April 13, 1949 – December 15, 2011
.
And now the charlatans and the hypocrites will compete in gaudy displays.
The rest of us will mourn in silence.
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December 16, 2011
Goodbye
Posted by franc under atheism, genius, journalism | Tags: Christopher Hitchens |[38] Comments
December 17, 2011 at 12:58 am
I opened my favorite RSS reader, Feedly, this morning. While I don’t subscribe to any “atheist” blogs (like FFT), I do have a “Skepticism” category where Greylining’s feed, Science-based medicine, ERV, Skeptoid, Skeptiblog, JREF, etc are sorted into. You’re the only one who has a post up on Hitchen’s passing in that category this morning. Meanwhile, my Catholic and Theistic philosophy blogs are a buzz with positive things to say about the man who referred to Mother Theresa as a “fanatical Albanian dwarf.” They are quick to point out, that dead-bed conversion was nothing more than a fantasy some were holding out for.
In an interview, Hitchens was asked if he was offended when his believing friends mentioned they were praying for him. He said “not a ‘tol” He appreciated this as an expression of concern and support.
I doubt anyone agreed with all of his very strong opinions. But he could express himself so elegantly, you couldn’t resist listening to him anyway.
While Dawkins made a spectacle of himself for refusing to debate WLC, Hitchens took him on years ago at Biola University (Christian institution).
Hitch was the most courageous of all the new atheists. Did he really say that he felt superior to those who had lesser cancer? Classic! One can only imagine what he could have done for Elevatorgate. Dawkins ran away with his tail between his legs after Dear Muslima and Zero-bad. He dumped that on the Baboon board, instead of using a legitimate forum. Unless you’ve experienced the Baboon frenzy, his rebuke was too confusing when taken out of that twisted context.
Good for you, Franc! Like Hitchens, you have shown yourself to be a true class act!
December 17, 2011 at 1:55 am
Thanks. I can weather this baboon storm. It’s no biggie. Hitch is to be remembered for everything they are not – and nowhere is the divide greater than that Hitch was a man of honour and dignity.
He had the strength to admit his rare errors with humility; never edited his previous work for such, merely added errata for his mistakes and reasons for their occurance; he took responsibility for all of his work. He knew the subtle difference between hatred and contempt and never allowed the former to consume him, nor fester into petty revenge and malice. He could disagree with grace and without grievance. Above all else, he was an unrepentant drunk and whoremonger – the crime above all crimes as the new puritans overwhelm us.
Hitch is the very antithesis of The Naked Emperor – and he will have something Myers never will – posthumous respect from theist and godless alike, and pride of place in history as one of our greatest thinkers.
Standby for the nauseating displays and mewling that are already pouring out from behind the Iron Curtain. They are lucky they are too insignificant to have ever been worthy of his attention.
This one is for the baboons –
December 22, 2011 at 9:42 am
I think it was great that Hitch dared to write that piece. How many people would do that? Women are mainly portrayed in the media as all that’s nice, and men as either incredible action figures or as bumbling idiots. I wish Hitch had spent more time battling feminism.
December 17, 2011 at 1:20 am
Some context I left out. Prayers he was commenting on were specifically dedicated to support his courageous battle with cancer. It was one of the rare interviews he gave after undergoing aggressive chemo and radiation therapy.
Maybe I can find it on YouTube this weekend. It’s Friday morning, so I’ve got to get ready for work right now.
December 17, 2011 at 2:07 am
TAA echoes much of my sentiment. Most of all, that he’s irreplaceable –
December 17, 2011 at 2:33 am
can’t write through tears…
i’ll have to come back later.
December 17, 2011 at 2:40 am
“May his 62 years of living, well, so livingly console the many of us who will miss him dearly.”
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/12/In-Memoriam-Christopher-Hitchens-19492011
December 17, 2011 at 3:13 am
part one of eleven, one of my favourites:
December 17, 2011 at 3:14 am
okay I’ll try again:
part one of eleven:
December 17, 2011 at 3:15 am
goodbye, my love
December 20, 2011 at 8:00 am
Dear Sacha,
I had not read all of your comments & did not notice how hard his passing had been on you. Forget about my comments, they were accidentally out of line.
I am also celebrating his passing by making him a little less mortal by reading his thoughts, if anything, that is how a subset of intellectual immortality should be. Through the neural reenactment of an authors’ brightness (ideally with accelerated returns, and that little girl he spoke to in Texas may make your tears bitter sweet, here she is, she represent the rules of accelerated returns: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v4kfd4tkJo )
December 28, 2011 at 4:32 pm
That’s okay, Mahalo
I loved him. I’m still mourning.
