So I remember back when I used to think that Christopher Hitchens was the shit. I mean, Mother Teresa, not-so-saintly? The Clintons power-hungry opportunistic? Henry Kissinger a war-criminal? In Harpers? ! Who else would dare! Wear a trenchcoat, dangle a cigarette! Be a contrarian, just like me!

These days I'm somehow less impressed. I don't know whether this is because I've mellowed, as Alric has noted, from my rabid queer-Marxist days, or whether it's because Hitchens has gotten irrelevant, annoying.