Hitchens versus Maher

I've always loved to read Christopher Hitchens' stuff although I do tune him out when he talks about religion. And Henry Kissinger. Here's a link to a YouTube video taken from the execrable Bill Maher's show: Bill Unthrilled. (Hat tip to NRO). Hitchens is exactly right in this case and he's been right on Iraq and al Qaeda from the beginning.

And on a not-unrelated note, I just finished reading a terrific book called They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons, by Jacob Heilbrunn. (It's largely critical of the them, by the way.) I was gratified to see that, contrary to the sometimes anti-semitic sallies by their enemies, you don't have to be Jewish to be a neocon!

"... not all neocons are Jewish ... Catholics, as the late Michael Joyce -- a moving force behind the Olin and Bradley foundations and a friend of Irving Kristol's -- pointed out, are attracted to neoconservatism. Part of it may be the emphasis on traditional values and even, in the case of the political philosopher Leo Strauss, premodern ones. Leading Catholic neoconservatives like Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Michael Novak, and William J. Bennett shared a critical view of liberalism, or at least liberal complacency when it came to social issues and a number of foreign policy ones."

So there! And here and here, too: Now I feel justified in self-identifying as one! :-)