RICHLY DESERVED

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his is just a great moment in televised political debate. Someone actually told off a hypocritical boor and his jeering section, using words that I find myself frequently flinging at the television set when similar episodes take place.

Christopher Hitchens was a panel guest on Friday night with Bill Maher, on his Real Time show. Hitchens had been concisely laying out the case that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the one who wants to instigate chaos and war, including his known adherence to an Islamist millenial cult (known as Hojjatieh for those interested, whose belief system involves the need for total global chaos in order to create the conditions for the return of the 12th Imam, who now resides in another dimension and will bring complete Islamic rule of the earth).

“He says the Messiah is about to come back. Who's looking for a war here?” Maher interrupts with his knee jerk BDS brilliance: "So does George Bush, by the way." The audience goes wild at Maher's nuanced analysis. Clearly exasperated at the simple-minded (but predictable) mass BDS in this particular studio audience, Hitchens flips them his middle finger and tells them, as I'll abbreviate in case children are present, to "F U, F U."

NewsBusters has the video (only 40 seconds long, so anyone should be able to grab it). They also have a transcript of the segment, a little bit fuller that what is shown in the clip:

Christopher Hitchens: “Who wants a Third Word War? The Iranian President says that one member state of the United Nations should be wiped physically from the map with all its people. He says the United States is a Satanic power. Members of his government, named members of his government have been caught sponsoring deaths squads. He's lied, he's lied to the European Union about his nuclear program-”

Bill Maher: “But you know that a lot-”

Hitchens: “He says the Messiah is about to come back. Who's looking for a war here?”

Maher: “So does George Bush, by the way [audience applause]. That's not facetious [audience applause continues].”

Hitchens: “That's not facetious. Your audience, which will clap at apparently anything, is frivolous. [oohs and groans from audience, Hitchens gives them the finger] F U, F U. [groans continue]”

Maher: “I was just saying what the President of Iran and the President of America have in common is that they both are a little too comfortable with the idea of the world coming to an end.”

Hitchens: “Cheer yourself up like that. The President has said, quite a great contrast before the podium of the Senate, I think applauded by most present, in his State of the Union address, that we support the democratic movement of the Iranian people to be free of theocracy -- not that we will impose ourselves on them, but that if they fight for it we're on their side. That seems to be the right position to take, jeer all you like.”

Beautiful. If only one or two of the BDS sufferers went home that night and pondered a little on what Hitch told them, the effort was well worth it.

For a bonus, here's a longer YouTube clip of Hitchens trying to educate Jon Stewart in a discussion on the Daily Show. It's been said that the younger generation of Americans get their understanding of current events primarily from watching Maher and Stewart. Many of them apparently think these shows are actually news programs. Well, in these two instances at least, Hitchens gave these representatives of the "reality-based" community a small dose of actual reality. I wonder if he'll ever be invited back.

Wai to Allahpundit for the YouTube link.
- posted by Agam @ 11:06 PM 0 comments

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