re: #137 Charles

Right - they’re Lebanese neo-Nazi skinheads.

Apparently it’s not popular to say it, but I applaud him for flipping the bird to those creeps. If more people had the guts (and a few drinks in them to loosen them up) these kinds of assholes might not have so much power.

Sure, he wasn’t morally wrong, and the Lebanese/Syrians (whichever it was) have the blame for beating someone for speech. But surely there’s a more productive way for Hitchens show defiance? You cannot expect these people to have American/Western/Judeo-Christian/enlightenment (whatever you ascribe them to) values, especially when the lack of such is what you are protesting in the first place. Hitchens must either think he’s special, or want to be a martyr.

Anyway, the people who need to stand up are the Lebanese. Foreigners making futile gestures are unlikely to do much.