December 17, 2011 at 3:56 am
It is quite nice to know that I can still swoon over him:
December 17, 2011 at 3:57 am
I will forever be in love with him.
December 17, 2011 at 9:42 am
That is a GOOD man! A REAL man, who takes care of his family. What is so alien about providing for your family financially, so the children have the “luxury” of being cared for by their own parent. There is nothing noble about having to farm your children out just to make ends meet. Since this is just 2 clips, I wonder what else he said. Obviously he appreciates that the job of mother is WORK! Last Feb, I went back to work full time after spending 5 1/2 years as a full time SAHM. The tight budget sucked. But I feel fortunate to have a husband who supported this change in plans. I couldn’t imagine not earning a paycheck. We I returned from maternity leave after my youngest was born, I did a 180 degree turn. He never suggested I go back to work either. Now that the kids are in school all day and don’t require immediate adult supervision, earning a pay check is doable.
Since these are 2 clips, I don’t want to put words in his mouth. This doesn’t come across to me as sexist at all. Ironic how feminists spit on the role of motherhood. Christopher is mocked. The legacy of feminism has been an incredible burden on the generations of women who followed. Now we are expected to do it all. In reality, you can’t do it all and do it well. Feeling like a half-assed parent and a half-assed employee, pretty much destroys your self-esteem, stresses you out to the point of anxiety attacks, and takes an incredible toll on everyone. Now I can focus on work and not worry so much about what I have neglected at home.
Until you’re holding that newborn bundle in your arms, feminism seems logical somehow. It’s not! It’s a ridiculous lie that was spawned from some hag’s personal baggage with her own mother.
December 17, 2011 at 4:20 am
The Hitch would have absolutely LOVED this one:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/fumbling-inarticulate-obituary-writer-somehow-losi,26890/
Probably one of the best things that will be written on this sad occasion…
December 17, 2011 at 8:03 am
The accolades for Hitchens are beginning to pour in. And that is right and just. He was a brilliant speaker and writer, and a fascinating thinker with whom the brighter free thinking souls of our universe could hold agreement and disagreement simultaneously.
Nonetheless, it must be stated, but never will be admitted to by the baboons or the Watsonistas, that had Hitchens posted on any of their blogs, stating in his inimitable way almost any of his inimitable opinions regarding feminism, feminists, and women in general, he would have been censored, deleted, deeply and frequently insulted, bequeathed countless porcupines, and finally, in great heaving whelps of righteous wrath, banned, inDungeonated, blacklisted, and summarily, if figuratively, executed.
December 17, 2011 at 8:09 am
That is, had he posted anonymously. Had he posted as himself, well, who knows what would have happened? Meltdown?
December 17, 2011 at 9:53 am
They threw Dawkins under the bus without blinking an eye. Remember how half the baboons were convinced it wasn’t the real Dawkins? The Naked One had to confirm his identity. Then the f’ bombs and porcupines rained down on him.
Tw*ts*n would have another orgasm launching a non-boycott against Hitchens. He is just so white, rich, old, heterosexual, and MALE! Too bad he had to die and ruin her fantasy.
Now I’m off to peek at Skepchick. Please tell me they aren’t dancing on his grave@@
December 17, 2011 at 12:00 pm
No, so far as I know they are not dancing on his grave.
Watson, in her “farewell” to Hitchens is reminding us all, yet again, about how popular she is and how active in the skeptic / atheist / feminist / whatever community she is and how on several occasions Hitchens could hardly wait to chat with her, and of course offer her a drink.
Speaking of drinking, why is it Watson has to preface at least 50% of her comments, and it would seem almost all of her public speaking appearances with “I was drunk at the time” or something along those lines? Is this one of those “I’m an alcholic and cannot drink alone so you must share this with me” things?
Also, it would seem that the Skepchick.org account has been suspended. Maybe it’s just a glitch.
December 18, 2011 at 3:43 am
I would have loved to see that, but at the same time, I am content to know that he had no time for the baboons, they did not even show up on his radar.
December 18, 2011 at 4:07 am
Ah, but Franc has put it more eloquently:
December 18, 2011 at 3:46 am
His final interview:
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/12/christopher-hitchens-evening
Comforting to know that it was Dawkins that interviewed him last.
