Literary Loss

Once a socialist, but also a fervent supporter of Persian Gulf War II, and always a biting wit, writer and author Christopher Hitchens died on Thursday of pneumonia brought on by esophageal cancer.

Hitchens was a fervent critic of Christianity, a difficult position to defend, and boldly called Mother Teresa "a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud," a position he defended quite well. It was hardly surprising, therefore, that his passing brought at least two tasteless reactions. According to Crooks and Liars, conservative Republican radio host Bill Bennett commented "He was left, I was right, but we had great debates, great drinking bouts. And I hope as the big atheist that he was, he's in for a big surprise."

Yes, always fun to wish Hell on a friend upon his death. Similarly, evangelical minister and literary sensation Rick Warren tweeted " My friend Christopher Hitchens has died. I loved & prayed for him constantly & grieve his loss. He knows the Truth now."

Now, that's the ticket. Roman Catholic Bennett prays for a fiery eternal existence for his friend while Protestant Warren gloats. Ecumenism, of a sort.

But at least one unbeliever, famed atheist Richard Dawkins, took his own opportunity to score points, tweeting" Christopher Hitchens, finest orator of our time, fellow horseman, valiant fighter against all tyrants including God."

Meanwhile, center-right columnist and ex-speechwriter David Frum, who never aspired to public display of religiosity nor its denial, tells of when

A friend of theirs once took Christopher Hitchens and his wife Carol Blue to dinner at Palm Beach’s Everglades Club, notorious for its exclusion of Jews.

“You will behave, won’t you?” Carol anxiously asked Christopher on the way into the club. No dice. When the headwaiter approached, Christopher demanded: “Do you have a kosher menu?”

And then, as only a writer and speechwriter could, Frum concludes with what would be a fitting epitaph for his friend Hitchens, who

offered a model of how to think – and how to live. Fully. Fearlessly. Joyously. And then, alas too soon, of how to die: without bluster but without flinching, boldly writing until the fingers moved no more.

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Article Of The Week

Among the many positions I though I'd never be in would be one in which I recommend an article by naturalized American and journalist Christopher Hitchens in which he touched on Middle East politics (not much of a supporter of Israel) and Christianity (even less of a supporter).

Still, Hitchens is right on target with "Shame on You, Rick Warren." It includes his criticism of the Baathist regime in Syria, which

is joined at the hip with the Iranian theocracy, that is the patron of Hezbollah in Lebanon, and that is the official and unabashed host of the fugitive Hamas leadership whose military wing directs massacre operations from Damascus itself. (One might also add that the Syrian Baath Party's veteran defense minister,* Mustafa Tlas, published a book under his own name that accused Jews of using the blood of non-Jewish children for the making of those ever-menacing Passover matzos. I suppose it depends how you define extremism.)

It seems that Reverend Warren is an unabashed promoter of the Syrian government, perenially an enthusiastic state supporter of terrorism. After he met with Bashar Assad and described the nation the dictator lords over as "a moderate country, and the official government rule and position is to not allow extremism of any kind," he met with a mufti. Then he reportedly assured the Syrian people that he would convey to Americans the fine relationship he witnessed between Christians and Muslims in Syria, as well as the opposition of 80% of the American people to the war in Iraq (probably not a good thing to tell a regime hostile to the U.S.A., even if true, which it never quite has been).

But Hitchens' theme is expressed in the first sentence of his piece. Why, he asks, has it "been agreed by every single media outlet that only one group has the right to challenge Obama's promotion of "Pastor" Rick Warren, and that group is the constituency of politically organized homosexuals?" (And credit Hitchens for enclosing "Pastor" in quotes- as a title it is applicable only to members of a minister's own church.) It's a good question, one which as a heterosexual displeased with the selection of Warren to give the invocation at the inauguration I should have asked. But didn't. And now it has been.


...................................Happy New Year....................................