November 20, 2009
 
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| Gluttons for Power |
| by John Zmirak |
| 11/04/09 |
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At least since the lavish dinners of the decadent Roman Republic, rulers and those who aspired to rule have frequently made a point of conspicuous consumption. Now, this isn't always despicable; we expect those who represent legitimate authority on earth to express the dignity of their office. Even in the vigorous early days of our own Republic, Americans took pride in the fact that our White House maintained high standards of hospitality, entertaining visiting dignitaries in the style they expected. The dangerously populist Thomas Jefferson -- safely across an ocean, he welcomed the French Revolution -- made a point when he took office as president of hiring fine French chefs, who have set the tone for White House cooking ever since. A Catholic monarch I've praised before for Humility, Kaiser Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary, ate elaborate dinners with his guests off exquisite china. Court protocol dictated that whenever the emperor finished a course, the plate must be removed. Not wanting to leave anyone hungry, Kaiser Franz Josef made sure to eat slowly and never put down his fork till the last guest had finished.
And there was indeed something cringe-worthy about the canine eagerness with which former President Bill Clinton took each opportunity to chow down on greasy fast food. As his impeachment trial famously recorded, White House aide Betty Currie introduced Miss Monica Lewinksy to the president thusly: "The girl is here with the pizzas."
Throughout history, many more public figures have made a point of garishly consuming outlandishly costly items, in gorge-churning quantities, to vaunt their riches and impress, bribe, or bully their influential guests. The best example of such epicurean imperialism is Lucullus (118-57 B.C.), a Roman general who conquered much of Asia Minor -- and brought back with him so much loot that his wealth became legendary. With the silver, gold, jewels, and slaves he'd taken from the hapless Minor Asians, Lucullus built ornate palaces, lavish gardens, and elaborate aquaria. He failed, however, to spread the wealth among the troops who'd done the fighting, and their resentment led to Lucullus's eventual failure in politics.
Shorn of the leading role he'd hoped for in the Senate, Lucullus retired to enjoy his stupendous wealth and dazzle his old political rivals with the splendors of his table. According to the curmudgeonly historian Plutarch, with his "dyed coverlets, and beakers set with precious stones, and choruses and dramatic recitations, but also with his arrays of all sorts of meats and daintily prepared dishes, did [Lucullus] make himself the envy of the vulgar." Such meals included delicacies such as salted snails, raw clams, whole pigs stuffed with birds or sausages that spilt out when they were cut, brightly colored fish served as they slowly died in the sauce, and unborn or newborn rabbits. Pass the salt . . . the smelling salts.
Another famously outlandish monarch was England's Henry VIII, who housed a diplomatic meeting with France's François I in huge pavilions the size of the city of Norwich, woven from silk and gold (the stuff of which vestments are made) and bejeweled by precious ornaments and pricey hand-blown glass. Two fountains flowed with 40,000 gallons of fine red wine. A BBC historian reports that the food for the team of diplomats and nobles included "9,100 plaice, 7,836 whiting, 5,554 soles, 2,800 crayfish, 700 conger eels, three porpoises and a dolphin." And 1,200 capons.
As we know, King Henry's outsized hunger also ran to monastic properties and wives, and linked disordered appetites recur in the lives of many rulers. Genghis Khan conquered most of the continent of Asia and all of Russia. A herdsman who scorned those who grew crops and lived indoors, Genghis poisoned millions of acres of farmland by sowing them with salt and massacred the populations of whole cities such as Baghdad, Samarkand, and Kiev. It is said that he only refrained from slaughtering every city-dweller in China when one of his aides pointed out that "live Chinese pay more taxes than dead ones." We know Genghis dined on the national dish of steak Tartar (bloody raw meat tenderized by riders who kept it under their saddles), though history doesn't tell in what quantities. (He did impose the death penalty on commoners caught being gluttons; as a child when he caught an older brother stealing his fish, Genghis stabbed him to death.)
