20 May 2008

"On the Right"

I meant to acknowledge this yesterday, but my alias is (of course) a tribute to William F. Buckley, and his longtime syndicated column, which began in 1962 and ended only with his death earlier this year. I first became aware of Buckley in about 1987, when his influence was already starting to wane. But partial-influence by Buckley was still greater than the maximum influence ever attained by most.

I knew him only through his writings. The quality that stands out most in my memory is the sense of humor, the eye for the comical. It will be easy enough for anyone to find examples of this, but the one that I remember most clearly came on the release of Oliver Stone's movie "JFK" in December 1991. After viewing it, Buckley wrote (quoting from memory here) "Mr. Stone has proposed a conspiracy so vast that it could almost be justified on the principle of majority rule."

Perfect!

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