RIP: William F. Buckley Jr.

[JVO]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080227/ap_on_re_us/obit_buckley

[ElRiche]

Good riddance, conservative windbag.

I don't mind conservatism, actually. But when it is wedded to nationalism, it is awful. Loving a country is human, but, strangely, it is anathema to international peace. Nevertheless, we'll have to continue engaging with it constructively.

[matty]

WELL, WELL, WELL.

El Riche pops back up to torment me yet again. And to bespoil (neat word) the unquestionable character of Bill Buckley, one of our nations greatest and most inpsirational...oh, wait, I'm thinking of somebody else. What did Bill Buckley do? Was he a Poet Laureate? Wait, no, he had something to do with journalism but I'll be damned if I can remember what, exactly...

I'll Wiki him...

Okay. So I guess his dream was to be in a three-way with Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagon (shudder). He also had a series of CIA spy fiction, the lead character of which was named "Blackford Oakes." I don't know anybody named Blackford. Do you? I didn't think so.

I guess he had a debate with Gore Vidal:

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.”

Don't talk to Gore Vidal that way! Gore's old, and he's always been old, and that's no way to talk to your queer goddamn elders.

Gee Dub awarded him the "Presidential Medal of Freedom." For one thing, that sounds made-up. For another thing, I think I saw one of those at a garage sale last Saturday. Gee Dub just hands those things out right and left. I got one the other day for reminding Laura Bush that her shoes don't match her purse.

Over the course of his career, Buckley's views changed on some issues, such as drug legalization, which he came to favor.

Well ALL RIGHT BILL BUCKLEY. Finally you start making sense.

[007]

http://www.nationalreview.com/buckley/buckley200406291207.asp

[ElRiche]

WELL, WELL, WELL.

El Riche pops back up to torment me yet again.

Matthew,

My minions reported that you were running amok here, as usual. Despite your gift for hilarity, the world can only tolerate so much. Alors, enter stage right, Mr. Deadpan.

Perhaps I should not have so quickly celebrated Buckley's demise. Honestly, I don't wish on anyone the end limit of our mortal coil, even insane-ocons. They're necessary for banter, too. But they're dumb like yesterday's eggs. So it is written, so it shall have been for God and Man at Yale. Good grief, how could anyone have bought in to His Pompousness? Whatever (a favorite concluding statement of a high school friend of mine.)