William Frank "Bill" Buckley, Jr. (November 24, 1925 - February 27, 2008) was an American author and conservative commentator. He founded the political magazine National Review in 1955, hosted the television show Firing Line from 1966 until 1999, and is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. His writing style is famed for its eloquence, wit, and use of uncommon words.
"I am, I fully grant, a phenomenon, but not because of any speed in composition," he wrote in The New York Times Book Review in 1986. "I asked myself the other day, `Who else, on so many issues, has been so right so much of the time?' I couldn't think of anyone."
How would the conservative movement been different had he never lived, never written?
"I am, I fully grant, a phenomenon, but not because of any speed in composition," he wrote in The New York Times Book Review in 1986. "I asked myself the other day, `Who else, on so many issues, has been so right so much of the time?' I couldn't think of anyone."
How would the conservative movement been different had he never lived, never written?
Could it be his death parallels the death of conservatism as we know it? Just thinking......
27 comments:
he was awesome. powerful. and right. he said it best.
we barely knew ye, william.
*:[
"we barely knew ye, william"...oh, nanc....you have such a heart. (sshhh...I know, it'll be our secret!)
May he rest in Paradise.
Good evening everyone, hello Zinla ,nanc, how are you? God Bless Bill Buckley, he was to conservativism what St. Paul was to Christianity. J'Mac.
Indeed, he gave conservatives words and wings.
tmw
What great comments all.
Hi, J'Mac...Brooke, TMW, Nanc....
He sure did have a wonderful mind. I had to cringe when one of the accounts of his death called his style "reptilian", that word couched in otherwise complimentary terms...already the nasty starts.
America owes a lot to Buckley.
I always admired William F. Buckley.
Back when I was in high school, I made a conscious effort to build my vocabulary by reading his articles and by watching him on television. I needed by dictionary in hand to understand him when I first started on.
I do not think Conservatism is dead.
It has yet to find articulate spokesman who could relate to the people.
Beak, I hope you're right... but, "So far, no good" We need to see to it that happens. And, can we depend on the RNC?
AOW, Buckley was definitely a brilliant wordsmith. We were lucky to have him.
z - as i've been out and about rarely today, when i have had a chance, even people on the left had high regard for him and i've not seen one nasty comment towards him - funny though, some remember his debates with people of their own ilk and still thought he was a great man.
if we could all leave such a legacy.
we are of the age where people are going to be disappearing from our lives more often than not - i fear for the future of our country wondering who will lead with such convictions.
i'll bet horowitz has a great spread on him tomorrow at fpm - he's that way.
well, nanc, that "reptilian" line I posted here in the COMMENTS was a real low blow, but mainly, I think you're right; you couldn't help but admire him. Still, I'm sure the far left can't STAND the guy. but who cares?
The greats are sure going, nanc....don't tell me when Thomas Sowell goes. I won't want to know! I'll just live in a dream world, assured that if I didn't hear it, it didn't happen! HA!
I passed!
z
I loved the way he annunciated.
buckley-chompsky debate.
i'm listening to it now.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=0A0BEE9A-3533-4415-9B69-8F156D31EA12
Nanc...here's Horowitz' spread. You probably already checked it out, but just in case....
very good. I love the stuff with David Niven, a hero of mine.
ben johnson put one up also - i miss ben from moonbat central days.
i knew fpm would have a wonderful tribute, but two!
morning, nanc. I'm going to listen to your Noam/Bill link later, hopefully. Am really looking forward to hearing that. thanks.
REPUBLICANS FOR OBAMA!
Mr. Buckley, TRY to rest in peace....try hard.
What is WITH these people? I'm hearing them on the radio, saying Obama's really going to 'unite' for a 'new direction'......naivitee, thy name is........unprintable here.
do you ever go to DUmmie FUnnies?
check out their link i'll leave here - they do the FUNNIEST takes on everything at democratic underground - i think you'll enjoy their take on things."
nobody does it like they do - i'm an observer only - one of my secret pleasures so to speak!
Ducky just posted at FPM for the first time in a while...referred to Buckley as "That old closet queen"...I countered with a quote I found at Gay Patriot :
"When I was friendly with Marvin Liebman in the mid-1990s, he remembered his friend fondly, noting how their friendship did not change when Liebman came out as gay to Buckley."
Seems to me that, were Buckley gay, his intimate lifelong friends would have known it...especially friends he thought were straight but came ou later?
Mr. Ducky: Not nice. Why is it always the LEFT that throws the gay stuff around, outing people when they didn't want to be, etc. Just seems curious to me...?
Buckley's work to keep conservatism "out of the margins" is admirable, but, at least to me, the few times I could find myself in disagreement with Buckley, the disagreement was fiercely irreconcilable. He didn't have much use for the religious right.
His article on Terri Schiavo stands out in my mind as something to be pissed off at Buckley about, and no twenty dollar words from Buckley's pen on this issue will ever right that.
He was a great man, but one that should have stopped writing before he stopped making sense.
Anyway, RIP Bill Buckley.
I'll look for the Terry Schiavo piece, Mr. Beamish..still haven't had time to listen to Buckley vs Chomski, which nanc was kind enough to link. Looking forward to that...That was when he was thinking his best, I think.
we can't agree with everyone on everything. Heck, you hate EUrope, I love parts of it, right?
nanc, I couldn't get into your link. Some FPM poster did link the debates re: Greece..is that the one?
It's difficult for me to figure out who wins history isn't my long suit.....I just sensed such a hatred in Chomsky...a kind of pathological hatred for America...a seeming disregard for ANY context. If a country had a BAD THING done to it, it MUST have been America that DID it, you know?
and he's influence millions.
Buckley vs. Chomsky?
What a lopsided battle. Without listening to it, I imagine that's like a conservative Evander Holyfield vs. a leftist Raggedy Ann doll.
An unfair fight.
Buckley was a brilliant mind, most of the time (he was wrong on Terri Schiavo and the Iraq War), but there is no equivalent on the left.
It is impossible for a rational mind to be leftist in the first place.
In other words, Buckley trouncing Chomsky isn't that big of a deal.
I could do it.
You could do it.
Your dog with half its brain tied behind its back could do it.
SURE, YOU could do it ... the deal is IF you're not up on your history, and you hear Chomsky's spiel, you can really wonder "Well, maybe he's right about that."
You saying there's NO WAY? Period? Because he's a lefty? you have a point. But, honestly, Mr. B...Buckley, my hero, on this particular debate about Greece, didn't do a lot to dispel Chomsky's points...I was a tad disappointed. It made it LOOK like Chomsky won the point. And he's VERY smarmy..very belittling demeanor towards Buckley.
I thought it funny to contrast the Chomsky of 1969 comparing the moral argument of fighting the Vietnam War as beneath dignifying with a response as a moral argument for sending Jews to Auschwitz, with the Chomsky of 11 years later being the "academic champion" defender of Holocaust deniers.
If Chomsky ever had anything intelligible to say, so far he's kept it to himself.
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