Mr. Kissinger, Have You No Shame?

Ignore the recent excuses. Henry Kissinger's entire career was a series of massacres and outrages.
By Christopher Hitchens

"Until the most recent release of the Nixon/Kissinger tapes, what were the permitted justifications for saying in advance that the slaughter of Jews in gas chambers by a hostile foreign dictatorship would not be "an American concern?"
Read More (Slate)

The Pak-Af Problem

Are we committed to Afghanistan or to Hamid Karzai's government? By Christopher Hitchens

Friends of his would enjoy disputing whether his heart or his ego was the larger, but it was sad to know, as Richard Holbrooke's heart eventually burst, that he had strained a good deal of it in upholding a policy in which much of his best advice had been, or was being, ignored.
 Read More (Slate)

(1/8) Is There An Afterlife? Christopher Hitchens vs Shmuley Boteach

Christopher Hitchens debated Rabbi Shmuley at Cooper Union, New York on Thursday, September 16, 2010.





Play All 8 Videos

Free Speech / Off Topic added

Some DH visitors seem to have an urge to post and express themselves quite off topic to published posts. I've added a comment box where these views can be posted. So, stay on topic when commenting on posts, if you have something else to say, there's this comment box for that. It's a free speech box, so don't bother complaining on possible provocative or insulting comments. It's your choice if you want to go there.
Every now and then one stumbles upon non Hitchens material that one would like to share. A box like this is the appropriate place.
I don't know if this will catch on but it'll be an option for a while, if no comments are posted, I'll simply remove it.

The Hitch on Death

By John Rentoul

Christopher Hitchens, brooding on “how much faster I’m dying than anyone else” is interviewed by Oliver Kamm in today’s Times (pay wall).

Read More (independent.co.uk)

Christopher Hitchens and me

BY SOPHIE TARNOWSKA
"I met writer and polemicist Christopher Hitchens for the first time in 2008, here in Montreal. When I saw him again last month at the Munk debates in Toronto, I was shocked at the change cancer had wrought. He'd been diagnosed with esophageal cancer -the same cancer that had killed his father -this past June during the promotional tour for his memoir, Hitch-22."

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Christopher+Hitchens/3997097/story.html#ixzz18TGID5U2

Christopher Hitchens’s Jewish Problem

"The fact that Christopher Hitchens has a problem with the Jews has been an open secret for years. No one much likes to talk about it, and for various reasons his journalistic peers have remained silent on the subject. But it is nonetheless the case, and there is little sense in denying it."

I didn't first pay much attention to this and it's now a few days old but since it has made headlines on other blogs and sites, and in case you missed it and are interested, read Benjamin Kerstein's article here. (jewishideasdaily.com)

The Blair - Hitchens event in Toronto

By Peter Hitchens

Peter gives his view on the Blair debate. (Which he hasn't watched or listened to.)

"I'm asked to comment on my brother's encounter (styled by some a 'debate') with Anthony Blair in Toronto, recently broadcast on BBC radio. Delighted as I am that the BBC (which can and often does reduce an important Parliamentary event to three jokey minutes) has taken to broadcasting debates on major issues on Radio 4, I do wonder whether the habit will last, and why this particular one made it so swiftly on to the air."

Read More (http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk)

Thanks swh

How Can Anyone Defend Kissinger Now?

Update: Kissinger tells JTA: Take remark on gas chambers in context

Update by Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic. December 14
ADL: Kissinger's Vile Words Means Nothing

The Nixon tapes remind us what a vile creature Henry Kissinger is.
By Christopher Hitchens

"Over the last few weeks, this modest little column of mine has been acquiring an almost eerie prescience and potency."

Read More (Slate)

Author Christopher Hitchens in conversation

On his Jewish grandmother, his atheism, his writing—and facing his own mortality
by Noah Richler

"I don’t think someone is religious unless they have faith in what St. Paul calls the evidence of things not seen—in other words, the supernatural or supervising deity, presence, force who requires and expects certain kinds of propitiation. If that’s not in your mind, then I don’t think you’re really a religious person at all."

Read More (macleans.ca)

Christopher Hitchens on Vietnam

CH responds to Michael Labeit's post Christopher Hitchens on Vietnam on ricochet.com, via Peter Robinson.

