Welcome back to the re-education. Today's show is about the late Christopher Hitchens, who was both a friend and mentor, to me and my guest, Michael Moynihan, co-host of the fifth column podcast. Because the works in life of this great man would cover far more than one podcast, and I imagine that we will be getting back into Christopher Hitchens in future pods.

Today's monologue is limited to Christopher's political evolution in the 1990s through 9-11 to become the most eloquent advocate for the liberation of Iraq.

Stick around. This is a good one.

Music for the liberation of iraq stick around this is a good one i've i've been on the john stewart show i've been on your show i've seen you make about five george bush iq jokes per night there's no one i know who can't do it you know what i think

this is now the joke that stupid people laugh at.

It's a joke that any dumb person can laugh at because they think they're smarter.

They could prove they're smarter than the president.

Like the people who make booing and mooing noises in the audience.

But sometimes a cigar...

None of whom are smarter than the president. But sometimes a... None of whom... Not of whom...

But sometimes a cigar is really a cigar.

That was Hitch on Bill Maher's program in 2006,

flipping off his audience,

biting the hands of a few late-night hosts who had fed him in the 2000s now.

To Mars credit, Hitch was invited back many times after that.

Now, I play this clip because it demonstrates, on the one hand, how Hitchens did not mind

articulating unpopular arguments, even in the teeth of crowds who were booing him, or as he

would say in other settings, making mewing animal noises.

It also shows how Hitchens in those days was a one-issue voter.

He really didn't care about his many disagreements with George W. Bush,

you know, who he chastised in the 2000 campaign as somebody who couldn't pronounce the word

nuclear and so forth.

...