Hay Festival 2008, Sunday 25 May.
John Walsh chairs. Speakers include Rosie Boycott, Christopher Hitchens and Matthew Engel.
In 4 parts
What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof.
![What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof.](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_X4b97VwfrL4/S1r_0gFazZI/AAAAAAAAATo/M4wyRYGN23w/S1600-R/hitcpic3.jpg)
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Christopher Hitchens and John Rodden discuss George Orwell on Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg.
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The Guardian In these final essays, Hitchens examines his own disbelief that writing – indistinguishable to him from living – is about to...
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Vanity Fair Christopher Hitchens—the incomparable critic, masterful rhetorician, fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant—died today at the ag...
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A couple of clips of Christopher and Sam uploaded by retroprodigy40 Jewish Journal has two audio clips from the debate (20/24 min) htt...
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Thomas Jefferson
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Thomas Paine
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Baruch Spinoza
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George Orwell
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Bertrand Russell
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Leon Trotsky
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Rosa Luxemburg
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Socrates
1968 was an ending and not a beginning.
June 30, 2011The Rights of Man
Hay Festival 2006.
"The contrarian traces the history of The Rights of Man from the publication of Part One in 1791 in London and its rapturous reception across the Atlantic. He analyses the meaning it has acquired since its creation, and its significance as the cornerstone of contemporary debates about our basic human rights."
In 4 parts.
Christopher Hitchens talks to Phil Maynard about his biography of Thomas Paine, Iraq, and US politics:
books.guardian.co.uk
Has Bachmann Met Her Waterloo?
June 29, 2011The old parochialism meets the not-so-new isolationism in Michele Bachmann.
By Christopher Hitchens
"That was actually three dripping custard pies, rather than just the one, with which Rep. Michele Bachmann assailed her own face by bragging to Fox News about her small-town Iowa roots. Having hymned the incomparable Dairy Queen and Wonder Bread facilities boasted by the sturdy small town of her girlhood, she went on to claim that "John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa," adding, "That's the kind of spirit that I have, too."
Read More (Slate)
Posted by Tom at 21:11 23 comments
Labels: 2011, Christopher Hitchens, Michele Bachmann, Slate
Christopher Hitchens Hay Festival 2008
Part 1
Part 2-4
Hitchens talks religion at Hay in 2008, with Q and A.
Posted by Tom at 20:43 2 comments
Labels: 2008, Christopher Hitchens, Hay Festival, religion
Christopher Hitchens talks to Ian McEwan 2007
Posted by Tom at 15:04 1 comments
Labels: 2007, Christopher Hitchens, god is not great, Ian McEwan
Hay Festival 2006: Carter, Hitchens and Younge
I'll be posting older material in coming days, to expand the archive.
Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, Christopher Hitchens and the Guardian’s US correspondent Gary Younge discuss US foreign policy at Hay Festival 2006.
Think Inc 2011 Reminder
June 24, 2011Tickets still available for the Think Inc. Science and Rationalism Conference in Melbourne, Australia. September 18, 2011.
More Info:
http://www.thinkinc.org.au/
http://www.facebook.com/ThinkIncConference
Atheist Convention to present Christopher Hitchens with Richard Dawkins award
June 23, 2011"At the Atheist Alliance of America (AAA) Convention, held in
conjunction with the Texas Freethought Convention, AAA will present
the 2011 Richard Dawkins Award to Christopher Hitchens for his
outstanding contributions to freethought. The convention, with a
theme of “From Grassroots to Global Impact”, will be held from October
7-9, 2011 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Houston, Texas."
Read More (godlessgradstudent.wordpress.com)
Byliner - Discover & discuss great reads by great writers
June 21, 2011Byliner.com Goes Live, Providing Readers with Deep, Rich Archives of the Finest in Nonfiction Storytelling.
"Wouldn’t it be great to have the best stories by Susan Orlean, Christopher Hitchens, Michael Lewis, Mary Roach, E.B. White, Mark Bowden, and hundreds of other nonfiction writers from the past 100 years available on one website? Now there is such a website: Byliner.com."
Read More (Business Wire)
141 articles by Christopher Hitchens.
