Christopher Hitchens 1949 — 2011

Very sad even if expected.

Godspeed. I hope you were wrong.

 

To a magnificent bastard. Cheers to a life well lived.

Look not above, there is no answer there;
Pray not, for no one listens to your prayer;
Near is as near to God as any Far,
And Here is just the same deceit as There.
-Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

 

I had this tab open all day - been meaning to read the article and now I will have to let it wait. Too poignant to read it just now

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/01/hitchens-201201

 

It's 503-ing. Better keep that tab open.

 

Damn it.

If you haven't read his memoir Hitch-22, pick it up. It's incredible entertaining, insightful, smart, occasionally maddening. In other words, like everything else he wrote.

And of all the pieces his friends will write in the days to come, hard to believe any will be better than Christopher Buckley's.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/12/postscript-christopher-hitchens.html

And some of his classic religious debates.

 

#GodIsNotGreat is trending. The offended reactions from clueless people are awesome.

 

So Christians = clueless?

 

The ones who don't understand why it's trending. But yeah...that too.

 

Knew that news was coming, but it still sucks. RIP to an unflinchingly honest, fearless, brilliant and, as STG aptly put it, "occasionally maddening" writer.

 

Thirteen great Hitchen's quotes:

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1103062

About Sarah Palin: “She’s got no charisma of any kind, [but] I can imagine her being mildly useful to a low-rank porn director.”

One of the last great contrarians. RIP

 

Thank you for posting that, from my favorite contemporary writer, Christopher Buckley.

This passage stands out as a great time we all would have enjoyed:

One of our lunches, at Café Milano, the Rick’s Café of Washington, began at 1 P.M., and ended at 11:30 P.M. At about nine o’clock (though my memory is somewhat hazy), he said, “Should we order more food?” I somehow crawled home, where I remained under medical supervision for several weeks, packed in ice with a morphine drip. Christopher probably went home that night and wrote a biography of Orwell. His stamina was as epic as his erudition and wit.

 

Apparently the New York Times stopped the presses to get his obit on A1. We should all enjoy such a life.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/12/16/hitch-is-not-in-heaven/

More Hitchens goodness:
http://vimeo.com/13391235