William F. Buckley has passed away. I remember watching him for years on PBS. While I often disagreed with him completely, he taught me that an argument well reasoned is not always a reasonable argument. He was the undisputed king of steely glare, pretense and the wingback slouch.

Outside of perhaps Lou Dobbs and a few others, conservative commentators these days have completely abandoned his thorough and factual approach. By forgetting that his best ideas put them in the position to succeed, Rush and others have destroyed his legacy of rational conservatism. He had an amazing mind and is probably arguing with God about something now.

You may not know that back around 1957 he purchased KOWH in Omaha from Todd Storz. KOWH was a daytimer and the first Storz station. Todd knew it had no chance against a full timer like Don Burden's KOIL, so he elected to get rid of it while it was still on top.

He sold it to Buckley for $800,000 and some change as I recall. Shortly thereafter, it started downhill as expected.

Buckley later said "how could such a nice guy as Todd Storz give such a nice guy as William F. Buckley such a royal f**king".

If more conservatives were like Bill Buckley, we would have a better balanced political,fair discussion in this country and Shrub would still be a baseball manager.

And running that team into the ground even further....
Just like he did America.

You guys should take your act on the road.

There you are ONCE AGAIN.... Following me around... little O me....
You must think I'm sumpin special to be caring what i'm sayin'......

Speaking of people with the power to shape things...

Boyd Coddington also passed away today at the age of 63.

Really? wow, I didnt realize he was that old.

Great story Deane! We really did miss you. So, I wonder how many folks can claim they fooled that weird old miser? I always suspected that there was a little bit of Buckley in Mr. Burns.

Radioblogman, you said it. The shrub was barely in the daily operations of the 'roid powered 90s Rangers, but I agree with you. His "team involvement" was as a partner in a borderline legal/illegal profiteering scheme to rebuild Arlington Stadium at mammoth municipal expense. The group manipulated eminent domain, bought the land for peanuts and then massively overvalued the property. The partnership, the team and MLB absolutely screwed the region for the stadium deal. He is so full of shit that the rattlesnakes wont bite him. :0)

Edselehr, Boyd was an amazing artist. It is really sad to see such a vibrant generation -- the ones who brought us the zenith of the automobile -- take that last roll down 66. With every day, our love affair with the car becomes less and less romantic. I think it is a shame, but then again, as the oil dries up, it is far easier to give up a short term boring lover than a lifetime with the one.