R.I.P. Hitch

Christopher Hitchens died last night after a lengthy battle with esophageal cancer.  The obituaries in the coming days will be ubiquitous, and I will not try to duplicate the efforts of those who knew him well. 

But it suffices to say that anybody who has ever picked up a pen and wanted to call himself a writer (myself included) would do well to emulate Hitchens.  When writing on the War on Terror he was simply brilliant, and even when I thought he was badly wrong (i.e. his early leftism, his views on Israel, and his antipathy towards the very concept of religion) was intelligent, and, damn it, interesting, something too few writers are anymore.

His wit and wisdom will be greatly missed. 

Christopher Hitchens, 1949-2011