Watching Christopher Hitchens eulogize Jerry Falwell is like watching Godzilla sightsee in Tokyo.
Watching Christopher Hitchens eulogize Jerry Falwell is like watching Godzilla sightsee in Tokyo.
Proudly powered by WordPress Theme: Adventure Journal by Contexture International.
Oh! I’m glad you put that text there, because for a moment I thought the guy on the right actually was Godzilla. Although I would think Godzilla would get a better makeup person if he were doing a TV interview – his forehead just would not shine out to space like that.
That’s not sweat. That’s straight Johnny Walker seeping out of his pores.
Now that you mention it, I think you’re right.
So has Christopher ever heard of hyperbole?
he Pardoner’s Tale from Canterbury Tales
The narrator, a self-claimed religious pardoner, tells a tale of three young men. Beginning the tale by denouncing wine, drunkness, and gluttony, he takes a firm stance against booze, or any drug that causes men to lose their faculties, reason, discretion, sanity. He alludes to Adam in the Garden of Eden, taking part in gluttony; had he fasted, he never would have taken from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So, the three drunken youngsters, shit-faced in a tavern, begin to chastise Death, as if it were a conscious, plotting entity, whom they blame for the death of their friends, and all those who have died in human history. So, they form a pact, swearing brotherhood an fraternity amongst each other, and conspire to kill death.
Soon into their journey, they meet an old man, covered by robe all but his head. He complains that no young man is willing to trade his youth for his old age, making him perennially old, but death apparently leaves him alone. He tells the three that they will find death in a groove, under an oak tree. The three charge and find eight bushels of florin gold, shiny and beautiful, at the post of the tree. Happy as hell, they abandon their plan to kill death, finding felicity in the treasure.
Here, gluttony and greed lead to their fall. The youngest one gets the short straw and has to go find food and wine to sustain them until nightfall, where they will abscond with the treasure. While he’s gone, one gets the other to plan a slaying of the young one upon his return, enlarging their share of the gold. However, the young one finds poison and puts it into the wine, intending to kill them and take gold for himself. So the expected stuff happens, and all three do indeed find death at the tree (dramatic irony).
After the tale, the narrator has a sense of moral superiority and the listeners have guilt over their sins. So, the “pardoner” then sells the relics (bones) of saints, supposedly given to him by the Pope. He says, wives, give me your wool, too, and I will add you to my list anon. ye shall be pardoned.
Theme- This tale is satire for Chaucer on the alleged redemption by mammals of their fellow mammals, ie the Catholic Church. This is not to say that Chaucer does not believe in Christianity. Instead, only God may grant pardons, only sincere confessions bring atonement. A guilt free conscience cannot be brought through the purchase of material objects, especially from fellow religious hustlers and frauds, charlatans. Christopher Hitchens called Jerry Falwell a Chaucerian fraud, a fatass who sells pardons to the credulous, stealing money from fools on his Christian radio stations.