Christopher Hitchens is an irrepressible contrarian, and it’s hard to imagine him any other way. For proof, witness ”The Hitch” on:

Michael Moore: “[Europeans] think Americans are fat, vulgar, greedy, stupid, ambitious and ignorant and so on. And they’ve taken as their own, as their representative American, someone who actually embodies all of those qualities.”

The Dalai Lama: “[...] the entire Western mass media is uncritically at the service of a mere mortal who, at the very least, proclaims the utter nonsense of reincarnation and who affirms the sinister if not indeed crazy belief that death is but a stage in a grand cycle of what appears to be futility and subjection.”

Mother Teresa: “Many more people are poor and sick because of the life of [Mother Teresa]: Even more will be poor and sick if her example is followed.”

Bob Hope: “To be paralyzingly, painfully, hopelessly unfunny is not a particular defect or shortcoming in, say, a cable repair man or a Supreme Court justice or a Navy Seal [...] But to be paralyzingly, painfully, hopelessly unfunny is a serious drawback, even lapse, in a comedian.”

However, Mr. Hitchens is a fan of Thomas Jefferson. He considers him to be the “designer of America,” and his new biography of Jefferson explains why. Catch him after an introduction by David Brooks here next Thursday, June 16 for the full explanation.