Hitchens is dead

This past Thursday, December 15th 2011, brought a heart-breaking headline, although it was somewhat expected.   Christopher Hitchens, one of the most intelligent and controversial writers in the world passed away after a lengthy fight against the odds.  After a life of chain smoking, drinking and other vices, he finally succumbed to cancer, yet offered no regrets for his choice of lifestyle which hastened his demise.  I think his only regret was not having more time to spend with his family...and possibly not being able to debate religion again.   He said publicly that he wouldn't change anything if he could do it all over again.

Never before has one person transformed and galvanized my opinions on such a wide variety of issues.  He will be dearly missed.   On the bright side however, I do feel that his death will bring his work to the surface even more, hopefully reaching people who would've never heard of him or challenged their beliefs before.

Hitch was sometimes arrogant and aggressive in his views, but a deep and reaching legacy is now his for all time.  There are a million pieces online eulogizing Mr. Hitchens and I think it's fair to say I can't give a very good or accurate rendition of the man's life.  But he certainly changed mine.  :)   R.I.P.

Below are two quotes of Hitch speaking about Mother Teresa and religion.   Controversial yet true no matter how uncomfortable to challenge convention.

"[Mother Teresa] was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction." - 


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


** photo and quotes taken from : http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/12/201112169397371919.html




C.K.