http://www.comedycentral.com/mp/play.jhtml?reposid=/multimedia/tds/celeb/celeb_9066.html

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John Shellenberg
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I saw the show. The guy was obviously drunk and Stewart seemed to rush him off early. Hitchens is a bona fide wack job.

Thanks for posting that! I wish I'd seen it.

I have always enjoyed Hitchen's writing. The man will lead you to seeing the world in strange ways. He dislikes Kissinger, Ghandi, Mother Teresa, Bin Laden, Michael Moore, and Chirac. He hates American politics for being shallow and parochial yet believes it is the best system at this time, and I'll bet that he's still a Trotskyite! And if you read his essays, he defends each of his positions vigorously. I'd love to see him debate Michael Moore or Henry Kissinger. Aw heck, I'd like to see him do both simultaneously.

If he's a wack job, I wish I were a lot more wacky and that there were a lot more wacky people like him in this world.


His brother is a darned good writer, too. But much more predictable--a former commie turned British Conservative. I understand they don't care for each other. Too bad, I'd love to sit in a room with them over scotch.

...if I must suffer an arrogant Brit, I'll take Alexander Cockburn anyday. Hitchens has become too enamored with imperialism as of late.

Not to mention of himself a well. Personally I find him a sad character, another great intellect destroyed by alchohol. I think a lot of what he writes is red-meat stuff written to keep a paycheck coming in without having to go thru the work of developing a coherant set of beliefs.

Hitchens is not a Trotskyite anymore. I saw him on TV a few weeks ago and he explicitly stated he is no longer a socialist.
I'm inclined to think that his anti-religious fervor has driven him off the rails.

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I think he evolved from being a doctrinaire trotskyite in his youth to being a doctrinaire iconoclast in his middle age. He is less an iconoclast of people now than he used to be but more an iconoclast of ideas now than previously.

In his earlier incranation he liked to use ideas to attack people. Now he uses ideas to atatck ideas--though he still likes busting egos and widely accpeted 'truths' about GREAT People. Hence his relentless attacks on Ghandi and Mother Teresa. At the same time, he uses ideas about freedom of conscience to attack ideas that he finds restrict or constrict conscience.

Whether or not you think he is a drunkard is a silly, trivial digression. If you cannot think of some useful contsructive, or thoughtful way to criticize ideas, you can always assassinate the person. Like what happened to Trotsky, you see.

I am not trying to portray him as a drunkard to assasinate him - I think alcholol abuse is an important factor of his personality that will help us understand what he is all about. The guy is now in the ox-goring business, because he can be intellectually lazy - something that drunks do, and still pick up a check.

Congratulations on your diagnosis, doctor.

Well, I did forget to mention that it is amazing how the progression of his alchoholism has matched his right ward swing, so don't praise me too much. The fact is he was never a very important voice until he became a flip flopper. There is a market for that, on both sides. He is doing what sells. Maybe if he sobered up, he might discover what it is he actually thinks.

Good, now that we (hopefully) have the expert diagnosis thoroughly explained, let's return to dicussing his ideas.

I could find nothing in his interview (linked above) that seemed especially shocking. Could you? if not, why waste the time describing Hitchen's drinking habits? The veracity of which I am not privy, and so don't wish to speculate upon.

...only a drunkard would end a sentence with a preposition.

Something up with which, I would not put.

I found his "name dropping" in the interview quite funny. I don't doubt that he knows those folks, but it seemed to be nothing more than an ego shot. As to his being drunk, I think it was disrespectful to Stewart, even if The Daily Show is a comedy production. Even the worst drunk can sober up for 15 minutes.

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John Shellenberg
1998 C230 "Black Betty" 240K

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