According to Richard Martineau (who is not in the habit of making stuff up), France’s Culture minister, Frédéric Mitterand (nephew of former president François) wrote a book in 2005 in which he confesses to – or rather, brags about – engaging in sex tourism. He paid for sex with underage boys. And bragged about it. And now he’s his country’s Culture minister. And of course he’s defending Roman Polanski.
Of course. He would be.
For those of you who don’t read French, Big Blue Wave did a good job translating the money quote, here.








Far right, conservative Christians have long said that tolerance of homosexuality would lead to tolerance of things like pedophilia. I’ve always been skeptical, but first with people defending Polanski and now this, I’m quite shaken up. Are they right, or are these two instances just blips or irregularities that have happened to surface alongside one another?
Jordan: Cum hoc ergo propter hoc. Besides, pedophilia is hardly ‘tolerated’ – it’s not just illegal worldwide, but often subject to sentences harsher than those for premeditated murder. Just the fear of it is enough to get laws passed.
If these are true, it might mean he loses his position. I’m sure him getting to be Minister of Culture has something to do with him being a relative of the president, so this has to be a great embarassment for his supporters too.
No, in this case it is tolerated. The book was published in 2005, and the author went on the customary book tours. He didn’t hide his pedophilia, au contraire. And he’s been named minister in 2009. After his book tours where he displayed his pedophilia. Accpording to Wikipedia (in French), he was accused on television this week (by one of those annoying ring-wingers) of pedophilia and “defended” himself by saying that he made the difference between a “boy” and a “young boy” but he didn’t make it clear at what age “young boys” became “boys”. As far as I know that’s all the “trouble” he had over it.
If that’s not tolerating pedophilia, it will do until “real” tolerance comes along.
alea iacta est
Funny, isn’t it, how those paranoid ravings that gay marriage would lead to a push for accepting polygamy turned out not to be so daffy after all, as well.
And then there’s those fanatical pro-lifers who said that legalized abortion would lead to eugenics and euthanasia.
How’s your traction on that slippery slope?