Anti-Climacus

QUOTE: An e-mail to Andrew Sullivan (ignore the Bill Bennett parts) explains why Churchill is my kind of man:

"There is a nasty strain of therapeutic liberalism which tries to impose its righteousness by dismissing opponents as 'sick' or in the hands of some compulsion. The e-mail you quote is a good example. Consider the lifestyle of Winston Churchill. He began the day in bed with a scotch and soda, then consumed a bottle of champagne for lunch followed by several double brandies. He drank beer in the afternoon, then repeated the lunch intake at dinner, before moving on to the port. He sipped Johnny Walker Red during the evening while he wrote his 'prayers' ('pray explain...'). He was willing to take this policy to extremes. At a lunch with Ibn Saud, where alcohol and tobacco were barred for religious reasons, Churchill refused to comply, advising the King 'my rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after, and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them.' I've never seen an accounting of Churchill's alcohol intake, but if you add up what is admitted in various biographies, he had to be drinking the equivalent of a bottle of scotch or more a day. He also chain-smoked and gambled beyond his means. Like Bill Bennett, he defended his behaviour...'I've taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.' Hitler would have agreed."