Althouse: "Chomsky has achieved so much in linguistics and political commentary that it's easy to forget he also fathered Marty McFly....."

October 13, 2011

"Chomsky has achieved so much in linguistics and political commentary that it's easy to forget he also fathered Marty McFly....."

The top-rated comment on a video from 1969 titled "william buckley threatens to punch chomsky in the face."

Oh! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

59 comments:

Ron said...: Wow, this almost needs a 'Chomsky is Darren Stevens' tag.; 10/13/11, 12:53 PM
deborah said...: I heart WFB.; 10/13/11, 12:54 PM
edutcher said...: Before that, Bill Buckley offered to take a swing at Gore Vidal when they were commenters for ABC during the '68 conventions.

TV hasn't been that much fun since The A-Team went off the air.; 10/13/11, 12:58 PM
Irene said...: No one these days seems to think verbal volleyball is fun.; 10/13/11, 1:00 PM
rcocean said...: Buckley is actually quoting what he said to Vidal in '68, but left out "Goddamn Queer" for obvious reasons.; 10/13/11, 1:05 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "No one these days seems to think verbal volleyball is fun."

Verbal references to violence just aren't accepted anymore. Possibly because of the presence of many more women in politics and media. Look at the previous post with the reference to Jesse Jackson saying he wanted to cut Obama's balls out. That's just completely outside the norm these days. No matter how much you simper and wiggle while saying it. By which I mean: can you imagine someone talking and squirming like Buckley on television today?; 10/13/11, 1:09 PM
Robert Cook said...: Bravo, Mr. Chomsky!; 10/13/11, 1:10 PM
Carol_Herman said...: Chompsky?

I thought Buckley threatened to hit Gore Vidal.; 10/13/11, 1:13 PM
deborah said...: Here, he threatens Vidal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYymnxoQnf8&feature=related; 10/13/11, 1:15 PM
rcocean said...: Vidal had it coming, he was calling Buckley - a WWII vet - a "Nazi".; 10/13/11, 1:17 PM
deborah said...: I wonder how Hitchens is doing?; 10/13/11, 1:23 PM
Robert Cook said...: Bravo, Gore Vidal.; 10/13/11, 1:24 PM
KCFleming said...: Chomsky is the ne plus ultra of those creating an idea so goddamned stupid only an intellectual would believe it.; 10/13/11, 1:25 PM
KCFleming said...: Gore Vidal is a close second.; 10/13/11, 1:26 PM
Irene said...: "By which I mean: can you imagine someone talking and squirming like Buckley on television today?"

No! It's almost shocking to see.

The image of LBJ pulling his beagle up by the ears also comes to mind.; 10/13/11, 1:26 PM
edutcher said...: Irene said...

No one these days seems to think verbal volleyball is fun.

Ya hadda be there. "The Original Odd Couple", as ABC called them, was the highlight of the night

rcocean said...

Buckley is actually quoting what he said to Vidal in '68, but left out "Goddamn Queer" for obvious reasons.

Buckley had been taking a lot of snides from Vidal, the trigger seeming to be when Vidal denigrated Buckley's WWII service, and he was mad, clear through.

I've seen a post somewhere else about it, but, at the time, it had been building for a good bit of the segment.; 10/13/11, 1:31 PM
Sofa King said...: So Robert Cook champions people who denigrate WWII vets for fighting in WWII.

And then, in another thread, is amazed that the military leans right.

*facepalm*; 10/13/11, 1:39 PM
prairie wind said...: I just read Losing Mum and Pup by Christopher Buckley. I don't think I recommend it.; 10/13/11, 1:47 PM
Revenant said...: I'm not sure what Chomsky is supposed to have "achieved" in political commentary. He was a useful idiot for international communism, but after the end of the cold war he faded from relevance.; 10/13/11, 1:49 PM
J said...: Noamster knocks Lord Buckley out, mo' like--and rightfully places part of the blame of 'Nam on flagwavers and Nixonians like...WFB hisself. . NC was not perfect but put his shoulder to the wheel.

That said, even the Buckley-like cerebral conservatives are now a...rara avis. Instead of Buckley's wit and sinister eloquence ..the GOP-TP mob's got...Rush-blo and Fox offering up the daily brainfarts.; 10/13/11, 2:00 PM
Robert Cook said...: "So Robert Cook champions people who denigrate WWII vets for fighting in WWII."

I do not know how, particularly, Vidal denigrated Buckley's service--unless it was in the act of calling Buckley a crypto-Nazi--and neither do I really care.

