Hitchens vs. Meacham (who is a ponce, though a kindly one)

For an instruction in the intellectual buffoonery of religious liberals Jon Meacham rarely fails to provide. Great lines from Meacham include, "I believe in God for the same reasons I believe in love." Great, very insightful. Astonishing intellectual rigor. Great lines from Hitchens, "You've been very adept at quoting people. I'd like to know what you think." If you want even better examples read the sit that Meacham moderates On Faith, which I read during masochistic fits.

Hitchens on 9/11

"In order to get my own emotions out of the way, I should say briefly that on that day I shared the general register of feeling, from disgust to rage, but was also aware of something that would not quite disclose itself. It only became fully evident quite late that evening. And to my surprise (and pleasure), it was exhilaration. I am not particularly a war lover, and on the occasions when I have seen warfare as a traveling writer, I have tended to shudder. But here was a direct, unmistakable confrontation between everything I loved and everything I hated. On one side, the ethics of the multicultural, the secular, the skeptical, and the cosmopolitan. (Those are the ones I love, by the way.) On the other, the arid monochrome of dull and vicious theocratic fascism. I am prepared for this war to go on for a very long time. I will never become tired of waging it, because it is a fight over essentials. And because it is so interesting."

-Christopher Hitchens's reaction to 9/11