But we do have proof of another gargantuan Genghian appetite. According to National Geographic: "After a conquest, looting, pillaging, and rape were the spoils of war for all soldiers, but that Khan got first pick of the beautiful women." All that on top of some 500 wives and concubines. Still, it boggles the mind a bit to learn what genetic markers tell us: that the Khan today has some 16 million descendants.
No one in our time, thankfully, can hope to match Genghis Khan; but in his own way, one Western leader did his best to keep up the trappings of Oriental despotism in a modern, democratic setting -- longtime French president François Mitterrand.
Mitterrand began life in right-wing circles. In his youth, he joined ultra-nationalist groups that dabbled in terrorism and abortive coups d'etat against the corrupt, anti-clerical Third Republic. A man who knew how to follow a trend -- and the trend in the mid-1930s was distinctly skewing "fascist" -- Mitterrand mixed with militaristic and anti-Semitic groups, joining the Volontaires Nationaux, a xenophobic militia modeled on Italy's Blackshirts.
After serving in the army in 1940, Mitterrand escaped a POW camp and took a post with the collaborationist Vichy government -- which he seems to have faithfully served until, in 1942, it became unclear who'd win the war. At that point, Mitterrand began making contacts in the Resistance, playing both sides of the fence until the Allied invasion in 1944 made the outcome obvious. Then he joined the Resistance fighters. While Mitterrand claimed later that he spent the whole war spying for the Free French, historians question this -- citing his decades-long friendship after the war with convicted war criminal Rene Bousquet, a Vichy official who oversaw the deportation of thousands of Jews. (Ironically, while in power, Mitterrand kept close ties to the Hutu government that conducted the genocide in Rwanda.)
After meeting and marrying a Socialist in 1944, Mitterrand reinvented himself as a man of the Left. (It didn't hurt that Charles de Gaulle, the center-right war hero who'd helped liberate France, detested Mitterrand and excluded him from leadership.) As early as 1965, Mitterrand ran for president, courting feminist voters by calling for the legalization of abortion (which would pass ten years later, with Mitterrand's support). Women voters might have been a little less enthused had they known that Mitterrand kept two wives, and two sets of children -- spending weeknights with one family, and weekends with the other.
Becoming president in 1981 (he would serve for 14 years), Mitterrand legalized millions of illegal immigrants from North Africa, laying the groundwork for the radical Arab ghettos that surround most major French cities. Mitterrand fought for passage of the Maastricht Treaty, which traded French sovereignty for a share of the power a small, unaccountable European Union oligarchy now wields all across Europe.
Despite his role in liquidating France's past and compromising her future, Mitterrand craved the dignities once proper to France's kings. He surrounded himself with sycophants, critics charged, and demanded the strictest deference protocol could require. He littered Paris with monuments to his ideology, including the ghastly glass Pyramid of the Louvre, and the eerie, funereal Monument to the Rights of Man and the Citizen. But his ultimate stab at attaining ersatz royalty came with Mitterrand's last meal.
In late 1995, dying of prostate cancer -- an illness he'd long lied about and hidden from voters -- Mitterrand decided to end his life by dining like a king. In centuries past, French monarchs were privileged to one very special delicacy: a small song bird called the ortolan, which was drowned in Armagnac, then flambéed and eaten whole. Since the bird is now endangered, it's strictly illegal to eat them in modern France -- but Mitterrand didn't wish to die in the modern France he had helped to make. So on New Year's Eve, he organized a select group of his friends and enjoyed a royal menu -- complete with lavish supplies of foie gras, 30 oysters for each diner, and ortolans. Each guest was allotted one of the birds, but according to The Independent (January 11, 1997):
After grabbing the last of 12 birds, the dying president disappeared for a second time behind the large, white napkin, which is ritually placed over the head of anyone about to indulge in the horrific act of eating a charred, but entire ortolan. "Those who had already been through the ordeal once, looked at each other in astonishment," wrote Mr. Benamou [a witness]. The table listened in embarrassment as the former president masticated the little bird to a paste behind the napkin, in the approved manner, before swallowing it. Then Mitterrand lay back in his chair, his face beaming in "ecstasy."
Mitterrand refused to eat after that. He suspended all treatment for his cancer and died just eight days later. He'd had his reward.
