Just in from The New Statesman, a bite-sized interview with the Hitch for people with short attention blah, blah, blah......
Among the goodies [with comments from Yours Truly in straight brackets]:
How is your campaign to have the Pope arrested progressing?
It's outrageous that people like myself, Richard Dawkins and Geoffrey Robertson are taking this on. What are law officers, and police departments, for? But we will do it if they won't.
[Sure thing Hitch, you and whose army? Just be careful that Opus Dei don't get you first. They do waterboardings in the church font and call it baptism!]
What can we expect from the book that you are currently writing on the Ten Commandments?
One of the great questions of philosophy is, do we innately have morality, or do we get it from celestial dictation? A study of the Ten Commandments is a very good way of getting into and resolving that issue.
[It is absolutely fascinating to be able to listen to musings on the potential origins of morality from a man whose policy recommendations have and are continuing to kill innocent people by the truckload. But Hitch is confused here. His question doesn't get to the heart of the matter. A more appropriate question would be, do we get morality from nature or nurture? The best answer is a bit of both but much more from nurture than nature. And as for celestial dictation, that sounds far too much like astrology for comfort.]
Would you say you're a neo-conservative now?
I'm not a conservative of any kind. A faction willing to take the risks of making war on the ossified status quo in the Middle East can be described as many things, but not as conservative.
[Translation, I am not a conservative but I am a war-mongering cheerleader for some of the darkest and nastiest forces we've seen on planet earth for quite a long time. But if you saw my wine, whiskey and dry cleaning bills, you'd understand my predicament. I can't afford morals, guv, not on the wages the Nation paid, and neither could you if you was as poor as me.]
A lastly:
And what do you make of Obama's presidency?
It's quite clean. The people working for him are relatively straight and honest. But what he's finding out is that the power of the presidency is very slight. There are all kinds of things that are just not under his control.
[Still trying to get back into the White House and onto Michelle's dinner party guest list, I see.]
ADDENDUM Incidentally, George Eaton has also penned a very readable profile of Christopher Hitchens that manages to pack in a lot of salient facts and anecdotal information without being fawning, vindictive or boring. Please check it out here
“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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