
posted by Esteemed Offendi at 7:00 PM on October 8, 2009 [7 favorites]

He campaigned, successfully, against a plan to bring subsidized housing for seniors into town by declaring, "I don't want to live next to poor people. I don't want poor people in my town."
No poor people? Idiot. Who does he think is gonna wait on him in restaurants, brew his overpriced vanity coffee, do his landscaping, ring up his purchases in big box stores, stock the supermarket shelves, etc.
Oh right, like rich people just can't wait to fill those jobs.
posted by Fiberoptic Zebroid and The Hypnagogic Jerks at 7:32 PM on October 8, 2009

How does one get a law degree without a library? How many hours would he have had to put in at daddy's cafe to buy his own, I wonder?
posted by klanawa at 7:55 PM on October 8, 2009

We could start renaming facilities with the word "public" in them to "socialist"

That would be fascist.
posted by IvoShandor at 9:33 PM on October 8, 2009

I'll bet my right arm that this guy is a for real, no joke, balls-to-the-wall sociopath. Being a sociopath doesn't mean you're some crazed killer, as many people would reflexively think, but rather someone who has no feelings for other people and doesn't care what the consequences of his/her actions are. What's more, sociopaths lack the ability to care. Even if he wanted to, he wouldn't be able to care that the little girl was crying.

And sociopathy is well-suited to a power-centric lifestyle like a criminal defense attorney. But basically any power-centric white collar job is ideal for a sociopath.
posted by zardoz at 10:53 PM on October 8, 2009 [5 favorites]

True. Most right-wingers would couch what they do in weaselspeak. He should be lauded for his honesty, if only because it clarifies to everyone the injustices folks like him commit on a daily basis, and motivates people to an appropriate response.

This guy sounds like a total jerkoff, but your comment is the worst kind of dishonest partisan nonsense. Taking one of the worst specimens of a political category and claiming that everyone else on the same side of the aisle secretly thinks the same but are only pretending not to in public is stupid, because it's unfalsifiable. May as well claim that libruls secretly want to destroy America, or whatever.

Also, Blackwater doesn't exist anymore. They rebranded to "Xe".
posted by L.P. Hatecraft at 12:29 AM on October 9, 2009

No poor people? Idiot. Who does he think is gonna wait on him in restaurants, brew his overpriced vanity coffee, do his landscaping, ring up his purchases in big box stores, stock the supermarket shelves, etc.

People from the neighboring town.

Here in Birmingham there is a lovely little Quaker village called Bourneville, founded by the Quaker Cadburys. Lovely place all quaint and charming. The next villages over, Stirchley and Cotteridge are overflowing with off licences, grocery shops, pubs and poverty. Why? Because alcohol isn't allowed to be sold in Bourneville and the quaintness of a village without the ugly high street drives real estate prices up.

Their NIMBYism is wrapped up in religion (that most residents are not a part of) and is celebrated by the people in the city for some crazy reason. I think they are bunch of selfish pricks who shirk their share of the messiness of sustaining real life.
posted by srboisvert at 2:23 AM on October 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

He did get one 5 star lawyer review. Pretty funny.
posted by stormpooper at 6:45 AM on October 9, 2009

Fucking Oak Brook. I've got family there; they're mostly not assholes, but the town gives me the creepin' fantods, and not just because that's where my gramma's funeral was held. I believe that while I was milling around there, my general remedy for the banal evil was that the town should be gassed while everyone slept.
posted by klangklangston at 5:02 PM

Banality of evil leading to mass gassing, eh? I think I've heard this before
posted by jtron at 7:40 AM on October 9, 2009 [2 favorites]

Some people aren't content just to let you starve to death; they want to kick you while it happens and then charge you for their time.

And they also want you to admire their kicking skill and admit you deserved it.
posted by Legomancer at 11:27 AM on October 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

The town should run an all-volunteer library on his lawn and build a park (with dog park area and big playground) on the property next door. Surely whoever currently lives there would love to move.
posted by notashroom at 1:00 PM on October 9, 2009