John Zmirak is the author, most recently, of the graphic novel The Grand Inquisitor and is Writer-in-Residence at Thomas More College in New Hampshire. He writes weekly for InsideCatholic.com. Readers have left 18 comments. All of those years Francois Mitterand was president of France, extolling the virtues of French culture and commerce, there wasn't a fine, French wine in his glass but rather a common cola, says John Fund. "Francois Mitterand was a man of taste and he assembled a marvelous wine collection," says Fund. "Well, he's been dead a few years, and his son has just been convicted of tax evasion and needs to raise cash, so he put it up for auction. The bottles sold very well, but in the process we learned Mitterand's secret, which is he didn't like wine. He never drank spirits and almost never drank wine. At the state banquets where he held forth, he constantly had his glass filled with -- gasp -- Coca-Cola. So American cultural imperialism is at work, even in France, even under Mitterand." http://tinyurl.com/yhra53l Written by JL In the interest of ecumenism, I think this ought be noted. Ayatollah Khomeini took power in Iran in 1979 and on, appropriately enough, April 1st, he proclaimed that day as the first day of God’s government He became the Imam of Iran and in that capacity he rendered this religious decision having to do with animals: A man can have sex with animals such as sheep, cows, camels and so on. However he should kill the animal after he has his orgasm. He should not sell the meat to the people in his own village, however selling the meat to the next door village should be fine Written by I am not Spartacus Two …rands who seem clones of each other: equally without scruples. Why is that politics was the best field for their talents? Written by Bob G I've watched people eating something similar to those wee ortolans charred beak,feet and all, sans napkin. Not for the squeamish, to say the least. I will tape this essay to the top of my case before the ship leaves the pier. Mr. Spartacus would you be kind enough to cite your source on the Khomeini fellow? Too dreadful for words. Written by Pammie Christianity is the belief that some cosmic Jewish Zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree. Written by RB Christianity is the belief that some cosmic Jewish Zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree. — RBWow. Bigot much? Written by Andy Well, RB, the alternative which you no doubt believe is that you and I are highly developed monkeys whose neurological activity is deterministically controlled by molecular level electrical impulses. Hence your perception of Christianity is nothing more than an epiphenomenon of biochemical interactions--not a reliable guide to something objectively true or even false. Brain activity which you might identify as "religious" is the outcome of certain survival strategies which benefited other people's ancestors more than they did yours, which is why the meat inside your skull doesn't contain the wiring that produces it. The impression you have of religious faith given you by your neurons may or may not console you for the trivial number of years which your primate body will scamper around across the earth, before it collapses into decay and the "consciousness" perception that has briefly emerged from the brain that is currently controlling your limbs abruptly ends, all its data (true, false or irrelevant) disappearing into the void like the data on a crashed hard drive. Good luck with that. Written by John Zmirak Christianity is the belief that some cosmic Jewish Zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree. — RBNot symbolically eat his flesh-- actually. I find it interesting that not even someone who sees Christianity as this ridiculous can't bring himself/herself to accuse us of belief in the Real Presence. (Or, it's a generic statement meant to apply equally to Protestants) Written by Chrissy G Christianity is the belief that some cosmic Jewish Zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh — RBNot a Jewish Zombie at all, but actually, God. We eat God's flesh and drink God's blood. For His flesh is food indeed and His blood is drink indeed. He also resurrected from the dead - proof that He can indeed make us live forever. Can you top that? Written by Marie Perversion in Iran's Theocracy The Tahrirolvasyleh quotes seem to be doing the rounds on the net and are causing much distress to the Khomeini kids, who either feign ignorance or deny the book exists. Funny that, because Tahrirolvasyleh is one of Khomeini's major works and is studied in detail by the Akhoonds. Then again it was written in Arabic, making it inaccessible to most Iranians. Tahrirolvasyleh is an Iranicised version of its Arabic title 'Tahrir al Wasilah', Khomeini's ramblings on fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence). It comes in two volumes and was written by Khomeini whilst he was in Turkey. Not only does this literary masterpiece exist, but we have a