Ace: Here’s what really happened with Hitchens and the pro-Syrian thugs
posted at 8:50 pm on February 18, 2009 by Allahpundit
Since he’s setting the record straight, I didn’t want to bury this in the other post as an update.
Apparently they weren’t just goons but full-blown Syrian Nazis whose posters Hitch was defacing. That’s two beers I owe him now.
Well, when this Syrian Nazi goon saw Hitch do this, he confronted him and kinda-sorta attacked him. I say kinda sorta attacked, because what his main intent was was to delay Hitchens from leaving — until the ten Nazi goons he had just texted on his cell phone could arrive.
There was some kicking and pulling and hitting. Hitch and the others attempted to get into a cab — the Syrian Nazi goon got right in the cab with them, still hitting Hitchens. They could not force him out. Eventually they all exited, and attempted to get a fresh cab, but other cabbies were now hip to the fact the Syrian Nazis had been riled and wanted no business from them, so two cabs passed refusing their fare.
Follow the link. It was broad daylight, not the middle of the night; he was sober, not hammered in a bar; and he didn’t get his ass kicked, he got a few scrapes and bruises. Exit question: Er, what’s the difference between a “Syrian Nazi” and the rest of the Syrian establishment?
Blowback
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Come now man, you’ve gone to far! There must be a misprint! Did I read correctly that Hitch was in a bar?
moxie_neanderthal on February 18, 2009 at 8:53 PM
This makes Hitch look better. Ace keeping people honest.
Amazing how many comments we can generate without knowing the facts.
Spirit of 1776 on February 18, 2009 at 8:54 PM
He’s still a moron.
KSgop on February 18, 2009 at 8:54 PM
Is this what we need to finally get on the map? Do we need to set up a male-blogger goon squad to go around beating people up?
AP, you HAVE to get out of your house one of these days and join Ace and the gang. The forces of Conservative power UNITE!
Maybe you could even bring The Hammer for tactical support.
jimmy the notable on February 18, 2009 at 8:55 PM
Cool looking uniforms…
elgeneralisimo on February 18, 2009 at 8:55 PM
Their uniforms?
FloatingRock on February 18, 2009 at 8:56 PM
A meeting with Nancy Pelosi?
Pasalubong on February 18, 2009 at 8:56 PM
Caviar.
spmat on February 18, 2009 at 8:56 PM
No offense to Allah cause I know he worships this fool but Hitch sounds like a pussy. Writing dirty little things on a poster and then when he finds out somebody didnt like it, he decided to:
RUN LIKE HELL!!!
The Wall on February 18, 2009 at 8:56 PM
I think Hitchens started it, no matter what anyone says; he shouldn’t have been wearing that shirt.
Bishop on February 18, 2009 at 8:57 PM
Hair?
Brat4life on February 18, 2009 at 8:57 PM
Where is the Bluesmobile when you need it?
reaganaut on February 18, 2009 at 8:57 PM
Well beating up a lookout is appealing, but jail in a foreign (unfriendly) country. Eh, no so much.
Spirit of 1776 on February 18, 2009 at 8:59 PM
No, the misprint was that Hitchens was sober.
Maxx on February 18, 2009 at 8:59 PM
An election or two?
The pic, by the way? Awesome.
MadisonConservative on February 18, 2009 at 9:00 PM
I get the feeling this is going to be like that thread when that insane guy on the canadian bus beheaded the other guy, and people ran off the bus instead of intervening.
People were like, “I wouldn’t have left!” Which is a lie. If I see an insane person cutting somebody’s head off, I go the other way.
jimmy the notable on February 18, 2009 at 9:01 PM
THE GOONS WERE MEMBERS IN GOOD STANDING OF THE SOCIALIST INTERNATIONAL. LIKE HITCH.
reliapundit on February 18, 2009 at 9:01 PM
Pffft. I heard he got his ass kicked by a Lebanese dance troupe because he defaced a Rent poster.
