Thursday, 30 December 2010

Denis Dutton 1944-2010

One of this country's favourite adopted sons, Denis died aged 66, shortly after Christmas.

All those who knew, worked and rubbed shoulders with Denis knew him as a lively, entertaining and passionate man, who cared deeply for the truth. (His masthead motto on his website Arts and Letters Daily is Veritas Odit Moras - truth hates delay). Aldaily.com shot Denis to worldwide fame, and has been recognised year after year as an indispensable internet resource. According to the NY Times... "As one of the first people to recognize the power of the Web to facilitate intellectual discourse, Professor Dutton was hailed as being among “the most influential media personalities in the world,” as Time magazine described him in 2005"

Denis had a wide range on interests; philosophy, art, politics and music, with firm convictions and knowledge to defend his preferences and biases. One of his pleasures was to shine the spotlight on the hypocrisy of the green political movement - and when media sycophancy towards the greens wanes, Denis will be seen as one of the foremost torch bearers for truth. Denis and I had a hero and a reference book in common: Julian Simon "The Ultimate Resource".
I knew Denis via my membership of ACT and the Sceptics Society, and it was my very great pleasure to find appropriate articles for Climate Debate Daily (sister site to Arts and Letters Daily) and see them appear - on what has become an influential site in the pivotal battle against green leftists...
Denis will be sorely missed by truthseekers worldwide.

Kia ora, tena koe mate.
A report on Denis' funeral from The Christchurch Press here...