How Do We Know Hitchens Is A Heavy Drinker and Why Doesn't He Refute It?

[davidlynch]

Everyone seems to "know" that Christopher Hitchens is a heavy drinker, or maybe even a "drunk" by some standards. I have a couple of questions.

1. How do we know this? Has he admitted it?
2. Why doesn't he seem to even care? Has he ever denied or refuted this contention, and if not, why not?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. It's Part Of His Aura

eom

[buzzard]

2. I don't know , why deny something that is painfully obvious. n/t

[buff2]

3. Who cares?

:shrug:

[davidlynch]

5. I'm Just Curious Because Every Pundit Mentions it as Common Knowledge

[buff2]

13. I can't stand that guy

I can't understand even half of what he says,and the chip on his shoulder is as big as his head. I find him appalling.

[LisaM]

4. Why do WE care?

Churchill was a heavy drinker. So what?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

6. So Was Grant...

How does the famous joke go?

Whatever he's drinkig I want some of it...

[davidlynch]

7. Everyone Seems To Mention It So It Must Register as Important

[blondeatlast]

17. He's been known to appear "less than lucid" on camera.

He didn't look so good on Bill Maher the other night.

Even my husband, who had never heard of either Hitchens OR his possible habit, mentioned that "that guy looks like he's going to fall out of his chair any moment"--that's a direct quote from Mr. BAL.

[FredScuttle]

8. How do we know Dubya is a drooling moron?

How do we know Ann Coulter is a lunatic screeching harridan?
How do we know John Ashcroft is a panty-sniffing, thigh-rubbing closet perv?
How do we know the sky is blue?
How do we know water is wet?

ah....the powers of observation.

[davidlynch]

12. Those Facts are Self Evident--Is Drinking So Transparent

Maybe it is, and if so, I'd better be more perceptive. I honestly cannot tell by just looking at the guy.

[FredScuttle]

20. Is drinking so transparent?

Have you ever been in a bar in your life?

[despairing optimist]

9. He's also a major-league cigarette smoker, and nasty too

At one forum a couple of months ago in the UK, a woman reminded him that there was a no-smoking policy. He cursed at her, said he was doing them a favor by showing up and getting paid for it, and told her to leave if she didn't like it.

I'll hazard a guess: between his smoking and his drinking, Hitch isn't a happy camper.

[efhmc]

10. Not really happy about these "who cares" responses because they are

insincere. Agreement with a person's point of view seems to soothe these matters.

[11cents]

11. He's feels no need to refute it.

He's proud of it. As mentioned above, it's part of his aura -- Richard-Burton-type wild man, etc., etc. It's a Brit thing. Of course, from here it's more stench than aura.

He's following in the steps of his onetime friend and current enemy Alex Cockburn, whose brain has been thoroughly pickled for years.

[davidlynch]

14. Shoot, That Sucks--Sorry to Hear That Even If I Do Disagree With Him

[LisaM]

16. Really? Cockburn is a big drinker too?

How do you know this?

[11cents]

18. I know someone who used to be his editor.

At any rate, it's not an obscure fact. Cockburn's a notorious drunk, same as Hitchens.

[LisaM]

19. I'm sure it's not - he seems sort of jerky

I know someone who was once acquainted with him so I was just being nosy.

[rooboy]

15. Hitchens thinks his drinking makes him a Churchillian figure. n/t

[Oilwellian]

21. There's only one slight difference...

Churchill made sense. :rofl:

[mcctatas]

22. And his gin-blossoms were less noticeable n/t

[Czolgosz]

23. He's written about being a heavy drinker (he denies being an alchoholic) .

Best quote ever about Hitchens: "You're a drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay." George Galloway to Hitchens

Close second: "What a truly disgusting sack of shit Hitchens is. A guy who called Sid Blumenthal one of his best friends and then tried to have him thrown into prison for perjury; a guy who waited till his friend Edward Said was on his death bed before attacking him in the Atlantic Monthly; a guy who knows perfectly well the role Israel plays in US policy but who does not scruple to flail Cindy Sheehan as a LaRouchie and anti-Semite because, maybe, she dared mention the word Israel." Alexander Cockburn