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ATHEIST INTELLECTUAL CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS DEAD AT 62
Hurriyet
Dec 16 2011
Turkey
Author Christopher Hitchens poses for a portrait outside his hotel in
New York in this June 7, 2010 file photo. REUTERS Photo British-born
journalist and atheist intellectual Christopher Hitchens, who made
the United States his home and backed the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq,
died Thursday at the age of 62.
Hitchens died in Houston of pneumonia, a complication of cancer of
the esophagus, Vanity Fair magazine said.
"Christopher Hitchens - the incomparable critic, masterful rhetorician,
fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant - died today at the age of 62,"
Vanity Fair said.
A heavy smoker and drinker, Hitchens cut short a book tour for his
memoir "Hitch 22" last year to undergo chemotherapy after being
diagnosed with cancer.
As a journalist, war correspondent and literary critic, Hitchens
carved out a reputation for barbed repartee, scathing critiques of
public figures and a fierce intelligence. In his 2007 book "God Is
Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything," Hitchens took on major
religions with his trenchant atheism. He argued that religion was
the source of all tyranny and that many of the world's evils have
been done in the name of religion.
The son of a British naval officer, Hitchens studied at Oxford
University and worked as literary critic for the New Statesman
magazine in London before moving to New York to work as a journalist
in 1981. He settled in Washington the following year, initially as
correspondent for the left-wing magazine The Nation. He retained his
British citizenship when he became an American citizen in 2007.
Hitchens was not one to mince words. In his book on Bill Clinton "No
one left to lie to", he called the former U.S. president a "rapist"
and a "con man." He once referred to Mother Teresa of Calcutta as a "
"fanatical Albanian dwarf."
The author of 25 books - including works on Thomas Jefferson, Thomas
Paine and George Orwell - and countless articles and columns, Hitchens
never lost his biting humor.
'Cancer elite'
"I'm a member of a cancer elite. I rather look down on people with
lesser cancers," Hitchens said in an interview with CBS "60 Minutes"
aired on March 6, 2011.
In a 2010 interview with Reuters, Hitchens dismissed criticism that
he moved from left to right and helped former U.S. President George W.
Bush sell the 2003 war with Iraq to the American public with what
turned out to be bad intelligence about weapons of mass destruction.
"Saddam was an enemy of the civilized world and he should have been
taken out a long time before," Hitchens said of Iraqi leader Saddam
Hussein. "I have no regrets about that at all."
The 2001 attacks on the United States by Islamic fundamentalists in
hijacked passenger planes made Hitchens ever more critical of the
role of religion in the world, and led him to appreciate the merits
of American democracy.
"I am absolutely convinced that the main source of hatred in the
world is religion, and organized religion," he wrote.
Hitchens is survived by his wife, Carol Blue; their daughter, Antonia;
and his children from a previous marriage, Alexander and Sophia,
Vanity Fair said.
In his last essay on www.vanityfair.com, dated "January 2012,"
Hitchens said his illness made him question the saying attributed to
German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche that "Whatever doesn't kill
me makes me stronger."
A painkiller injection just before typing the article titled "Trial
of the Will," Hitchens wrote, caused "numbness in the extremities,
filling me with the not irrational fear that I shall lose the ability
to write. Without that ability, I feel sure in advance, my 'will to
live' would be hugely attenuated."
Hitchens was also known for his Anti-Turkish views. He had stated
earlier in one of his writings that Turkey was an ally others would
be "better off without," further opposing Turkey on the Armenian and
Kurdish issues, as well as the Cyprus conflict.
From: Baghdasarian
Hurriyet
Dec 16 2011
Turkey
Author Christopher Hitchens poses for a portrait outside his hotel in
New York in this June 7, 2010 file photo. REUTERS Photo British-born
journalist and atheist intellectual Christopher Hitchens, who made
the United States his home and backed the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq,
died Thursday at the age of 62.
Hitchens died in Houston of pneumonia, a complication of cancer of
the esophagus, Vanity Fair magazine said.
"Christopher Hitchens - the incomparable critic, masterful rhetorician,
fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant - died today at the age of 62,"
Vanity Fair said.
A heavy smoker and drinker, Hitchens cut short a book tour for his
memoir "Hitch 22" last year to undergo chemotherapy after being
diagnosed with cancer.
As a journalist, war correspondent and literary critic, Hitchens
carved out a reputation for barbed repartee, scathing critiques of
public figures and a fierce intelligence. In his 2007 book "God Is
Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything," Hitchens took on major
religions with his trenchant atheism. He argued that religion was
the source of all tyranny and that many of the world's evils have
been done in the name of religion.
The son of a British naval officer, Hitchens studied at Oxford
University and worked as literary critic for the New Statesman
magazine in London before moving to New York to work as a journalist
in 1981. He settled in Washington the following year, initially as
correspondent for the left-wing magazine The Nation. He retained his
British citizenship when he became an American citizen in 2007.
Hitchens was not one to mince words. In his book on Bill Clinton "No
one left to lie to", he called the former U.S. president a "rapist"
and a "con man." He once referred to Mother Teresa of Calcutta as a "
"fanatical Albanian dwarf."
The author of 25 books - including works on Thomas Jefferson, Thomas
Paine and George Orwell - and countless articles and columns, Hitchens
never lost his biting humor.
'Cancer elite'
"I'm a member of a cancer elite. I rather look down on people with
lesser cancers," Hitchens said in an interview with CBS "60 Minutes"
aired on March 6, 2011.
In a 2010 interview with Reuters, Hitchens dismissed criticism that
he moved from left to right and helped former U.S. President George W.
Bush sell the 2003 war with Iraq to the American public with what
turned out to be bad intelligence about weapons of mass destruction.
"Saddam was an enemy of the civilized world and he should have been
taken out a long time before," Hitchens said of Iraqi leader Saddam
Hussein. "I have no regrets about that at all."
The 2001 attacks on the United States by Islamic fundamentalists in
hijacked passenger planes made Hitchens ever more critical of the
role of religion in the world, and led him to appreciate the merits
of American democracy.
"I am absolutely convinced that the main source of hatred in the
world is religion, and organized religion," he wrote.
Hitchens is survived by his wife, Carol Blue; their daughter, Antonia;
and his children from a previous marriage, Alexander and Sophia,
Vanity Fair said.
In his last essay on www.vanityfair.com, dated "January 2012,"
Hitchens said his illness made him question the saying attributed to
German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche that "Whatever doesn't kill
me makes me stronger."
A painkiller injection just before typing the article titled "Trial
of the Will," Hitchens wrote, caused "numbness in the extremities,
filling me with the not irrational fear that I shall lose the ability
to write. Without that ability, I feel sure in advance, my 'will to
live' would be hugely attenuated."
Hitchens was also known for his Anti-Turkish views. He had stated
earlier in one of his writings that Turkey was an ally others would
be "better off without," further opposing Turkey on the Armenian and
Kurdish issues, as well as the Cyprus conflict.
From: Baghdasarian