Mr. Hitchens Spins His Web
It’s been said that the more venomous a spider is, the messier it’s web. That’s probably not anything based on fact, just some anecdotal observation that Black Widows don’t use the same more-or-less symmetrical design of some other, less-dangerous-to-humans arachnid. But for a human analog to this principal, you need look no further than Christopher Hitchens, in Slate. He spins and spins until he’s so dizzy, he’s lost all track of his own argument, spewing up his righteousness and spraying us all. He starts out well – he’s a smart guy, as we all know, right – but by the time he gets to just his fourth Q&A, he’s lost control, dizzily reeling through his self-constructed little press conference. By the end, he’s just embarrassing himself. Perhaps a more fulsome attempt at justifying the Iraq debacle for its fourth anniversary would have been more effective. I doubt it.