R.I.P. Christopher Hitchens

The great essayist/polemicist has shuffled off this mortal coil. I didn't always agree with his take on things--he never, for example, really got Israel, and his staunch atheism could be more than a little off-putting--but I usually found his writing (and he managed to write to the very end, until the cancer finally defeated him) to be witty, intelligent and a helluva good read. Which is more than you can say about most of the shlubs who write for the mainstream press and magazines these days.



Update: Here's Robert Spencer's tribute:

I seldom agreed with him, although even when I didn't, I found him compelling -- as when he slaughtered Dinesh D'Souza in a debate on the existence of God. He makes some excellent points above, and was a superb writer, of a level I shall never attain. For the truths he enunciated, and the power and verve with which he did so, I salute him.

Me too.