“. . .a celebrity can get away with murder in the Land of the Depraved , as this Proctor man just did in Los Angeles . . .”

I assume the reference is to Phil Spector.

What?  What the f---?  Epstein said,
““In the past, people like you would
get off the sidewalk for
people like me under the penalty of death.”

What the hell “past”, and where, is he talking
about?  Maybe Japan under the Shoguns, but
in that case Taki would be the one bearing
arms and the privilege of summary execution.

In ancient China, merchants were considered
lower than farmers or artisans, because they
didn’t really produce anything.  They’re
re-earning that reputation in China today,
and if they’re not careful they might have
another peasants’ revolt on their hands,
and all those American fortunes-on-paper
will turn into toilet paper.  Speaking of
which, while visiting Indonesia for the past
week I’ve been a multi-millionaire in the local
currency, at around 8,000 rupiah to one Aussie
dollar.  Paper fortunes and paper billionaires
are so, so, so fungible…

...and so are the Jeffrey Epsteins and the
depraved conditions which support them for
such perilously brief moments.  Thanks, Taki,
for reminding me how idyllic and upspoiled -
both ecologically and socially - my new home and
haven on the coast
of Western Australia is, compared to
New York or London.  Here in Western Oz, the
only creatures who refuse to give way are
the kangaroos, and that’s only because they’re
unable to hop backward, but otherwise they’re
more agreeable company than you’re evidently
encountering in Manhattan.

Amusing story about Manhattan privilege… to think such a stellar reputation could be ruined by rolling around with shiksa tramps… can see it now - misty eyed mom and dad proclaiming “my jeffrey would never do such a thing"… oy vey

Taki, you’re a veritable Don Quixote of La Mancha taking swipes at all the windmills of our day. whats that famous saying one hears from time to time...all that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

“In the past, people like you would
get off the sidewalk for
people like me under the penalty of death.”

John Ball - the way I read it it was Taki who said that, not the pervert.

‘Once, walking down my street towards the park, we came face to face and I refused to give way and bumped into him. He protested. “In the past, people like you would get off the sidewalk for people like me under the penalty of death...” [So] said I, evoking a Samurai custom.’

Like President Bush about WMD, I may be the victim of bad intelligence, but I just heard that Columbia University president Lee “I Hate Iran” Bollinger has accused Taki of wanting to wipe Jeffrey Epstein off the map.  Can anti-Taki demonstrations be far away?

It serves you right! You left the yobs,Only to find the pervs.GO YANKEES!

Perverts are making the rules in our upside down world. Liberals have anointed a pervert, the fairy king, andrew sullivan, a conservative.

TT says: I knew better but libel laws prevent me from spilling the beans.

Couldn’t you have done anything to prevent more girls becoming victim to this pervert? (I know they were only ‘trailer-trash’ but still...)

Andrew, yes now I see.  And if Taki was the one who said it to Epstein then I’d consider it perfectly good manners. 
A gentleman is one who never offends unintentionally.

As for leaving London yobs for New York snobs and pervs, I reiterate:  I find Western Australia to be incredibly unpolluted ecologically AND socially.  With all due respect to my native country, I’ve never cared much for its jingoistic national anthem’s lyrics, a celebration of the bloody stupid War of 1812 in which
the British (or rather, Canadian) burning of the White House was payback for the American invasion of Canada and burning of Toronto, then called “York.” (The anthem’s music, however, is the melody of an 18th century English drinking song, “To Anacreon in Heaven”.) “Land of the free, home of the brave?” Sounds more like Switzerland.  More agreeable to me is Australia’s unofficial anthem, celebrating a poor vagabond sheep-thief who chose death instead of prison,

“You’ll never take me alive, said he!”

