From Reuters:
Hitchens was not one to mince words. In his book on Bill Clinton “No One Left to Lie To,” he called the former U.S. president a “rapist” and a “con man.” He once referred to Mother Teresa of Calcutta as a “fanatical Albanian dwarf.”
The author of 25 books – including works on Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine and George Orwell – and countless articles and columns, Hitchens never lost his biting humor….
In a 2010 interview with Reuters, Hitchens dismissed criticism that he moved from left to right and helped former U.S. President George W. Bush sell the 2003 war with Iraq to the American public…
He appeared at several NCPA functions. His intransigent atheism bothered some of our friends (“I am absolutely convinced that the main source of hatred in the world is religion, and organized religion”). So did his chain smoking and hard drinking (he could consume prodigious amounts of scotch and never slur a word). Who could fail to be impressed by his willingness to pursue truth? To determine if we were really torturing people, he allowed himself to be water boarded. The answer: yes.
Our heart goes out to his wife, Carol Blue, and the children. The world is a lesser place this morning.
This is a major loss.
I agree with Paul and John. This is a major loss.
One of the intellectual elites of our time, no question about it. Even if one doesn’t agree with some of his views, one has to admit that he tackled some of the hardest to understand issues with a level of depth that few have matched.
I like what Ian Burum had to say about him:
“…to Hitchens politics is essentially a matter of character. Politicians do bad things, because they are bad men. The idea that good men can do terrible things (even for good reasons), and bad men good things, does not enter into this particular moral universe.”
Whether you agree with him or not, an important figure was lost.