There are a select few people in this world who I immensely respect precisely because I disagree with them. And in those disagreements, I see the profoundness of their intellect and their commitment to their view of the world, and I see no hypocrisy or logical fallacy, only a different conclusion.

One of the few living people who fall into this category, already occupied by such men as Descartes and William Tecumseh Sherman, is rabid atheist and Iraq war supporter Christopher Hitchens, whom I have admired since a year ago when I discovered his incredible speech on the dignity and absolute sanctity of free speech. He is not without his intellectual faults, but I forgive him that, since he seems to have come to his conclusions with a vicious streak of honesty I can admire.

One of these faults, until this month, was doubting the effects of waterboarding being torture. So someone offered to do it to him.

And so, he showed himself to be exactly the man I respect him for, and accepted. And immediately reversed his position on the entire subject afterward.

( Video of his experience and interview )