Pantheon

W.F.B. passed away today- God keep him and R.I.P. Like most conservatives, I remember where I was the first time I wafted that aromatic National Review logic- The Pico Rivera public library. I also remember Firing Line and those wonderful debates (one featuring a conservative Arianna Huffington).

National Review remains the standard reference for mainstream conservative thought and one of my daily web destinations.

It would be difficult to overestimate William F. Buckley's impact on modern conservatism. He was one of the first "smart" conservatives in that he argued for conservatism from a sociological and economic perspective using statistics, historical analysis, and other tools that people associate with modern, non-traditional scholarship. The simplest example: Teenage pregnancy is bad because it leads to social pathologies and costs money, not because "God said so."

He was lucid and relevant up to the end. I'll miss him.

Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription: Notes & Asides from National Review by William F. Buckley

God and Man at Yale by William F. Buckley

Charlie Rose with William F. Buckley, Jr.; Alan Dershowitz (July 20, 2001)