Althouse: "I’m not really familiar with that."/“You don’t seem to be familiar with anything."

March 8, 2008

"I’m not really familiar with that."/“You don’t seem to be familiar with anything."

Dick Cavett encounters William F. Buckley.

31 comments:

rhhardin said...: In The Quintessential Dictionary we find

PUERILE ... 2. I'd like to see ... [an] experiment in which callers describe the [TV] show just seen in three adjectives. Within reason, of course. ("We have a Mr. Buckley here who finds Laverne and Shirley EGREGIOUS, PUERILE, and JEJUNE"). (D. Cavett, of NEA, "Television `Wasteland' Revisited," Norman [Okla.] Transcript, 6/23/76, p.6); 3/8/08, 10:20 AM
Peter Hoh said...: If WFB taught us anything, it's that we should say "As it were," instead of "Like, you know."; 3/8/08, 10:50 AM
Steve M. Galbraith said...: Here's a partial list of the Firing Line topics or subject: Link.

Impressive stuff.

An Olbermann or O'Reilly (there, I swung from the right and the left) simply could not do such shows. They neither have the ability or the interest to do so.

To be sure, Buckley in his youth could be quite the provocateur. Brash, even rude, on occasion. He changed dramatically, it seems to me, over the years. More willing (or capable) of using small cuts and not the meat cleaver approach to an adversary.

A great and good man.; 3/8/08, 1:30 PM
Reliapundit said...: OT:

FIRST OFF:

YOU'VE NEVER LOOKED BETER.

SECOND...

ALSO OT:

THIS ARTICLE (LINK BELOW) PROVES THERE COULD BE NO SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE IN THE 2AM AD:

http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_030708WAB_hillary_ad_KC.328ab14f.html

GIST: THE CLIPS OF THE KIDS SLEEPING WERE STOCK FOOTAGE FROM GETTY.

I DO THINK THIS AD WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS THE ONE WHICH DEFINED THE 2008 RACE AND WON HILLARY THE NOMINATION, AND MCCAIN THE WHITE HOUSE.; 3/8/08, 1:35 PM
Reliapundit said...: 3AM AD!; 3/8/08, 1:36 PM
Steve M. Galbraith said...: Speaking of Buckley and comedy, WFB had Grouch Marx on one program to discuss the question: "Is the World Funny?"

From the recap:
"The answer to the title question, by the way is: 'No, it‘s damned sad'.)

Groucho: "I have said the things that no one else has dared to say."
WFB: "Why? Why?"
GM: "Because the audience loves it."
WFB: "All right."
GM: "If you have a general, like I had General Bradley on the quiz show--nice man, very nice man; might even conceivably be a good general--well, I kidded him all through the show and the audience loves that because they don‘t get a chance to do that to mayors or politicians or bank presidents..." WFB: "But it‘s very healthy, isn‘t it?"
GM: "Yes, it is. There‘s not enough of it."; 3/8/08, 1:43 PM
Gahrie said...: I was struck at the Cavett site by the left's compulsive need to attack and denigrate a man of the right, even on a post written by his friend celebrating his life.

Once again the left shows it has no class and is all ass.; 3/8/08, 1:48 PM
john said...: reliapundit:

(ot):

STOP YELLING!

Regards:

John; 3/8/08, 1:57 PM
dick said...: Gahrie,

I am glad that someone else noticed that. There were so many who seemed to say that because he was literate and used big words he was a jerk. There were so many that said that because of him the world was a terrible place and he should be ashamed. Maybe because I think he was right on a lot of things the left should have been proud to have someone who would talk to them and question their beliefs. That they came out so badly when they did should have told them they needed to question their beliefs more and carp about WFB a whole lot less.; 3/8/08, 2:57 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: dick said...
...left should have been proud to have someone who would talk to them and question their beliefs.

That is the crux. One is not allowed to question or criticize the beliefs of the left, especially the far left. You either accept them in toto or you are the enemy.

