Tonight, two items from Christopher Hitchens, who is, thankfully, still with us.
One of the things I’ve always admired most about Mr. Hitchens (apart from his razor-sharp intellect, his quick wit, his willingness to change his mind publicly when reason dictates, his debating skills, and his formidable prose style) is his marvellous speaking voice — a rich and beautifully accented baritone.
Now it seems that the cancer that may soon take his life has, with the cruelly playful sadism so characteristic of the disease, robbed him of the power of speech. He writes about it here.
In the second item, Mr. Hitchens responds to Noam Chomsky’s commentary on the death of Osama bin Laden.
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Why anybody pays attention to what Noam Chomsky says is beyond me. For all I know, he’s the Greatest Linguist Who Ever Lived. However, there is no straight line between expertise in linguistics and having astute views about politics and world affairs. It’s like asking Britney Spears for her opinion on macroeconomics. Chomsky’s wacko views make Ralph Nader look sagacious by comparison. Who cares what he says?
Well, these people, for instance.
I run into his admirers all the time. Wellfleet, his summer home (and Howard Zinn’s, and mine too) is a hotbed of Chomskyites, some of whom I’m actually quite friendly with (I try to stay off politics when I’m up there).
Yesam Chumpsky is the most cunning linguist who ever lived. And after Bob Fischer, he is the greatest self-loathing Jewish America-hater who ever lived.
Nim Chimpsky is said to have been the better linguist . . . and also the more astute political analyst.
But I don’t recall who said it.
Jeffery Hodges
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