Christopher Hitchens died yesterday. His voice will be missed tremendously, maybe even grudgingly by some of those with whom he disagreed so vehemently about many things, not least of which, of course, the non-greatness of God.
Just last week, Hitchens spoke at the Freethought Convention in Houston, TX, therefore making it his last public appearance. Perhaps realizing how imminently close at hand death was, the superbly eloquent introduction by Richard Dawkins prior to giving Hitchens the “Freethinker of the Year” award (a Nautiloid cephalopod from the Devonian era, funnily enough) also serves as a most fitting memoriam to a marvelously erudite writer, engaging raconteur, and brilliant polemicist.
Previews of his final interview with Richard Dawkins in the New Statesman can be found here and here. Fora TV has compiled a video tribute to Hitchens from its archives.
Red Tory v.3.0.3 
We really have lost someone special in this world. A heck of a lot more special than any of the religious leaders of today.
i know you were a great fan of hitch. he never clicked with me; i’m just not as adamant about the institution as he was, and his support of middle east interventionism left me cold.
and i really have no use for a manifest; vigilance has worked just fine, so far.
KEvron
er, “manifesto.” where the hell’d that o get to?
KEvron
Well, he’s not an atheist anymore.
Not sure what that means.
He’s not anything anymore — he’s dead.
oh, i dunno….i think leeky makes a good point. not about hitch, but about the true nature of theism: god is nothing more than a manifestation of ego.
KEvron
Like Tim Tebow, for example?
I was immediately compelled to give respect, but I am reminded of his near obsessive, compulsive support for the Iraq War, which resulted in a lot of meaningless death. This is coming from a man who was purportedly so prinicpled against fascism that he tried to deface Syrian Social Nationalist Party (sic) sign because it looked like spinning swastika in Lebanon. Ian Welsh’s perspective sort of gives me mixed feelings. I mean, it sort of struck me rather strange that Hitchens was so adamant at making it known that Kissinger was a war criminal but very little self-reflection on what his critique meant in reference to his promotion of an ethically dubious and morally fragile war of choice.
No question that his adamant support of the Iraq War was… problematic, to say the least.
I suspect, given his fiercely obstinate and contrary nature, that once he had dug himself into a position of supporting the war, he was resolutely opposed to the notion of being dislodged in any way, or as many liberals subsequently did, distancing himself from it by qualifying his position with what he might well have regarded as waffling moral equivocations.
“Like Tim Tebow, for example?”
heh. matthew 6: “but thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy father which is in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”
KEvron
i don’t know what you did to get this troll so upset with you, rt, but well done!
clean up on aisle 2.
KEvron
Beats me.
Seeing as his “comments” consisted of nothing but space-wasting garbage, I deleted them all. They didn’t qualify as “free speech” IMO.
p.s. Excellent scriptural comeback re Tebow. I wish more of these God-bothering fanatics would actually take the time to read and then observe the teachings of their supposed Lord and Saviour, but unfortunately, like most so-called Christians, they’re stunningly ignorant about the actual tenets of their own “faith”…
i was raised to be a “good christian.” however, mom will have to settle for a “good christian with a caveat.”
KEvron