I had become too accustomed to the pseudo-Left new style, whereby if your opponent thought he had identified your lowest possible motive, he was quite certain that he had isolated the only real one. This vulgar method, which is now the norm and the standard in much non-Left journalism as well, is designed to have the effect of making any noisy moron into a master analyst.

In November 2010 Hitchens cancelled a scheduled appearance in New York where he was to debate writers David Hazony and Stephen Prothero on the subject of the Ten Commandments. He also criticised Bush's support of intelligent design and capital punishment. He will tell it really well.

His anti-religion polemic God Is Not Great sold over 500000 copies. Hitchens died on 15 December 2011 from complications arising from oesophageal cancer a disease that he acknowledged was likely due to his lifelong predilection for heavy smoking and drinking.