The A-- Hole vs. The Pompous A--

Who is Who?




























And who cares?


Richard Cohen, who is on my very short list of writers whose column I continue to read and who argues today in a piece in the Washington Post that Stephen Colbert was "so no funny" in the recent WHCAD (I disagree), describes the blogsphere as a place where you're supposed to be telling like-minded people what they already know and alienating all the others. (read more) Since my guess is that those who like (worship)Christopher Hitchens don't like (despise) Juan Cole (and vice versa), what I'm about to do ensures that I'll be alienating two powerful constituencies on the blogsphere. So be it! But perhaps there are two or three people out there who share my lack of admiration for these two individuals who seem to be engaged is some kind of a King Kong vs. Godzilla battle (see above; and my apologies to Kong and Godzi for the comparison) that has been the main topic of discussion on their respective admirers' and detractors'blogs. What can I say? Remember what Otto said about the English in a Fish Called Wanda?" :""They just wait for the weekend so they can dress up as ballerinas and whip each other into a frenzy." That's how I feel about all those arrogant, upper-class, left-wing British snobs ("where is my "Guardian?") like "Hitch." He's fat and drunken slob -- which is how most Trotskyists look like -- who says a lot of nonsense but in a British accent which explains why he's on American television all the time. Formerly a flaming anti-American/anti-capitalist/Israel-basher, he has transformed himself into a neocon on booze who alleges that any critic of the Iraq War is by definition a flaming anti-American/anti-capitalist/Israel-basher. He even makes Andrew Sullivan sound intelligent. And Cole? Well, I do read his blog (and I even provide a link to it). But frankly I think that the guy is over-rated. Yes, he provides some good analysis of developments in Iraq and I agree with most of his criticism of the Bush Administration's policies in the Middle East. But a lot of his stuff reflects Cole's left-wing/"Third Worldist" approach to politics and economics according to which westerners have to feel guilty -- so, so guilty -- about what has been done to Africans, Latinos, Moslems, etc. whom he tends to romanticize quite often as the "good guys" in his historical "narrative." I don't buy that. And he doesn't seem to actually want the U.S. to get out of Iraq but to ally itself with the forces of "progress" there. I saw him several times on PBS' News Hour. He didn't impress me at all and he kind of looks creepy (well, that's me). I'm aware that the neocons are lobbying against Cole getting a job at Yale. You'll know that I don't like these guys. But just because they're against Cole doesn't mean that I should be rooting for him (in the same way that David Duke's endorsement of Mearsheimer/Walt Israel-Lobby paper shouldn't discourage one from agreeing with it).
Hey, when it comes to "Hitch" and Cole, I feel like I did during the Iran-Iraq War. May they both lose...