Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

The difference between him and Hitchens is that Hitchens did give a fuck, in the sense that he was building a persona and offending people was sometimes part of the point.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Also, you should be ashamed of yourself for not remembering that she told us that at the time she switched to that avatar.

Or maybe I shouldn't remember that. Whatever.

Re: Seriously Kreepy
 

Fuck. That's Silence of the Lambs meets the Holocaust level stuff.

The Catholic Church's strangehold on the Irish is baffling. History hasn't exactly been kind to these folks, they live in a depressing climate, and yet they hew to this regressive, sexist "religion" that only inflicts more depression on them via shame and repression.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

I can't remember three posts ago. I'll probably ask her again in a year or so.

And anyway, while I'm reading about Irish people murdering babies (thanks for that... but I can't look away), "GWNC has a damn fine ass" provides a pleasant respite, no?

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Fixed that for you.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Lutheranism is a bitch.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

As I'm nearly 1:1 with Hitchens in terms of targets (the sole daylight between our shared hatreds of mostly everything being his appalling support for the Iraq war and silly argument about female comedians not being funny), his caring is endearing.

I mean, let's face it. If any of us could insult as coolly and scathingly as Hitchens, we'd revel in it. To not do so would be robbing society of needed entertainment. If Hitchens' sole public comment had been, "If Jerry Falwell were given an enema, he could be buried in a matchbox" (offered upon that vile charlatan's departure to the afterl-- err, nothingness), his life would've been worth it.

Thankfully, there are approximately 10,000 more. Hitchens would be the ultimate God of commentary if not for Buckley and Vidal, both of whom bested him in showing absolute contempt for targets.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

He was very good at what he did, but he was also a sad figure.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

I'd only managed to be in a physical room with him once. He'd already lost his hair, was otherwise clearly diminished, but was headed outside to have a scotch with a couple writers and take questions from some people who'd just heard him speak. I did not see a sad man.

But whether he himself was sad aside, I have heard others make the criticism you have. Usually, it's matched with, "Look, we all know a lot of 'belief' is bullshit, but it serves no one to run around shredding religion, and numerous other noble lies... These things are essential psychic scaffolding for a lot of people, and it helps no one to run around mocking them." I disagree with this about as vehemently as I disagree with murder. The Noble Lie should be Target #1 for every thinking man. From Paine to Twain to Mencken to Hitchens, no idea, no concept, and certainly no "belief" which cannot withstand rational scrutiny should be allowed to persist without vigorous criticism. I'm not in favor of banning any thought, however ridiculous. But the suggestion certain views or beliefs should remain unmolested because they give a lot of people comfort is as nauseating as the silly religious views that allowed so many innocent children to be actually, physically molested.

I can't think of a life more happy than one devoted to the notion There Are No Noble Lies.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

I don't know what criticism you are understanding me to be making, but his life was more than a little sad, even as he wrote a lot of excellent stuff. I wasn't thinking about religion. He deployed his talents to exposing and deflating others, and if I say that leaves me a little hollow in the end, that doesn't mean I didn't appreciate it -- one just feels that he could have turned those talents to more durable accomplishments. Also, the substance abuse. Always the scotch.

Re: Seriously Kreepy
 

The church's grip is slipping (see, gay marriage), but the hardships you're referring to actually drove people to the church.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Wouldn't know, really. Dated a Lutheran girl in high school who got me to go to a service once. The things a teenage boy will do for sex...

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

That's a fair criticism. He did argue, quite eloquently, that atheism was preferable because when atheists acted decently, it was more credible and honorable, as they did so not out of fear of judgment, but simple recognition it was the right thing to do. Subsumed in this was of course the argument that religion held man back from such growth and enlightenment. Unfortunately, as you note, he rarely offered his advice on how to better things because he was wallowing in fisticuffs with devout imbeciles.

Regarding scotch, we'll never know what percentage of his superb bon mots and astute commentaries were the work of the man himself, or only reached with aid of the Brothers Walker. In Hitchens' line of work, substance abuse is rarely considered "performance enhancing." More "performance inducing."

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Atheism is a bitch.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

My experience with Lutheran girls in your neck of the woods is that church wasn't required for sex.

TM