Chuck Schick on February 18, 2009 at 9:02 PM
Terrific. And wrong. Hitchens quit socialism years ago.
Allahpundit on February 18, 2009 at 9:02 PM
How? By showing he did something extremely stupid (and risked not just his life, but the lives of his companions) while SOBER?
Darth Executor on February 18, 2009 at 9:03 PM
You guys are all wrong, its the silly walks.
jimmy the notable on February 18, 2009 at 9:03 PM
Caps lock key broken there? He ditched socialism several years ago.
amerpundit on February 18, 2009 at 9:06 PM
ER UM… ALLAHPUNIDT AND AMERPUNDIT:
CHRISSY ENDORSED OBAMA.
EFF OFF.
reliapundit on February 18, 2009 at 9:08 PM
Send him a case Allah………
…………. not everyone has the courage to go to the belly of the beast.
Seven Percent Solution on February 18, 2009 at 9:08 PM
Actually I’ve been sitting here wondering what my reaction would be after we got safely back to the hotel if I was with him.
It’s one thing to risk your own life but quite another to unnecessarily risk the lives of others without their consent….
TheBigOldDog on February 18, 2009 at 9:08 PM
If I see an insane person cutting somebody’s head off, I go the other way.
jimmy the notable on February 18, 2009 at 9:01 PM
What if the attacker were sane and the victim deserved it…and your stop was next on the bus route? Decapitation occurring near me or not, I’m not walking those extra blocks. I paid the fare, I’m gettin’ the ride.
Bishop on February 18, 2009 at 9:08 PM
zing.
jimmy the notable on February 18, 2009 at 9:08 PM
Go die in a car fire. Please.
MadisonConservative on February 18, 2009 at 9:11 PM
THIS IS HARDLY A REPUDIATION:
REASON: So, do you still consider yourself a socialist?
Hitchens: Brian Lamb of C-SPAN has been interviewing me on and off for about 20 years, since I’d first gone to Washington, which is roughly when his own Washington Journal program began. As the years went by, he formed the habit of starting every time by saying: “You haven’t been on the show for a bit. Tell me, are you still a socialist?” And I would always say, “Yes, I am.” I knew that he hoped that one day I would say, “No, you know what, Brian, I’ve seen the light, I’ve seen the error of my ways.” And I knew that I didn’t want to give him this satisfaction, even if I’d had a complete conversion experience.
The funny thing is that, recently, he stopped asking me. I don’t know why. And just about at that point, I had decided that however I would have phrased the answer — I didn’t want to phrase it as someone repudiating his old friends or denouncing his old associations — I no longer would have positively replied, “I am a socialist.”
I don’t like to deny it. But it simply ceased to come up, as a matter of fact. And in my own life there’s a reason for that.
There is no longer a general socialist critique of capitalism — certainly not the sort of critique that proposes an alternative or a replacement. There just is not and one has to face the fact, and it seems to me further that it’s very unlikely, though not impossible, that it will again be the case in the future. Though I don’t think that the contradictions, as we used to say, of the system, are by any means all resolved.
REASON: Many socialists have a radically anti-authoritarian disposition, even though the policies they would enact end up being authoritarian. What causes this divide?
Hitchens: Karl Marx was possibly the consummate anti-statist in his original writings and believed that the state was not the solution to social problems, but the outcome of them, the forcible resolution in favor of one ruling group. He thought that if you could give a name to utopia, it was the withering away of the state. Certainly those words had a big effect on me.
The reason why people tend to forget them, or the left has a tendency to forget them in practice, has something to do with the realm of necessity. If you make your priority — let’s call it the 1930s — the end of massive unemployment, which was then defined as one of the leading problems, there seemed no way to do it except by a program of public works. And, indeed, the fascist governments in Europe drew exactly the same conclusion at exactly the same time as Roosevelt did, and as, actually, the British Tories did not. But not because the Tories had a better idea of what to do about it. They actually favored unemployment as a means of disciplining the labor market.
