High life
Sins and vices
Taki
I threw two parties in order to end the year on a good note. One at Annabel's for Paul Johnson, the other at the Eagle Club in Gstaad for 100 of my nearest and dear- est. Even if I say so myself, I couldn't have liked it more. Let's face it, a person's inner beauty derives from the enormity of his vices. I adore giving parties as much as I love going to them. If it sounds frivolous to some, they can always kiss my arse. I like falling in love with young women, whoring, gambling, chasing women, drinking myself to oblivion, smoking non-filter Papastratos.
The real sin is to abstain from things that give one pleasure. In fact, I have never been able to equate indulgence with wickedness. There is surely no more inno- cent way of passing an evening than overeating, drinking to excess, filling up your lungs with smoke, betting more than you can afford on the queen of diamonds, and, of course, fornicating to excess.
Incidentally, I have always found that people who indulge in such vices do not elevate themselves above others; they do not try to oppress others; they do not try to make life miserable for others. They are peacefully engaged in ruining their own lives.
Which brings me to the point I wish to make, for this, the beginning of the last year of the century. How different the jolly exemplars of self-indulgence — the Takis of this world — from the truly wicked crea- tures of our age — the aggressive practi- tioners of abstinence. Do not confuse them with the Puritans. The Puritan denies him- self pleasure so as to live a life righteous in the eyes of God. The abstainer denies him- self pleasures so as to live a life more righ- teous than that of his fellow man.
Happiness to him is feeling morally supe- rior to others. With every puff that he does not take, with every refusal to make a move on a girl for fear of showing 'lack of respect', with every seltzer water or arugula and spinach salad that he orders he ele- vates himself a little bit more over the rest of us. Of course, he never stops simply at being abstinent himself He has to lecture others and make sure that his constricted outlook becomes the norm. He must there- fore devise a system to ensure that the pos- sibility of any pleasurable activity will be forever precluded. Such systems function today in our universities, with their truly terrifying speech and harassment codes. Compared to the traditional vices of stu- dents (smoking, drinking, idling, fornicat- ing) the new vices (spying, denouncing, hating, agitating) are genuinely sinful.
The smoke-free White House is a perfect example of this type of thinking. Hillary is an evil woman who has fooled most people and for a very long time. The dirty tricks programme against anyone who opposes the First Scumbag is hers and hers alone. Sid (the second scumbag) Blumenthal is her hitman. The Draft Dodger's calculated, sustained lying has corrupted the political process — not to mention what it has done to the language — forever in America. So degenerate are the Clintons, so totally impervious to what's good for the country, they have not contemplated resigning as a matter of honour. Here is another low- lifer, one Richard Cohen, writing in the Washington Post: 'He is a sneaky guy, drip- ping charm and lies like a headwaiter promising a table in a few minutes. He best- ed the GOP by dealing from the bottom of the deck. He lied to Gingrich and to other congressional leaders He was smarter than they were and travelled lighter, unbur- dened by matters of conscience.'
The way I read it, Cohen almost admires the guy. Morality is for losers, is what Cohen is really saying. Yet the founders provided impeachment to cope with serial liars like Clinton, a man who has traduced political discourse by his constant and repeated lying. This man does not have the moral authority to wage war. The Draft Dodger as warrior is obscene, especially when bombing a country that cannot defend itself. Tony Blair — also a liar but not in Clinton's league — followed him like a poodle. Let's see. Sure, Saddam makes war on his people, but who inflicts the greatest suffering — Saddam or Clinton and Blair? 239,000 children have perished since 1990 because of the American-led embargo. And what does the truly grotesque Madeleine Albright answer when asked about 239,000 infant deaths? 'You can't lay that guilt trip on me,' she snaps.
Iran, Pakistan, India, Syria, Israel, North Korea and perhaps Turkey are building weapons of mass destruction, but the two smiling cowards are telling us that Iraq, with no airforce, no navy and no ICBMs is the greatest threat.
This is horrible and truly evil. All one needs to do in Iraq is enforce the no-fly rule all over the country and not allow other countries to sell Saddam hardware. Let him sell all his oil and lift the embargo immediately. And, while they're at it, lift the embargo on smoking inside the White House. Clinton, the child killer, is no one to give us lessons on health. Happy New Year!
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