William F. Buckley, RIP

[Roscoe]

Quotable Quotes:

“Back in the thirties we were told we must collectivize the nation because the people were so poor. Now we are told we must collectivize the nation because the people are so rich.”

“Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive.”

“Liberals, it has been said, are generous with other peoples’ money, except when it comes to questions of national survival when they prefer to be generous with other people’s freedom and security.”

“The academic community has in it the biggest concentration of alarmists, cranks and extremists this side of the giggle house.”


My WFB story:

Some time ago Buckley wrote a book titled ‘Mongoose R.I.P.’ The story is based on Operation Mongoose which was the Kennedy’s CIA operation to kill Fidel Castro. In this work of ‘Faction’, Buckley has Castro, and avid scuba diver, diving to over 100’ for over half an hour and returning to the surface.

Being a diver myself, I fired off a letter informing him how much I enjoyed the book but he prematurely killed Castro on page 182 (I can’t remember the page number now). I also sent along copies from the U.S. Navy Diving Manual with decompression tables, etc.

One day I receive a large envelope from him. Enclosed is an autographed pic of him with a letter that reads in part “ Thank you for your kind words about Mongoose. I bow to your superior knowledge about scuba diving.”

I had the pic and letter framed and they’ve been hanging on my office wall since 1989.

He will be sadly missed,

Roscoe