Iranians may be starving and rioting in the streets, but to the wealthy cultural elitists who run (and patronize) the New York Times, that just apparently adds local color to the luxury vacations by private jet that the paper continues to offer its readers in 2018.

Peter Hasson of the Daily Caller writes:

The New York Times will continue offering its expensive tours of Iran despite protests in the country against the Iranian regime, which the United States government has designated the number[-]one state sponsor of terrorism.

The company is selling nine different 13-day tours of Iran in 2018.  Individual tickets for the program, "Tales from Persia," cost $7,895.  The weighty price tag doesn't include your flights to and from the Islamic Republic, but it does buy you the companionship of a handful of Times "experts" to accompany you on the trip, in addition to the state-approved domestic tour guide.

The trip itinerary includes two days in Isfahan, which is currently a focal point of the anti-regime protests that have left at least 21 people dead.

A spokesman for the Times said [the paper has] no plans to cancel any of the Iran trips but said the company is monitoring the protests and is keeping in touch with [its] contacts "on the ground."

Take a look at the promotional video the Times is using, if you have the stomach.  If not, check out the private jet the company will be using:

Note that this is a Boeing 757, the same type of plane, with Rolls-Royce engines, used by Donald Trump before Air Force One became his chariot.

The interior of the Times' jet may not have the same amount of gold leaf as Trump Force One, but the seats look awfully roomy and nice:

And all those starving Iranians will not discomfit the Times Travelers, with bellies full of gourmet offerings.  If they time their trip purchase correctly, they can enjoy the company of Nicholas Kristoff, who will serve as an "expert" for the February 15-21 trip.  He can give them advice on enjoying themselves with food while their host regime starves its people, having himself had a "pizza party" while visiting North Korea.

It is all so reminiscent of Versailles, where, as Victor Davis Hanson wrote yesterday:

During the last days of the Ancien Regime, French [q]ueen Marie Antoinette frolicked in a fake rural village not far from the Versailles Palace – the Hameau de la Reine ("the Queen's hamlet").  "Peasant" farmers and herdsmen were imported to interact, albeit carefully, with the royal retinue in an idyllic amusement park.  The [q]ueen would sometimes dress up as a milkmaid and with her royal train do a few chores on the "farm" to emulate the romanticized masses, but in safe, apartheid seclusion from them.

How close do you think the Times Travelers will get to the starving masses in Iran?  If they meet anyone who states that people have no chickpeas left, will someone say, "Let them eat kebab"?

And of course, jetting around in a spacious luxury plane with plenty of food does have a (cough!) large carbon footprint, but hey, personal sacrifice is for Youngstown, Ohio and California's Central Valley, not for the intellectual and moral titans who take their bearings from the New York Times.  As my friend Mark J Fitzgibbons tweets:

I urge everyone to purchase a #NYTimes 26-day private jet world tour to help break this cold snap. Maybe share NoKo pizza with #NicholasKristof for a more 'fun' #carbonfootprint.https://t.co/O8u7Dv9spQ

 –  MarkFitzgibbons (@MarkFitzgibbons) January 3, 2018