jtr7 on 7/8/2010 at 01:13

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Hitch' is now battling oesophageal cancer, and the timing of this as he promotes his memoir would seem cosmic, but that lacks reason.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgCq2T-v-Mo)

Tocky on 7/8/2010 at 03:53

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You have to respect someone who holds onto thier belief in the face of death. He is stubbornly honest until the end. As for Iraq, the world without Saddam is a good thing. The US is fucked monetarily and the decent folks of Iraq doomed to civil war but who could have predicted the immensity of hatred Sheits and Sunnies would have for each other? It's not like we have an intelligence service worth a damn.

I envy his certainty. I have never been able to shake the skydaddy completely. Although I understand the ludicrus nature of belief, I still talk to him in my head at times. I fully realize this is insanity and an accepted one, but I persist in it nevertheless. Even understanding the underpinnings of such behavior is useless. Understanding the urge to have good validated by a benevolent creator nearly does it but in the end madness wins and I still talk to skydaddy as well as my own dead father on occasion. I don't do this out loud. I figure it serves a psyche soothing purpose and mayhaps a harmless one. There are worse neurosis exhibited daily by world leaders and it's a sad world where logic, so helpful, is shunted aside in favor of a spurious salve but I allow the weakness as a vent to keep the mental rivets intact. Nearly so. It's the reason I can't call myself an athiest and must resort to agnostic though the truely sane part understands.

In honor of honesty I admit and I salute you Hitch.

Tocky on 7/8/2010 at 05:34

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All us sons of the south must endure this dichotomy I suppose. Those we loved who gave us so much also gave us thier crazy. They didn't know. They just caught the crazy and passed it on. If they weren't good people we could have shaken it off like unwanted dust but memory sinks its hooks deep and good hearts stain permanent.

Lookit me, I'm shitfaced and waxing eloquent.

Kaleid on 7/8/2010 at 07:04

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Currently reading his book on Orwell...enjoyable but not very easy to understand due to very advanced writing. Love his God is not Great...and the portable atheist is a good collection of writings from various sources.

And he is one of the best public speakers there is:
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYaQpRZJl18) (why religion fails)

(http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/08/hitchens_on_anderson_cooper_at.php) P.Z. Meyers as usual comes with good comments which I cannot improve upon. But I'll add one more thing...even if he has a deathbed conversion it doesn't prove any deity. And cancer certainly isn't compatible with the whole good caring God which the faithful so often does promote. If all is made by God then so is cancer...

(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15570330/) As for predicting chaos in Iraq.

Hitchens point about USA having a responsibility to remove a tyrant which it had supported for so long is quite difficult to argue against. And far more honest than what we heard from most.
Too bad he sided with the neocons who are pretty much modern imperialists disguised as freedom fighters.

Kaleid on 7/8/2010 at 12:05

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Extended edition on the CNN interview plus talk with Jeffrey Goldberg from the Atlantic over @
(http://www.dailyhitchens.com/)