Hitchens was the Most Commanding English-language Virtuoso Conversationalist in the last 100 years. He had a preternatural ability to call up the exact word needed in every instance and situation. His vocabulary was colossal, ney towering, ney…prodigious. While many people employ 50-cent SAT-words in their own writing, they are likely hard-pressed to recall them during an extemporaneous speech or brave enough to attempt in conversation. If it sounds like Hitchen’s confab was pretentious, it wasn’t. He had that great shield against verbal haughtiness called a silky BRITISH baritone voice. To say nothing of his glass-cutting wit.

He is most notorious in America for being a member of the Neo-Atheism movement. His book God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything was at once celebrated and reviled. At the very least, it was amusing, and it gave birth to some fascinating public debates between eloquent locutioners and Evangelical dolts on the subject of God, her existence and her followers.

God is Not Great also happened to be the first work I’d ever read of Hitch’s back in December of 2010. I’d been slogging through his dense monthly book reviews in The Atlantic for years before I realized his greatness. It wasn’t until the debates were raging that I’d become obsessed and began consuming everything else I could pull up on the Internet. He was growing on me quickly and pervasively.

I think so much of what I like about Hitch is that sense of the schadenfreude of the Christianists that he played the catalyst in. I loved that this Wizard of Words romped around like an intellectual bull-in-the-china-closet when it came to making a point. They never stood a chance. Of course, there are some notable exceptions – Hitch v. Tony Blair and Hitch v. Alister McGrath.

Finally, I don't want to say much about the content of Hitchens arguments. That's for you to discover. Sometimes, it's as much about your Leader's ability to articulate rather than what he is articulating, though I agree with many of his points. I also respect that he changed his mind about Marxism and came around to being more of a Libertarian. I disagreed with his views on Iraq (he supported the war), I understood his points and respected his convictions. Unfortunately, he ravaged his body with a lifetime of drink and smoke. It ravaged him back with cancer which won out on December 15, 2011, about a year after I really fell in love this man and his work.

There is a ton of Christopher Hitchens material out there, and you could do worse than investigate this lion of the english language. I haven't even touched on his encyclopedic knowledge of and sober opinion on George Orwell. Fall down the rabbit hole on YouTube and watch his interviews and speeches. Read his memior, Hitch-22. Start with this and you won't be disappointed.

I am going to be creating a series of posts called "X is my Leader" where X = somebody that I'm a big fan of and am inspired by. Don't worry. These will all be public figures so after I tell you about them, they can be your leader, too. And, no, there will be no Steve Jobs. Nor will there be a Jesus or a Paul or any other religious figure. It's overdone.

I have stolen the motif from KTCK 1310 AM The Ticket's Mike Rhyner, noted afternoon drive host, who I first heard use this term about Chris Berman--that Berman was "his leader." It has become common Ticket parlance to call your personal heroes, your leader. You are a follower of them.

For me, I typically consume any missive, interview, or live/recorded appearance that my leaders are featured in. I usually eat up everything they say and filter out very little. It's reckless, but, hey...they're my leader, damn it!