Demagogue

In a recent review of the movie "Borat," Ryan Gilbey wrote in London's lefty New Statesman that the "Kazakh ace reporter uncovers uncomfortable truths about the US." Although I think Christopher Hitchens is all wet on the Iraq war, I did enjoy his response to Gilbey in this column:

Oh, come on.

Among the "cultural learnings of America for make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan" is the discovery that Americans are almost pedantic in their hospitality and politesse.

At a formal dinner in Birmingham, Ala., the guests discuss Borat while he's out of the room — filling a bag with ordure in order to bring it back to the table, as it happens — and agree what a nice young American he might make. And this is after he has called one guest a retard and grossly insulted the wife of another ....

The tony hostess even takes him and his bag of shit upstairs and demonstrates the uses not just of the water closet but also of the toilet paper.

The arrival of a mountainous black hooker does admittedly put an end to the evening, but if a swarthy stranger had pulled any of the foregoing at a liberal dinner party in England, I wouldn't give much for his chances.

I think Mr. Gilbey should stop writing movie reviews and go back to producing C-grade gin.