Gore Vidal was also a veteran of WWII. I think he was certainly more aware than most--but it should be obvious to all--that merely serving in the military, even as a combat soldier, does not necessarily confer good or admirable qualities on those who do not already have them, (although it can happen).

In other words, no one gets a free pass simply by virtue of their status as a vet.; 10/13/11, 2:11 PM
J said...: Ah avoiding Chomsky and derailing via yr hero Vidal. Typical Cookie--you don't know f*ck about the 60s. Who else are you today Cookie-Bellami the neo nazi? Deborah, Fred4 pres, spinelli ,Mama, Sofaqueen,etc. Now, lie some more perp.; 10/13/11, 2:22 PM
bagoh20 said...: Chomsky simultaneously chides us all for blindly supporting wars that kill people while championing letting them die in greater numbers at the hand of those we should not harm.

His world would be one of profound oppression and slavery. Ironically there would be no place for people like him in the world he wants. Maybe he IS on to something after all.; 10/13/11, 2:23 PM
mccullough said...: Buckley and Chomsky are both so goofy. Someone should have drowned them both in a vat of Malmsey wine.; 10/13/11, 2:26 PM
bagoh20 said...: McFly's family looks on in horror at a man having a great time enjoying his world. He's supposed to be stupid for doing that.; 10/13/11, 2:29 PM
TosaGuy said...: Good thing those whose last name starts with C would not be in the first 1000 names of most phone directories.; 10/13/11, 2:31 PM
edutcher said...: Robert Cook said...

"So Robert Cook champions people who denigrate WWII vets for fighting in WWII."

I do not know how, particularly, Vidal denigrated Buckley's service--unless it was in the act of calling Buckley a crypto-Nazi--and neither do I really care.

Vidal said Buckley hadn't been in the infantry (think he may have been recruited into the OSS). Buckley's service in FDR's honor guard when he died would tend to belie that.

Gore Vidal was also a veteran of WWII. I think he was certainly more aware than most--but it should be obvious to all--that merely serving in the military, even as a combat soldier, does not necessarily confer good or admirable qualities on those who do not already have them, (although it can happen).

In other words, no one gets a free pass simply by virtue of their status as a vet.

No, but they are due a certain amount of respect until they show they don't deserve it. The guy who puts it on the line so everybody else has the good life is owed something by those that haven't.; 10/13/11, 2:36 PM
richard mcenroe said...: Following WWII the custom of Yale Men serving in the armed forces declined.

So did the Yale Man.; 10/13/11, 2:46 PM
jamboree said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/13/11, 2:46 PM
rcocean said...: "In other words, no one gets a free pass simply by virtue of their status as a vet."

Right, and you don't a free pass when calling someone a Nazi, or as Buckly put it:

"Now listen, you queer. Stop calling me a crypto-Nazi, or I'll sock you in the goddamn face and you'll stay plastered.; 10/13/11, 2:47 PM
Michael said...: jamboree: Seedy? I can think of many adjectives to describe WFB but seedy would not be in the first thousand. Could you elaborate? I think of seedy as having to do with shabby or squalid neither of which would apply. Perhaps there is a regional use I don't know.; 10/13/11, 2:52 PM
Michael said...: Buckley's shock was at discovering a man say out loud what Buckley certainly suspected he believed. Everybody is guilty and so nobody is to blame. This was when the left began to mount its high horse and to create linguistic diversions that exculpated them from owning what they just finished saying.; 10/13/11, 2:58 PM
J said...: The A-house flagwavers back.

Wave dat flag..

Or rather count the dead of 'Nam---about 40 vietnamese killed for every US soldier; 10/13/11, 3:00 PM
Michael said...: J: How many Cambodians killed for each Cambodian family? Wave that flag.; 10/13/11, 3:04 PM
Alex said...: There is a child-like simplicity and joy to George McFly that I envy. I'm such a cynical fucker that I sometimes wonder how the fuck it happened.; 10/13/11, 3:09 PM
J said...: US involvement in that as well Mikey, and anyway the tragedy of the khymer rouge doesn't negate the destructive power of 'Nam bombings except to a logically-challenged dimwit such as yrself.

wave it ...wide and high; 10/13/11, 3:14 PM
Alex said...: J - you still show that the Khmer Rouge is irrelevant to you. You only care about pointing out the alleged crimes of America. America never committed genocide against anybody.; 10/13/11, 3:16 PM
Michael said...: J: So why did a Democratic President drop two atomic devices on the Japanese? Wave dat flag dipshit.; 10/13/11, 3:17 PM
CachorroQuente said...: "Seedy."

