Hitchens vs Harry Thomason on Hardball NOW

[Fenris]

I can't stomach Hitch, but you might want to watch.

[11cents]

1. How drunk is he? (eom)

[Fenris]

4. Moderately.

[carolinayellowdog]

5. Beat me to the punch!

The exact words I was gonna post at the exact moment.

[devilgrrl]

2. Is he holding a drink?

He's such a blathering idiot!

[Fenris]

3. He's got a bottle of Jameson's and a copy of the Starr Report.

[devilgrrl]

7. and his hand down his pants?

you'd think.

[Fenris]

9. Down Bush's pants is more like it.

Such a brown-noser.

[DemoTex]

6. Damn, my TV stinks of whiskey.

Oh, never mind. Hitch is on.

[Fenris]

8. I don't hold the drinking against Hitch.

It's the b.s. he vomits forth that gets to me, not the liquor he imbibes.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

10. I was waiting for specifics for why he doesn't like Moore's film

I got nothing but generalities and his rant that Moore blames Bush and his Saudi family connections as the cause of terrorism rather than Bin Laden. I'm always open to listening to an intelligent challenge to my point of view. Unfortunately, Hitchens likes to deal in cute phrases and anecdotes but seldom offers any meaty arguments or facts to support his views.

[Fenris]

12. His chief weapon is haughty language.

[Dogmudgeon]

21. I know a thing or two about haughty language

Being a pompous ass myself, I know a thing or two about how to use haughty language.

Hitchens used to be pretty good at it. But now, he rambles and stumbles like a toddler after a tablespoon of cough medicine. (Albeit a chain-smoking, combative toddler who doesn't like to shave.)

I wrote about this last night after I read his screed about F911. It was nearly incomprehensible. He made one or two points, and the rest of it was anecdote, vitriol and name-dropping. Then someone else pointed out that one of the big points he made was itself in error.

It's not because Hitch has thrown his lot in with the neo-Cons -- he was developing this back in the middle 1990s. It's been a truly spectacular descent, and I still have just enough humanity left to cringe when I think what his crash into the pit will be like for him and his family.

--bkl

[Fenris]

23. I honestly think it's the drink.

I don't like to harp on the personal matters of those in the news, but I think his drinking is diminishing his brain power and eloquence.

[Dogmudgeon]

28. That's quite possible

I think it's a three-step process with Hitch. He let his hatreds get the better of him, so he stepped up the drinking. That sped his mental decline.

For instance, his animus toward Mother Theresa. Most of us could see she was terribly naive and let herself be used by louts and monsters -- but Hitchens saw in her a minion of Satan. The "Hellbat", he called her. Same deal with his hated of Clinton -- he thought that every move Bill made was calculated to destroy. The idea that Clinton could be a jackass like most of us never even crossed Hitchens' hate-consumed mind.

I can't think of anyone in his position who has done quite as spectacular a swan dive from the heights into the gutter.

--bkl

[mistertrickster]

25. Yeah, he claimed he used to write for The Nation . . . what lifetime

ago was that?

[librechik]

17. he hasn't seen it, has he?

Hitch makes me :puke:

[OKNancy]

11. I'll be watching Hank Williams on American Masters

series on PBS....oops it's on now...have fun watching that slime..

[Cheswick2.0]

13. Harry the answer it that ALL DOCUMENTARIES HAVE A POINT OF VIEW

and they are not, as the news bimbo suggests, "false documentaries".
Can she dispute any of the facts?
Can we make a law demanding people on TV giving opinions while masquerading as journalists have an IQ above 100?

[Fenris]

15. Remember kids! Movies are above all an artform!

Objectivism is a load of bullshit!

[DemoTex]

14. Mother of my dog! Lookee here!

Campbell ends "Hardball" by saying that the Bu$h administration has banned all staffers from seeing "F-9/11." Thanks for slipping that in, Campbell. Surprised me. Obviously surprised Christopher Hitchens. These folks are really, really scared. I wonder if Campbell realized the ironic, vapid quality of her "preaching to the choir" comments about F-9/11 in light of her follow-up about GOP censorship of F-9/11 among their own. Strange juxtaposition of views in just three minutes.

[proud patriot]

24. He can't do that ! !

Every American Is Free , Right ?

[NMDemDist2]

27. can he do that? sounds like a lawsuit to me eom

[qanda]

26. I think this information deserves its own thread

I hope you will start one.

[TacticalPeek]

16. Did I understand Campbell Brown correctly?

Did she say that the WH staff has been FORBIDDEN to see F911?

If true, has this been reported elsewhere? Linkee?

[Fenris]

18. Look one post above. She said it!

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

19. How are they (WH staffers) supposed to rebut this if no one sees it?

[Fenris]

20. That hasn't stopped Reich Radio from "rebutting" it.

[TacticalPeek]

22. Hasn't stopped anyone else.

It's a "must comment" movie, even if you haven't seen it.