Stephen Brodie posted a video
Dallas the Phallus replied to Dallas the Phallus's discussion The New Words Thread: Things you ran across, remembered, or had to look up in the group A World of Words
Jess M commented on National Atheist Party's blog post War Veteran and Atheist Tosses Hat into Mayoral RaceWe are a worldwide social network of freethinkers, atheists, agnostics and secular humanists.
Christopher Hitchens' wit and warmth remembered as New York pays tribute
Salman Rushdie and Martin Amis among those at Cooper Union to celebrate life and work of 'pioneer at the frontier'
"Little Keith" called him a suffering auto-contrarian and likened him to Houdini; Graydon Carter said he was a "bit of a scallywag" but an editor's dream; and the doctor who treated him for the cancer of the oesophagus that killed him said he was a "pioneer at the frontier".
Unsurprisingly, though, it was Christopher Hitchens who had the funniest and the most apposite words with which to describe himself at his own memorial in New York on Friday. He was, he said of himself in posthumous film clips and readings, a "radical freelance scribbler" who had devoted his life to curiosity, irony, debunking, disputation, drinking, love and hate (though of all those things, it was hate that got him out of bed in the morning).
"The cause of my life," Hitchens said in one snippet included in a compilation put together by the Oscar-winning documentary maker Alex Dibney, "has been to oppose superstition. It's a battle you can't hope to win – it's a battle that's going to go on forever. It's part of the human condition." [continue]
Permalink Reply by doone on 12072010
A powerful case. I’ve been surprised before but I don’t anticipate any religious apologists being willing to watch this all the way through, much less bringing forth a worthwhile rebuttal.
I do hope someone surprises me with a serious response.
Permalink Reply by Dallas the Phallus on Thanks. I had never heard that particular speech.
Permalink Reply by Dallas the Phallus on Okay, I fixed it.
Permalink Reply by Adriana on Interesting; he didn't seem to have any female friends. Or if he did, they are not very prominent. As an aside, it bothers me a bit that every time they mention him it's all about drinking, eating a lot and smoking. Not things that one should be glorifying. He was no doubt a character, he was a very good writer, very witty and did wonders for atheism, but whenever I read these homages, I feel like I fell into an old boys' club.
Permalink Reply by Victor Rubicon on When you find yourself in an old boys club there be will lots of liquor, tobacco smoke, and supporters of the US invasion of Iraq sitting in the big, leather chairs. You would also find Hitchen among all of that pollution.
Permalink Reply by Victor Rubicon on Hermana, where you been? Do you know that scene from the movie Devil's Advocate,where Eddie Barzoon is jogging in the wrong direction around the Central Park Reservoir? (See 01:13) That's me, only I'm still running.
Permalink Reply by Dallas the Phallus on As an aside, it bothers me a bit that every time they mention him it's all about drinking, eating a lot and smoking.
Perhaps that's the nature of these things: Well, we know so-n-so was not perfect, he or she was this, and this, and that. And we mention them now lest we be accused of idealizing or romanticizing their life. Nonetheless, they were great.......
I mean, isn't that how these kinds of tributes normally play out?
I feel like I fell into an old boys' club.
Ha, maybe you have! : )
Permalink Reply by Adriana on I don't think this is a case of pointing out that Hitchens was not so perfect because he drunk in excess; it seems more like his alcohol abuse is being exalted as a virtue. But maybe it's just me.
Permalink Reply by Andrew Sherwood on I find that annoying too. We could have enjoyed many more years of the brilliance of Hitchens if it had not been for his reckless lifestyle. We need to encourage atheists ( and everyone else) to live as healthfully as they can.
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