It was sent to me by a friend, more as a laugh and not in any judgmental sense. Neither I nor my friend give one soaring shag about who Varadkar kisses. Better that he kisses a person than bites him.
Had Varadkar been smooching with an altar boy there would be grounds for concern, but he wasn't. His clinch was with a consenting adult. That however would not stop those, inspired by their Christian love, to hate him enough to want to see him hanged from a crane. Their view of theocratic Iran is that it is a great wee country if it wasn't for those damned Muzzies. Ireland would be great country too if only it had a different one true Theo.
On this matter some Blueshirts have opted to become hair shirts. A Fine Gael rural TD said “we have a very conservative base and we are pissing them off all the time.” A leading figure in the party complained that “if he was a cat he would definitely be on his ninth life”. That senior figure is not getting the finance portfolio given their difficulty with numbers. Even the critics would be hard pressed to find the previous seven cardinal sins that Varadkar has wasted the majority of his lives on. If he was a cat the chances are he wouldn't have a clue as to who his father is. To the puritan that might make him a bastard but preferable the bastard to the puritan. In none of this do we learn anything about his ability to govern.
Had Varadkar been smooching with an altar boy there would be grounds for concern, but he wasn't. His clinch was with a consenting adult. That however would not stop those, inspired by their Christian love, to hate him enough to want to see him hanged from a crane. Their view of theocratic Iran is that it is a great wee country if it wasn't for those damned Muzzies. Ireland would be great country too if only it had a different one true Theo.
As Taoiseach he will do a good job . . . for the rich but that's a different matter. If Mary Lou McDonald was to be filmed kissing some guy not her husband, it might offend those desperate to be offended but society should shrug and move onto the next issue rather than making the kiss the issue. There might be plenty of good reasons to object to either McDonald or Varadkar becoming Taoiseach but who they may have kissed is not one of them.
Not too long back the puritans and the prudes were kicking up about the Prime Minister of Finland Sanna Marin because she had committed the unforgiveable sin of "singing and dancing at a party with her friends". It was behaviour unbecoming of a prime minister, they snarled.
Varadkar waded in on her behalf:
I thought she looked great. And she’s a good dancer. She’s 36. She’s allowed to party with her friends. There’d be no fuss if it was a 60 plus prime minister having late night drinks in the golf club bar . . . She’s welcome to a party in my house next time she’s in Dublin.
Meanwhile, on his own night out, Leo's lips are sealed:
I think it’s very much a personal matter and as you say it does relate entirely to my private life and for those reasons I don’t want to comment on it.
With religious whackjobs in Indonesia pushing the government there into banning extra marital sex, it is invigorating that Finland and Ireland produce public figures like Marin and Varadkar willing to let their hair down rather than permit the clerics to hide it.
The real concern about Varadkar being videoed while partying is as one observer put it:
that someone filmed two people kissing in a gay club which is a terrifying thought to any gay person who isn’t out publicly but feel safe in that space.
Envious voyeurism perhaps?
⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.
As 'meaning making machines' humans create identities.
ReplyDeleteHowever, despite attempts at coherence we all oscillate to varying degrees, to varying degrees between our public & private personas. When the divergence is substantial, or perceived as being so, we will either feel ashamed of ourselves, be shamed by others or sometimes experience both.
But as AM rightly alludes, better to be shamed for kissing than for biting!