Hitchens says his voice "went", but to me it's as potent as ever.

"Hitch isn't looking too good" because he is dieing of esophageal cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy. Considering this, it's pretty amazing he still manages public appearances, debates, and oratory.

About Texas Freethinkers:

http://tinyurl.com/7svr47o

Alas, they were massacred by Confederate soldiers for their opposition to slavery and seccession.

approach women in elevators

It is really bizarre and a little creepy that they both consider themselves part of movement based around not believing in something tangible.

Sorry Hitch, but in your run-down of the evils of the world, you accidentally forgot "foreign policy in the service of short-sighted political gains that cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent people, and additionally destabilize a basically secular country so much that fundamentalism can take hold again and religious terrorists can enter the country".

It doesn't require religion for a person to be blinded by ideology, demagoguery, and "trust me it will all be worth it in the end" thinking.

I won't be over-dramatic enough to say I consider Hitchens a "hero", but he is easily one of the most important literary influences on my life, despite the occasions I've wanted to hit him. I'm not shallow enough to dismiss the vast array of brilliant things he's written on the basis of some of the things he's said that I don't agree with; he's far more intellectually honest than half the people in his business and I would take dozens of Hitchens being "wrong" about something any day than a single one of the shitheels that qualifies of political writers these days who are either too timid to take fierce stands on things, or too cowardly to admit when they've made a mistake about something in the past.