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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 02/19/2009 : 01:18:05
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PZ Myers covers this.
It seems that as Christopher Hitchens went barhopping in Beirut, he saw a poster put up by the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, which uses a Swastika-like logo and flag:
Hitchens scrawled a rebuttal, "Fuck the SSNP" on the poster.
A lurking group of SSNP supporters then proceeded to kick Hitch's ass.
Now, there is something, perhaps, to admire in Hitch's courage (if that's what it was), but his judgment after drinking remains mysterious.
I am definitely going to have to remove Hitchens from my list of "Atheists with whom I want to go carousing in the Middle East."
Edited to add this link to a story by Wonkette.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 02/19/2009 02:05:43
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13481 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2009 : 09:09:51 [Permalink]
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| I suppose he would have won a verbal sparring. It looks like Hitchens was a bit judgment impaired. But he sure puts himself out there... |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2009 : 09:25:49 [Permalink]
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As they say... There is a fine line between courage and stupidity...
I am a wee bit uneasy with the bit where he goes to Lebanon and tell them how to behave, that's a just bit too close from post-colonialist Western arrogance for my taste...
But, fuck, these guys are fucking nazis (literally so)... So... Go Hitchens, I guess. Hurt their toes with your mighty face! |
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5311 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2009 : 10:05:44 [Permalink]
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| How many times have you seen him give the finger to an entire audience. I imagine you could pick the wrong place to do that, too. |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 02/19/2009 : 12:24:01 [Permalink]
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This was either a classic piece of stupidity or simply a sort of religious fundamentalism in reverse. Or, more likely, both. He has behaved like all too many religious fundamentalists act toward atheists. I agree; fuck the SSNP but fuck them packing heat. Or better yet: keep your drunken fucking nose out of the business of others.
I'd thought Hitch was better than this, and have small sympathy.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2009 : 18:43:54 [Permalink]
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As I wrote (#15 over at ERV):Reading the account in the OP link doesn't change my opinion much. Like the earlier account, it's not a first-hand account, and it doesn't deny that Hitch had some alcohol in him.
I suspect that when Hitchens tells the story, we'll get the most truthful version, warts and all. He's like that.
Neither version changed my existing attitude toward either Hitch or the SSNP. Hitch is still an asshole, and I still like him. His heart was in the right place, but his goddamn body was in Beirut. Nazis are still far, far worse than mere assholes, and I loathe 'em.
I still won't go drinking with him in Lebanon. (And with Hitch, drinking time is pretty much all the time, from most accounts.)
I agree that it's never WRONG to stand up to Nazis. But that doesn't negate the need for a sense of tactical awareness.
I might well have done what Hitchens did, if the circumstances were reasonably favorable. In a 1967 anti-Vietnam war protest in San Francisco, my friends and I were attacked by uniformed members of George Lincoln Rockwell's American Nazi Party. It was all fisticuffs. (Picture a confused brawl in part of the street, with thousands of marchers passing by.)
The Nazis had attacked part of a huge peace march, but most of the marchers did not want to get involved in the fight. Eventually, though, enough of that minority [of] marchers who hated Nazis stopped to get into the melee. The Nazis were increasingly getting their asses handed to them, and the police finally stepped in to protect the Nazis.
Lesson: The Nazis had a poor sense of tactical awareness. |
[Above quote edited to add link, and one missing word "[of]" for grammar.]
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 02/19/2009 19:23:43 |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9698 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2009 : 22:12:25 [Permalink]
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| Nazies have a poor sense, period. |
Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 02/20/2009 : 01:03:23 [Permalink]
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Yeah, it was stupid, and probably drunken bravado, but it's the sort of drunken bravado sometimes I think we need a little more of in the world. He thumbed his nose at Syrian Nazis lived to tell the tale, and I'm sure it's the sort of thing that will get better and better in the retelling.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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On fire for Christ
SFN Regular
Norway
1273 Posts |
Posted - 02/20/2009 : 04:41:58 [Permalink]
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| I like this guy |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13481 Posts |
Posted - 02/20/2009 : 09:32:15 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by H. Humbert
Yeah, it was stupid, and probably drunken bravado, but it's the sort of drunken bravado sometimes I think we need a little more of in the world. He thumbed his nose at Syrian Nazis lived to tell the tale, and I'm sure it's the sort of thing that will get better and better in the retelling.
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Well certainly Hitchens will be telling the story. And Hitchens is always a good read, whether you agree with him or not. |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 02/22/2009 : 00:28:31 [Permalink]
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From Dave W.'s Skeptic Summary #224:D'oh! I mean, I'm always happy to amuse people, even when I sometimes do it... unconsciously.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26034 Posts |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 02/22/2009 : 01:08:01 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Our. Not mine. Our.
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Bet you're the one that caught my (not our) misspelling, though.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Chrisopher Hitchens gets beat up in Lebanon
