I heard yesterday that George Galloway is going to debate Christopher Hitchens about the whole "Mess o' potamia" business on September 14 in New York City. I'm not sure if any media outlets will be carrying the debate, but I've a yearning in my heart to see this go down. It's going to be like matter vs. anti-matter.
Both men are incredibly effective (and strident) masters of polemic, and they couldn't be more at odds on this particular topic. Plus, there's probably a bit of bad blood between them, after Galloway had this to say about Hitchens at an Oil-For-Food Senate Subcommittee meeting last May:
"You're a drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay."
I have to give Galloway points for such a creative insult, but until about an hour ago, I had a feeling that Hitchens would defeat him quite handily. Then I saw tonight's episode of the Daily Show on which Jon Stewart masterfully dealt with a rather sickly-looking Christopher Hitchens. I probably don't need to remind you that Stewart doesn't have anywhere near the academic, intellectual and journalistic accolades that Hitchens posesses; in fact, he's a comedian. If Hitchens can't handle Jon, then I don't think he'll stand a chance against Galloway, whose testimony in the above-mentioned subcomittee hearings reminded me of those old 60s videos of an annoyed Bob Dylan raking some poor naive journalist over the coals. There's some video of Galloway at the CBC story linked to above.
They don't have video of the Daily Show episode up on the Comedy Central website yet, but I'm willing to bet that it'll be there soon. Keep checking back for it - it's not to be missed.
Both men are incredibly effective (and strident) masters of polemic, and they couldn't be more at odds on this particular topic. Plus, there's probably a bit of bad blood between them, after Galloway had this to say about Hitchens at an Oil-For-Food Senate Subcommittee meeting last May:
"You're a drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay."
I have to give Galloway points for such a creative insult, but until about an hour ago, I had a feeling that Hitchens would defeat him quite handily. Then I saw tonight's episode of the Daily Show on which Jon Stewart masterfully dealt with a rather sickly-looking Christopher Hitchens. I probably don't need to remind you that Stewart doesn't have anywhere near the academic, intellectual and journalistic accolades that Hitchens posesses; in fact, he's a comedian. If Hitchens can't handle Jon, then I don't think he'll stand a chance against Galloway, whose testimony in the above-mentioned subcomittee hearings reminded me of those old 60s videos of an annoyed Bob Dylan raking some poor naive journalist over the coals. There's some video of Galloway at the CBC story linked to above.
They don't have video of the Daily Show episode up on the Comedy Central website yet, but I'm willing to bet that it'll be there soon. Keep checking back for it - it's not to be missed.