December 18, 2011 at 11:49 am
Agreed, there could not have been a better last interviewer than Dawkins, as most other interviewers would have wasted his limited time with baboon -level questions…that is what makes me think that Hitchens could have but never bothered to address the BB, just because for a writer of his caliber, it could only have been logical to abstain from typing a single character for the only group that makes the infinite monkey theorem fail: The baboon board.
It does not matter how much they type, they are finite in numbers but vastly more stupid than an infinite number of chimps.
The only thing the baboon board may deserve is to be mocked and mooned.
Sacha?
Would you consider mooning them again?
Have uploaded any other gem besides this one?
PS
(Besides, most likely Hitchens would have been pleased by your standard of rear quality…your epic rear would cover most bases: mooning for the baboons, celebration for Hitchens and fan service for cheap posters like me…)
December 18, 2011 at 4:09 am
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2011/12/remembering-hitch-bill-buford.html#ixzz1goS082KK
December 18, 2011 at 4:35 am
December 28, 2011 at 12:52 pm
Well.. It wasnt gonna take long before the baboons got going on Hitch and sexism/misogyny, was it? Here’s the wonderful OB’s patented twitter-like short whine
December 28, 2011 at 12:54 pm
This feminist shit has gotten me interested in the Men’s Rights Movement and its writings, and I found a pretty cool gender traitor’s writings that might interest others here. For starters, here’s an interesting debunking of the view that women have been oppressed by men for much of history
December 28, 2011 at 4:27 pm
excellent blog post, Astro.
December 29, 2011 at 5:22 am
Astro, I sent that blog post to The Amazing Atheist, and he tweeted it, so she should be getting quite a bit of traffic. I think she deserves it.
December 29, 2011 at 5:58 am
I didnt know the baboon king also raised ‘…his [Hitch’s] peculiar misogyny and his support for war’. But he doesnt have balls to go in detail on the ‘peculiar misogyny’.
sacha, Thanks for passing it on TAA. girlwriteswhat is a gem that needs to be read widely, and thats why she was quickly picked by a MRM site called ‘A Voice For Men’. I was very pleasantly surprised when I saw that she boils it all down to ‘owning your shit’. This is the conclusion I see being reached independently by successful people in various walks of life.
December 29, 2011 at 7:50 am
Astro:
indeed, I think Hitch would appreciate that statement.
December 29, 2011 at 7:57 am
and by the way, I refuse to read anything the baboons write about Hitch.
He was truly special to me, I loved him more than I could ever even imagine loving someone I never actually met, I did not think it was possible before Hitch, and I doubt it will ever happen to me again.
I have no desire nor curiosity to read what they are writing, or anyone else with so little courage as to wait until he has died to dance on his grave, so I do appreciate the links only, and not the commentary here.
I’d like to keep this one blog post free of that, if not for me, then at least for Hitch. I think Franc would agree.
December 29, 2011 at 8:09 am
That is excellent, Astro. I read that some time ago but it didn’t even occur to me to pass it on because I’m a bit slow.
But he doesnt have balls to go in detail on the ‘peculiar misogyny’.
Like explaining the nature of God, it’s difficult to go into detail about something that isn’t there and never was.
December 29, 2011 at 8:09 am
Ack, by “that” I mean “Owning Your Shit.”
December 29, 2011 at 8:17 am
You are right. I didnt think of that.
One of my fave tributes is from the Brits.
I also love this petition.
Dear Mr. Cameron and Mr. Clegg,
We the undersigned ask you to please commission, on our behalf, a memorial statue in a prime position within the City of London, honouring national treasure Christopher Hitchens for his contributions to the UK and the world.
Please ensure the statue is made of tough stuff, as he was, and accept suggestions and/or votes from his many fans as to which of his numerous famous quotes to have on the plaque.
Please also ensure that the statue is crafted using the famous, iconic picture of Christopher in the trench coat, as seen on the home of this petition at atheist-reference.org
December 29, 2011 at 8:17 am
I loved him far more than most of the men I have had committed relationships with. For those of you who are not a part of ToA, here is what I wrote about missing my chance to meet him, along with his unspoken words to the American Atheists:
http://theotheratheists.net/forums/?page=post&id=78C3F727-8DDD-4970-B360-030F7D5B54F9&fid=5017A88B-543E-41D0-BF49-CDED9BF99382
January 4, 2012 at 4:23 am
There were 700 people in that audience, and you could hear a pin drop. what a voice, what a mind, what a vocabulary. I will treasure the fact that he once took my hand, kissed it, and said “Dear lady”. – Annie Laurie Gaylor
Christopher Hitchens Tribute on Freethought Radio – December 24, 2011