Oh how cute, Christopher Hitchens thinks that words have "original meaning" that they're "anchored" to.

He's probably also one of those Brits (not all of them by any means, only the pompous and misinformed ones) who insist that Americans have made off with "their" language, rather than seeing that both UK and US English share a common ancestor that we split off from centuries ago, and that neither country now speaks a version closer to the original than the other.

A reality in which what words means shifts and flows over the centuries would be a very scary one to Hitchens apparently, so he chooses to pretend, in a fairly tale way, that it doesn't exist.

Good job by the way on joining the right wing chorus in which commentary about Kennedy amounts to "Chappaquidick" repeated ad nasuem. Speaking about losing original meaning, there's a great example.

What a naive, pompous windbag Christopher Hitchens is.

No one knows what really went down at that day at the river but only a fool would believe Kennedy's account of events. While I'm a liberal, I'm no fool. 99% of other politicians would of been toast after such an event based on the just the simple fact the Kennedy didn't report the death until over 8 hours after the so call accident.

"the simple fact the Kennedy didn't report the death until over 8 hours after the so call accident."

actually she was alive and had Kennedy reported it, there was a chance she could've been saved.

Chappaquiddick should stick to Teddy like Nicole (and Ron) stick to OJ.