A typical Washington dinner party, for instance, is just part of the daily routine for most political writers. They do that kind of thing five nights a week, and they get very insulted when somebody calls it weird—which it is.
Which is harmless enough, I guess, until you realize that these atavistic rituals are taken very seriously by the same people who have the power to plunge the whole world into a nuclear war every time they figure some boatload of uppity heathens in the South China Sea needs to be "taught a lesson" by the U.S. Marines for not showing the proper respect for God and the American Eagle.
Hunter S. Thompson
1990