[LincolnLover]

Looks like a bookmarkable thread for yours truly, suitable for referencing the next time there's some ill-considerd Hitchens lovefest on this site.

Someone filled with hatred for both Mother Theresa and Ronald Reagan who is cheered by some on this site?

Truth is stranger than fiction, indeed.

[martin_fierro]

Hitchens is a mean drunk.

[Asclepius]

Someone filled with hatred for both Mother Theresa and Ronald Reagan who is cheered by some on this site?

Dude. What we cheer on this site is reasoned, intelligent discourse. Hitchens sometimes provides it.

[Mustangcountry]

Hitchens as we all know was apoligist for the Khmer Rouge and claimed Kissinger killed 500,000 civilians by bombing remote, unpopulated areas where lo a behold KR units and NVA bases were located.

He also used soem pretty dishonest math.

Peter Robinson blew Shawcross and hitchens' ass away in a American Spectator article back in 1980.

[Izzy Dunne]

intercontinental ballistic missiles (not that there are any non-ballistic missiles—a corruption of language that isn't his fault)

Excuse me?

My understanding is that a ballistic missile's path is determined strictly by ballistics - weight, firing time, firing angle, engine power, etc.

A guided missile's path can be adjusted by sensors, on the missile or on the ground. It is thus not a ballistic missile.

Am I wrong?

[beckett]

Hitchens gets his jollies by being exceptionally nasty. It's a serious character flaw. On the flip side he is a highly gifted writer who can marshall the facts in defense of an argument with a degree of skill that is almost unmatched among contemporary writers.

So his intellect is not to be trifled with, but his personality is rife with flaws. That's how I approach him. One might argue that the two, intellect and personality, cannot be separated, but I would suggest that with a little careful navigation, they can be. He seems to take particular delight in personal attacks like this one on Reagan or the one you mention on Mother Theresa. He's also attacked Henry Kissinger with incredible vehemence.

I take what I want from Hitchens. Where he's instructive, I listen to him. Where he's a nut, I ignore him.

[Alberta's Child]

Hitchens is a flaky character with an interesting perspective on many current events -- that's what makes him so appealing to a lot of people here on FR.

I often look upon him the same way I fondly remember the late radical lawyer William Kunstler. He was as far to the left as anyone I've ever come across in modern times, but he had a certain way of framing issues -- and an absolute loathing of government in general -- that made him quite a fascinating character.

[Brilliant]

What do you expect from a political group which believes Carter was a good Presient?

[Kaslin]

If anything deserves a barf alert. This digusting piece sure does.

Where is it?

[King Black Robe]

Kind of makes Hitchens the Fred Phelps of the moment -- a guy saying mean things at a funeral. How tacky.

[holdonnow]

He's a Marxist. And makes no bones about it.

[Nonstatist]

He could have had anyone in the world to dinner, any night of the week, but took most of his meals on a White House TV tray. He had no friends, only cronies. His children didn't like him all that much. He met his second wife—the one that you remember—because she needed to get off a Hollywood blacklist and he was the man to see

Wow! Talk about mean spirited! Imagine being married to this guy!?? Time for a quick annulment!

[blackdog]

His writing in this case is more like Hunter S. Thompson. The idiot Seann Penn also produced a written article not long ago which read like Thompson's work.

If Thompson's not ghost writing this stuff he deserves a royalty check.

I used to like Thompson even though I disagreed with his politics. He's now just a limosene liberal who once trained his dog to bite Nixon's balls. Now he's just a mean drunk who pays someone else to train his dog not to piss on the stuff he's bought.

[jpsb]

Why do you post this crap on this site? Have you no shame?

[sharktrager]

You know, I really think we need to consider a ban on Slate like the one DU has. The fact is, you guys have helped keep the site afloat.

[skeeter]

I remember Hitchens being particularly nasty to Reagan during the 80's, but I have to admit I thoroughly enjoy his writing in recent times when he has turned his guns on those who've deserved it.

I would've hoping he'd manage to hold his tongue on the occasion of The Great One's passing. Guess I'd given him a little too much credit.

[megatherium]

Years ago, I subscribed to The Nation. Every week, Hitchens and Alexander Cockburn would rip into each other. Quite unpleasant at times. (I stopped subscribing to The Nation when I got tired of my weekly collection of liberal shibboleths.)

I think Hitchen's star here rose when he came out very pro-war on terrorism. He left The Nation. His book on Clinton, No One Left to Lie To, was extremely good. Nasty, but it's not like Clinton didn't deserve it. (In the book, Hitchens details the Juanita Broderick case and alludes to another such incident.)

[dangus]

>>... I was looking at a cruel and stupid lizard. His reply was that maybe his staff had, and maybe they hadn't, but what about the leak of the Pentagon Papers? Thus, a secret theft of presidential documents was equated with the public disclosure of needful information.<<

The Pentagon Papers were needful information?

[zarf]

Hitchens is brilliant. He's an old school curmudgeon with no shame. I'm glad he is who he is.

[Egregious Philbin]

Someone filled with hatred for both Mother Theresa and Ronald Reagan who is cheered by some on this site?

Having actually read his book about Mother Teresa, i'd say he made a pretty good argument against her canonization. In fact, the Catholic church asked him to be devil's advocate.

[Walkingfeather]

these idiots have obviously never have read the Reagan Papers. If you folks dont know about 3 years ago the found thousands and thousands of hand written letters,speaches, and policy papers of President Reagan covering decades of thinking. He pulled off the aloof dope and made a huge change in the world. He was an intellectual thinker.