Althouse: "[T]he corny, brainless antics of a devout American non-entity, notice of whose mere existence is beneath the dignity of any thinking person...."

April 6, 2011

"[T]he corny, brainless antics of a devout American non-entity, notice of whose mere existence is beneath the dignity of any thinking person...."

... have provoked "self-righteous frenzy married to a neurotic need to take offence; the easy resort to indiscriminate violence and cruelty; the promulgation of makeshift fatwas by mullahs on the make; those writhing mustaches framing crude slogans of piety and hatred, and yelling for death as if on first-name terms with the Almighty."

Christopher Hitchens is writing about the Koran-burning and the offense taken.

(Where will we go for well-overheated prose if we lose Christopher Hitchens?)

40 comments:

Chennaul said...: Where will we go for well-overheated prose if we lose Christopher Hitchens?

******

It's going to be depressing..

Did you see his latest interview?

The interviewer asked him about faith-and all that-is there still time for Hitch to change his mind or something to that effect and Hitch responded-

"I like surprises."; 4/6/11, 10:53 AM
Anonymous said...: This ...corny, brainless antics of a devout American non-entity, notice of whose mere existence is beneath the dignity of any thinking person has the guts to do what all our fucking sophisticated dhimmis are afraid to do.

We need about a 1,000 brainless non-entities like him.

Faced with the kind of suppression of speech in America that is common in Muslim countries, this deadbeat Hitchens would be applauding any American lefty who had the guts to stand up and fight back.

Instead, Hitchens, faced with Muslims fanatics who will actually commit murder in to suppress speech, is a cowardly dhimmi.; 4/6/11, 10:53 AM
Joe said...: (The Crypto Jew)

Everyone “knows” Little Brown People are MUCH more excitable than your average White Dood, Andrew Sullivan excepted, and SOOOOO, we must always think of them and how our actions will “make” them behave…..and plan our lives, thoughts, words and deeds accordingly.; 4/6/11, 10:54 AM
Harry Phartz said...: What do you mean "if" we lose Christopher Hitchens?; 4/6/11, 10:56 AM
Anonymous said...: The short and comprehensive answer to this is, of course:

Piss Christ and just about any photo shot by Robert Mapplethorpe.; 4/6/11, 10:56 AM
Chennaul said...: Let me just add this since it's about all I have to say on the subject-

*if* you were Petraeus and you had any idea what his job was like -you'd be doing the same damn thing.

What are conservatives going to do run the conservative version of the ad-

General Betrayus?; 4/6/11, 10:56 AM
Anonymous said...: *if* you were Petraeus and you had any idea what his job was like -you'd be doing the same damn thing.

Then, we need to get the hell out of Afghanistan and let the barbarians murder each other.

If being there violates our basic values, what in the hell are we doing there?; 4/6/11, 10:58 AM
Joe said...: (The Crypto Jew)

ST, why don’t you READ the article? I don’t see how Hitchens is a “coward” or a “Dhimmi”.

Mad-man, are you saying that Petraeus is RIGHT or should have the power to stop Q’uran? In fact, you seem a bit incoherent, fighting a “Right” that exists in your mind, not in reality.; 4/6/11, 10:59 AM
PaulV said...: There is an app for overheated prose.; 4/6/11, 11:00 AM
Anonymous said...: I did read the article.

Hitchens should be praising the non-entity pastor.

That non-entity pastor had the guts to do what the rest of us should be doing, which is giving the middle finger to the Muslim fanatics.

Sometimes, our heroes arrive in an odd package.; 4/6/11, 11:03 AM
rhhardin said...: "As someone who advances the quaint belief that the removal of two of the worst regimes in the region — the Taliban and the Iraqi Baath Party — did not have nothing to do with the subsequent democracy “wave,” I also find it discouraging that some of the loudest expressions of sectarian emotion have come from Afghanistan and Iraq."

I hesitate to say that I don't disagree with him.; 4/6/11, 11:04 AM
Joe said...: (The Crypto Jew)

That non-entity pastor had the guts to do what the rest of us should be doing, which is giving the middle finger to the Muslim fanatics.
You give the Middle Finger by not burning, books, gays, and stoning womyn who show too much ankle, much less wear “Club Wear” on the streets. The Good Reverned is just a headline hungry Goober, who really OUGHT to be ignored, and if he’d have burned a Vulgate Bible, WOULD HAVE BEEN…Hitchens’ point. Rather than make a big deal we should have ignored this silly publicity stunt, that is no better or worse than the Nazi’s threatening to march in Skokie.
And I can’t believe I’m speaking for Hitchens, whom I rather loathe…..; 4/6/11, 11:07 AM
former law student said...: If we lose Christopher Hitchens we lose his insights on religion such as this:

http://www.slate.com/id/2090083

Mommie Dearest
The pope beatifies Mother Teresa, a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud.
By Christopher HitchensPosted Monday, Oct. 20, 2003, at 4:04 PM ET

Faced with the kind of suppression of speech in America that is common in Muslim countries

In Muslim countries do they scramble up on monuments to remove T-shirts bearing political slogans?