You see what I mean: Right away, one’s in an argument, and there’s really nothing to do with utopia at all. And then temporary expedients become dogma very quickly — especially if they seem to work.
http://www.reason.com/news/show/28208.html
HE FREAKIN DEFENDS MARX!
IF HITCH AIN’T STILL A SOCISLIST, THEN OBAMA IS A BLUE DOG!
reliapundit on February 18, 2009 at 9:12 PM
As did Colin Powell. I guess he’s socialist, too. Or he could simply have made a mistake in his supporting Obama in our opinion, especially since four million Republicans stayed home and helped allow Obama to get into the White House. Are they socialist too, or were they perhaps disenchanted with their option?
And again, is your caps lock broken or are you intentionally looking like an idiot?
amerpundit on February 18, 2009 at 9:12 PM
HITCH ENDORSED OBAMA.
YOU CAN ALL EFF YOURSELVES!
ALLA SUCKS HITCHES YOU KNOW WHAT CUZ THERE BOTH ATHEISTS.
END OF STORY.
reliapundit on February 18, 2009 at 9:14 PM
Wow….
TheBigOldDog on February 18, 2009 at 9:14 PM
eff of amerrypundit.
HAPPY NOW!?
i mean happy now.
idiot.
reliapundit on February 18, 2009 at 9:15 PM
GUESSWHOWILLBETHENEXTVICTUMOFTHECAPSLOCKPUNDIT!!!1!ELEVENTY!!!
elgeneralisimo on February 18, 2009 at 9:15 PM
colin powell!?!?
idiot.
reliapundit on February 18, 2009 at 9:16 PM
I hate Syrian Nazis…
beancounter on February 18, 2009 at 9:16 PM
You can make us all eff ourselves right from your computer. Just go to the hardware store, buy a large magnet, and place it on your hard drive.
Then fill your bathtub with water, and see how long you can hold your head under before you drown. Then hold it under 10 minutes longer than that.
MadisonConservative on February 18, 2009 at 9:16 PM
powell.
scooter.
armitage.
end of story.
idiots.
reliapundit on February 18, 2009 at 9:16 PM
Isn’t it past your bedtime? You apparently can’t have an educated debate.
amerpundit on February 18, 2009 at 9:17 PM
That’s some bad meth you’ve gotten hold of.
*
(Sorry, I meant to say THAT’S SOME BAD METH YOU’VE GOTTEN HOLD OF.)
Tzetzes on February 18, 2009 at 9:17 PM
What on earth is going on with the flame wars? This is the second ugly thread today. Please grow up.
schaffies on February 18, 2009 at 9:17 PM
Powell’s an idiot who places race above all. He doesn’t even know what socialism is.
Hitchens isn’t dumb, so he doesn’t have that excuse. He liked the Marxist aspect of BHO.
progressoverpeace on February 18, 2009 at 9:18 PM
madison:
“Go die in a car fire. Please.”
clever.
my cuz died on 9/11 in a plane fire.
does this make you happy?
reliapundit on February 18, 2009 at 9:18 PM
Well, no one can argue with your logic.
Esthier on February 18, 2009 at 9:18 PM
Powell’s an idiot who places race above all. He doesn’t even know what socialism is.
Hitchens isn’t dumb, so he doesn’t have that excuse. He liked the Marxist aspect of BHO.
progressoverpeace on February 18, 2009 at 9:18 PM
BRAVO!
reliapundit on February 18, 2009 at 9:19 PM
ameripundit: read the resaon interview.
he lauds marx.
never really repudiates socialism as an ideal, merely that it might not be practical unless there’s a crisis.
like now.
reliapundit on February 18, 2009 at 9:20 PM
Go die in a car fire. Please.
MadisonConservative on February 18, 2009 at 9:11 PM
Ditto to OldDog.
WOW.
Bishop on February 18, 2009 at 9:21 PM
Yeah, a 60 year old guy faced with the prospect of getting beaten up by 10 Islamic nutjob facists in Lebanon? Totally should’ve just duked it out with all of them. In fact, you should go there and show us all how it’s done.