A further digression while I’m at it:  “Waltzing Matilda” was set to the tune of
an 18th century song about a typical British Army grunt, who enlisted because
there was no opportunity for him in England:

“Take the King’s shilling for Marlboro and me.
Take the King’s shilling.  Take the King’s shilling.
Take the King’s shilling for Marlboro and me…
...``Now I,’’ said the young man, ``have oft endured the parish queue.
There is no wages or employment for me.
Salvation or danger,
That’ll be my destiny.
To be a soldier for Marlboro and me.’’

http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Marching_Through_Rochester.htm

During the Napoleonic wars the lyrics were updated to, “for Wellington and me.”
Then in the depressed economy following those wars, many of the economically ruined, discarded veteran Tommies who fought for King and Country moved to Australia (willingly, not just the transported criminals.) I think this legacy might account for the relative lack of jingoism among the otherwise very patriotic Australians, and the essentially modest hedonism of the “Australian Dream” - the people who settled this country didn’t regard themselves (like so many Americans) as
any “Chosen People” with a Divine mission, but rather as “the Damned” who
yearned for, and finally found, a fair go and a decent life.

I think Americans ought to learn more from the Australians, how a prosperous and incredibly free “new world” country doesn’t need to regard itself as any shining “city on a hill” or representative of a New Order of the Ages,
in order to be an extraordinarily decent
and enviable place to live.  And I think, maybe, what has saved Australia’s soul in the long run has been its original condition as a country whose first settlers regarded themselves as sinners rather than saints.  I mean, the American superstition of “American Exceptionalism”, the belief that America is somehow a sinless, or Divinely ordained/appointed nation, does not exist in Australia, and Australia is a lucky country for that.

In light of which, I’m beginning to think many of the anti-Lincoln writers and commenters here have a good point.  I cannot imagine an Australian Lincoln, and I can’t imagine Australians having a Civil War and convincing themselves that it’s part of any Divine Plan, or writing anti-christ hymns like the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” I’ll take “Waltzing Matilda” over “Glory Glory Halleluiah”,
any day.

@John

I am glad that you like Australia, which in many ways
seems like a very nice country (in others, not so hot,
but nobody is perfect).

The American exceptionalism that you deplore comes from
before Lincoln. , God knows that Jefferson was not
precisely free of it, what with his vision of Democracy
(a vision that blinded him about the French Revolution)

And of all the practicioners of that pernicious doctrine
Lincoln was the most blameless since he was, rather than
setting himself as a missionary to foreing lands, trying
to keep the one he had from being torn to pieces (yes,
I know about the right to secede and all that, but I
do not think that any of us would have liked to live in
a North American Balkans, with fifty independent
republics which went to war agains each other over
border disputes and such. I am a congenital pessimist
about things like that).

Well, enjoy your new home, and don’t forget to write.

Taki,
The Speccie just was not the same without you, and here is one person who will allow his subs to lapse if they find you too hot to handle in the future.
A little disturbed however that you mix with such low lives as Bob Geldof, and trust this is but a passing fad.
Keep up the naming and shaming. You’re the only one with the guts to do so.

Taki,
Small error, J.E. can’t live 2 blocks East of you unless you are just camp in Central Park these days.
He is my neighbor, on 71st between 5th and Mad so it can be only one of the other cardinal points.
Best,
G./

Last week I was worried that you had disappeared for good. Don’t worry about the break - your column is the best in the Spectator week-on-week - just carry on as you were: the odd “missing” column doesn’t matter now I have your site.

Cracking last name Taki - love it. Good to have you back this week. Regards, Grant

America has got to the point of
censoring the Star-Spangled Banner. I can understand
why
the lawyers were having kittens.
At least Claus
had the decency to call, or at least the curiosity.
During the Greek Junta period, Ritsos and Seferis
were forbidden poets, a far more dangerous censorship
than that of the sexual exploits of the
well - stuffed dead.

I have three questions.
1) Was Jeffrey’s sexuality (gay or straight) questioned in your piece.
2) When Epstein is released, assuming he’ll do time, will people still do business with him?
3) Where does Leslie Wexner, clean-cut Mid-Western man, come out on all of this.  He still in touch with his good friend, JE.?

To John Warren,

Where Leslie Wexner comes in: He is gay. His marriage is a sham. he and Epstein have been the subject of rumors for years. Wexner practically GAVE that huge townhouse to Epstein. Wexner never comes to NYC because everyone knows about him.. In Ohio, no one asks questions, and he and his “wife” are huge fish in a little pond.

WONDERING IF THERE IS ANY VERDICT ON THIS PERVERT YET. ANYONE KNOW?????