Remember political speech is the most protected under our law.; 4/6/11, 11:09 AM
Anonymous said...: The Good Reverned is just a headline hungry Goober, who really OUGHT to be ignored, and if he’d have burned a Vulgate Bible, WOULD HAVE BEEN…Hitchens’ point.

Headline hungry Goobers (like, say, Hugh Hefner and Larry Flynt) are the guys who change the world and ensure our freedoms.

The Good Reverend is the only one acting sensibly here. He's made everything clear. The point is that you burn the Vulgate Bible and nobody riots and murders. That's not what happens when you burn the Koran.

The headline hungry goober is my hero. Where do I send my contribution and good wishes?; 4/6/11, 11:11 AM
Triangle Man said...: I hesitate to say that I don't disagree with him.

I find that I am not disinclined to reject a dissimilar position.; 4/6/11, 11:13 AM
Anonymous said...: In Muslim countries do they scramble up on monuments to remove T-shirts bearing political slogans?

You are comparing this (which is just another form of speech), to the murder and beheading of 7 UN personnel.

fls, you are truly a piece of ...

Do you have any fucking sense at all?

I'll answer my own question... No.; 4/6/11, 11:13 AM
Unknown said...: Somewhere, I think Insta, there was a post that made the point that, since the Moslems seem to be incapable of acting like rational, much less civilized, human beings, maybe it's time to re-colonize the Islamic world.

Given the fact that most of the places which would be affected are independent only because they said, "We want independence", as opposed to showing any real ability to handle it, it sounds like an idea whose time has come again.; 4/6/11, 11:14 AM
former law student said...: You are comparing this (which is just another form of speech), to the murder and beheading of 7 UN personnel.

Scale up the outrage caused by the desecration-by-t-shirt of the statue of the war martyr Heg, to the outrage caused by the physical destruction of the embodiment of Islam.; 4/6/11, 11:23 AM
ricpic said...: Regarding the reaction to Reverend Jones's act, I ask: when do we have a debate in this country about importing the perpetually outraged adherents of Islam?; 4/6/11, 11:25 AM
Anonymous said...: Scale up the outrage caused by the desecration-by-t-shirt of the statue of the war martyr Heg, to the outrage caused by the physical destruction of the embodiment of Islam.

fls, you've got to be lying about ever being admitted to any law school. Unless, it was a correspondence school that advertises on the back of match books.

You're a complete moron. And, yes, I know you're attempting sarcasm/humor.; 4/6/11, 11:31 AM
Michael said...: "In Muslim countries do they scramble up on monuments to remove T-shirts bearing political slogans?"

No, they use cases of dynamite to blow up centuries old sculptures of another religion. They chop the heads off people with exactly your world view, with precisely your contempt for absolutes.; 4/6/11, 11:34 AM
Roger This said...: The word verification that came up when I opened the comments to this post is/was

condi

Which is ironic since she is one of my all-time favorites (still have a Condi 2008 sticker on my car).

So I had to post something... even though I have nothing really to add.

Oh, wait, here's one: There's a typo in the "Leave your Comment" instuctions. How long has that been there? Maybe the 't' got caught in the filter.; 4/6/11, 11:44 AM
Phil 314 said...: Hitchens is an atheist and has not hidden his contempt for religion. I wouldn't expect him to praise in any way Pastor Jones.

Having said that, and speaking as a Christian, its a good opinion piece. Religionists of all stripes need secularist opinion to maintain perspective. Speaking for myself, it helps me clarify if I believe something out of political convictions or Christian ones.

As for Pastor Jones:
-politically he had the right to burn the Koran
-from my Christian perspective I disagree with the act but I understand how other Christians might feel differently.

As for the protesters/killers in Afghanistan
-of course the murders are heinous. Thats a political and Christian perspective.
-once again Muslim politicians leverage muslim rage to their political advantage. That's a political perspective.; 4/6/11, 11:51 AM
Thorley Winston said...: I agree with Joe (he Crypto Jew’s 11:07 AM comment.

The idiot burned the Quoran is just that, an idiot. He no more embodies “freedom” than a moron who burns an American flag or the Nazis marching down Skokie even though their right to do so is just as protected.

The more constructive and effective way to repudiate Islamofacisim is by living in and / or working for values that doesn’t condone murdering people merely because they think differently than you do.

And I don’t care much for Hitchens either.; 4/6/11, 11:53 AM
PaulV said...: fls,
In Muslim countries they sexually assualt those who speak truth to power.; 4/6/11, 11:55 AM
William said...: America is a nation of 300 million citizens, many of whom are deeply pissed off at the tactics and goals of the caliphascists. At the very far reaches of this outrage, we have a pastor who burns a Koran. In my opinion, this proves that America is moderate in its anger and its tactics..... The Muslim outrage at this isolated incident prompts a good sized crowd of them to riot and murder. Worse, within the larger Muslim community, this atrocity does not seem to have prompted the same amount of condemnation that the Pastor Jones has been exposed to within the American community.....God bless Christopher Hitchens for expressing more indignation at the Muslims than at the Rev. Jones. Publicity seeking pastors and Pulitzer seeking journalists have committed many excesses, but it takes a paradise seeking Muslim to throw acid in a little girl's face.; 4/6/11, 12:16 PM
J said...: Wow another Shouting Thomas brainfart session on AA.

