Pajamas Media

Citizen Hitchens Celebrates July 4th

July 4, 2007

Support Pajamas Media; Visit Our Advertisers

Newly naturalized U.S. citizen Christopher Hitchens — author of %%AMAZON=0446579807 God Is Not Great%% — and Richard Miniter toast the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, and its primary author, Thomas Jefferson.

14 Comments

Solomon:

I’m not getting any sound.

Jul 4, 2007 - 5:38 am Solomon:

My fault, got it.

Jul 4, 2007 - 6:06 am allahahahahu non-ackbar:

Awesome.

Jul 4, 2007 - 6:28 am John in Cincinnati:

I knew Hitch has to be somewhere on the Fourth! Excellent. Visit him more often!

Jul 4, 2007 - 6:30 am Rob:

He makes the excellent point that the first war the United States fought as an established nation was against the Islamic jihadists.

Jul 4, 2007 - 9:52 am Meg:

I think he should be featured on PJM more often. He is always interesting, and is such an important and relevant voice right now.

Jul 4, 2007 - 1:36 pm Jim C.:

Under XP, using Firefox 2.0.0.4, I was unable to position the video, i.e., start playing at another point. This forced me to watch the entire video and did not allow me to go back a few seconds for review.

I was able to position successfully with IE 7.

Perhaps this is a problem just with my system. If not, it should be fixed ASAP.

Jul 4, 2007 - 3:37 pm Martin Lindeskog:

Great interview! I have to get “God Is Not Great” by Mr. Hitchens.

Have a great Independence Day!

All the Best,

Martin Lindeskog - American in spirit.
Gothenburg, Sweden.

Jul 4, 2007 - 4:09 pm Winston:

Got the book and enjoyed it. Btw, Happy 4th of July

Jul 4, 2007 - 7:29 pm Jeremayakovka:

Wonderful. I felt like I was at the table with them both. Toast to Jefferson and Hitchens and Miniter.

Jul 4, 2007 - 7:40 pm goy:

It’s just a (repeated) slip of the tongue, right? Richard really does know that the title of Hitchens’ book is not “WHY God Is Not Great”, yes? Fingernails on a blackboard. Kudos to Hitchens, consummate gentleman that he is, for not slapping him down.

That said - thanks, Richard. More Hitchens is never a bad thing!

Jul 5, 2007 - 5:23 am Bruce Moon:

Haven’t read the book, but as an ex-member of the same religion (cult of Ayn Rand)as Mr. Hitchens, I understand how most militant secularists totally miss the point and cut their own legs off philosphically. Even Jefferson understood tha freedom and human rights could only be based upon an objective truth which, like a navigator’s calculations, must come from an outside fixed point. Even Ayn Rand was guilty of self-contradiction:

An open mind, in questions that are not ultimate, is useful. But an open mind about the ultimate foundations either of Theoretical or of Practical Reason is idiocy.–C.S. Lewis The Abolition of Man

..the Bill of Rights does not come from the people and is not subject to change by majorities. It comes from the nature of things. It declares the inalienable rights of man not only against all government but also against the people collectively. — Walter Lippmann

Without absolutes revealed from without by God Himself, we are left rudderless in a sea of conflicting ideas about manners, justice and right and wrong, issuing from a multitude of self-opinionated thinkers. John Owen

“There are no absolutes,” they chatter, blanking out the fact that they are uttering an absolute. —-Ayn Rand: Galt’s speech from _Atlas Shrugged_

Jul 5, 2007 - 9:16 am LSD:

-Hitchens is an asset to the conversation here in America. Congratulations to him and us!

I read in (I think in ‘Rights of Man’) that during Jefferson’s presidency, Tom Paine made his way back to the U.S.A. from a jail cell in France and was not allowed to vote because of allegations that he was an atheist.

-Could it have been that the framers were for freedom of relgion only so long as you believed in God? People seem to suggest otherwise.

Jul 5, 2007 - 7:04 pm james wigderson:

He and Dr. Kissinger now have something in common.

Jul 7, 2007 - 9:53 pm