William F. Buckley is dead. Another one of the GOP's old guard down.

So you're happy about this?

I take it as a neutral statement.

All statements I made in my post are neutral at face value.

Sad to see his passing. He was 1 of the "old skool" Conservatives, more in line with today's Libertarians, rather than the Republicans.

I'm sure someone here will eventually reference his statements on the "White South", and not the more tempered person he was in his later years....

He was, if nothing else, a gifted writer. I own his Lexicon.

And here I was looking at the topic thinking you were talking about the death of Buckley on King of the Hill ...

This blurb, from Websnark of all places, about sums it up:

Buckley was good for America, even in all the areas I disagreed with him, because he forced Liberals like me to defend their positions -- not with our hearts and our compassion but with our brains and rationality. He argued that a position that could not be defended rationally simply could not be defended, and in this I think he was correct.

I long for a world where Buckley and those like him sally forth in rhetorical but intellectual confict with their Liberal opposite numbers, and where a moderate center could result from the alloy, taking on the strengths of both sides. In this world of jingoism, where more people listen to Rush Limbaugh or read Ann Coulter than were reading Bill Buckley or George Will, where Michael Moore supercedes Noam Chomsky and debate is something between shouting pundits on MSNBC, CNN or Fox, I yearn for a world where intelligent men and women, respectful of the other side but considered in their moral, philosophical and intellectual stances can debate and try to find common course together.