While he's mostly fatuous and chockful of generalizations, Snitchens can write a bit, at least in comparison with the usual Merican yahoo-journalist.

I doubt ST can quite negotiate HitchensSpeak. ST probably had problems with like AlHaigSpeak.; 4/6/11, 12:23 PM
J said...: wait..... here it comes....another ST Brainfart!; 4/6/11, 12:27 PM
Sofa King said...: Seems like somebody once said something similar before...how did it go? Oh, yes:

Take up the White Man's burden--
Ye dare not stoop to less--
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.; 4/6/11, 12:59 PM
Methadras said...: former law student said...

Remember political speech is the most protected under our law.

Lucky for you, you aren't in the middle of the caliphate. Do you have the ovaries to do it there or just cower like the little girl you are?; 4/6/11, 1:32 PM
Methadras said...: former law student said...

to the outrage caused by the physical destruction of the embodiment of Islam.

So you're a muslim/islamic sympathizer. Who would have guessed.; 4/6/11, 1:36 PM
traditionalguy said...: Koranicide in Florida was only an excuse to attack outsiders. The politics in Afghanistan are moving fast now. The Taliban has returned to power in those remote mountain valleys that the US forces have finally abandoned after 10 years of wasting lives. The Biden plan was the only one that ever made sense.; 4/6/11, 1:42 PM
J said...: 12:59 Hitchens as Kipling? Nah. CH is not that macho. But his writing-- however glib, arrogant, unPC-- is quite beyond the usual US yokel. Like AA regs--they can't handle HitchensSpeak . They're Fox bots/Beck types. Or Larry the cable guy.; 4/6/11, 1:52 PM
Anonymous said...: Pastor Jones should be given a medal for public service. His stunt has demonstrated the truth of two propositions: first, that Western liberals (and U.S. flag officers besides) treat Moslems not as moral agents but as animals not responsible for their acts; second, that Western liberals will willingly adopt prior restraints on speech in order not to transgress Moslem notions of blasphemy.

As I wrote elsewhere, if our military is not going to protect and defend our constitution, but instead sees its mission as providing aid and firepower to prop up officially Islamic regimes (Kosovo, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and soon Egypt and Libya if the radical Islamists take over as they almost surely will), tell me why it should not be considered a corps of janissaries? Because it doesn't explicitly call itself one? I never was contemptuous of the United States military until after Petraeus kowtowed to "the Holy Qu'ran" (ptui!). If our generals have gone native, it's time to bring them home.; 4/6/11, 3:06 PM
Tarzan said...: "...the physical destruction of the embodiment of Islam."

Mein Kampf is the embodiment of Nazi-ism then. What's the penalty for burning that?

Speech. It's either free, or it isn't.

Church and State. They're either separate or they're not.

Two long-standing totems of leftist bluster are being cast aside, because now we're supposed to make a nuanced case for Islam?

Because...?

...if we don't, little ignorant people's who couldn't possibly be expected to know better might take offense and react with violence?

That's the sort of attitude people take towards pets and children. Projecting that condescending view onto another culture is racism, pure and simple.

Can't have that, can we?

I can't help thinking that this sort of attitude is 'attachment parenting' writ large. We have lost our collective spine and forgotten that there is a time and place to set and enforce limits...

...on the children and not on the adults, until the children can demonstrate they understand the limits and can behave within them un-supervised.

But here in Never Never Land no one wants to risk being un-cool by actually growing up, let alone demanding others do the same.

Lord of the Flies, with all the 'adults' watching on, looking aghast and stumbling over each other in their efforts to excuse the children's savagery and condemn each other for not 'caring' enough.; 4/6/11, 3:38 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: That was overheated?

If you're an atheist, this is nothing but being forced to witness a whole bunch more death and posturing, by extremely silly people, over absolutely nothing.

So how can what he said be overheated?

Sorry, but the height of insanity, under such wretched circumstances, is NOT the screaming.; 4/6/11, 4:15 PM
jimbino said...: If you want good, overheated prose, just check out the myriad comments rejected and deleted by Eugene Volokh and his ilk, who can't even stand to have their bad grammar corrected, for Chrissake, much less their bad thinking.; 4/6/11, 5:53 PM
bagoh20 said...: I'm not sure what he wrote there, but I agree with it.; 4/7/11, 12:26 AM
Sarah Rolph said...: "(Where will we go for well-overheated prose if we lose Christopher Hitchens?)"

Mark Steyn.; 4/7/11, 7:57 AM
Sarah Rolph said...: "(Where will we go for well-overheated prose if we lose Christopher Hitchens?)"

Mark Steyn.; 4/7/11, 7:58 AM