RIP
He's With Ted Kennedy
Now
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| [Via
Wiki] During discussions of the 1968 Democratic National
Convention protests, Buckley and
Vidal were arguing about freedom of speech with regard to American
protesters displaying a Viet Cong flag when Vidal told Buckley to "shut
up a minute" and, in response to Buckley's reference to "pro-Nazi"
protesters, went on to say: "As far as I'm concerned, the only sort of
pro-crypto-Nazi I can think of is yourself." The visibly livid Buckley
replied, "Now listen, you queer. Stop calling me a crypto-Nazi, or I'll
sock you in the goddamn face and you'll stay plastered."
Buckley later expressed regret for having called Vidal a "queer," but
nonetheless described Vidal as an "evangelist for bisexuality."
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I would go on that year to vote for Humphrey, but near as I can
remember this was my first exposure to Buckley. I went on a binge
of checking out Buckley books from the library with profound effect on
my already conservative leaning self. Hubert was the last
democrat I ever voted for.
Vidal didn't leave much impression on me one way or another.
Forgetting this kerfuffle entirely, I quite enjoyed
reading his Burr, Lincoln and to some extent
1876.
Myra Breckenridge was the last time I checked out a Vidal book. I grew
to loathe the man. Not because he was a publicly
promiscuous bisexual; that goes without saying, but because he was the poster boy liberal.
Arrogant, snotty, and blamed the United States for everything.
Here's
a clip from a recent NPR paean
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The
word heterosexual is an adjective, the word homosexual is an adjective.
They describe an activity. Of course there's a homosexual activity; of
course there's a heterosexual activity. But there's no homosexual
person. There's no heterosexual person. Everybody is everything.
It's like
saying oh, I want you to meet Mildred, this is potato-eating
Mildred. Oh my God, she eats - I'm sorry, but I don't want to be at the
same table with a potato-eater. Sorry, Mildred, but some other time.
Now that's - only a country that is based upon an extremely primitive
religion, which is Christianity, I am a devoted enemy of monotheism in
all of its forms, could have come with a categorizing of people as one
thing or the other.
In Europe, these distinctions are not
only not known, but we're thought
to be mad. Latins just roar with laughter. ... And I was actually
stopped all day long by Italians, these villagers, saying what kind of
country is this. And I said, well, it's a very primitive country, the
United States, and it's full of superstitions, which come out of a very
fundamental religious bias, which is primitive Christianity.
And since they
have enough votes to terrify the more sophisticated
people who run the country, these are some of the bones that they get
thrown - like prayer in the schools and abortion and all subjects which
have nothing to do with the federal government, but they see to it that
it does. No, no, we're kind of a joke.
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He's
with Ted Kennedy now.
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