Christopher Hitchens dies at age 62

[MC Prussian]

Another cancer victim - didn't know too much about him, but his view on religion and politics is/was highly rated in the US:

Christopher Hitchens dies aged 62

Celebrated journalist, writer and unshakeable secularist has died from complications of oesophageal cancer

Christopher Hitchens photographed in November 2010 for the Observer New Review. The writer, critic and journalist has died aged 62 after contracting oesophageal cancer. Photograph: Jamie-James Medina for the Observer

The writer, journalist and contrarian Christopher Hitchens has died at the age of 62 after crossing the border into the "land of malady" on being diagnosed with an oesophageal cancer in June 2010. Vanity Fair, for which he had written since 1992 and was made contributing editor, marked his death in a memorial article posted late on Thursday night.

The reactions to Hitchens's illness from his intellectual opponents – which ranged from undisguised glee to offers of prayers – testified to his stature as one of the leading voices of secularism since the publication in 2007 of his anti-religious polemic God is Not Great. The reaction from the author himself, who after a lifetime of "burning the candle of both ends" described his illness as "something so predictable and banal that it bores even me", testified to the sharpness of his wit and the clarity of his thinking under fire, as he dissected the discourse of "struggle" that surrounds cancer, paid tribute to the medical staff who looked after him and resolved to "resist bodily as best I can, even if only passively, and to seek the most advanced advice".

Born in 1949, Hitchens was sent to boarding school at the age of eight, his mother deciding: "If there is going to be an upper class in this country, then Christopher is going to be in it." This resolution pursued him to his time at Oxford, where he confessed to leading a "double life" as both an "ally of the working class" and as a guest at cocktail parties where he could meet "near-legendary members of the establishment's firmament on nearly equal terms".

After he graduated in 1970 with a third-class degree, the doors of Fleet Street opened wide for Hitchens, who followed his friend James Fenton into a job at the New Statesman. He began a lifelong friendship with Martin Amis and quickly gained a reputation as a pugnacious leftwing commentator, excoriating targets such as the Roman Catholic church, the Vietnam war and Henry Kissinger in dazzling essays, news reports and book reviews.

A resolution to spend time at least once a year in "a country less fortunate than [his] own" spurred him to witness the stirrings of revolution in Portugal and Poland, as well as counter-revolution in Argentina. His mother's death in Athens, killing herself in a suicide pact with her lover, saw him reporting on the overthrow of the Greek junta in 1973.

Expeditions followed to Romania, Nicaragua, Malaysia and beyond. Hitchens travelled to post-war Iraq in 2006, Uganda in 2007 and Venezuela in 2008. A report for the New Statesman from Beirut brought rare praise from his father, a former navy officer who telephoned to say the piece was "very good", and that he "thought it rather brave … to go there". This validation was all the sweeter for a son who believed he'd always disappointed his father "by not being good at cricket or rugger".

New York offered an escape from the contradictions of the British class system that Hitchens grabbed with both hands, when the offer of a job on the left-leaning weekly magazine the Nation came in 1981. Columns for Slate.com and Vanity Fair followed, with Hitchens consummating his love affair with American life when he took US citizenship in 2007.

Meanwhile he maintained an intense rivalry with his younger brother Peter, who followed him into journalism but found his place on the opposite side of the political spectrum, working first for the Daily Express and then the Mail on Sunday. Both downplayed talk of a rift, but Peter confessed in 2009 that they were "not close". "If we weren't brothers we wouldn't know each other," he said.

One of the many issues that divided the brothers was the 2003 Iraq war, with Peter arguing that the war was "against Britain's interests", while Christopher supported a war that he suggested would stop Saddam Hussein using the country as "his own personal torture chamber".

His advocacy for the Iraq war was only the latest of Hitchens's positions that many on the left found uncomfortable, and led to a chill in his relations with Gore Vidal, who had once nominated him a "successor, an inheritor, a dauphin or delphino". But Hitchens's opposition to what he called "fascism with an Islamic face" began long before 9/11, with the fatwa on his friend Salman Rushdie, imposed by the Ayatollah Khomeini, whom Hitchens accused of "using religion to mount a contract killing", after the publication of The Satanic Verses.

