Christopher Hitchens, a slashing polemicist in the tradition of Thomas Paine and George Orwell who trained his sights on targets as various as Henry Kissinger, the British monarchy and Mother Teresa, wrote a best-seller attacking religious belief, and dismayed his former comrades on the left by enthusiastically supporting the American-led war in Iraq, died last night at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He was 62.

 

Polemicist Who Slashed All, Freely, With Wit (New York Times)

“For Dempsey, the war’s end is more of a “milestone” than a “culmination,” he said, listing a long to-do list for Iraq’s security. He knows the politics behind the language of the Iraq War as well as anyone, refusing to be lured into declaring it a success or failure. “I try to avoid false dichotomies,” he said. But he says he’s proud the U.S. has given Iraqis “an enormous opportunity” to build something, and in doing so the chairman lays bare that Iraq has not yet achieved the potential the U.S. had sought. I’m concerned but I’m also proud,” Dempsey said.

A U.S. Leader Of The Iraq War Reflects On Its Quiet Conclusion (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, The Atlantic)

Once an inner ring of Iraq’s wartime inferno, Falluja is only too eager to say goodbye to nearly nine shattering years of raids, bombings and house-to-house urban combat. At least 200 American troops were killed in this city. Untold thousands of Iraqis died, civilians and insurgents who are mourned equally as martyrs.Today, Falluja is a city desperately seeking normal.

 

At Iraq War’s End, Wounds Are Still Fresh For Falluja (Jack Healy, New York Times)

 

Street artist Banksy has installed a vandalised sculpture of a priest in a gallery in Liverpool.

Cardinal Sin is a bust with its face sawn off and replaced by blank tiles, designed as a response to the child abuse scandal in the Catholic church.

In a statement, Banksy said: “I’m never sure who deserves to be put on a pedestal or crushed under one.”

The sculpture was unveiled at the Walker Art Gallery, where it is sitting alongside 17th Century religious art.

The bathroom tiles have been put in place of the priest’s face to create a pixelated effect.

 

Banksy Unveils Church Abuse Work (BBC)

Rosie Linham writes:

I’ve been ignoring this sign (top) for a while now in the vain hope that someone will fix it but I noticed the other day that there were two of them and well, I had to send them in. I think the fact that they are for contact lenses adds to the comic value. Incidentally for verification purposes, they are displayed in a shop in North Main St.,Cork that sells mobile phone accessories. They are clearly moving out of the contact lens market.

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