William F. Buckley

[Aaron Burr]

Sigh...1925-2008.

[Aaron Burr]

O.K.
I didn't give Bucky his fair due. I was saddened by his not so unexpected demise. Well, not saddened really, as I have no emotions, but my vision seemed dim, and my daily chalice of baby's blood lacked it's usual vigor.

Taking my son to the skate park really turned the day around. Tomorrow it's the beach. Bucky was a Yankee, but I know he would approve.

This is because Buckley had a voracious appetite for living. He sailed around the world, a couple of times. He served during WWII and later worked for the CIA.

When in 1951 I was inducted into the CIA as a deep cover agent, the procedures for disguising my affiliation and my work were unsmilingly comprehensive. It was three months before I was formally permitted to inform my wife what the real reason was for going to Mexico City to live. If, a year later, I had been apprehended, dosed with sodium pentothal, and forced to give out the names of everyone I knew in the CIA, I could have come up with exactly one name, that of my immediate boss (E. Howard Hunt, as it happened). In the passage of time one can indulge in idle talk on spook life. In 1980 I found myself seated next to the former president of Mexico at a ski-area restaurant. What, he asked amiably, had I done when I lived in Mexico? "I tried to undermine your regime, Mr. President." He thought this amusing, and that is all that it was, under the aspect of the heavens.

(For triple J who must think me insane for advocating the usurpation of the modern government of Mexico)

Buckley was, and is, the real deal. If I could recommend one author for the budding conservative to read, it would be him. It's not all boring political stuff either. Bucky wrote 10 spy novels. He's fun. He's witty. He's alive. (In the spiritual sense, not the totally cool vampire way)

Start reading stuff written by him before you read too much about him. Check out Firing Line, his T.V. show, which ran for around 30 years. See if you can find this memorable exchange on youtube between Buckley and Gore Vidal.

Buckley appeared in a series of televised debates with Gore Vidal during the 1968 Democratic Party convention. In their penultimate debate on August 28 of that year, the two disagreed over the actions of the Chicago police and the protesters at the ongoing Democratic Convention in Chicago. At one point Vidal called Buckley a “pro-crypto Nazi”, to which Buckley replied, “Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I will sock you in your goddamn face, and you will stay plastered.”

(For all those who think me strangely attracted to violence)

Buckley was a man I greatly admired, on many levels. His is a life to envied, admired, emulated. Bucky was a Hell of a man who lived a Hell of a life. Pretty much the definition of what being a Conservative is.

To William F. Buckley, who is probably now talking GodTm into postponing the Apocalypse on the basis that American Democracy, despite it's inherent flaws, is Logically and demonstrably superior to any form of Autocratic Theocracy, even Divine.

Everything seems to be still in place, so I can only assume he's keeping his end of the argument up.

WFB

I think the F stands for Forever now.

Although it could stand for Favorite Mexican.

I hope they put his photo up in the main entrance at Langley.

[Flashchamber7]

Let's see, now.... Reagan, Sinatra, Wayne, Peck, and now Buckley. Replacements in the new generation? Oh, yeah. NONE. Manhood is dead, and we fossils are going to find ourselves in a museum run by the left. It's called a psych ward....... for "subversives with tolerance capacity irregularities and delusions of moral standards".

[Aaron Burr]

I see it just the opposite. After all, Buckley raised you from the dead. I haven't seen you in ages, welcome back.

Manhood ain't dead, it just needs a little exercise. Read some Hemingway, buy a motorcycle, teach a kid how to tie a knot, or how to shoot stuff. Throw in some American History and the seed is planted.

Just because they suck, it doesn't mean we have to as well.

[Flashchamber7]

I have 3 young sons. I've already started with the kids. The motorcycle, well that's a few years down the road.

[Aaron Burr]

Good plan, get them used to the skateboards and automatic weapons before the motorized mayhem starts.

Oh, and I found that Rudyard Kipling is a good place to start with the young ones.

[pduggs]

“Liberals, it has been said, are generous with other peoples’ money, except when it comes to questions of national survival when they prefer to be generous with other people’s freedom and security.” —William F. Buckley Jr.

SO RIGHT!!!