They are worthy of each other.

CyberCipher on June 25, 2007 at 4:23 PM

Worthy of each other, indeed.

Krydor on June 25, 2007 at 6:21 PM

Deliver all the kudos and accolades that you want to Hitchens. I would not contest your recognition of his intellectual prowess or academic standing. But, alas, I fear that you have completely missed my point.

Even though Islamic rage boy may be a figment of the media’s over-active imagination, the media itself is real, just like Hitchens. And the message from both (the media and Hitchens) is essentially the same. It is a message of H-A-T-E. It doesn’t matter to me whether THAT message comes from the media, or from an accomplished intellectual. I have the same reaction — no matter where is comes from. I have no time, and no use for people that HATE.

If Hitchens never wrote another book, he would be remembered as one of the philosphical greats of this century.

Seconded. I wouldn’t want to run across his brain in a dark alley.

Is Hitchens reading blogs?

I’ve told you this before. He talked about Columbia’s president and his bizarre reaction to the Virginia Tech shootings. Hot Air was the only blog that had covered it by the time he ran his Slate piece.

Doesn’t prove anything, but now n=2.

see-dubya on June 25, 2007 at 4:26 PM

The real question is did get in on the current registration?

- The Cat

But Hitchens’ (and Warraq’s) point remains: That by making every conceivable dishonest excuse for Rage Boy’s barbaric behavior, and even (in some circles) attempting to legitimize it, the West continues to shift moral responsibility from Rage Boy onto the West, with increasingly destructive results.

abulafia on June 25, 2007 at 7:01 PM

I would agree, but for Hitchens’ comment about the Pope, who did NOT make a “crass remark,” but instead brilliantly issued a challenge to Muslims.

PS, thanks for opening the registration.

.

Rage Boy keenly looks forward to anger, while we worriedly anticipate trouble, and fret about etiquette, and prepare the next retreat. If taken to its logical conclusion, this would mean living at the pleasure of Rage Boy, and that I am not prepared to do.

Hitchens’ conclusion is the key here: That the collective West — and leftists in the West, in particular — have learned nothing in the 18 years since the original fatwa against Rushdie. Hitchens reminds us of U.S. bookstores removing ‘The Satanic Verses” from the shelves in order to placate the Rage Boys of 1989. Ibn Warraq, in “Why I Am Not a Muslim,” wondered how long before the works of Gibbon (”[The Koran is an] endless incoherent rapsody of fable”), or Hume (who referred to Muhammad as the “pretended prophet” who bestowed “praise on such instances of treachery, inhumanity, cruelty, revenge and bigotry as are utterly incompatible with civilized society”), or Dante (who consigned Muhammad to Hell), were removed from the shelves, as well. (I suppose we’re fortunate that Rage Boy isn’t interested in reading anything outside the limited texts dictated to him in his Peshawar madrassa; and probably wouldn’t understand Gibbon, Hume, or Dante even if he did venture upon their writing.)

But Hitchens’ (and Warraq’s) point remains: That by making every conceivable dishonest excuse for Rage Boy’s barbaric behavior, and even (in some circles) attempting to legitimize it, the West continues to shift moral responsibility from Rage Boy onto the West, with increasingly destructive results.

He’s the best propaganda the West ever had.

A crass remark from Josef Ratzinger (leader of an anti-war church)

I know Hitchens is an anti-theist but it’s a little petty when he refuses even to call the Pope the Pope.

Satan?

Laddie Buck on June 25, 2007 at 5:29 PM

Yea, that’s the thing about him… we would never agree on Christianity… or religion in general, but he’s right on when it comes to accurately describing Islam and the threat it poses to civilization.

CyberCipher

Hitchens exposes the theatre of the absurd that is “islamic rage” to a wider audience and this is the best you can do?

Rage Boy isn’t worthy of one frame of film. He’s a creation of the media. If Hitchens never wrote another book, he would be remembered as one of the philosphical greats of this century. Worthy of each other, indeed.

…

The bottom line with the Perennially Indignant is that, no matter how much you give them, they always demand more. There is always one more slight, one more injustice, or one more example of your “cruelty” or “unfairness” or “selfishness” which must be rectified at all costs. With you paying the freight.

Dealing with the likes of Rage Boy (and his counterparts) is rather like dealing with a schoolyard bully. In spite of decades of theorizing, the problem is not that the “bully types” suffer from feelings of inferiority; most in fact have oversized egos and feelings of grandiosity that border on megalomania. And when you give in to them, it just confirms their inflated opinion of themselves.

Hitchens talks of the “rings of news crews”. A better idea would be to send one(pool) crew, period. If you even have to send that.

And when Rage Boy (or O’Donnell, FTM) asks where everyone else is, tell them,

“Covering real news stories. After all, we’ve already seen your act a dozen times over.

“And we’re not impressed anymore.”

cheers

eon

It’s interesting that this is on Slate.com, a leftist site. His expose of the camera crews focussing in on the flames to avoid showing the tiny size of the furious mob is quite revealing. But will any minds be changed? Not if you read the comments from Slate readers regarding his article. It’s all Bush’s fault, or some variation thereof.

This mental and moral capitulation has a bearing on the argument about Iraq, as well. We are incessantly told that the removal of the Saddam Hussein despotism has inflamed the world’s Muslims against us and made Iraq hospitable to terrorism, for all the world as if Baathism had not been pumping out jihadist rhetoric for the past decade (as it still does from Damascus, allied to Tehran).

Exactly how is such a mentality to be placated?

We may have to put up with the Rage Boys of the world, but we ought not to do their work for them

Courage, dear Mr. Hitchens. Indeed, you possess plenty.

As Ayaan Hirsi Ali, link from the HA Headlines, also so eloquently states, along with Mr. Hitchens, these types need to be mocked and ridiculed, not excused, ignored, or encouraged.