Hollowpoint on February 18, 2009 at 9:22 PM
Uh…the rest of the Syrian establishment plays footsie with Arlen, Nancy and the other liberal/Democrat/UsefulIdiot crowd?
What do I win?!
Jaibones on February 18, 2009 at 9:22 PM
Hitchens, like every atheist in the world, is living in a delusional state, but that is largely orthogonal to his ability to see the moral reality on the ground when presented with real evil, assuming his moral compass is correctly calibrated.
Yes, Hitchens is a Trotskyite. No, that doesn’t mean he’s in cahoots with the Syrian fascists.
spmat on February 18, 2009 at 9:22 PM
Nope. I was addressing you, not your cousin.
MadisonConservative on February 18, 2009 at 9:22 PM
schaffies on February 18, 2009 at 9:17 PM
Eh, a little mild flaming can liven things up, it’s good for the digestion.
Telling someone to go die in a car fire…not so much.
Bishop on February 18, 2009 at 9:23 PM
If your compatriots are going to get you in a fight, it’s nice if they are sober enough to contribute something other then vomit.
Spirit of 1776 on February 18, 2009 at 9:23 PM
What do I win?!
Jaibones on February 18, 2009 at 9:22 PM
A date with Hitchens.
You lucky duck.
Bishop on February 18, 2009 at 9:24 PM
socialism is always wrong, ,orally. poltically and economically.
apologists for it – like hitch – are scum.
and if he’s so effin smart, then why’d he remain a socailist until recently!?
i mean reagan and thatcher and the fall of the wall should have ended it.
hitch was right on the iraq war only because he loved the kurds – who were SOCIALISTS!
reliapundit on February 18, 2009 at 9:24 PM
This is wise_man-esque.
Spirit of 1776 on February 18, 2009 at 9:24 PM
Sorry, it’s a reflex action when someone, 15 years after the internet became mainstream, still doesn’t know the first rule of Fight Club: turn off the goddamned caps lock.
MadisonConservative on February 18, 2009 at 9:26 PM
What would your reaction have been if you happened to be with him when he did this after he had just been warned the consequences could be deadly?
TheBigOldDog on February 18, 2009 at 9:26 PM
This is wise_man-esque.
Spirit of 1776 on February 18, 2009 at 9:24 PM
Got that right, though MC couldn’t be wise man, they were both here at the same time?
A tad aggressive, I like a little fun on the board too but whoa.
Bishop on February 18, 2009 at 9:27 PM
Uncool. My chimpanzee died in a car fire.
see-dubya on February 18, 2009 at 9:28 PM
Seriously, though, is it just me or is life getting really weird these days?
Frankly I didn’t even know Syria had Nazis.
see-dubya on February 18, 2009 at 9:29 PM
Whoa.
MadisonConservative on February 18, 2009 at 9:29 PM
I am shocked to see you call for a fellow conservative’s death. I’m shaking from the anxiety attack so badly that I can barely type.
Darth Executor on February 18, 2009 at 9:30 PM
Ever seen Obsession?
TheBigOldDog on February 18, 2009 at 9:30 PM
Sorry, it’s a reflex action when someone, 15 years after the internet became mainstream, still doesn’t know the first rule of Fight Club: turn off the goddamned caps lock.
MadisonConservative on February 18, 2009 at 9:26 PM
No skin off my back, the fight is between the two of you, but you say something like that over a capitalized post?
I just hope you don’t catch me with a grammar mistake or something.
Bishop on February 18, 2009 at 9:30 PM
Good point, actually.
exception on February 18, 2009 at 9:30 PM
I can understand. I’m not known for my sarcasm.
MadisonConservative on February 18, 2009 at 9:31 PM
That doesn’t even scratch the surface after MadCon’s tirades in the other Hitchens post.
Darth Executor on February 18, 2009 at 9:32 PM
If you even consider typing “alot” as a word…I break out the voodoo doll.
MadisonConservative on February 18, 2009 at 9:32 PM
Or tells us all to go eff ourselves.
