christopher hitchens and sophie tarnowska

on the gazette:

'in a society in which individuals feed their opinions with news they know they'll concur with, his irreverence was like oxygen. i disagree with many of hitchens's opinions. but he defends his views intelligently and bases them on factual evidence, a knowledge of history and keen analysis. his method and its occasional accompanying madness demand that we examine our opinions and recognize them as just that - opinions, and not immutable fact. i'm tired of seeing blind faith pass for intelligent analysis.

hitchens summed up his raison d'etre when he was invited to make his final argument on the role of religion in society at the end of the munk debate. "no thank you," he said, and instead asked for one last question from the audience.

"i'd rather be provoked."'

the full piece here.