The Hitchens piece is also a reminder of why I regularly read Slate, whereast I find most other liberal publications tedious and predictable.

Slate is consistently liberal, and I disagree with its viewpoint far more often than I agree with it. But it's not blindly ideological and is never predictable (as opposed to, say, the risibly self-important Salon, where one can, sight-unseen, divine its editorial viewpoint on any given story one hundred times out of a hundred).

Slate, while often misguided, remains in some way tethered to reality, a feat not accomplished by Salon, Air America, or The Nation, or most other "progressive" outlets.

I read it to find out what intelligent things the opposition has to say.