People change. Here’s what Ronald Reagan said in Time for Choosing:
Was he an idiot for having a different ideology until “recently”? He saw world issues changing and believed the ideology he subscribed to didn’t cut it.
I’m sure others noticed problems with the left’s ideals long before Reagan did. In fact, Reagan notes that Al Smith warned that the Dems were marching down the road under the banners of “Marx, Lenin, and Stalin” and in 1936. Reagan was a Democrat until recently in 1964.
amerpundit on February 18, 2009 at 9:32 PM
lol
Darth Executor on February 18, 2009 at 9:33 PM
I call troll.
Tzetzes on February 18, 2009 at 9:33 PM
I know, right? I guess they thrive in Jew-hating countries. Noone to get offended.
jimmy the notable on February 18, 2009 at 9:34 PM
Oh, man, that’s terrible! I can’t stop laughing, but it’s terrible!
Tzetzes on February 18, 2009 at 9:34 PM
Frankly I didn’t even know Syria had Nazis.
see-dubya on February 18, 2009 at 9:29 PM
They are the offspring of Nazis who fled Germany at the end of the war.
Ever read the book “The Boys from Brazil”?
Brazil, Beirut, they both start with a B, both have six letters, both have an E in them…..scary when you look at all the connections.
Bishop on February 18, 2009 at 9:34 PM
Also, good to see you here see-dubya. How’ve you been doing since you stopped blogging at Michelle’s?
jimmy the notable on February 18, 2009 at 9:35 PM
It seems the Liberal camp has become
very tolerate of each other!
And Obama was suppose to unite the country!
As every day goes by,they’re hyper-sensitivity
towards Tolerance continues!
And,its only Day #29!
canopfor on February 18, 2009 at 9:35 PM
If you even consider typing “alot” as a word…I break out the voodoo doll.
MadisonConservative on February 18, 2009 at 9:32 PM
I don’t do that alot, though I have been known to spell “loser” with two O’s.
You’re just lucky we can’t hear one another; I say “across” as “acrosst”.
Bishop on February 18, 2009 at 9:37 PM
Ace couldnt get in there and help a guy out?? if 10 guys could only bruise hitchens they shoulda been able to takem
ernesto on February 18, 2009 at 9:38 PM
Sober Hitch picked a fight with Syrian Nazis?
All it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing. Hitch took a stand.
I wonder if all the grief he’s taking here has a whole bunch to do the shame of getting shown up by an atheist.
Krydor on February 18, 2009 at 9:39 PM
Arab nations embraced Hitler and Nazism which it why Persia changed its name to Iran – Aryan… watch Obsession.
TheBigOldDog on February 18, 2009 at 9:39 PM
It was just one guy, they took off in a car before the 10 could catch them.
Darth Executor on February 18, 2009 at 9:40 PM
My reaction would be that we’d both best get the hell out of Dodge. I wouldn’t stand by if a fight was inevitable, but looking for a fight in a foreign country that happens to have a sizeable population of Islamic terrorists? No thanks.
Hollowpoint on February 18, 2009 at 9:40 PM
MORE PROOF HITCH IS STILL A LEFTIE-WEENIE:
HITCH VOLUNTEERED TONE WATER-BOARDED AND THEN HAD THE AUDACITY TO ARGUE IT WAS TORTURE!
NOBODY VOLUNTEERS FOR REAL TORTURE.
WIKI:
Waterboarding
In May 2008, Hitchens voluntarily experienced waterboarding, a controversial torture that has been used on prisoners held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay.
After he rejected the notion that waterboarding constitutes torture, he was asked by Vanity Fair to experience it for himself. After the experience he fully changed his opinion. He concluded “if waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture.”[52][53]
reliapundit on February 18, 2009 at 9:41 PM
That sound outside your front door? My pet wolverine.
That sound outside your back door? My fiancee’s pet puma.
That sound outside your window? Me, waiting to spray you with “Eau de Carrion”.