Buckley always looked a lot line an unmade bed. That, combined with his darting, lizard-like tongue, give the impression of seediness. I never really thought about it back then as he looked pretty much like everybody in my family -- a bit disheveled.; 10/13/11, 3:18 PM
Michael said...: CQ: I would have gone for rumpled.; 10/13/11, 3:25 PM
MDIJim said...: Because of the tongue I would have called Buckly "reptilian".; 10/13/11, 3:34 PM
jungatheart said...: rc, here's my transcription of events following the exchange, per Buckley, in The Governor Listeth (1963):

My pulse was racing, and my fingers trembling as wave after wave of indignation swept over me---and then suddenly, about to deposit the earphones on the table stand, I stopped, frozen. Vidal, arranging his own set, was whispering to me. "Well!" he said smiling. "I guess we gave them their money's worth tonight!"
***
[Back in the dressing room] everyone spoke at once, and then the door swung open---it was Paul Newman, longtime friend of Vidal. I want you to know, he said, working his jaw like Hud, I think that was the foulest blow I ever saw. I appoached him feverishly. "Have you ever been called a Nazi?" I spat the words out at him. His voice mellowed. "That," he explained, opening his hands wide, as one does to express the obvious, "was purely political. What you called him was personal." I despaired; and motioned to the door, a gesture which the clamorous company, silent since Newman's arrival, by the strain of their necks and the inflection of their eyes, seconded by acclamation. And he left, slamming the door beind him.; 10/13/11, 3:36 PM
rcocean said...: Thanks Deborah.; 10/13/11, 3:42 PM
jungatheart said...: lol y/w; 10/13/11, 3:45 PM
edutcher said...: J said...

The A-house flagwavers back.

Wave dat flag..

Or rather count the dead of 'Nam---about 40 vietnamese killed for every US soldier

Most of them killed by the Communists.

Tell J to take his red and blue flag with the yellow star on it off his bedroom wall.; 10/13/11, 4:08 PM
Revenant said...: I'm sort of amused at the use of "flag-wavers" as an insult, as if there was something wrong with loving the United States of America.; 10/13/11, 4:28 PM
Methadras said...: Robert Cook said...

Bravo, Mr. Chomsky!

Bravo to what? That he would advocate anti-American, simpering weak-spined subservience to his Marxist ideology which is masked as being a sane and reasonable position. Yeah, I can see how you would accept that hook, line, and sinker, you sucker.; 10/13/11, 4:47 PM
Revenant said...: My favorite Chomsky claim was where he said the Cambodian genocide was a myth perpetrated by right-wingers.

My second favorite is when he contributed to the work of holocaust denier Robert Faurisson.

Spot the pattern?; 10/13/11, 5:37 PM
Fred4Pres said...: I wish Buckley popped him in the mouth.; 10/13/11, 6:04 PM
J said...: wrong again Edu- Nixon--that's due to the US offensive/bombing, of NVA civilians and military (approx.2.5 million deaths..some say higher). Yr the seditionist here, hayseed--favoring sentimental, patriotic BS to the historical record--ie body count-- like most of the A-house gang.; 10/13/11, 6:45 PM
J said...: Wrong on both counts Rev. the TP retard.(most likely Bellami the LDS stoner-sockpup. again).

Chomsky admits he made some inaccurate statements re the khymer rouge. Yet there was some US involvement (older arms shipments etc).

He never helped Robert Faurisson,either ,you lying POS. He merely said the work should be published, even if it had revisionist un-PC views of the holocaust.

Like politics itself, it's rather more complex than yr little moralistic tea-tard brain can grasp.; 10/13/11, 6:51 PM
Revenant said...: I wonder what J's favorite flavor of Kool-Aid is.; 10/13/11, 7:51 PM
sorepaw said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/13/11, 8:01 PM
Quaestor said...: Alan Dershowitz on Chomsky and anti-semitism; 10/13/11, 9:50 PM
sorepaw said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/13/11, 10:14 PM
miller said...: Nixon kept a war going for 8 extra years in order to gain election and re-election as president. 50,000+ American service men are dead for his glory.

I cannot hold ill against Buckley because he was too witty and charming, but he was a willing enabler of Nixon.; 10/13/11, 11:46 PM
Known Unknown said...: Or rather count the dead of 'Nam---about 40 vietnamese killed for every US soldier

So wait, we were winning?; 10/14/11, 12:52 AM
sorepaw said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/14/11, 10:22 AM
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