The guy who started me on my political journey died today.

William F. Buckley. The man who showed one can be truly conservative and truly intellectual.

I grew up in a Democratic household. Ordinary people who revered FDR and, later, JFK.

As a young man in high school, I was very impressed by Buckley. Firing Line seems an odd show for a young kid in the 60s, but there you have it. He seemed to me the epitome of preppy, New England, intellectual, antiestablishment cool. Yes ..... antiestablishment. I guess its all a matter of perspective and circumstance. I was even caused to explore the John Birch Society. None Dare Call it Treason was a biggie for me.

As the years went by I moved closer and closer to the real me. The me who is comfortable in my own skin. That comfort comes of knowing the alternatives. While I completely abandoned the conservative ideology decades ago, I continue to respect William F. Buckley.

He showed me that thinking was cool.

Rest well, Mr. Buckley. You set me on a path to personal enlightenment, even as we shared virtually nothing at the end except intellectuality for its own sake.



Edit to add: Hmmm ..... Tweety is saying essentially the same thing as I just wrote. My post, however, was not inspired by Matthews.

... the tenets of conservatism comes to mind. But he was slick and glib, and fairly fun to listen to.

:scared:

He hated democracy. I think he was the last remaining Tory.

Plato. He (Plato) called it "mob rule."

http://www.newsprism.wordpress.com">Newsprism

I grew up listening to him.

I admired his intellect but agreed with few of his ideologies.

Still there are some intellectuals with whom I ardently disagree, but still find to be strangely stimulating.

He was truly one of them.

RIP

were enchanting.

WFBuckley gave conservatives a good name, especially as the blue-eyed haters I knew personally made "americanism" an ugly word. (Walter Knott / Liberty Lobby. fanatics. John Birch Society racists. Daughters of the American Revolution bluenoses. All cordial toward me, a brownskinned kid invited to recite poetry and stuff at their meetings, but invariably would come the question, "What are you?" "Yes, but what is your father?" "Yes, but what language do you speak at home?" "Yes but where did your grandparents come from?" Yes...but...but... ).

Well, Mailer and Mrs. Buckley. WFB wrote a touching RIP to Mailer when Norman died. Conservatives are people, too (except the neocons.)

http://www.newsprism.wordpress.com">Newsprism

about 20 years ago. I thought he was full of crap at the time, but began to read Buckley in a different light. He was "wrong" nearly every time, but at least he was was intellectually honest. Those on the radical right who follow him now are cartoon characters in comparison and worse than lightweights in the intelligence department.

RIP Buckly, though I despise those who descended from you. Hannity, Holmes, O'Really, Rush, are all your by-product.

Much of what we have today is his issue.

He did advocate for decriminalization of marijuana. And parts of "Saving the Queen" were a hoot.

Radical Republicanisnm we have now, he's someone I might disagree with but could hold an animated, but pleasant conversation with.

I could actually listen to him--that means something to me. And I will never disrespect the dead no matter who they are (and sometimes that can be difficult).

thus enabling corporatists and and closet racists some sort of elevated excuse to hold their destructive views.

Yes, he was very smart and influential beyond his dreams -- probably due to massive infusions of cash from corporations to the National Review to give him a platform for their interests-- BUT he did a profound disservice to his supposed beloved nation.

What a waste of brain power.

He always seemed to be trying to sound English to me, and coming off as a huge fake. Just my 2 cents.

A mix of old cultured New York and old cultured New England .... and probably not a small addition of affectation! But I know others who share the accent, albeit not nearly as extreme as his.

:spray:

Okay. That's it! Who's paying to have this monitor cleaned? :mad:

:hi:

My guide to the, ahem, local "wild" :eyes: life...

Author Lisa Birnbach actually uses Buckley to illustrate Larchmont Lockjaw very successfully--and yes, I went to school with people who were naturals at it (transplanted to the tennis/golf hell that is Scottsdale).



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_Preppy_Handbook

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locust_Valley_Lockjaw

I first heard the term to describe the way Miss Jane Hathaway talked in The Beverly Hillbillies.

It's not heard so much in people under age 70. Sounded like Fairfield County, CT/Westchester,NY to me -- or as I thought of it, like the summer complaints who came to Maine each year.

