Christopher Hitchens passes away

I know that this has absolutely nothing to do with an old Mustang, but, a truly great man has passed away, and I must acknowledge that. On thursday, December 15, Christopher Hitchens passed away at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX.  He died of complications resulting from esophageal cancer.The bare-bones version of who he was is that he was an author and journalist. He was a frequent guest commentator on literary and news programs that went all the way across the ideological spectrum. The reason for this was very simple. He was that rare combination of being both blindingly brilliant and supremely clever. He is the only man that I have ever seen that could make you laugh while he was destroying your long cherished ideas. He was also a frequent participant in public formal debates. To be on the other side of the issue from him would be a brutal experience. A frequent tactic in that type of debate is to quote sources or reference incidents that are so obscure, you are confident that your opponents have never even heard of them. I never saw Mr. Hitchens get caught by that. People tried it, of course, but, it always turned out that he was thoroughly familiar with the incident, knew the history of it, all of the principle players in it,  and might even have previously written something about it. He had no patience for the hypocrite or the ignoramus, and had no problem at all with having a good deal of fun at their expense. He drank heavily, and he was a smoker. He did quit smoking, but, he quit too late. The cigaretes ultimately killed him. He was who he was, and he offered no apologies for that. He was a columnist and literary critic at Vanity Fair, Slate, The Atlantic, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, along with several other media outlets. He was named one of the world's "Top 100 Public Intellectuals" by Foreign Policy and Britain's Prospect. He will be sorely missed by many, myself included.