#594174 - 12/16/11 02:45 AM
Christopher Hitchens, RIP
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Registered: 11/25/00
Posts: 10034
Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska USA
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http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/12/In-Memoriam-Christopher-Hitchens-19492011He got to spend his life telling truth as he saw it, abusing others and himself. He didn't get old and shrivelled, nor did he waste time in self-pity. I like to imagine a pint or five waiting in Heaven for him, along with a note from God saying 'I wish there were more atheists like you.'
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#594180 - 12/16/11 05:26 AM
Re: Christopher Hitchens, RIP
[Re: ChrisW]
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Registered: 08/18/99
Posts: 10002
Loc: us of fuckin' a
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I prefer to imagine him going out saying, "no, thanks." He was one of the good journalists.
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The Gospel, wherein much Truth is written.
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#594181 - 12/16/11 09:37 AM
Re: Christopher Hitchens, RIP
[Re: Charles Reece]
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Registered: 11/11/02
Posts: 11936
Loc: Lexington, Ky.
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A brilliant man and often infuriating and nearly always fascinating.
R.I.P.
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#594182 - 12/16/11 11:16 AM
Re: Christopher Hitchens, RIP
[Re: ChrisW]
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Registered: 06/22/01
Posts: 12277
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I like to imagine a pint or five waiting in Heaven for him, along with a note from God saying 'I wish there were more atheists like you.' My guess would be that he'd probably say he would prefer a gin and tonic, and proceed to have more than a few words with him. I'd echo the sentiment, I wish there were more like him. The public perception of an atheist is often no more than some crank, suing his local school district so his kid wouldn't have to just ignore a line in the pledge of allegiance.
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#594183 - 12/16/11 11:41 AM
Re: Christopher Hitchens, RIP
[Re: Joe Lee]
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Registered: 11/11/02
Posts: 11936
Loc: Lexington, Ky.
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Hitchens alienated many of his longtime liberal fans with his fierce defense of the Bush administration for invading Iraq in 2003. It was hard for many of them -- OK, for many of us -- to recognize their old hero, who had thoroughly built a case against Henry Kissinger as a war criminal.
It's possible Hitchens so feared religious zealotry that Islamic fundamentalism became, for him, the predominant threat of our age, and any muscular response against it was a good one. I suppose I can understand that on some level.
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#594185 - 12/16/11 02:51 PM
Re: Christopher Hitchens, RIP
[Re: Lawson]
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Registered: 10/31/03
Posts: 1338
Loc: Airdrie, Scotland
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I think he kind of lost it in the last few years with his support of Iraq. I got the impression he often tried to be controversial for the sake of it.
Still, I liked his attack on Mother Teresa.
His brother, Peter Hitchens, writes for the Daily Mail in Britain and he is complete dickhead.
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#594186 - 12/16/11 04:37 PM
Re: Christopher Hitchens, RIP
[Re: shjonescrk]
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Registered: 11/11/02
Posts: 11936
Loc: Lexington, Ky.
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In its obituary, the New York Times quoted Hitchens' friend Ian Buruma, who told the New Yorker in 2006 that Hitchens was "always looking for the defining moment — as it were, our Spanish Civil War, where you put yourself on the right side, and stand up to the enemy." He shared that impulse with George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, and Paul Wolfowitz, and they found their moment in the stupid decision to invade Iraq. For Hitchens, it was the opening maneuver in a grand, imagined clash of western civilization against the Islamofascist hordes.
It was something else for 113,000 civilians who died in the chaos unleashed. The great tragedy of Hitchens' life was that, toward its end, he aligned himself so stridently with the very fools, cowards, and charlatans who most desperately invited exposure by his prodigious skills as butcher. How can someone who devoted so much of his life to as noble a cause as destroying the reputation of Henry Kissinger blithely stand shoulder to shoulder with Rumsfeld?
People make mistakes. What's horrible about Hitchens' ardor for the invasion of Iraq is that he clung to it long after it became clear that a grotesque error had been made.
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#594187 - 12/16/11 05:24 PM
Re: Christopher Hitchens, RIP
[Re: Lawson]
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Registered: 11/29/09
Posts: 1093
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I'm reading the controversey around the criticism he had towards Mother Teresa. There's a documentary, "Hell's Angel," and a book, "The Missionary Position." Pretty provacative titles.
With those titles though, I'm a little hesitant to read them because they sound like they might not be too objective.
I enjoyed his article on water boarding that challenged pro-torture peoplel saying, "it's just a little water."
RIP.
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"My head's lopsided *****!"-Red Gumby
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#594189 - 12/16/11 10:25 PM
Re: Christopher Hitchens, RIP
[Re: Gerald]
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Registered: 08/18/99
Posts: 10002
Loc: us of fuckin' a
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_________________________
The Gospel, wherein much Truth is written.
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#594190 - 12/16/11 10:38 PM
Re: Christopher Hitchens, RIP
[Re: Charles Reece]
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Registered: 11/29/09
Posts: 1093
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Thanks.
Pretty good. Didn't seem like a smear piece.
_________________________
"My head's lopsided *****!"-Red Gumby
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