Godless in Tumourville: Christopher Hitchens interview

By Mick Brown, 25 Mar 2011

"Writing in his memoirs, Hitch-22, of the numerous perils that he has faced as a reporter around the globe in places as various as Afghanistan, Northern Ireland and Beirut, Christopher Hitchens reflects that a little danger or discomfort can be a salutary thing: 'I still make sure to go, at least once every year, to a country where things cannot be taken for granted, and where there is either too much law and order or too little.’

 Read More (The Telegraph)

The Quotable Christopher Hitchens

By WSJ Staff

"Speakeasy has been entertaining ourselves the last few days by leafing through a new book that landed on our desk: “The Quotable Christopher Hitchens.” As the subtitle — “From Alcohol to Zionism” — suggests, there are few subjects that Hitch hasn’t addressed in his long career, mostly with trademark acid wit. The book will be published in May. Here’s a sampler."

Read More (Speakeasy - Wall Street Journal)

Don't Let Qaddafi Win

Ignore the "realists." If we do nothing, the situation in Libya can only get worse.
By Christopher Hitchens


"...Qaddafi senior has reached his Ceausescu moment: a full-dress (in the literal sense) meltdown into paranoia, megalomania, and delusion. His recent speeches and appearances have shown him stinking with madness and hysteria. His age and condition, at any rate, set a very sharp limit to the duration of his regime."
Read More (Slate)

American Inaction Favors Qaddafi

The administration's inadequate response to the crisis in Libya reveals a lack of courage and principle.

By Christopher Hitchens

"Our common speech contains numberless verbs with which to describe the infliction of violence or cruelty or brutality on others. It only really contains one common verb that describes the effect of violence or cruelty or brutality on those who, rather than suffering from it, inflict it. That verb is the verb to brutalize"

Read More (Slate)

What I Don’t See at the Revolution

By Christopher Hitchens

"When anatomizing revolutions, it always pays to consult the whiskered old veterans. Those trying to master a new language, wrote Karl Marx about the turmoil in France in the 19th century, invariably begin haltingly, by translating it back into the familiar tongue they already know. And with his colleague Friedrich Engels he defined a revolution as the midwife by whom the new society is born from the body of the old."

Read More (Vanity Fair)

Outspoken and outrageous: Christopher Hitchens

(CBS News) Steve Kroft profiles Vanity Fair columnist, author and public intellectual Christopher Hitchens, for whom nothing is off-limits when making his wry and often outrageous observations, including the cancer he is suffering from.

For main segment and web extras:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/06/60minutes/main20038931.shtml?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel

Hitchens feared cancer could stop his writing

The interview will be broadcasted on "60 Minutes" Sunday, March 6 at 7 p.m. ET/PT. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/04/60minutes/main20038931.shtml

Don’t Mess With Wisconsin

By Christopher Hitchens

"The governor of Wisconsin evidently speaks in a more unbuttoned fashion than usual when he thinks he is talking to David Koch. Hoaxed into believing that it was the libertarian moneybags on the line, Scott Walker allowed the actual caller (a near-incredulous Ian Murphy of BuffaloBeast.com) to ask him about the possible use of agents provocateurs to discredit the union protestors in the capital of his state:"

 Read More (Vanity Fair)

Our Man in Pakistan

The dreadful treatment of Raymond Davis is a reminder of how dysfunctional our relationship with Pakistan has become.
By Christopher Hitchens

"In April 2001, a Pakistani diplomat—the first secretary of the Pakistani Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal, as a matter of fact—was found by the Nepalese police to be stashing a large cache of sophisticated high explosives in his home. Muhammad Arshad Cheema invoked diplomatic immunity to avoid prosecution and, after a short interval, was sent home"
Read More http://www.slate.com/id/2286722/

Dialogue with civility: Religion and God

Colorado State University

The debate over religion and its impact on society
Christopher Hitchens and Dinesh D’Souza will engage each other in a rousing debate about religion and their respective thoughts on the consequences of religious faith on society. The world renowned authors will discuss their viewpoints on Tuesday, April 5, 2011 in the Lory Student Center Main Ballrooms at 7 p.m.

More Info: http://events.colostate.edu/event_view.asp?EID=34503&ID=7&cTYPE=1&month=4&year=2011&cate

The Great Faith Debate - Hitchens vs D'Souza

Feb 16, 2011. Christopher Hitchens debated Dinesh D'Souza at Walnut Creek's Lesher Center for the Arts. 

KGO Newstalk AM810:

"We are airing the Great Faith Debate between Christopher Hitchens and Dinesh D’Souza that was held last Wednesday to a full house at the Lesher Center for the Arts. The only editing of this exchange was for its public broadcast, and this included the removal of all inappropriate terminology. Apart from that, the entire discussion is presented for the first time on radio during the final two hours of “God Talk” this Sunday. For each segment I (moderator Brent Walters) will supply the atmosphere and behind the scenes setting and will close with my overall impression of the debate."

Listen/download the debate on archive.org:

http://www.archive.org/details/TheGreatFaithDebate-ChristopherHitchensVsDineshDsouza

A conversation with Christopher Hitchens: How Pittsburgh Made Me

Pitt professor Colin MacCabe talks to his longtime friend about the subtle influences of Pittsburgh over the years.

"In April of last year I drove down to stay with my old friend Christopher Hitchens in Washington. He had just received press copies of his memoir "Hitch-22" and I stayed up all night reading it. The next morning I told him that the first two chapters on his mother and father were among the most affecting prose that I had ever read in English."
Read more (post-gazette.com)

First published on February 27, 2011

Is Barack Obama Secretly Swiss?

The administration's pathetic, dithering response to the Arab uprisings has been both cynical and naive.
By Christopher Hitchens

"However meanly and grudgingly, even the new Republican speaker has now conceded that the president is Hawaiian-born and some kind of Christian. So let's hope that's the end of all that. A more pressing question now obtrudes itself: Is Barack Obama secretly Swiss?"
Read More (Slate)

Afterlife Debate

UPDATE: Links to the debate

Watch http://www.jewishtvnetwork.com/?bcpid=533363107&bctid=802338105001

Watch/Download http://www.archive.org/details/AfterlifeDebateWChristopherHitchensSamHarrisRabbiDavidWolpeAnd 

Download http://brightcove.vo.llnwd.net/d14/unsecured/media/78129449/78129449_802442685001_afterlife1.flv

Feb 15, 2011, Los Angeles, CA. Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris debated Rabbi David Wolpe and Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson in a panel discussion. The topic: "Is there an afterlife?" Moderated by Rob Eshman.