Christopher Hitchens, RIP

[mnealtx 0]

Christopher Hitchens, outspoken pundit, has succumbed to esophageal cancer at the age of 62.

RIP sir.

Link

***Christopher Hitchens, militant pundit, dies at 62

By Hillel Italie
AP National Writer / December 16, 2011
Cancer weakened, but did not soften Christopher Hitchens. He did not repent or forgive or ask for pity. As if granted diplomatic immunity, his mind's eye looked plainly upon the attack and counterattack of disease and treatments that robbed him of his hair, his stamina, his speaking voice and eventually his life.

"I love the imagery of struggle," he wrote about his illness in an August 2010 essay in Vanity Fair. "I sometimes wish I were suffering in a good cause, or risking my life for the good of others, instead of just being a gravely endangered patient."

Hitchens, a Washington, D.C.-based author, essayist and polemicist who waged verbal and occasional physical battle on behalf of causes left and right, died Thursday night at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston of pneumonia, a complication of his esophageal cancer, according to a statement from Vanity Fair magazine. He was 62.

[winsor 236]

Though I strongly disagreed with a number of his positions, I found his presentation of them to be infinitely preferable to the witless espousal of positions with which I did agree.

He was an intellectual gadfly, the likes of which are, and have always been, a rarity. He will be missed.


BSBD,

Winsor

[SethInMI 174]

He convinced me to switch from agnostic to atheist.

Always enjoyed reading his work; I got to see him debate his brother in person once. He did not always fight fair, his penchant for sarcasm could lend his retorts a distasteful negative tone but his wit made them entertaining.

Goodbye Hitch, I sure hope I never see you again, because that means we were both wrong...:-)

It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

[ryoder 1,590]

Some great quotes: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mattcherette/the-15-most-memorable-christopher-hitchens-quotes-4td5

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[Andy9o8 2]

A great loss, and I was saddened when I read about it this morning. One of the intellectual good guys. Thanks for posting this.

[gmanpilot 0]

I had gone to bed early and read the bad news in the paper. My immediate response was to get up and pour a proper glass of whiskey in his honor. RIP Hitch.

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