Hitch Kicks Up Ungodly Furor
CHRISTOPHER "Hellbound" Hitchens has just finished a wacky, hick- state tour for his best-selling atheist manifesto, "God Is Not Great" - and he had no trouble whipping up hundreds of furious churchgoing folk and cheering nonbelievers who flocked to debates in Georgia, North Carolina and Florida. As confrontational as ever, newly minted American citizen Hitchens, during one heated discussion, invited an Orthodox Jew who got in his face to step outside, The Post's Kyle Smith reports. Later, during a phone-in interview with a family- values radio station, Hitchens was asked, "Are you familiar with the work of Nietzsche?" Hitchens, amused, said he had heard of the man. The interviewer continued, "Are you aware that when Nietzsche wrote some of his strongest anti-religion books, he was suffering from the effects of syphilitic delusions?" Hitchens replied that he'd heard the claim but was skeptical. The interviewer gently continued, "Might there be a medical explanation for your book?" Score one for the hicks! Hitchens, laughing, said, "At least they almost pronounced Nietzsche's name right."