Debating Tony Blair on faith

By Christopher Hitchens

"I am sometimes asked whether I ever get tired of debating the faithful. There are two reasons why I never do. The first is that this argument is at the root of all other arguments: constituting the essential underlay of differences about philosophy, cosmology, history, textual criticism and even medicine. The second is that I never know what my antagonist is going to say, or affirm, or claim to believe."
Read More (Washington Post)

Blair's thoughts about the event.

BBC Newsnight Special: Christopher Hitchens

CH interviewed in his home in Washington D.C by Jeremy Paxman. Broadcasted on Nov 29, 2010.





Play Full Interview.

Don't Be an Ass About Airport Security

The enemy is inventive and imaginative. Our response is neither.
By Christopher Hitchens

"I did not pay any attention to last week's feeble-minded attempt at a civilian-sponsored go-slow at airport security checkpoints. When the best that the children of a revolution can do for the defense of their inalienable protection against unwarranted search and seizure is to issue the pathetic moan, "Don't touch my junk," a low point of humiliation has been reached."
Read More (Slate)

In Search of the Washington Novel

A colorful genre awaits its masterpiece.

By Christopher Hitchens

Fiction about the nation’s capital is a growth that flourishes only on the lower slopes of Parnassus. Think of the flower of our novelists—Updike, Mailer, Roth, Cheever, Bellow—and see if you can call to mind a single scene that is set on the banks of the Potomac.
Read More (City Journal)

Munk Debates: Tony Blair vs Christopher Hitchens

Friday, November 26, 2010. Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto, Canada. The official resolution, "Be it resolved, religion is a force of good for the world".

Christopher Hitchens vs. Tony Blair: The Full Transcript

New Statesman: "You may need to set aside the rest of your Saturday to get through this, but here in full is the transcript of the long-anticipated Munk debate between Christopher Hitchens and former prime minister Tony Blair. The motion: "Be it resolved, religion is a force for good in the world". No prizes for guessing who was arguing for and against.
Read it here. (newstatesman.com)

Preliminary poll results show Hitchens winner of religion debate with Tony Blair

“To terrify children with the image of hell...to consider women an inferior creation. Is that good for the world?” - Christopher Hitchens.

Preliminary results posted on the Munk Debates website from an audience poll suggest Mr. Hitchens won the debate. Read More (theglobeandmail.com)

Clip from the debate
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11843586

Watch the debate for $2.99 at
 http://www.munkdebates.com/debates/Religion

BBC Newsnight: Christopher Hitchens (Preview)

Jeremy Paxman interviews Christopher Hitchens in Washington D.C. Full interview on BBC2, Nov 29, 7.30pm. 

Hitchens debate with Blair scheduled around chemo treatments

“I arranged my chemotherapy around this so that I wouldn’t be demoralized. I’m tired, but I’m not fogged as one can be, so that was the main consideration,” he said.
Read More (thestar.com)

Blair v. Hitchens: Is religion a force for good or ill?

The Globe and Mail has a few short videos with CH and Tony Blair being interviewed before the Munk debate.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/video/christopher-hitchens-the-seed-of-doubt/article1814310/?from=1814261

Transcript and audio: Hitchens on not believing
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/transcripts-and-audio-christopher-hitchens-on-not-believing/article1814261/

Tony Blair and Christopher Hitchens to debate religion

Former UK prime minister Tony Blair is to take on Christopher Hitchens in a televised public debate for and against religion. Friday Nov 26.

BBC World Service radio will air the Blair-Hitchens debate on December 4, followed by Radio 4 on December 11.

It can be viewed on BBC World News and the News Channel on January 1, 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11843586

Livestream: http://www.munkdebates.com/debates/Religion

Paxman Meets Hitchens: A Newsnight Special

UPDATE Watch two minute clip from the interview. More tonight Nov 26, 10.30pm. Full interview Nov 29, 7.30pm.


Monday Nov 29, 19:30 on BBC Two (England, Scotland, Wales only)


In a wide-ranging special interview, Jeremy Paxman talks to Christopher Hitchens about his cancer diagnosis, his life, his politics and his writing.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wkrbk

Hitchens-Dembski Debate Nov 2010 (1 of 10)

William Dembski debated CH at the Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, Nov 18, 2010.
Alright, it's on YouTube again.

Humane Bravery

Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, opposes to the death penalty for Tariq Aziz, one of Iraq's worst enemies.

By Christopher Hitchens

"When I wrote a recent call for the commutation of the death sentence against Tariq Aziz, I was privately hoping that the president of Iraq would intervene, as he has done before, to say that he would decline to sign his name to the death warrant."
Read More (Slate)

William Dembski Debates Christopher Hitchens

William Dembski debated CH at the Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, Nov 18, 2010.
As some of you have noticed, the debate was uploaded on YouTube but is now removed. I've spent some time trying to download it myself but have managed to save only parts of the debate. I'll try again at a later date. There's no point uploading it on YT at the moment so watch it here (pcawebcast.com).

Part Two. Christopher Hitchens on ABC1 Lateline.

In this second part Christopher Hitchens talks about his public life, battles and some of the events in recent history which led to his break with the left.



Part two, 2 videos
Play entire interview (4 videos)

Christopher Hitchens on ABC1 Lateline. Part One

CH talks to Tony Jones about living with cancer and not seeing any valid reason to change his beliefs close to death.



Part one, 2 videos.

The Pleasures of Hitch

Left or right, a quality scribe

By Christopher Caldwell, senior editor at The Weekly Standard.

