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Entry: William F. Buckley Jr.-- R.I.P. Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/william_f_buckley_jr_rip#18453 Post contents: What an extraordinary and full life WFB lived. He seemingly knew everyone, wrote constantly and with wit, and was that most rare of beasts--a popular intellectual. I used to have a substantial part of his writings in my library and read it all, and subscribed for nearly 20 years to National Review through poverty and relative poverty. I eventually threw over NR in disgust, having been won over to a truer conservatism by the writings of Patrick Buchanan and Joseph Sobran. The memory of the last straw still sticks--it was a Peter Rodman NR article in which he argued that America shouldn't let Japan take the lead in some obscure regional economic group. NR had descended to a smelly mess of imperialist-think and infantile insecurity. Joseph Sobran's various comments on WFB probably make the best overview we can have of the man. He called him the finest Christian gentleman he knew, a compassionate man who helped many behind the scenes, not to mention a man of humor and wit. Sobran also recalls the man who bent backwards to court favor and power when Reagan became president, and who cravenly shrank from resisting the Kristols and Podhoretzes of the day calling for the blood of "anti-Semites" writing for NR, including Sobran. Buckley was a remarkable man with giant flaws and virtues. For better or worse, we'll not see his likes again. Sent at: 2008 09 07