When it comes to anything at all that can be connected in any way to religion, Hitchens can be nasty. He even dissed Mother Theresa! (Offensive even for CBS TV, Hitchens "co-hosted" at her funeral with Dan Rather.)
The only time I've ever seen Hitchens get sentimental and teary-eyed was the day of the Iraqi election, on C-Span. He's supported the WOT and the Iraqi election, and written scathing stuff about BJ Clinton, so he's not all bad. But as he's always made clear, he's a materialist.
As far as debating is concerned, Bill Donohue is just not in the same league as Hitchens.
Exactly right.
Hitchens simply and clearly knows who and what he is. Considering his formidable skill and talent, that's good when he's on your side, like defending Saddam's demise, but not so good when he's not on your side, like tagging Terri Shindler as brain dead.
HITCHENS: I‘m a materialist. We don‘t have bodies. We are bodies. When the brain is gone, you are gone. No physician who‘s attended her in any capacity has said that she‘s anything but totally brain-dead. She‘s not disabled. She‘s gone.
Here, I do not agree with Hitchens, but listening closely to his argument, delivered with his typically crisp and crystal clear rhetoric, ought to help us make our own arguments stronger.
You're right. Donahue was no match for Hitchens, not because right was not on Donahue's side, but because Histchens' was and is simply that good.
And an atheist.