"There is an odd thing about Christopher Hitchens. Having entered journalism as a Trotskyist in 1970s Britain (which he memorably described as "Weimar without the sex"), he has spent the last decade as a leading advocate of bombing Afghanistan "back out of the Stone Age." Yet this ideological change has had little effect on the pleasures of reading him."

Read More (New York Post)

Israel's Shabbas Goy

Why America will come to regret the craven deal Obama is offering Netanyahu.

By Christopher Hitchens


"Those of us who keep an eye on the parties of God are avid students of the weekly Sabbath sermons of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. In these and other venues, usually broadcast, this elderly Sephardic ayatollah provides an action-packed diet that seldom disappoints."
Read More (Slate)

Hitchens Vs. Blair Is Hot Ticket

Shinan Govani, National Post · Sunday, Nov. 14, 2010

"The demand. For the crossfire on dogma that's slated for Friday Nov. 26 at Roy Thompson Hall, when that incorrigible pundit Christopher Hitchens is all set to taken on former British PM Tony Blair."

More: http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/Hitchens+Blair+Ticket/3828772/story.html#ixzz15MX5l8cu

CH: 'You have to choose your future regrets'

By Andrew Anthony


In June Christopher Hitchens, the hard-drinking polemicist and atheist, met his toughest opponent yet when he was diagnosed with cancer. The question on many lips was: would his illness alter his beliefs – on Iraq, on Islam, on God? At home in Washington, with a large glass of Johnnie Walker to hand, he responds with characteristic combativeness.


Read Andrew's interview with CH here (guardian.co.uk)

Hitchens in a Lateline special

The Australian:


Next week on Lateline, author and journalist Christopher Hitchens talks frankly about his battle with cancer, his treatment and its impact. 

In a Tony Jones special interview recorded in Washington, Hitchens talks about his legacy as a writer and what an early death will potentially rob him of.  He is 61.

He also talks extensively about American and international politics, reflecting on many of the themes covered in his recent memoir, Hitch22.


Next week on Lateline with Tony Jones – Wednesday, November 17 and Thursday, November 18 at 10.30pm on ABC1.

'God or No God?': A Report

By Larry Taunton

"As many of you will know, I recently
debated Christopher Hitchens in Billings, Montana.  I have been slow to blog about it for two reasons.  First, it is a more difficult thing writing about a debate in which I was a combatant.  I want to be fair.  Second, I have been a bit busy."


Read Larry's post here. (fixed-point.org)

Don't Hang Tariq Aziz

The death sentence for Saddam's henchman threatens Iraq's exceedingly fragile democracy.
By Christopher Hitchens

"The decision of the Iraqi war crimes tribunal to sentence Tariq Aziz to death is one that needs to be vigorously opposed for several reasons." 

Read More (Slate)

Hitchens on Louis Farrakhan & The Pope

Clip from the Afterlife Debate with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, September 16, 2010, New York.

Miss Manners And the Big C

By Christopher Hitchens

Ever since I was felled in mid-book tour this summer, I have adored and seized all chances to play catch-up and to keep as many engagements as I can. Debating and lecturing are part of the breath of life to me, and I take deep drafts whenever and wherever possible.
Read article (Vanity Fair, December 2010)

William Dembski Debates Christopher Hitchens

William Dembski will be debating CH at the Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, Nov 18, 2010.

"Does A Good God Exist?"
"Dembski and Hitchens will debate the existence of a good God during a conference for the Biblical Worldview Institute at Prestonwood Christian Academy in Plano, Texas. The debate will be hosted in the worship center at Prestonwood Baptist Church from 8:40 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. It will also be webcast on www.pcawebcast.com."
More Info (uncommondescent.com)

Hitchens cancels NYC Jewish Center Ten Commandments panel

David Hazony tweets: "Wishing Christopher Hitchens many years of good health. He just informed us he can't make the NYC event tonight. Stay tuned..."


http://twitter.com/davidhazony

The Sad Case of Christopher Hitchens's Hero-worshippers

By Peter Hitchens


"It's amusing, if frustrating, to see the response of dogmatic unbelievers to my brother's thoughtful and generous remarks. It is clear that many of them find such thoughtfulness and generosity repugnant in their hero (and some of these contributions are embarrassing in their sycophancy). They would much prefer him not to have said this."


Link to article http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2010/11/how-not-to-argue-part-94-the-sad-case-of-christopher-hitchenss-hero-worshippers.html

The Skeptic's Skeptic

In the battle for ideas, scientists could learn from Christopher Hitchens.
By Michael Shermer

"Although he has no formal training in science, I would pit Hitchens against any of the purveyors of pseudoscientific clap trap because of his unique and enviable skill at peeling back the layers of an argument and cutting to its core."


Read Michael's article in Scientific American here.

Christopher Hitchens answers his own riddle

By Peter Hitchens

"One of the things that kept me away from my desk during the second half of October was a visit to Washington, during which I had a conversation with my left-wing atheist brother Christopher, sponsored by a fine body of men and women called the Pew Forum."


Read Peter's blog post http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk

Is There An Afterlife? Trailer

All the Views Fit To Print

Low points from this year's dishonest, vacuous campaign season.

By Christopher Hitchens


Future chroniclers of the low, dishonest, vacuous campaign of 2010—not only not a single funny placard at the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert rally but not a single serious one, either, plus the clapped-out crooner and fatwa groupieYusuf Islam impersonating a potted plant—will certainly puzzle over President Barack Obama's almost weird refusal to stick up for himself in the middle of his first term.
Read More (Slate)