Christopher Hitchens, Supreme Polemicist, Has Passed On

COMMENTARY | Christopher Hitchens, polemicist without peer, died of pneumonia at MD Anderson Hospital in Houston, having lost his battle with esophageal cancer. Hot Air's Allahpundit has an appreciation, with links.

Hitchens was the sort of man who could pontificate in such an erudite manner than even when he was astonishingly wrong, he could be so with a style that was wonderful to listen to. And Hitchens was right about a number of things.

He started his career as a committed leftist, a process that began to change as the moral rancidness of the Clinton administration became too much of a stench in the nostrils for him. 9/11 accelerated his departure from left-wing orthodoxy. He was a fervent supporter of the war on terror, including the Iraq War. He lost many of his old friends on the left as a result, but gained many on the right.

Hitchens, however, was eclectic in his list of people he hated. They included, in no particular order, Bill Clinton, Henry Kissinger, Mother Theresa, Osama Bin Ladin, Sarah Palin, and the royal family of his native Great Britain. And, of course, Hitchens was irate at God, whose existence he denied up to the moment he breathed his last.

Hitchens was most famous for his assault on religion, "God is Not Great," which maintained that God not only did not exist, but that many of His followers did evil in His name. He was as fervent a foe of Islamist terrorists as he was the Christian right. But he could debate religious intellectuals with grace and respect, though neither offering nor accepting quarter.

My favorite Hitchens moment took place on an episode of "Real Time," when its odious host, Bill Maher, started to lay into him over his support of the Iraq War. As the studio audience hooted and brayed, Hitchens noted that they seemed primed to do so at anything Maher said, no matter how nonsensical. Then, in a gesture more eloquent that a 1,000 word essay, he gave them the middle fingered salute.

Hitchens' last 18 months were blighted by his battle with cancer and a slow, relentless, and painful decline that he chronicled unstintingly. His death was almost certainly a surcease from pain, though his lust for life made him endure the agonies of radiation therapy.

I believe, as of this writing, Hitchens is reassessing his disbelief in God. No doubt, having gazed upon His naked face, Hitchens, without a beat, has started to admonish Him while wondering where one can get scotch and cigarettes in the afterlife.

Source: Christopher Hitchens, 1949-2011, Allahpundit, Hot Air, Dec 16, 2011