Hitch Stitches

Christopher Hitchens is dead, and I shall miss him. I didn't always agree with some of his political stances, but I appreciated his intelligence, his intellect and his wit. He put a lot of our television pundits to shame, as shown here in an appearance on Bill Maher's Real Time from 2007.

He's joined on the panel by George Galloway, a former Labour MP who was kicked out of the Party and who formed an offshoot Respect Party in the UK. Galloway was against the Iraqi war, but veered, creepily, close to being a Saddam apologist. Hitchens, for some unfathomable reason, was a big proponent of the war. Sat between them is the BBC's insipid Katty Kay, who buys into anything the Beltway belches. The less said about her, the better.

You don't have to agree with Hitch to appreciate him. Watch how, in this segment, Hitch slaps down Kay's dribblings and how he makes Maher look more of the intellectual lightweight than he is. (Memo to Bill: Britain has stupid people too. I know. I live here. That's why they've sent you Russell Brand). But also watch Galloway, the very antithesis of Margaret Thatcher, give her just credit for her parliamentary performances.

Oh, and note Hitch's condemnation at 6:52 of Americans who run their country down - a particular fault of EmoProgs today. (Memo to those who think the grass is greener in happy, clappy socialist Europe - most of their governments are Rightwing and veering Righter, as in Nazi Right). Perhaps Bill would like to interview France's new political darling, Marine Le Pen, if he doesn't think Tea Partiers travel well.

Yes, Bill ... criticism makes the country better, just like criticism of the President, in that particular way that the Professional Left do so well, and of the Democratic Party gave us the Teabagging Congress who's wagging the tail of the dog. Yes, Bill ... snark works.



Here's another clip from 2008, when the Democratic primaries were hotting up. It's a Hillary Clinton bashfest - if you remember that Bill Maher and Harry Shearer, another panelist, subscribe to the Her Imperial Majesty Queen Ratfucker Omnipotent of Medialand Arianna Huffington school of Hillary Derangement Syndrome - notice exactly who sounds sexist and who criticizes Hillary from a political point:-

(Please note ... this was when Bill Maher thought Barack Obama was a smart ninja. Now he thinks he's just a spineless, caving n-word). Myself, I like the bit at the end.



Hitch didn't spare Left or Right from his critiques, and he leaves a plethora of intelligent and erudite observations, which hit the point accurately and acerbically.

My two favourite Hitch zingers are about two of my most infamous nemeses.

On George W Bush:-

“He is lucky to be governor of Texas. He is unusually incurious, abnormally unintelligent, amazingly inarticulate, fantastically uncultured, extraordinarily uneducated, and apparently quite proud of all these things.”

And, the best, on Michael Moore. Americans should really ponder this one:-

“Europeans think Americans are fat, vulgar, greedy, stupid, ambitious and ignorant and so on. And they've taken as their own, as their representative American, someone who actually embodies all of those qualities.”

Peace, Hitch. You've earned it.