Saturday, August 26, 2006

I Don't Agree With What You Say,
and I'll Tell You To Go Fuck Yourself If You Say It

Christopher Hitchens reinvents Voltaire:

Christopher Hitchens: "Who wants a Third Word War? The Iranian President says that one member state of the United Nations should be wiped physically from the map with all its people. He says the United States is a Satanic power. Members of his government, named members of his government have been caught sponsoring death squads. He's lied, he's lied to the European Union about his nuclear program --"

Bill Maher: "But you know that a lot--"

Hitchens: "He says the Messiah is about to come back. Who's looking for a war here?"

Maher: "So does George Bush, by the way [audience applause]. That's not facetious [audience applause continues]."

Hitchens: "That's not facetious. Your audience, which will clap at apparently anything, is frivolous. [oohs and groans from audience, Hitchens gives them the finger] Fuck you, fuck you. [groans continue]"

Maher: "I was just saying what the President of Iran and the President of America have in common is that they both are a little too comfortable with the idea of the world coming to an end."

Hitchens: "Cheer yourself up like that. The President has said, quite a great contrast before the podium of the Senate, I think applauded by most present, in his State of the Union address, that we support the democratic movement of the Iranian people to be free of theocracy -- not that we will impose ourselves on them, but that if they fight for it we're on their side. That seems to be the right position to take, jeer all you like."

The transcript snip is from Newsbusters, because I couldn't find it anywhere else; but I will not give them a link.

[I just found the transcript at Outside the Beltway; here's the link.]

1 comment:

ScurvyOaks said...

A plague on both their houses. This is a good example of why I don't bother watching this kind of TV.

I'm offering no apology or justification for Hitchens. But I want to examine the substance of what Maher said that set off Hitchens' temper. Hitchens said of the Iranian president, "He says the Messiah is about to come back." Maher says, "So does George Bush."

Can anyone point to any instance of Bush saying that Christ is "about to" return or something of similar meaning? I'm confident Bush believes that Christ will return one day. (That's been part of the Christian faith from the start; see, e.g., the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed.)

But that's very different from saying that the Messiah is about to return. I've never seen anything to indicate that Bush has any particular interest in prophecy concerning the "end times." He's a garden variety Texas Methodist; they don't tend to focus on the prospect of the world coming to an end.