CH replies: "I was naturally flattered to have my opinions on the origin of the Vietnam conflict taken so seriously in your recent postings. But this feeling gave way to a sense of bewilderment as I read further. Is it really controversial, anywhere, to assert that United States support for French colonialism was at the root of the disaster?" Continue reading

Shortly after posting Hitchens' reply, Peter Robinson posted this:

Christopher Hitchens Replies: The Background...And My Answer

American Atheists 2011 Convention

Christopher Hitchens is confirmed speaker at American Atheists 2011 Convention in Des Moines, Iowa, April 21-24, 2011. Embassy Suites Des Moines - On the River Hotel.

More Info (atheists.org)

Tea’d Off

By Christopher Hitchens

"Forfeiting a both-houses Republican victory, rational conservatives ignored or excused the most hateful kind of populist claptrap (e.g., the fetid weirdness of Glenn Beck’s 9/12 Project). The poison they’ve helped disseminate will still be in the American bloodstream when the country needs it least."

Read More (Vanity Fair)

The Oxford Comment Podcast: Episode 4. Religion.

Highlights and exclusive interviews with Hitchens, Tariq Ramadan, New York Times National Religion Correspondent Laurie Goodstein, Nick Mafi, and David Sehat, author of The Myth of American Religious Freedom.

Listen to the podcast here. (OUP blog)

Turn Yourself In, Julian Assange

The WikiLeaks founder is an unscrupulous megalomaniac with a political agenda.
By Christopher Hitchens

"In my most recent book, I reprint some words from a British Embassy cable, sent from Baghdad to the Foreign Office in 1976. The subject is Iraq's new leader. His quiet coup d'etat is reassuringly described as "the first smooth transfer of power since 1958."
Read More (Slate)

Merry Xmas with Christopher Hitchens

It's that time of the year, again. Christopher Hitchens gives his views on Christmas. Clips from MSNBC and Reason Magazine HQ, from a few years back. + Bonus Track.

Results of the Munk Debate on Religion

BE IT RESOLVED, religion is a force for good in the world.

This question was put directly to the audience of the Munk Debates on Religion both before and after they listened to a debate on the issue between former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, arguing in favour of the resolution AND bestselling author, journalist and literary critic Christopher Hitchens, arguing against the resolution.

Prior to the debate, 25% of the 2,600 audience members agreed with the resolution, while 55% disagreed and 20% were undecided. Immediately following the debate, agreement with the resolution had risen to 32% while disagreement with the resolution had risen to 68%.

About This Study

This poll was conducted for the Munk Debates (www.munkdebates.com) by Innovative Research Group, Inc. (www.innovativeresearch.ca), a national public opinion research firm on Friday, November 26th, 2010.
Prior to the start of the debate, members of the audience at the Munk Debates on Religion were asked to fill out a ballot where they indicated whether they agreed or disagreed with the resolution or were undecided. Ballots were collected and the results recorded using Scantron readers.
After the debate concluded, the audience was again asked to fill out a ballot where they indicated whether they still agreed or disagreed with the resolution. In the post debate ballot, the undecided option was not provided. Again, the ballots were collected and results recorded using Scantron readers. See detailed findings below for the ballot question wording and results.
The results of this poll are based on ballots collected among spectators at the Munk Debates on Religion.

DETAILED FINDINGS

Pre-Debate Ballot

QUESTION #1
Be it resolved, religion is a force for good in the world.
AGREE - 25%
DISAGREE - 55%
UNDECIDED – 20%

QUESTION #2
Depending on what you hear during the debate are you open to changing your vote?
YES - 76%
NO - 24%

Post-Debate Ballot

QUESTION #1
Be it resolved, religion is a force for good in the world.
AGREE - 32%
DISAGREE - 68%

AT LARGE: A Conversation With Christopher Hitchens

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty writer James Kirchick recently interviewed Hitchens at his home in Washington about his left-wing revolutionary past, his views on America, Iran's nuclear program, Turkey's Islamist turn, Putin's Russia, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and sampled his views on a variety of international figures.


Play All 4 Videos.

Christopher Hitchens: My Hero of 2010

A gentleman and a truly formidable debater, Christopher Hitchens is a giant of the mind and a model of courage
By Richard Dawkins

"I'm not much given to straight, irony-free hero-worship. The last time I did a "heroes and villains" piece I chose Pope John Paul II as hero, on the grounds that he was doing everything possible to discredit the appalling institution of which he was head." Read More (guardian.co.uk)

The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers

Foreign Policy presents a unique portrait of 2010's global marketplace of ideas and the thinkers who make them.

#55. Christopher Hitchens
For refusing to surrender in the darkest of times.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/11/29/the_fp_top_100_global_thinkers?page=full