Rest In Peace, Christopher Hitchens; April 13, 1949 - December 15, 2011

Christopher Hitchens died last night. I wish I would have been able to see him speak in person.  I have always enjoyed Hitchens; his honesty, his wit, his acid tongue.  He finally lost his battle with esophageal cancer. The Washington Post article I link to above provides a great eulogy; my favorite part is right at the end, and so typical of Hitchens and his vast knowledge of literature and thought:

Mr. Hitchens was fully aware of that some people believed his cancer was the result of divine retribution for his seeming apostasy. Others gathered to prayer for his recovery and, in many cases, for his eventual conversion to the faith of their choice. He was grateful for their kind wishes, but he reserved special disgust for those who thought he might recant his atheistic beliefs in the face of cancer. “I sympathize afresh with the mighty Voltaire,” Mr. Hitchens wrote in Vanity Fair in October 2010, “who, when badgered on his deathbed and urged to renounce the devil, murmured that this was no time to be making enemies.”