In God They Trust

How the conservative belief in American exceptionalism has become a matter of faith.
By Christopher Hitchens

A small group of colonies manages to break away from a large empire in the closing years of the 18th century. The resulting state would probably be not much more than the Chile of the Northeast—a long littoral ribbon between the mountains and the ocean—if it were not for the imperial rivalries that allow for the rapid growth of the new republic’s influence.

Read More (Slate)

Because Our Fathers Lied

Remembering our veterans and reflecting on the glorious ambiguity of Rudyard Kipling's war poetry.
By Christopher Hitchens

I spent much of this weekend, as I often do this time of year, confining myself to writing and thinking about Rudyard Kipling. This may seem like a pretentious thing to be saying, but if you care about war and peace and justice and life and death, then he is an inescapable subject. The same is true if you care about modern English literature, which for no less inescapable reasons is intimately bound up with the great catastrophe of mortality that overcame British families between August 1914 and November 1918.

Read more (Slate)

Stephen Fry and Friends on Hitch, reviews

An evening for Christopher Hitchens
http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/blog/7380393/an-evening-for-christopher-hitchens.thtml

Stephen Fry and Co. on the Life, Loves and Hates of Christopher Hitchens http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/harry-cockburn/stephen-fry-christopher-hitchens_b_1085689.html 

Christopher Hitchens night: a review
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/11/christopher-hitchens-fry-penn

HitchFry Clips

Clips from the HitchFry event at Royal Festival Hall, Nov 9.

Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie, Richard Dawkins
http://www.newslook.com/channels/fora-tv1

Cheers!

'Arguably' on PW's Best Books of 2011 list.

Publishers Weekly
"We’ve just released our Best Books of 2011, the 100 adult and 40 children’s titles of 2011 we think everyone should read. Now we want to know what you think.

Vote on which of our top 10 picks is your favorite in the poll below, or write in your favorite 2011 book. We’ll announce the winning book in an upcoming issue of PW." Vote here.

Herman and Hamid

Why is it so hard to speak honestly about allegations of sexual harassment or our corrupt ally in Afghanistan?
By Christopher Hitchens

There were two generally depressing controversies last week, in both of which an exercise of free speech might have done more harm than good. The first concerns our disordered policy in Afghanistan and the second our ongoing and increasingly dishonest discussion of sexual harassment.

Read More (Slate)

Widow of Opportunity

Vanity Fair December 2011
By Christopher Hitchens

If you were to set a competition for the headline most unlikely to appear in an American magazine, the winning entry would surely be jackie tacky or tacky jackie. In her life and even posthumously, it always somehow fell to Jackie Kennedy to raise the tone. An exacting task in her case, and exquisitely so when one appreciates that she had to raise the tone without ever actually admitting that the tone could use a bit of raising.

Read More
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/12/hitchens-201112

SBS Dateline: Fighting Faith

Watch it on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o97qHxX12Y

"The annual Texas Freethought Convention draws atheists, agnostics and humanists from around the world, and this year Christopher Hitchens is the star attraction.
David Brill meets the renowned writer and thinker, as he battles cancer and uses the last of his strength to denounce religion as immoral."
http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/about/id/601379/n/Fighting-Faith

HitchFry Update!

Intelligence Squared
Three ways to watch it Live - Two ways to watch it later.

More info
http://hitchfry.intelligencesquared.com/

SocraticMama

via Why Evolution is True

Anne Crumpacker’s new website on secular parenting dedicated to Hitchens.

"If you’re a regular here, you’ll surely remember the story of Mason Crumpacker, the eight-year-old Texas girl who asked Christopher Hitchens to advise her on good books to read. It was a touching story, complete with Mason’s heartfelt thank-you letter to Hitch and a narrative of the episode written by Anne Crumpacker, Mason’s mom."

More http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/anne-crumpackers-new-website-on-secular-parenting/

What Will They Think of Next?

Why the crazy Iranian plot to pay Mexicans to kill the Saudi ambassador isn’t so implausible.
By Christopher Hitchens

There may conceivably be a reason to doubt the truth of the Obama administration’s claim that the “Quds Force” of the Islamic Republic of Iran went into the free market for murder in order to suborn the killing of the Saudi ambassador to the United States. But neither the apparently surreal nor the apparently flagrant nature of the thing would constitute such reasons.

Read More http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2011/10/why_the_crazy_iranian_plot_to_pay_mexicans_to_kill_the_saudi_amb.html

The New Libya’s First Mistake

Muammar Qaddafi should not have been killed, and his surviving son should be captured.
By Christopher Hitchens

Surrendering to a feeling of deep impotence and slight absurdity, I borrowed an iPad on Thursday afternoon and used it to send my first-ever message by this means. It was addressed to one of those distinguished Frenchmen who have been at the fore in pressing the outside world to remove Muammar Qaddafi from the obscene toadlike posture in which, for more than four decades, he has squatted on the lives of the Libyan people.

Read More http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2011/10/muammar_qaddafi_should_not_have_been_killed_but_sent_to_stand_tr.html

Hitchens - Fry LIVE on FORA.tv

WATCH IT LIVE NOVEMBER 9, 2011

EVENT PASS £5.00 GBP (Watch Live! Plus 30 Days Unlimited Viewing)
Don't miss this chance to hear famed public intellectual and truth-teller Christopher Hitchens and his good friend, actor and writer Stephen Fry as they discuss politics, literature and, as Hitchens puts it, "the things that make life worth defending – foes like faith and false consolation."

More Info http://fora.tv/conference/hitchens_fry