downloadable version for your viewing pleasure. Tahrir.zip A man can have sexual pleasure from a child as young as a baby. However, he should not penetrate vaginally, but sodomising the child is acceptable. If a man does penetrate and damage the child then, he should be responsible for her subsistence all her life. This girl will not count as one of his four permanent wives and the man will not be eligible to marry the girl's sister... It is better for a girl to marry at such a time when she would begin menstruation at her husband's house, rather than her father's home. Any father marrying his daughter so young will have a permanent place in heaven. ["Tahrirolvasyleh", fourth edition, Qom, Iran, 1990] A man can have sex with animals such as sheep, cows, camels and so on. However, he should kill the animal after he has his orgasm. He should not sell the meat to the people in his own village, but selling the meat to a neighbouring village is reasonable. If one commits the act of sodomy with a cow, a ewe, or a camel, their urine and their excrement become impure and even their milk may no longer be consumed. The animal must then be killed as quickly as possible and burned. Wine and all intoxicating beverages are impure, but opium and hashish are not. If a man sodomises the son, brother, or father of his wife after their marriage, the marriage remains valid. During sexual intercourse, if the penis enters a woman's vagina or a man's anus, fully or only as far as the circumcision ring, both partners become impure, even if they have not reached puberty; they must consequently perform ablutions. A woman who has contracted a continuing marriage does not have the right to go out of the house without her husband's permission; she must remain at his disposal for the fulfilment of any one of his desires, and may not refuse herself to him except for a religiously valid reason. If she is totally submissive to him, the husband must provide her with her food, clothing, and lodging, whether or not he has the means to do so. A woman who refuses herself to her husband is guilty, and may not demand from him food, clothing, lodging, or any later sexual relations; however, she retains the right to be paid damages if she is repudiated. If a father (or paternal grandfather) marries off his daughter (or granddaughter) in her absence without knowing for a certainty that she is alive, the marriage becomes null and void as soon as it is established that she was dead at the time of the marriage. It is not illegal for an adult male to 'thigh' or enjoy a young girl who is still in the age of weaning; meaning to place his penis between her thighs, and to kiss her. ["The Little Green Book"] If a man commits adultery with an unmarried woman, and subsequently marries her, the child born of that marriage will be a bastard unless the parents can be sure it was conceived after they were married. A child born of an adulterous father is legitimate. Ali [son in law of Mohammed], having cut off the hands of two thieves, treated their wounds and offered them his hospitality, and this affected them so much that they became utterly devoted to him; or again when he heard that the marauding army of Muawiyah had abused a woman of one of the tribes, he was so upset and moved to pity he declared: "If a man died after such an occurrence, no one could blame him." And yet, despite a nature as sensitive as that, Ali bared his sword and hacked the perpetrators to pieces. This is the meaning of justice. - "The Sayings of Ayatollah Khomeini, Political, Philosophical, Social and Religious" (The Little Green Book), ISBN number 0-553-14032-9. Written by I am not Spartacus Christianity is the belief that some cosmic Jewish Zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh Christian Catholics do not believe that. Jesus did not teach that The Eucharist was symbolic. Here are His words:John 6:55 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: To symbolically eat another's body and drink his blood is to persecute and assault him. If you think Jesus was speaking symbolically that would mean you think that when Jesus said if you eat my body and drink my blood you will have eternal life he really meant you will have eternal life if you persecute and assault me. Here are some references to the symbolic use of the expression eat my body, drink my blood... Isaias 9:18-20; 49:26 For wickedness is kindled as a fire, it shall devour the brier and the thorn: and shall kindle in the thicket of the forest, and it shall be wrapped up in smoke ascending on high. 19 By the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is troubled, and the people shall be as fuel for the fire: no man shall spare his brother. 