So anyhow, William F. Buckley wanted to tattoo those with AIDS.

[Cyrano]

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/

I always had some degree of respect for Buckley. And over the years, I analyzed my own feelings about someone whose ideas I loathed.

My "respect" was based on his vocabulary, his wit, and the fact that, unlike Limbaugh and the other wingnut spewers of hate, he could make a coherent argument for his beliefs.

But anytime I went to far, I realized that this man was the founder of modern day conservatism and everything I despise about the Republican Party.

And then I read Digby today -- link above. He actually wanted to tattoo AIDS patients.

Today, I am sorry he is dead, so that I could write to him and let him know he was a major league Nazi by anyone's definition. And also, a major league prick.

[DB1]

1. Homophobe to the max he was. Close to a nazi as Vidal said.

Built his reputation on using his intellect and educated speakease to propose unrealistic simplistic right wing conservatism.IMHO

[Warpy]

2. He was a first class phobe, and anyone who saw his live

interviews on TV can probably figure out why. I sure as hell thought he was closeted and self loathing.

However, as conservatives go, I found him dead wrong about nearly everything but honest.

Back in the 70s, he hired a boat to take him out beyond the 3 mile limit. He toked up. Now, this required a tapdance so that he wouldn't commit the crime of buying the stuff which meant he had somebody else holding it, but he returned and wrote a column about the experience and called the war against marijuana a huge farce.

That was daring and startlingly honest back in the 70s when the drug war was at its peak of popularity as the country mounted a backlash against the scruffy hippies who had ruined their nice little war.

Buckley's problem was the same as it is for all conservatives: garbage in, garbage out. He based all his reasoning on a bunch of faulty premises so that no matter how honest his reasoning and how capable he was of doing it, his conclusions were generally wrong.

To his credit, he did despise neocons. He was still a phobe, though.

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. One father of a kid w. AIDs said he would *kill* Buckley or...

anyone else who tried to "tatoo" his sick son.

[TomClash]

4. This was the worst column that man ever wrote

I remember the furor in NYC over it. It was well deserved and the "gay plague" hysteria of the time was no excuse. His explanation in later years that the column was "tongue-in-cheek" was total bullshit.

[shain from kane]

5. Let's tattoo the dead, so we know whether they arose after 3-days in mothballs.

[rusty quoin]

6. I believe at one time, he was a fan of Pinochet.

That said, I use to enjoy him on PBS in the 80's.