Dalrymple responds briefly in City Journal (h/t Yakimi) to several statements made about the Paris attacks – by politicians, but also by Bono and the Guardian:
One has to pity—a little—politicians obliged to react publicly to events such as those on November 13 in Paris. They can’t pass over them in silence: but what can they say that does not sound banal, hollow, and obvious? They can only get it wrong, not right.
I want to hereby express my deep and sincere feelings of regret and compassion for all the politicians and politicians’ families. Believe me when I say: I feel with you. These are hard times. Hard like stone. Or like a cock. And in hard times, it must stay hard. We can not let it become flobby at any price. There can only be one answer to this kind of terror and I will make sure to do my best despite all attempts to sabotage me; do my best to finally get prescriptions for Viagra for all politicians. So that they can finally stay hard during their campaigns of feigning.