Maybe I should institute a recurring feature on kottke.org...the Christopher Hitchens Quote of the Week or some such thing. This week's installment comes from an article on the media's over-exuberance in reporting on the death of Tim Russert and the "miracles" (bipartisanship, Springsteen, a rainbow) that followed.

No benign deity plucks television news-show hosts from their desks in the prime of life and then hastily compensates their friends and family by displays of irradiated droplets in the sky

• Christopher Hitchens
• timrussert

An anecdote from Tim Russert's funeral:

Russert's onetime boss, former New York governor Mario Cuomo, offered the day's only example of Russert blatantly lying. After Cuomo pushed through the nation's first seat-belt law in 1985, the two men were in a Buffalo motorcade when their car was struck from behind and Cuomo — having forgotten to buckle up — hit the dashboard. As reporters rushed over, Russert blurted out: "Thank God for the seat belt!"

• timrussert