National Review
Posted at 11:04am on Apr. 4, 2008 Up From Mediocrity
William F. Buckley Jr. was a hero of mine.
By Kevin Holtsberry
Today in New York City a memorial service is being held to honor one of my heroes: William F. Buckley Jr. In remembrance of this occasion I wanted to try and put down some of my thoughts about how this great man impacted my life.
WFB - to use the shorthand - and I had little in common on the surface. He was a wealthy, Ivy League educated, world traveler with roots in the South and East Coast. I was born and raised in the Midwest in a Middle Class family, attended a small liberal arts college, and my only foreign travel was a trip to France in grad school.
He loved classical music and I barely know the difference between Bach and Beethoven. He loved to sail and sailed around the world. I have been a on a sail boat probably twice in my whole life. He was a master of the English language. I struggled with dyslexia as a child and still struggle with spelling and grammar. He was a lifelong Catholic and I am an evangelical protestant who grew up in small Bible churches.
In short, he was a sophisticated, highly intelligent, famous, and impactful person. I am not.
But it was his greatness - his goodness, his fundamental rightness - that called me to strive to be better, to know more, to communicate better, to make an impact.
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Posted in conservatism | History | National Review | William F. Buckley — Comments (6)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 12:27pm on Feb. 27, 2008 William F. Buckley Jr. Goes Home
A Man in Full
By Ben Domenech
More than any writer, more than any thinker, more than any intellectual, William F. Buckley Jr. made the modern conservative movement what it is today.
There will never be another like him. We mourn losing him with the entire National Review family. Yet we can take comfort in knowing that in this world, he lived a life without equal - and thus could be called home to the next with no regrets.
What I would give to hear whatever witty line he kept in his back pocket for greeting Saint Peter.
RIP.
More below the fold.
Posted in conservatism | National Review | Republicans | WFB — Comments (47)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 3:11pm on Feb. 15, 2008 The Conscience of Conservatism
What role, the venerable National Review magazine in 21st century conservatism?
By Mark Kilmer
In raising the $300,000 necessary to start National Review magazine in the mid-1950's, William F. Buckley promised prospective investors that his new magazine would "recommend policies for the simple reason that we consider them right (rather than 'non-controversial'); and we consider them right because they are based on principles we deem right (rather than on popularity polls)." This was gripping stuff, staring at the Soviets as the Cold War breathed its icy breath across oceans. It was, as Buckley would write in NR's founding statement, standing "athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no other is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it."
We begin publishing, then, with a considerable stock of experience with the irresponsible Right, and a despair of the intransigence of the Liberals, who run this country; and all this in a world dominated by the jubilant single-mindedness of the practicing Communist, with his inside track to History. All this would not appear to augur well for NATIONAL REVIEW. Yet we start with a considerable — and considered — optimism.
Of course, those words were first published on November 19, 1955. 'T was a different world then, and I dare say, a different magazine.
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Posted in Archived | National Review | Reagan | Romney — Comments (34)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 3:36pm on Jan. 28, 2008 National Review's brand drops another notch
By Neil Stevens
John Derbyshire is raising money for Ron Paul at The Corner. I'm disappointed. We all know Ron Paul is opposed to Goldwater Republicanism, but once upon a time NR was a Goldwater Republican organization. If NRO continues to allow Derbyshire to shill for Ron Paul on their site, it shows that they truly have diverged from their proud traditions.
Posted at 2:15pm on Nov. 2, 2007 NR on Hillary and the Spitzer Plan
By Dan McLaughlin
An NR editorial notes that even the revised, tiered system proposed by Gov. Spitzer is unlikely to work:
Only two states — Tennessee and Utah — have tried this type of tiered licensing program, and only Utah still uses one. Tennessee's Democratic governor pulled the plug on his state’s program after federal regulators discovered widespread fraud and abuse. Utah claims its program has achieved limited success, but its population is only about a seventh of New York's. The bureaucratic challenges of implementing such a system in the Empire State would be nothing less than nightmarish, as Dodd pointed out in the debate.