MadisonConservative on February 18, 2009 at 9:41 PM
MORE TRUTH ABOUT HITCH:
WIKI:
His employment of the term “Islamofascist” and his support for the Iraq War have caused Hitchens’s critics to label him a “neoconservative”. Hitchens, however, refuses to embrace this designation,[39] insisting that “I am not a conservative of any kind”.
reliapundit on February 18, 2009 at 9:42 PM
We seriously did not know that.
Thanks so much.
MadisonConservative on February 18, 2009 at 9:42 PM
What is it with the atheist whining and self-pity today? It’s even worse than usual. Hitchens didn’t take a stand anyway, he wrote on a poster and then ran like a pussy.
Hitchens’ gesture is useless anyway. What exactly did it achieve? If he had walked into the Sirynazi HQ with a chaingun in each hand and started blowing the bastards away then you could say he took a stand. All he did was write on a poster, and run off (except he couldn’t even run off properly based on Ace’s story because the guy followed them in the car and they had to abandon it).
Darth Executor on February 18, 2009 at 9:45 PM
That’s an absolutely ridiculous argument. He didn’t volunteer for torture. He agreed to have something he didn’t think was torture happen to him in order to prove it wasn’t torture. He changed his opinion of it after he experienced it.
amerpundit on February 18, 2009 at 9:47 PM
It sounded to me like Hitch was saying socialism was intellectually spent. If you realize the totality of Marxism as an organizing worldview for Marxists, that statement is pretty damned inconsistent with clinging to Marxism. One can also realize that Marx may well have considered himself an antistatist, but that his ideas about the malleability of human nature by material conditions were tragically wrong — as the hundred million dead people made clear to the rest of us.
And the bit about atheists being the delusional ones? Comedy gold, baby.
DrSteve on February 18, 2009 at 9:47 PM
Jealousy mixed with impotence makes for a pungent cologne.
MadisonConservative on February 18, 2009 at 9:47 PM
Arab nations embraced Hitler and Nazism which it why Persia changed its name to Iran – Aryan… watch Obsession.
TheBigOldDog on February 18, 2009 at 9:39 PM
Interesting, I had no idea.
Bishop on February 18, 2009 at 9:48 PM
Thanks, Bishop, for the daily dose of humor, good spirits and all the smiles. I’m so glad you have the time and the disposition to keep the troops somewhat sane these days.
Entelechy on February 18, 2009 at 9:50 PM
Hitchens’ gesture is useless anyway. What exactly did it achieve?
Darth Executor on February 18, 2009 at 9:45 PM
Thousands of extra hits for an article that otherwise would have been sort of dull.
A long piece about getting stomach cramps from eating tainted baba ghanoush just wouldn’t have the same flair.
Bishop on February 18, 2009 at 9:50 PM
Go forth and find the documentary…..
TheBigOldDog on February 18, 2009 at 9:50 PM
I hear you’re having girl problems. Maybe we can have my ass transplanted on your face to improve your odds a bit.
Darth Executor on February 18, 2009 at 9:51 PM
He did nothing of the sort. He latched onto neoconservatism like numerous other ex-Trotskyists, most of whom wond up advising the Bush Administration and/or comprising Britain’s New Labour Government.
Allahpundit if you ever meet Hitch ask him if will condemn
“Marxism-Leninism”. If he says he no but offers to gladly denounce “Stalinism” ask him why.
Hitchens’ fine distinctions between “Leninism” and “Stalinism” are far more pedantic than my own distinctions between Chinese Communist Party “fascism” and Mussolini-inspired “Islamism”.
aengus on February 18, 2009 at 9:52 PM
Then how would you be able talk?
MadisonConservative on February 18, 2009 at 9:53 PM
Untainted Baba Ganoush on the other hand, what delicacy. My old country used to be occupied by the Turks for very long. As such, those kinds of recipes are very common. We could ask for a recipe or book thread, or hobbies…now and then…especially on slow weekends.
Entelechy on February 18, 2009 at 9:54 PM
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