French Twist

Why don't we have criminal charges with names like this here in the states?

"Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was charged in France on Monday with 'aggravated pimping' for his alleged participation in a prostitution ring, prosecutors said."

Sacrebleu! Bernard-Henri Lévy pens another impassioned defense of DSK -- because, as one of the Most Interesting Men in the World, he's immune to the moral and legal constraints imposed by lesser people -- in 3... 2... 1...

Assistant Quote of the Day

"Levy and Stein find themselves offering up the same response -- two of the World's Most Interesting Men, defending another Interesting Man, on the grounds that the privilege all enjoy makes the crime inconceivable on its face. Ahh, the vita is always dolce when you are an Interesting Man. And rape? This is not a crime that Interesting Men dismiss out of hand, necessarily. But it's a tawdry and declasse sort of thing that happens to downmarket people. It's not supposed to rile up the lives of the world's elite. Game recognizes game, after all. And shame? That's for lesser people. And so while it can be acknowledged that the possibility exists that DSK is the perpetrator of a crime (Levy: 'I do not know what actually happened.' Stein: '...it's possible indeed, maybe even likely, that he is guilty as the prosecutors charge.'), the important thing to do right now is remind the world that in this life, Interesting Men are never supposed to experience shame, let alone experience it publicly. Isn't that the greater indignity?"

-- Jason Linkins, on the sudden unimaginable alliance between Bernard Henri-Levy and Ben Stein (or as I like to call it, BHL-BS) in the defense of fellow Interesting Man Dominique Strauss Kahn

I still refer to Linkins as my BFF for ripping me a new one back when he was with Wonkette, but he's a damn entertaining and insightful writer -- as this piece proves.

Quote of the Day

"What I know is that nothing, no suspicion whatever (for let’s remind ourselves that, as I write these lines, we are dealing only with suspicions!), permits the entire world to revel in the spectacle, this morning, of this handcuffed figure, his features blurred by 30 hours of detention and questioning, but still proud... And what I know even more is that the Strauss-Kahn I know, who has been my friend for 20 years and who will remain my friend, bears no resemblance to this monster, this caveman, this insatiable and malevolent beast now being described nearly everywhere. Charming, seductive, yes, certainly; a friend to women and, first of all, to his own woman, naturally, but this brutal and violent individual, this wild animal, this primate, obviously no, it’s absurd... I am troubled by a system of justice modestly termed 'accusatory,' meaning that anyone can come along and accuse another fellow of any crime."

-- Bernard-Henri Lévy

I went looking for it, and lo and behold there it was like a gift from the Google gods.

You could've counted the seconds between the arrest of IMF Chief Dominique Strauss Kahn on rape charges and the inevitable outraged defense of him penned by impossibly pompous turd Bernard-Henri Lévy.

I can seriously imagine Lévy stalking around his palatial Parisian home -- his white dress shirt unbuttoned down to his cock, a stern look on his face, his hands alternating between flailing wildly and running through his fashionably unkempt mane -- ranting to no one, "Sacre bleu! Zees ees an injustees!"

If you haven't just eaten lunch, go ahead and take a look at this thing. It's classic Lévy in that it reads like a primer on how to be a French cliché -- all self-satisfied faux-intellectualism, cultural condescension and macho Eurotrash bravado.