Whenever I’m around blogging triumphalists — the kind of people who would applaud the withering-away of the mainstream media and think of journalists as elitist, “MSM” know-nothings — I try to point out the huge swath of contemporary human knowledge that would never have come to light without institutions like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.

Don’t get me wrong: I love blogs. But no blog would be able to do something like this story from the front page of Thursday’s NYT. It’s the complicated (but worth it!) tale of how a 22-year-old guy named Efraim Diveroli ended up with federal arms contracts worth perhaps a third of a billion dollars despite, oh, any number of what should have been red flags. Like his penchant for domestic disputes with girlfriends that required police intervention. Or the fact his company’s vice president was a masseur. Or, you know, the fact he was 22 years old.

As it turns out, young Efraim — the main supplier of American-funded ammunition for our side in Afghanistan — appears to have been giving them illegally purchased 40-year-old Chinese ammo that doesn’t even work.

Anyway, it’s a great piece of reporting that crosses continents and is beyond the ken of even the finest blogger. But I’ll add the one thing I can. Whenever I see a young person do something newsworthy, I always look him/her up on Facebook and MySpace. And in this case, paydirt:

Here’s his MySpace page, which appears to have been last updated in 2005. Some highlights, in case it comes down (all emphases mine):

His “About Me”:

Well of course im a super nice guy!!! , i know what i want out of life but not exactly quite sure how to get it yet. I was born and bred in miami beach and have no immediate plans to leave but i have thought about it. Im a pretty easy going guy and many say i have a good sense of humor. I had problems in high school so i was forced to work most of my teen years and i probably grew up way to fast. I finally got a decent apartment and im content for the moment , however i definately have the desire to be very successful in my business and this does take up alot of my time.

What kind of gal he’s looking for:

a sweet pretty girl with a good attitude and love for life , a woman that will stand by her man because she knows he would do the same for her no matter the circumstance [ed: you can judge for yourself by the mugshots whether Ephraim is really the stand-by-his-woman kind of guy]

To fulfill the stereotype of this kind of guy, his favorite movies include Scarface and The Godfather — and, slightly against type, American Beauty. Dude must love floating plastic bags. And his interests:

for the moment im basically just working and chilling with my boyz when im not, im looking for some hobbies like i keep saying im gonna go to the gym and i started playing football again which is definately my favorite sport. im one of those guys who needs to be entertained and having lots of fun all the time so if your also an undiagnosed case of ADD look me up. i like to eat good food and i dont know how to cook so i eat out alot!!!! ilike to travel whenever posssible sometimes for business , and of course i like going clubbing or going to a movie, oh and ive really taken a liking towards fine scotch whisky recently dont ask me why….

His mugshot is on the left, his MySpace photo on the right:

27 March 2008

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