Stupid!? The Irish Setter is good natured, intelligent and very affectionate, as well as excellent around children and not aggressive towards other dogs. But like the Hitch, the Irish Setter tends to bloat if too well fed and needs to be brushed daily to prevent the hair from developing mats or tangles. Info from PetYourDog.com
On January 17, Christopher Hitchens took part in a special edition of the BBC Radio 4 programme Any Questions hosted by Jonathan Dimbleby The George Washington University in Washington, DC. The show went very well for Hitch, who managed to get in some interesting points about Israel, Palestine and Iran and also to make (as usual) a complete pratt of himself over (you guessed it) the Clintons.
Then, just when he ought to have been finishing on a song, he decided instead to tell an Irish joke, and not just any old Irish joke, but the kind that relies for its effect on the listeners' understanding that the Irish, as a race, are intellectually challenged and over-sensitive.
BETH BREEDING: On to one of the more pressing issues what kind of dog do you hope the Obama family brings to the White House?
JONATHAN DIMBLEBY: What kind of dog do you hope the Obama family brings to the White House? You must have very strong views about this I am quite certain Colonel
COLONEL LARRY WILKERSON: A chocolate lab so I can borrow it occasionally.
DIMBLEBY: Tom Mann
THOMAS E MANN: If the ugly truth be known I don’t care.
DIMBLEBY: Reneé
RENEÉ AMOORE: I want a pit bull.
DIMBLEBY: And Christopher Hitchens
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: There is a very old saying in Washington. A piece of local wisdom. If you want a friend in Washington get a dog. That would mean I would say an Irish setter.
DIMBLEBY: Because?
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: Stupid, highly strung, but dead loyal. (LAUGH)
This incidence of schoolboy racist humor was picked up by Jack Grantham, who put together the YouTube clip above with some very familiar images and brought the offense to our attention. I must say it amazes me that the BBC can allow this sort of thing to pass with giggles of approval and no apologies by anyone involved, while at the same time they can't even bring themselves to carry an appeal for humanitarian aid for the Palestinian refugees in Gaza. More than this, the entire episode seems to have been scripted rather than spontaneous, as is often the case with radio broadcasts. If this is the case, it means that the scriptwriter, director, presenter, questioner and associated staff, as well as the Drink-Soaked One himself, were all perfectly happy to make a lame racist joke for the express purpose of rounding off a light-hearted radio show. What next for Hitch and the Beeb, one wonders? Jokes about cotton fields? Concentration camps? Dwellers of the jungles or deserts? Aids sufferers? The malnourished and starving? The visually, physically, mentally and chromosomally handicapped? People with slitty eyes? Or are the Irish now to be singled out for special treatment?
Hitch is a hopeless case, and If I may venture to guess at his response to being called on this, it would probably be somewhere along the lines of "Don't be such a Lesbian!" But we should demand higher standards of the BBC. Agreed?
“The enemies of intolerance cannot be tolerant." • "If it is an offense to justice to hold people who may have been victims of mistaken identity or of vendettas by other factions, then it is also an offense to justice to release psychopathic killers who believe that they have divine permission to throw acid in the faces of girls who want to attend school." • "Don't be such a lesbian!
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