Who Would You Waterboard?

I've got to say that I do love Christopher Hitchen's writing pre-Desert Storm II [I particularly liked Why Orwell Matters] but there are times over these past few years in which I wished he could be water boarded...well, my wish came true.

The video of this procedure is semi-shocking and Hitchens lasts about 10 seconds...which is about 5 seconds longer than I would make it...What did he think of the experiment? Let the title of the article speak for itself "Believe Me, It's Torture."

Words of the Day: "Breastplate of Righteousness"

From Christopher Hitchens' take on the Sen. Larry Craig story:

The men interviewed by Humphreys wanted what many men want: a sexual encounter that was quick and easy and didn't involve any wining and dining. Some
of the heterosexuals among them had also evolved a tactic for dealing with the
cognitive dissonance that was involved. They compensated for their conduct by
adopting extreme conservative postures in public. Humphreys, a former
Episcopalian priest, came up with the phrase "breastplate of righteousness" to
describe this mixture of repression and denial. So, it is quite thinkable that when Sen. Craig claims not to be gay, he is telling what he honestly believes to be the truth.

Christopher Hitchens

I am a life long Christopher Hitchens fan (didn't we all have our parent's reading Why Orwell Matters to us at bedtime) and one who has weathered nearly everything he has written about the Iraq war, including the increasingly ridiculously titled A Long Short War: A Postponed Liberation of Iraq as our involvement in it has now surpassed out involvement in World War II.

Recent articles about the letters of Mother Theresa have reminded me of Hitchens' best book, The Missionary Position: Mother Theresa in Theory and Practice in which he takes on one of the most universally respected people primarily because people know nothing about her.

Hate

Christopher Hitchens all of a sudden doesn't like George Tenet.