hitchens, mr. chairman. >> i don't know what schools would do but i think if you have a properly enforced law where cannabis possession, which is illegal, is punished when detected, then one of the most important things you will do is you will arm a people who are under strong peer pressure from their school fellows to take drugs against that, will give them a good reason. they can turn around and say, i don't want to do that, i don't want to risk having a criminal record, i don't want to risk never being able to travel united states the rest of my life, i don't think it's worth it. puft purposes of a clearly set out legal prohibition against drugs is to strengthen people against that sort of pressure. i think in schools it would be enormously useful if we had a proper law, if we enforced it, if it was seen to be enforced. >> i agree a clear statement by the law by people who are responsible is the thing that makes the most difference to children. the think i found most difficult when my teenage so

[applause] [applause] >> my name is peter hitchens.going to read words that my brother read at her father's funeral in her home county of hampshire almost 25 years ago. they are the eighth verse of the fourth chapter of paul's epistle to the libyans. finally, brethren, what other things are true, what other things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any grudge here and if there be any praise, think on these things. [applause] [applause] hello, i was going to read some poems, but i think i'm going to scale back for just a quick excerpt of christopher's words. ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends. that is how he would have started. i am sorry i can't make the grade after that. this is from hitch 22. the massive world it did not show utopia, said oscar wilde, would not be worth consulting. i used to adore that phrase, but now it reflects more upon the shipwreck and prison islands to which the clubhous

[applause] >> my name is peter hitchens.read the words my brother read at a number father's funeral in north on county. it's the fourth chapter. whatever things are true, what sort of things are honest, what sort of things are just, what sort of things are pure, what sort of things are lovely, what things are a good report? would there be any virtue and if there be any praise, sync on these things not. [applause] >> how low. i was going to read some poems but i think i'm going to scale back so a quick excerpt of christopher's words, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends pataki would have started and i'm sorry i can't make for great after that. this is from pitch 22 to read a map of a world that didn't show eutopia wouldn't be worth consulting. i used to a door that phrase but now reflect more of on the shipwreck to which the quest has led but i hope that i believe that my advancing age hasn't shamed high youth. isaac chollet seen more prisons broken open, more people than territory liberated and mo

hitchens family, friends and colleagues including ian mcewen sean penn, peter hitchens, mr. hitchens widow, carol blue and martin amos. the tribute takes place of the

public intellectual with the sensibility of the 60-year-old imminence grieves, the range of the hitchens conscience of a neighbor in the intellectual honesty of his frequent sparring partner andrew sullivan. so when he is not channeling hitchens, niebuhr and sullivan, who suffered several books, including privilege, harvard in the education of the ruling class and brand-new party, republicans can win the working class and save the american dream. his latest book, blood religion is being published today by the free press an affair degenerated no small amount of controversy and a great deal of discussion, which we hope to further this evening. responding to rustle the two of the most thoughtful analysts of religion in public life, sabu on entry at nine. someone is a correspondent for npr where she reports on the intersection of faith and politics, law, science and culture. the american women and radio television award, headliners the word and there is a association award for reporting. chief justice correspondent, covering such happy topics as the impeachment proceedings against president

hitchens, mrs. brett. we may well write to you again. and please feel free to write to me if you think the committee is going off in the wrong direction. we're very keen to know this because we want to make certain this is a very thorough yes, sirry and it will go on for several months. thank you very much. >> thank you for asking. >> alder, we now switched subjects and we have the home secretary. >> more from london now. representatives from the three major sovereign credit agencies recently testified before british parliamentary committee on the political implication of credit ratings and banking scores. members from the british treasury committee asked witnesses about the recent downgrades of the united states and other eurozone countries. this 90-minute hearing also examined the role of the credit agencies and disclosing negative ratings around political events. >> thank you very much for coming to see us this morning. this second hearing we've held on the rating agencies. can i begin, mr. kramer, with the decisions that have been ta

the same time you had religious believers throwing themselves into the fray against christopher hitchens and richard dawkins and daniel denett and all the others, the voices of the new atheism. and in spite of my exhaustion with the theocracy debate, obviously, the broader debate about is there a god or not is a hugely, hugely important one. but it struck me as i both followed and participated in these debates that that kind of binary was missing a huge part of the story of religion in the united states. and that the real story of american christianity and american religion writ large is not a story of sort of pope men dick 16th -- benedict locked in the soul of america. there's an image to take with you tonight. [laughter] it's a story of a country that, on the one hand, is no longer as traditionally christian as it once was, and a country whose christian institutions both protestant and cat are weaker -- catholic are weaker in the many ways than they were in previous generations to the american story. but on the other hand, it isn't a country that i think can be meaningfully described

this was 1998, and i think i suggested christopher hitchens because christopher hitchens was regarded as a man of the left been. and i loved, i loved reading christopher dasher he was a man of the left at the end really i think. but he was a well read man. he was illiterate men. he did not have his talking points that he regurgitates. and had a kind of historical -- but john o'sullivan's point even if you're a writer at a newspaper you should have some left wing voices in there. i think he's right. i think likewise, if you're a left -- i mean, i think it's sad, you've got to have, i wrote for the spectator in britain for many years. the spectator always, you know, it was a broadly conservative paper but the use to get lefties in the i think that makes much more sense that what. >> host: this is probably a very unique e-mail here at c-span that we never gotten one that says what it says. dear mark, why do you think leftists hate western civilization so much? do you have a favorite american composer? [laughter] >> guest: that -- i'm not sure what those two things, if he intends to conne

my late and very beloved friend christopher hitchens who died last december in the early '90s in theirst year of the clinton administration, you remember this, started to give an after -- the after party. >> bill: the best party of -- i took jerry brown to his party. >> do you remember it was in his apartment at the wyoming. and you would walk in and it was -- it was just sort of wall to wall bold-faced names but it was fun and intimate. then it got to big -- so big they had to move it ironically across the street to the russian trade federation. >> bill: hold that thought too. take another quick break and we'll come right back. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." planned parenthood. anna talked to a conservative and it got a little contentious. drama, when we return. eliot spitzer joins the new news network. >>we don't stop until we get answers that are truthful, serious and not based on simplistic answers. >> announcer: radio meets television. the "bill press show." now on current tv. >> bill: wrapping up here this hour and president obama spending a night in los angeles.