Posted by Tom at 19:33 0 comments
Labels: 2011, Byliner, Christopher Hitchens
David Mamet’s Right-Wing Conversion
June 18, 2011By Christopher Hitchens
"This is an extraordinarily irritating book, written by one of those people who smugly believe that, having lost their faith, they must ipso facto have found their reason. In order to be persuaded by it, you would have to be open to propositions like this: “Part of the left’s savage animus against Sarah Palin is attributable to her status not as a woman, neither as a Conservative, but as a Worker.”
Read More (nytimes.com)
The Real Mahatma Gandhi
June 14, 2011By Christopher Hitchens
"JOSEPH LELYVELD SUBTLY tips his hand in his title. The word Mahatma (often employed in ordinary journalistic usage without any definite article, as if it were Mohandas Gandhi’s first name) is actually the Sanskrit word for “Great Soul.” It is a religio-spiritual honorific, to be assumed or awarded only by acclaim, and it achieved most of its currency in the West by association with Madame Blavatsky’s somewhat risible “Theosophy” movement.."
Read More (The Atlantic)
Posted by Tom at 18:22 18 comments
Labels: 2011, Christopher Hitchens, India, Joseph Lelyveld, Mahatma Gandhi
The Last of the Scholar Warriors
June 13, 2011By Christopher Hitchens
"The death of Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor at the age of 96, commemorated in many obituaries as the end of a celebrated travel writer, in fact rings down the final curtain on an extraordinary group of British irregular warriors whose contribution to the defeat of Hitler, significant in military terms, still managed to recall an age when nobility and even chivalry were a part of warfare."
Read More http://www.slate.com/id/2296835/
Posted by Tom at 19:53 2 comments
Labels: 2011, Christopher Hitchens, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Slate
Hitchens on the Art of the Feud
June 11, 2011By Jennifer Schuessler
" Perhaps no one has distinguished himself as a feudist in the past few decades more than Christopher Hitchens, who in an e-mail gave some helpful hints on how to start a feud — and, more important, how to keep it going. A proper feud, Mr. Hitchens wrote, requires one of at least two things: a clash of strong and recognizable personalities, and a true clash of important principle. “A really first-rate bust-up must transcend the limits of ‘an entertaining side show’ and involve playing for high moral and intellectual stakes,” he said."
Read More (NYT)
Anatomy of a Scandal
June 6, 2011By Christopher Hitchens
"In one of the routines from his heyday, Richard Pryor would enact the anguish experienced by a man who cannot get his male organ to rise. In this redefinition of the whole concept of standup, he ended by practically seizing the torpid member by the throat, howling plaintively, and demanding to know, "Whose dick is this?"
Read More (Slate)
Posted by Tom at 18:36 10 comments
Labels: 2011, Anthony Weiner, Christopher Hitchens, John Edwards, Slate
Hitchens vs Brummett
June 5, 2011Hitchens feted with standing ovation at U of W video link debate
Jeff Orchard at Skeptic North posts this report from the debate.
Hitchens vs. Brummett: the un-debate
"So, why am I calling it the “un-debate”? One of my hobbies is to listen to debates between religious folks and science folks. I really like it when the debaters passionately disagree, and are utterly convinced that the other is a kook. That didn’t happen tonight."
Read More: http://www.skepticnorth.com/2011/06/hitchens-vs-brummett-the-un-debate/
Posted by Tom at 08:40 10 comments
Labels: 2011, Barry Brummett, Christopher Hitchens, debate, religion
From Abbottabad to Worse
June 2, 2011By Christopher Hitchens
"Hating the United States—which funds Islamabad’s army and nuclear program to the humiliating tune of $3 billion a year—Pakistan takes its twisted, cowardly revenge by harboring the likes of the late Osama bin Laden. But the hypocrisy is mutual, and the shame should be shared."
Read More (Vanity Fair)
Posted by Tom at 19:33 8 comments
Labels: 2011, Abbottabad, Christopher Hitchens, Pakistan
The Quotable Hitchens reviewed in New Statesman
Edited by Windsor Mann
"It often seems as if Christopher Hitchens has spent his life writing and speaking with a collection such as this in mind. His essays, reviews, lectures and TV appearances are distinguished by a permanent war against what Diderot called l'esprit de l'escalier, the moment when, as you leave the television studio or debating hall, the brilliant riposte you should have made a minute earlier occurs to you."
Full Review (newstatesman.com)