Religion, or at least a fierce aversion to it, fuelled Hitchens's ascent towards celebrity, particularly in his adopted homeland, after the publication of God is Not Great in 2007. In it he argued that religion is "violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry", notching up sales of more than 500,000 copies.

Hitchens gave short shrift to the "insulting" suggestion that cancer might persuade him to change his position where reason had not, arguing that to ditch principles "held for a lifetime, in the hope of gaining favour at the last minute" would be a "hucksterish choice", and urging those who had taken it upon themselves to pray for him not to "trouble deaf heaven with your bootless cries".

Writing in his 2010 memoir, Hitch-22, Hitchens said that he hoped and believed his "advancing age has not quite shamed my youth", disavowing the "'simple' ordinary propositions" of his younger days in favour of the maxim that "it is an absolute certainty that there are no certainties".

"One reason, then, that I would not relive my life," he continued, "is that one cannot be born knowing

such things, but must find them out, even when they then seem bloody obvious, for oneself."

http://www.guardian....ns-dies-aged-62

[21st Century Fox]

Just saw this, sad news. A great mind and was a fantastic speaker.

“Religion is man-made. Even the men who made it cannot agree on what their prophets or redeemers or gurus actually said or did.”

[bmt]

A brilliant speaker and his book from a few years ago, God is not Great, was pretty good.

[Rincewind]

A toast to Hitch

http://youtu.be/Qyjc4tIJK4Q

Some good posts by Ricky Gervais on Twitter. Some guy called Keith is trying to mock him.

[Yojoe36]

What legend. Spoke and written nothing but greatness

[accessory]

Hitchens was a noted propagandist during the Iraq war. That ensured the Man would always look after him.

[Guest Bilo]

A feared debater who would wipe the floor with most comers.

He was wrong on Iraq and Dubya, but right on plenty else and God is Not Great is a fantastic book.

Sadly missed and one heck of an intellect.

[Phube]

RIP, don't agree with his politics mainly, but his views on religion were IMO spot-on!

Have two of his books... both quality:

[Rincewind]

Just saw this on Facebook.

Sexy Atheists

Wow... Been busy, so I'm just learning this now. Twitter had to remove the #GodIsNotGreat hash tag that people were using to honor the memory of Christopher Hitchens due to the massive amounts of death threats to atheists from all these good, fundie, jeebus loving, hypocritical xtians and other theists. And people don't understand why I am an atheist and anti-religion...

[21st Century Fox]

If only he were around today....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16224394

[Rincewind]

I have been put off David Cameron even more now. We are not AMERICA David. Please do not follow the nutters over the pond. There are many in the UK that can live together in harmony without the help of a God.

[I am Rod Hull]

I have been put off David Cameron even more now. We are not AMERICA David. Please do not follow the nutters over the pond. There are many in the UK that can live together in harmony without the help of a God.

[flowwolf]

Yes and their are many non Christians in this country hell bent on killing any one not of their faith in the name of their god.

[accessory]

Yes and their are many non Christians in this country hell bent on killing any one not of their faith in the name of their god.

[MPH]

He's talking about Muslims...

the tube/ bus attacks?

[Phube]

Shocking thing I've just read (if true, I'm not sure!).

Obviously last night ~ #GodIsNotGreat was 'trending' on Twitter, but they pulled it (how I don't know), due to the inflammatory comments. But #ReasonsToBeatYourGirlfriend was allowed.... a crazy, crazy world!!

EDIT: All change... supposedly Twitter never delete Trends... Ahhh the internet, home to baseless, facts!

[Rincewind]

A lot of the remarks were by Ricky Gervais. But from what I saw there was nothing that could be classed as infamatory. He was just responding to the other who said God was pleased that Hitchens was dead. Came out with other stuff and Ricky Gervais was slightly taking the micky.

[Vacamion]

_{Whilst I disagreed with some of his opinions, he was a master debater and spot on with his take on religion.}

_{I love this quote from him:}

_{The four most over-rated things in life are champagne, lobster, anal sex and picnics.}

_{He didn't mention whether anal sex is overrated as a Greek or Turk, though...}