Friday, December 16, 2011

Christopher Hitchens

Posted by dkuehn at 6:41 AM
Christopher Hitchens has died after struggling with cancer for about a year and a half.

9 comments:

  1. Blue AuroraDecember 16, 2011 at 7:03 AM

    He passed away too soon in his early sixties. May Christopher Hitchens rest in peace.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousDecember 16, 2011 at 10:14 AM

    Blue,
    Considering his lifestyle, that's actually pretty old.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousDecember 16, 2011 at 2:17 PM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousDecember 16, 2011 at 5:27 PM

    BOROMIR!

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousDecember 16, 2011 at 5:44 PM

    Hmm, you don't see that too often (DK deleting a comment). It must have been pretty bad.

    ReplyDelete
  6. CurrentDecember 16, 2011 at 6:13 PM

    "Every day, the New York Times carries a motto in a box on its front page. 'All the News That's Fit to Print,' it says. It's been saying it for decades, day in and day out. I imagine most readers of the canonical sheet have long ceased to notice this bannered and flaunted symbol of its mental furniture. I myself check every day to make sure that the bright, smug, pompous, idiotic claim is still there. Then I check to make sure that it still irritates me. If I can still exclaim, under my breath, why do they insult me and what do they take me for and what the hell is it supposed to mean unless it's as obviously complacent and conceited and censorious as it seems to be, then at least I know I still have a pulse. You may wish to choose a more rigorous mental workout but I credit this daily infusion of annoyance with extending my lifespan." - Christopher Hitchens (from Samizdata).

    ReplyDelete
  7. Gary GunnelsDecember 17, 2011 at 10:07 AM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Daniel KuehnDecember 17, 2011 at 10:41 AM

    The earlier anonymous post was a blatant celebration of his death. Those are going to be deleted - period.

    Gary offered a link to a guy making very poor arguments that Hitchens was indifferent to genocide and indifferent to the death of innocents. That's a tougher case than anonymous comment, but I'm going to ask that if you are able to refrain from actually celebrating Hitchens death but still want to spread terrible accusations about him that a reasonable person can recognize as being patently untrue, you post that on your own blog.

    My blog is open, but it's my blog. Maybe when some time passes I'll indulge the people who insist on rolling around in the gutter.

    This shouldn't dissuade people from disagreeing with Hitchens, of course - and I hope that distinction is obvious to readers. I disagreed with him on things. I strongly agree with him on Islamism in general, but disagreed on the Iraq war for example. Don't be sheepish about disagreeing with him here.

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousDecember 18, 2011 at 11:42 AM

    Indeed, it is your blog and you are welcome to erase any comments that you like. I trust your judgement, you aren't unreasonable. In fact, I agree with erasing all anonymous posts. They usually aren't constructive and they make correspondence far more difficult. While they may scream "censorship", this isn't quite correct.

    This blog is your property and all you're doing is protecting your property; one wouldn't tolerate somebody "tagging" their fence or their house, so why should you tolerate someone "tagging" your blog? It is vandalism just the same. Also, as you point out, they can always start their own blog if they would like.

    ReplyDelete

All anonymous comments will be deleted. Consistent pseudonyms are fine.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)