Why I love Christopher Hitchens

I don't always agree with Christopher Hitchens (his defence of the invasion of Iraq has seemed to become more and more strained), and I don't think I'd like to meet him. But agree with him or not, I do love his writing. He manages to take a thundering tone, to be unequivocal in his opinions, and to use an impressive vocabulary while somehow not seeming too showy (unlike William F. Buckley Jr). He's also superior without being smarmy.

I am currently reading his polemic God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything -- which, so far, is very cutting but has hardly proved the thesis that religion poisons everything (except for noting that it does, in italics, a couple of times).

I was reminded of just why I love Hitchens when I came across a sentence referring to this book as "unlikely even to rate a footnote in the history of piffle."

Brilliant, dismissive, concise. Great writing.