Hitchens slams Falwell

[garbagemanlb]

Originally Posted by Galactic Gigolo

Do you know anything about Christopher Hitchens? He's a giant cock, which is one of the many reasons that he's a great man. And aside from the whole "I have enough common sense not to believe in God" thing, he's not much of a liberal. He's frequently on TV and in print defending neoconservative ideals.

Yeah, I remember seeing him on the Bill Maher show defending the Iraq invasion and occupation, and I strongly disagreed with what he had to say on that.

He is dead on with the Falwell/religion thing, however.

[Galactic Gigolo]

Originally Posted by ballz2wallz

You should have seen his appearance on The Daily Show a few weeks ago. Stewart was being a dick to him and Hitchens came back at him with a smug and subtle touch that only he can pull off, pointing out when Stewart low blowed him and phrased a question in an emotion, non-intellectual way.

He was also fantastic on Penn & Teller: Bullshit a while back.

[Galactic Gigolo]

Originally Posted by Linzyhop

whoa. 40 posts and long ass longevity??? whyfore you no post often mistah?

I mostly just sit back and read threads, but when something absurd is posted, like making Ron Paul out to be a conspiracy theorist or equating Hitchens with a liberal, I kind of have to post.

[Linzyhop]

Originally Posted by Galactic Gigolo

I mostly just sit back and read threads, but when something absurd is posted, like making Ron Paul out to be a conspiracy theorist or equating Hitchens with a liberal, I kind of have to post.

oh. i see. howdy

[IminWonderland]

I think that Hitchens makes a valid point about religion, and the people who propogate it. They are in a sense selling something. And for what they are selling, they require fear. So they scare the shit out of people who think they agree with him, and then point to other people as the root of their problems, and all of this is so they can sell their product:

See Witch Doctor by Ro bert Hayden


I
He dines alone surrounded by reflections
of himself. Then after sleep and benzedrine
descends the Cinquecento stair his magic
wrought from hypochondria of the well-
to-do and nagging deathwish of the poor;
swirls on smiling genuflections of
his liveried chauffeur into a crested
lilac limousine, the cynosure
of mousey neighbors tittering behind
Venetian blinds and half afraid of him
and half admiring his outrageous flair.


II
Meanwhile his mother, priestess in gold lamé,
precedes him to the quondam theater
now Israel Temple of the Highest Alpha,
where the bored, the sick, the alien, the tired
await euphoria. With deadly vigor
she prepares the way for mystery
and lucre. Shouts in blues-contralto, ”He’s
God’s dictaphone of all-redeeming truth.
Oh he’s the holyweight champeen who’s come
to give the knockout lick to your bad luck;
say he’s the holyweight champeen who’s here
to deal a knockout punch to your hard luck.“


III
Reposing on cushions of black leopard skin,
he telephones instructions for a long
slow drive across the park that burgeons now
with spring and sailors. Peers questingly
into the green fountainous twilight, sighs
and turns the gold-plate dial to Music For
Your Dining-Dancing Pleasure. Smoking Egyptian
cigarettes rehearses in his mind
a new device that he must use tonight.


IV
Approaching Israel Temple, mask in place,
he hears ragtime allegros of a ”Song
of Zion“ that becomes when he appears
a hallelujah wave for him to walk.
His mother and a rainbow-surpliced cordon
conduct him choiring to the altar-stage,
and there he kneels and seems to pray before
a lighted Jesus painted sealskin-brown.
Then with a glittering flourish he arises,
turns, gracefully extends his draperied arms:
”Israelites, true Jews, O found lost tribe
of Israel, receive my blessing now.
Selah, selah.“ He feels them yearn toward him
as toward a lover, exults before the image
of himself their trust gives back. Stands as though
in meditation, letting their eyes caress
his garments jewelled and chatoyant, cut
to fall, to flow from his tall figure
dramatically just so. Then all at once
he sways, quivers, gesticulates as if
to ward off blows or kisses, and when he speaks
again he utters wildering vocables,
hypnotic no-words planned (and never failing)
to enmesh his flock in theopathic tension.
Cries of eudaemonic pain attest
his artistry. Behind the mask he smiles.
And now in subtly altering light he chants
and sinuously trembles, chants and trembles
while convulsive energies of eager faith
surcharge the theater with power of
their own, a power he has counted on
and for a space allows to carry him.
Dishevelled antiphons proclaim the moment
his followers all day have hungered for,
but which is his alone.
He signals: tambourines begin, frenetic
drumbeat and glissando. He dances from the altar,
robes hissing, flaring, shimmering; down aisles
where mantled guardsmen intercept wild hands
that arduously strain to clutch his vestments,
he dances, dances, ensorcelled and aloof,
the fervid juba of God as lover, healer,
conjurer. And of himself as God.


PoetryFoundation.org: Witch Doctor


The cliffs of the poem is this rich ass preacher, surrounding himself with the money of the poor whom he "saves". This should be a contradiction, but when I look at someone like Falwell, it isn't. This is what these preachers do. They make money off of fear.

[Galactic Gigolo]

YouTube Video

Here's Hitchens on Hannity & Colmes. As I post this I'm only two minutes into it and Hitchens already rocked them.

[7th Ninjai]

I'm glad Falwell is dead. I don't know anything about Hitchens, but he absolutely owned H&C. His intellect was greater than everyone else on the show combined.

[thomez]

did anyone else catch the very end of that video?

Hitchens said "if you gave Falwell and enema he could be buried in a matchbox"

[motivez]

Originally Posted by thomez

did anyone else catch the very end of that video?

Hitchens said "if you gave Falwell and enema he could be buried in a matchbox"

Wow

I can't believe that made it through, funny stuff though.

I thought they did give him plenty of time to express his views though, so props to them for that.. but it's kind of ridiculous to invite someone on to express their opinion about the man and then say, "But shouldn't you NOT be expressing your opinion?"