20 And he shall turn to the right hand, and shall be hungry: and shall eat on the left hand, and shall not be filled: every one shall eat the flesh of his own arm: Manasses Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasses, and they together shall be against Juda….. And I will feed thy enemies with their own flesh: and they shall be made drunk with their own blood, as with new wine: and all flesh shall know, that I am the Lord that save thee, and thy Redeemer the Mighty One of Jacob. Micah 3:3 Who have eaten the flesh of my people, and have flayed their skin from off them: and have broken, and chopped their bones as for the kettle, and as flesh in the midst of the pot 2 Sam 23:15-17 15 And David longed, and said: O that some man would get me a drink of the water out of the cistern, that is in Bethlehem, by the gate. 16 And the three valiant men broke through the camp of the Philistines, and drew water out of the cistern of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and brought it to David: but he would not drink, but offered it to the Lord, 17 Saying: The Lord be merciful to me, that I may not do this: shall I drink the blood of these men that went, and the peril of their lives? therefore he would not drink. These things did these three mighty men. Apocalypse 17: 6, 16 And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And I wondered, when I had seen her, with great admiration… And the ten horns which thou sawest in the beast: these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her with fire. Even Luther got it right about the Eucharist. "of all the early fathers, as many as you can name, not one has ever spoken about the sacraments as these fanatics do. None of them uses such an expressions as "It is simply bread and wine," or "Christ's body and blood are not present." Yet this subject is so frequently discussed by them, it is impossible that they should not at some time have let slip such an expression as "It is simply bread" or "Not that the body of Christ is physically present" or the like; since they are greatly concerned not to mislead the people; actually, they simply proceed to speak as if no one doubted that Christ's body and blod are present. Certainly among so many fathers and so many writings a negative arguement should have turned up at least once, as it happens in other articles; but actually they all stand uniformly and consistently on the affirmative side." (Luther's Works) Written by I am not Spartacus Poor RB! No doubt the Head Hitchens had him and the other minions copy it all out before sending them off to proselytise cyberspace. It's probably the best fun he's had in a while,so we shouldn't begrudge over much.RB would you be so kind as to remind your master (when his head stops aching) that Mother Teresa has been dead for many years and new material is called for? I think we have all heard his best bits about her MANY times. Many thanks for your efforts Mr. Spartacus. An old relation many years ago used to claim that Islam was primarily about sex. I thought she was dotty. Now in light of this new information, I'm not so sure. Written by Pammie If his Reward was a burnt bird, I'll stick to less worldly pursuits.  Written by Baron Korf I wonder how RB thinks the universe was created and how this planet and its inhabitants came into existance? It wonder how stupid his explanation would sound... ![[smiley=laugh]](http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/components/com_jreactions/custom/templates/blog/smileys/smiley_laugh.gif) Written by Christine Great Article. This certainly provides some context to my experience viewing the movie "Vatel" - which was one of the must horrifying and vulgar movies I think I've ever seen in my life. As it happens, I viewed it in France with French friends who thought it was a wonderful tribute to the "The French Way". Written by CD Thought you might get a chuckle out of my own Blessed Karl. His tastes were not nearly so refined as his patriarchs', though, as I had to bribe him with M&Ms to wear the moustache. http://tinyurl.com/yl38kt2 Written by Lindsay Lovely pictures! St Henry and Bls Charles(my favourite), both were very smart looking indeed. I hope they received enough sweets to recompense for the itchy mustaches and tights. Written by Pammie From a quick Google, I'm guessing the above alleged quotes come from "ethnikoi.org". Please be wary of spreading scandalous, perverse, and pornographic accusations about others - even those you regard as your enemies. Remember, first, that anybody can put up a web-page saying anything. Secondly - to quote a muslim gentleman below - "Being critical of and arguing against any man, ideology, belief system or religion is only valid if the arguments are true. When you promote a lie you lose the argument." It also degrades the dignity of a site repeating it. MPACUK: Muslim Discussion Forum > Islam > About Islam "Did Khomeini promote child abuse?" http://tinyurl.com/yafyxsl Yes, I know the above could be a clever ruse, but then why are there no comments in the review section on Amazon about this? Amazon.com: "Sayings of the Ayatollah Khomeini: Political, Philosophical, Social, & Religious (Paperback)" http://tinyurl.com/ybp83k8 Written by O. O'Connell |
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