A great American and a very public and committed Catholic died today. Among the many people WFB inspired, was me. Watching him abuse Phil Donahue, led to me to watch him debate, a first for me, George McGovern. Which led me to get his latest book, which led me to his magazine, National Review – still remember the Pol Pot cover in 1978. Soon I was ordering Firing Line transcripts [PO Box 5966 / Columbia SC 29250]. It was odd and comforting to find out over the years that the effect he had on me repeated itself all over our country.

For me it was love at first attack on liberalism – he was smart, patriotic, sarcastic and unapologetic about his beliefs – Ayn Rand once ‘accused’ him of being too intelligent to believe in God – somewhere I read and never forgot his description of liberals:

People who mean well but do ill and then justify their ill-doing by their well-meaning.

Buckley had the following exchange with Gore Vidal in 1968. He later apologized for losing his temper, but was not technically incorrect in referring to Mr Vidal as a homosexual, the slang term used [queer], is what was considered inappropriate.

Tributes:
WFB impact on NY Politics
Gary Becker

Please note the following you tube videos involving WFB:
1968 – Debating Gore Vidal P1 – ABC News – 4:50 minutes
1968 – Debating Gore Vidal P2 – ABC News – 1:45 minutes
1969 – Firing Line – Norm Chomsky – 1:45 minutes
198? – WFB on – Nightline – 2:36 minutes
1990 – Mortimer Adler http://only on Firing Line – 9:23 minutes
1996 – WFB on – Drud Legalization – 9:16 minutes
2004 – WFB interviewed on – Charlie Rose – 53:00 minutes
2007 – WFB interviewed on – Fox – 8:35 minutes
2007 – WFB interviewed on – Charlie Rose – [begins at 17:00] 38:25 minutes
2008 – The best of WFB P1 – Hale Media – 7:53 minutes
2008 – The best of WFB P2 – Hale Media – 6:26 minutes
2008 – Christopher Matthews and Peggy Noonan – MSNBC – 6:03 minutes
2008 – Brit Hume – Fox – 3:27 minutes
2008 – Garry Wills – 1:45 minutes
2008 – This I Believe – 4:06 minutes
2008 – Retrospective Charlie Rose – 56:44 minutes