I remember "Firing Line" too. He was singlehandedly responsible for my early association of well off Yankees and cluelessness, LOL. It was fun to watch him spar with more liberal guests -- the man knew how to debate.

..... the areas where such accents were most commonly heard. I grew up in Fairfield County, too ...... but at the poor end ..... Bridgeport.

He was also a son of wealth who married wealth. Old blueblood money.

His family was from down there. The Charleston accent is at least as blueblood as the Connecticut one.

I was fortunate to have lived two years in Charleston. I still have a fondness for it and visit from time to time even though I know no one there.

Stinky's smarter 'n'he lets on.

Duh! I've noticed that years ago about Kean. I forgot it in this discussion. Buckley's version of it is far more extreme, however. Notice, too, that Kean's kid doesn't have it at all.

very unusual to my ears. It would be fascinating to know the linguistic origins of that kind of accent.


He had a very erudite manner and was interesting to listen to, even if you didn't agree with his views.

Where the hell did you get that from?!? :crazy:

Thinking IS cool but following conservative BS and (The John Birch Society?) in the 60's?

Tweety is a fucking moron. How republican are you, really? :shrug:

All I can say is :wtf:

Buckly is as much 'New England' as Bush is 'Texan'.

I just looked it up on Wiki ..... he was born in Manhattan but raised in Stamford. That's New England.

Not sure I follow how you're tying New England and the John Birch Society together ........

He does not and never did resemble any Democratic (most of New England) at all!!

He may have lived in Connecticut. So what?

That doesn't mean he 'thinks' like TRUE BLUE, born and bred New Englander's at all.

He owned real estate in CT. That's about it.

I never said he was a Democrat.

New York is not New England ... true enough, technically. However, when one goes 25 miles from midtown, one is in New England. Culturally, the two areas are quite close. Which was my point.

Buckley Jr. is no New Englander and never was.

You had to look up what was new England? :rofl:

And you think you're going to lecture me about it?

I was born there. Get a clue.

You're acting like a jerk, you know.

On edit ..... you mean I have to bear the cross of sharing my region of birth with the likes of you?

There are worst people but his faux-aristocratic aire was hard to take.

I was expressing a personal sentiment after the death of a person who influenced my early life.

:sarcasm:

to make yourself understood. Buckley insisted upon making himself as unapproachable as possible, in an attempt to tell his audience I am smarter than you are and Do not touch me, you riff raff . I am sure that part of it is cultural. I am from the South, and I know what good oration is supposed to sound like. What passed through Buckley's lips was the exact opposite. Even if he ever had a good opinion, which he didn't, he would have spoiled it with his lousy delivery. I do not know why so many people worship the man.

The problem with writing and talking like a walking thesaurus is your words do not connect in a visceral way. Language and communication is not simply a matter of using a symbol to express an idea, the way that you would use a chemistry symbol to note some molecule or charge and then stringing a bunch of symbols together. A writer or speaker chooses a word with care, knowing all that it implies. He or she then weaves a text with many words, all of which interact together within the consciousness of the one who listens or reads to form a new text.

When Buckley used uncomfortable or unfamiliar words, he deliberately created a clinical, antiseptic alienating field on which the reader was supposed to decipher the text. If a readerly text invites the audience to come in to play, Buckley was the curmudgeonly old neighbor who sits on the porch with a loaded shotgun telling everyone who passes "Git the hell off my property!"

..... he inspired me to think - actually think - about politics and to some degree, philosophy. He planted the seed that grew into the id of me today.

but I did read his views. R.I.P.

His brilliant eulogy for Patrick Moynihan left me teary-eyed and speechless. A fond goodbye to a lifelong foe and friend.

I seldom agreed with him, but I felt his columns worth the read, in case there was anything of merit to be gleaned, or ideas and their mechanics to be understood. When he was on his game, there was both. A wordsmith and a thesaurus with legs.

Goodnight Bill.

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And a low blow -- to say the least. :eyes:

....meritricious:tawdry, yet alluring....yes, he was....at least as a sloop-sailing bastard he forced me to expand my vocabulary....Peace and gentle angels to you, you completely wrong bastard-you spoke well...

but I think it was Roget's who called Buckley, not the other way around.

Just because I don't agree with him doesn't make me hate or disrespect him.

RIP, Mr. Buckley.

intelligence.