Hitchens/Paris

Christopher Hitchens cements my respect for him with his new article about the Paris Hilton debacle. The snarky comments from, particularly, Fox News female anchors (as they relentlessly cover the case) are ludicrous, middle-to-high school bitchiness about the prettier girl in the class. And Sarah Silverman's joke was inexcusable, even within the realm of comedy. How hard is it to kick someone when she's down?

Hitchens:

I cannot imagine what it might be like, while awaiting a prison sentence for a tiny infraction, to see dumb-ass TV-addicted crowds howling with easy, complicit laughter as Sarah Silverman (a culpably unfunny person) describes your cell bars being painted to look like penises and jokes heavily about your teeth being at risk because you might gnaw on them. And this on prime time, and unrebuked. Lynching parties used to be fiestas, as we have no right to forget, and the ugly coincidence of sexual nastiness—obscenity is the right name for it—and vengefulness is what seems to lend the savor to the Saturnalia.