Cynicism by the Book

Hamid Karzai's despicable response to the Quran burning in Florida.
By Christopher Hitchens

"Heinrich Heine's famous observation about book burning—that where books are burned, people also will be—was actually first made about the torching of the Quran. The Spanish Inquisition used to delight in putting heretical works "on trial," and zealously convicted the Muslim holy book before feeding it to the flames in what is one of Christianity's oldest traditions."

Read More (Slate)

American Atheists 2011 Convention

From American Atheists' website:
Christopher Hitchens Live via Skype
"Due to his medical circumstances, Mr. Hitchens will NOT be able to get to Des Moines in person."

http://www.atheists.org/events/National_Convention

Megadeth Frontman Dave Mustaine To Debate Christopher Hitchens

UPDATE from metalunderground.com:


April Fools! Did We Get You? posted Apr 2 2011
"We hope you enjoyed our April fools stories yesterday as much as we did! In our long-standing tradition, we devoted the entire day to fake news and spoofs."
http://www.metalunderground.com/news/details.cfm?newsid=66836

 Does it matter if it's true or not on a day like this, April 1? Anyhow, it's a fun announcement.

"Megadeth frontman and founding member Dave Mustaine has announced that he will appearing on Fox News on April 15th, to engage in a debate with author, journalist and outspoken atheist, Christopher Hitchens. Mustaine, who is very outspoken about his Christian beliefs, claims that Hitchens is no more than a bully and his criticism of Christianity is “cruel” and “mean.”

Read All About It (metalunderground)

When the King Saved God

By Christopher Hitchens

"After she was elected the first female governor of Texas, in 1924, and got herself promptly embroiled in an argument about whether Spanish should be used in Lone Star schools, it is possible that Miriam A. “Ma” Ferguson did not say, “If the King’s English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it’s good enough for the children of Texas.” I still rather hope that she did."

Read More (Vanity Fair)

Hitch 22 up for Orwell Prize

March 31, 2011 - Katie Allen

"Titles on feminism, New Labour and the life and times of Christopher Hitchens have been longlisted for the 2011 Orwell Prize for political writing. The announcement was made at an event on Wednesday [30th March].

Eighteen titles including Natasha Walters' Living Dolls (Virago), Whatever It Takes: The Real Story of Gordon Brown and New Labour by Steve Richards (Fourth Estate) and Hitch 22 by Christopher Hitchens (Atlantic) are all longlisted for the £3,000 book prize." 

Read More http://www.thebookseller.com/news/forensic-and-furious-books-orwell-prize.html

The Iraq Effect

If Saddam Hussein were still in power, this year's Arab uprisings could never have happened.
By Christopher Hitchens

"The most heartening single image of the past month—eclipsing even the bravery and dignity of the civilian fighters against despotism in Syria and Libya—was the sight of Hoshyar Zebari arriving in Paris to call for strong action against the depraved regime of Col. Muammar Qaddafi."

Read More (Slate)

Diary

By Jeremy Harding

"I heard a few bars of Chris Corner’s song ‘I Salute You Christopher’ a day or so before the new IAMX album, Volatile Times, was released. The song, which appears on the album, is subtitled ‘Ode to Christopher Hitchens’:
I salute you Christopher
I salute your life
How you played the dice …

Read More (London Review of Books)

The song is on YouTube..

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