The day Christopher Hitchens passed away I received a considerable amount of calls and emails offering condolences. It was a bit odd considering that I never knew the man though, admittedly, I do have an entire shelf dedicated to his work. That said, the internet has been flooded with people both mourning his death and taking the opportunity to bash him for his enduring support of the war in Iraq. It’s to be expected. Hitchens was a polarizing figure. He lavished being at the epicenter of countless controversies, most often as a whistle blower though occasionally as the cause of the ferver. To believe he didn’t know this about himself would be rather foolish considering that the title of his memoir was a play on Joseph Heller’s Catch-22.

I could write at length about his life and work, dissecting his sound arguments and tackling those I found less appealing, which I may do in the future, but for now I’m going to let him do the talking.

Christopher Hitchens circa 1988. At the time he was best known for ”Minority Report,” his column in the Nation.

“Hell’s Angel” a 1994 BBC presentation Hitchens did on Mother Teresa.

This is what’s called  a “Hitchslap.”

On the Death of Jerry Falwell:

Teaming up with Stephen Fry at the Intelligence Squared debate on the subject “is the Catholic Church a force of good in the world?”

This is the first part of 8 of Hitchens on a Q & A oanel in Australia:

His unyielding stance on Iraq, of which caused him to lose many colleagues and friends:

On the cure for poverty — empowering women:

On the Tea Party and the American right:

On attempted deathbed conversions: