Forum Post: What Christopher Hitchens Had To Say... Compared to Gingrich

...goes all the way around the block.

www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/dec/16/christopher-hitchens-quotes-bons-mots

Samples:

"Where would you like to live? In a state of conflict or a conflicted state?" -- Hitch-22

"The noble title of 'dissident' must be earned rather than claimed; it connotes sacrifice and risk rather than mere disagreement …"

"Do bear in mind that the cynics have a point, of a sort, when they speak of the 'professional naysayer'." "To be in opposition is not to be a nihilist. And there is no decent or charted way of making a living at it. It is something you are, and not something you do." – Letters to a Young Contrarian, 2001

"[Mother Teresa] was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction." – Slate, October 2003

"[George W Bush] is lucky to be governor of Texas. He is unusually incurious, abnormally unintelligent, amazingly inarticulate, fantastically uncultured, extraordinarily uneducated, and apparently quite proud of all these things." – Hardball with Chris Matthews, NBC, 2000

"The search for nirvana, like the search for utopia or the end of history or the classless society, is ultimately a futile and dangerous one. It involves, if it does not necessitate, the sleep of reason. There is no escape from anxiety and struggle." – Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays, 2004

"The Bible may, indeed does, contain a warrant for trafficking in humans, for ethnic cleansing, for slavery, for bride-price, and for indiscriminate massacre, but we are not bound by any of it because it was put together by crude, uncultured human mammals." – God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, 2007

---

There's a whole lot more. His mind cut through hundreds of communal delusions.

Gingrich, collected by Alan Grayson:

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the first ingredient for the witches’ brew that the witches use to cast an evil spell is “eye of newt.” Today, in American politics, the first ingredient is “mouth of Newt.”

As I public service, I’m going to turn this missive over to Newt, so you can see for yourself. Here goes:

“In Washington, D.C., 800 babies are left in dumpsters a year.” Actually, there were four, during one year.

People can use food stamps "for anything," including "to go to Hawaii." Uh, no. They’re food stamps, not vacation stamps.

When the United States "first created the federal income tax, frankly, nobody below a million dollars a year paid anything." Actually, everyone who earned over $4000 paid the tax.

“We must expect the Soviet system to survive for a very long time. There will be Soviet labor camps and Soviet torture chambers well into our grandchildren’s lives.” As Rick Perry might say, “oops.”

"For four years, we balanced the budget and paid off $405 billion in debt." Actually, during Gingrich’s four years as Speaker, the federal debt grew by more than $800 billion.

“The Clintons are counterculture McGovernicks.” And Ron Lawl is my Secret Santa.

“Up to 25% of the White House, when they first came in, had used drugs within the past 4 or 5 years.” Fabrication’R’Us.

“Most People don’t realize it’s illegal to pray in school, most people somehow think that’s not true.” Because it’s not true.

"We spend less on defense today as % of GDP than at any time since Pearl Harbor." Actually, defense spending in 2010 was a higher percentage of GDP than in any year since 1991. So not just wrong, but wrong for 19 years in a row.

The 2009 American Recovery Act "is anti-Christian legislation that will stop churches from using public schools for meeting on Sundays, as well as Boy Scouts and student Bible study groups." Well, it’s 2011, and that hasn’t happened yet.

The Affordable Healthcare Act creates what "would, in effect, be death panels." Oh, please. Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich – great minds think alike.

The Dodd-Frank Act “establishes a mandatory 20 percent down payment to buy a house.” Politifact: “There is no such requirement.”

“I never favored cap and trade.” Except on national TV.

“The problem isn’t too little money in political campaigns, but not enough.” In his campaign, maybe.

---

Dear God, please grant us Newt as a Nominee.