Of course to them the reverse is true. You will always criticize and question the beliefs of the right.; 3/8/08, 3:35 PM
rcocean said...: I'm surprised Cavett was a friend of WFB. On his show he was fairly intolerant liberal, full of snotty, ill informed insults toward any Republican or conservative.

Of course, I've read WFB avoided politics when with his many liberal friends - so there's the answer.; 3/8/08, 4:13 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: WFB had friends from all walks of life. He may not have suffered fools, but he always extended the hand of friendship to those who could at least agree to disagree.

His friendships were also based upon mutual interests- sailing, music, skiiing, etc.; 3/8/08, 5:07 PM
vnjagvet said...: I have had the impression that both WFB and Dick Cavett (slightly wickedly) enjoyed donning the affectation of a public persona that appeared to be over-the-top "intellectual".

Each went against their roots; WFB was of the patrician Ivy League elite(typically liberal) and Cavett a lad from the plains of Nebraska (quintessentially conservative).

No wonder they got on so well.; 3/8/08, 5:25 PM
LoafingOaf said...: Impressive stuff.

...

To be sure, Buckley in his youth could be quite the provocateur. Brash, even rude, on occasion.

He was also - you forgot to mention - a disgusting racist. *unimpressed*; 3/8/08, 6:12 PM
LoafingOaf said...: WFB had friends from all walks of life. He may not have suffered fools....

He was perfectly happy to abide and even support disgusting racists trying to keep the South segregated. What a fool (however well-educated and sophisticated) I'm being asked to suffer reading such praises about.; 3/8/08, 6:19 PM
rcocean said...: He was also - you forgot to mention - a disgusting racist. *unimpressed*

You sound just like Dick Cavett on his show. He spoke about Conservatives in *exactly* that tone.; 3/8/08, 6:19 PM
LoafingOaf said...: Of course, I've read WFB avoided politics when with his many liberal friends - so there's the answer.

You mean he didn't tell them over dinner how he believed blacks were inferior to whites and shouldn't have the right to even vote?; 3/8/08, 6:21 PM
LoafingOaf said...: You sound just like Dick Cavett on his show. He spoke about Conservatives in *exactly* that tone.

Here's the tone Buckley used when he spoke of blacks:

"The central question that emerges . . . is whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not prevail numerically? The sobering answer is Yes — the White community is so entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race. It is not easy, and it is unpleasant, to adduce statistics evidencing the cultural superiority of White over Negro: but it is a fact that obtrudes, one that cannot be hidden by ever-so-busy egalitarians and anthropologists." - William F. Buckley

What a guy. *spit*; 3/8/08, 6:24 PM
LoafingOaf said...: You sound just like Dick Cavett on his show.

And I think Cavett is a thin-skinned pussy for getting so bent out of shape over a mere little tweak from a guest. (All he had to say in reply was, "Unlike you, I'm familiar enough with black people to know they're not inferior to whites."); 3/8/08, 6:29 PM
Gahrie said...: loafing oaf:

Perhaps you could define for us what the term "acting white" means, and who uses the term and why?

I assume you will describe these people as racists right?

Haven't events of the last 50 years proven Mr. Buckley's concerns to be well founded? Isn't there in fact a culture embraced by much of the minority community that reinforces bad choices and decisions?

Aren't the huge rates of illegitemacy and incarceration among minorities damning evidence of the prevalence of this inferior culture?

If Mr. Buckley was in fact racist, why did he use the qualfication of "...for the time being..."?; 3/8/08, 6:32 PM
LoafingOaf said...: Let this be a lesson for right-wingers. Your evil views of today will be remembered after you're dead. Like, in the current debates, the contempt so many right-wingers have for gay rights. You will not shine in the history books for this kind of stuff.; 3/8/08, 6:34 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: Loafingoaf,
It is evident that you do not have the slightest notion of what racism is. it is also obvious that Mr. Buckley's Black friends and his opponents would disagree with you, as well as those friends he had who were gay.

