Christopher Hitchins

A guy named Christopher Hitchins died in 2011. He was a contrarian.

Contrarian is the level of intelligence I aspire to, although my brain power is severely limited and becoming more clouded over and limited every goddamn day. Contrarian is the highest level of intelligence. Contrarians question everything. They don't take sides.
George Carlin was a contrarian and I worshipped him. I knew he was a contrarian because I would be floating along, listening to his rap and thinking "Yeah, George, you are my man, you think like me, we are kindred spirits." Then he would mock something that I believe in, something seemingly in opposition to his typical train of thought, and I would realize I don't think deeply enough. I also realized he did not have a typical train of thought. He just thought.
Christopher Hitchins was cut from the same cloth, although his thinking was more right leaning. I am not going to dig too deeply into the man today because I don't have time. I hate that expression because the time I don't think I have will never be back. Anyway I'm going to give you some of his quotes ranging from the everyday to the intellectual to nasty satire. Enjoy.

"Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods."

This one, in my humble opinion, is the definition of contrarian: " Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the "transcendent" and all who invite you to subordinate and annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don't be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you."

"Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it."

"Mother Theresa was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction."

"If you gave Jerry Falwell an enema, he could be buried in a matchbox."

On Sarah Palin: "She's got no charisma of any kind, but I can imagine her being mildly useful to a  low-rank porn director."

"My own view is that this planet is used as a penal colony, lunatic asylum and dumping ground by a superior civilization to get rid of the undesirable and unfit. I can't prove it but you can't disprove it either."

"The search for Nirvana, like the search for Utopia, or the end of history or the classless society, is ultimately a futile and dangerous one. It involves, if it does not necessitate, the sleep of reason. There is no escape from anxiety and struggle."

"How ya doin?" I always think, What kind of question is that?, and I always reply "A bit early to tell."

Dig it, folks. I'm outta here.