It is painfully obvious you know next to nothing about WFB; or nothing at all.; 3/8/08, 6:43 PM
LoafingOaf said...: It is painfully obvious you know next to nothing about WFB

I know that he created a magazine that, for years, was openly against black people and pro-institutional racism. Are you suggesting this should be air-brushed from his obituaries? That would make you a liar.

So, as I've demonstrated, I do know one thing about Buckley. Do I know everything about him? No, and I don't feel a need to be a student of the life and times of William F. Buckley Jr. I don't consider him a very important person, beyond the help his magazine happily gave in encouraging the scummy terrorists who were trying to block civil rights for black people (to his credit, Buckley realized his magazine had helped encourage such racial terrorism and expressed regret -- something some of his biggest fans, such as Gahrie in this thread, have no intention of doing).; 3/8/08, 7:16 PM
Steve M. Galbraith said...: Buckley of course repudiated his anti-integrationist views and acknowledged his error.

I, like most charitable people who recognize the failures of all men and women, accept that.

Let he who is without error lead the smears.; 3/8/08, 7:44 PM
rcocean said...: Loafing Oaf:

What's your real name, Gore Vidal?

I assume you hate FDR, LBJ, Carter, Truman, Bob Byrd, Hugo Black, and Karl Marx since they - at one time in their life - thought the black man was inferior.

Further, Stevenson had a 'racist' running mate. And JFK was indifferent to segregation and civil rights.; 3/8/08, 7:46 PM
Steve M. Galbraith said...: Of course, there were many intellectuals on the left who supported and defended Stalin and the Soviet Union.

Those who, like Buckley, acknowledged their errors, deserve our respect for such admissions.

Those who failed to acknowledge error deserve our condemnation.

All fair minded people judge the complete works, if you will, of other men and women.

To cite Buckley's support for segregation without mentioning his acknowledgement of error is just as unfair as citing those who supported Stalin without mentioning that they too admitted error.; 3/8/08, 7:52 PM
Gahrie said...: So because I condemn a culture I am a racist?

Who is more racist...someone who equates successful behavior as acting White and demands that people remain mired in a culture of failure, or someone who condemns a culture of failure and encourages people to behave responsibly (which means of course that he believes they are capable of behaving responsibly)?; 3/8/08, 7:59 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: Loafing Oaf,
You still have not proved that WFB was a racist. Just because he was against something does not make him a racist. He never expressed a hatred of Blacks or any other group. He never acted on any racist belief.

Typical of your ilk you just throw out nonsense and bilge to support your own hatred of people whose ideas you disagree with with no concept of what you are saying. From your comments, you would not recognize a true racist if one slapped you in the face. That makes you dangerous.; 3/8/08, 8:23 PM
Jacques Albert said...: Knew the spittle-on-the-screen anti-Buckley racaille would rise to the surface here.

It's quite astonishing, LO, what such transmogrifying bursts of self-righteous indignation become when they issue through the mouth of a sewer. . . .

Vive M. Buckley! Vale atque ave. . . .; 3/8/08, 8:27 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: I forgot. I will tell you who racists are. The Democrats who ran the legislature in the Sixties. They refined, created, and implemented a system to keep Black people poor forever. They also dusted off the old Southern Plantation system and refined and implemented that too.

It was a sinister plan that took away hope, ambition, and degraded generations of Blacks. They were put into a form of slavery that was more insiduous than the original form.

It was called welfare and public housing. That is racism in practice Mr. Loafing Oaf. I witnessed the results of that racism. I picked up the pieces of that racism. I listened to my Black cohorts and friends decry that racism. It was racism Mr. Oaf. Pure simple racism.; 3/8/08, 8:31 PM
Swifty Quick said...: The oaf is a troll who ought not be fed.; 3/8/08, 11:57 PM