Buckley the Younger, "fatwahed" (his word) by the zealots at the NR

So, I have been effectively fatwahed (is that how you spell it?) by the conservative movement, and the magazine that my father founded must now distance itself from me. But then, conservatives have always had a bit of trouble with the concept of diversity. The GOP likes to say it’s a big-tent. Looks more like a yurt to me.

While I regret this development, I am not in mourning, for I no longer have any clear idea what, exactly, the modern conservative movement stands for. Eight years of “conservative” government has brought us a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of entitlement programs, bridges to nowhere, poster boy Jack Abramoff and an ill-premised, ill-waged war conducted by politicians of breathtaking arrogance. As a sideshow, it brought us a truly obscene attempt at federal intervention in the Terry Schiavo case.

More here.

Is "zealots" his word or yours?

Oh, it's mine, naturally. Note the absence of quotes, italicization and/or any other conventional to recognizably unconventional form of attribution.

That said, have you ever heard of a fatwa coming from a moderate?

No?

I didn't think so...

That said, have you ever heard of a fatwa coming from a moderate?

No?

I didn't think so...

Well, actually, in the field of Islamic jurisprudence, yes. ;) A fatwa (pl. fatawa) is simply a legal ruling, or opinion, by an Islamic scholar certified to give one.* The scholar can range the gamut from liberal/progressive to moderate to extremist or any other point on any other spectrum.

Very interesting article, by the way. I no longer have any clear idea what, exactly, the modern conservative movement stands for. Looks like I have at least one thing in common with Christopher Buckley. Who knew?

>4 Essa: Yes, yes, of course... That said, in the West (and, more specifically, in the manner in which Buckley is using the term), fatwas are colloquially known as death sentences...

Does the National Review have any function aside from being a clearinghouse for warmed over 19th century ideas? I would hope Mr. Buckley would feel liberated by this turn of events.

The decomposition of the stinking corpse of Reaganism isn't pretty. Conservatives are calling other conservatives "socialists" for stepping into save capitalism from its worst excesses. I wonder if reality has entirely escaped the right.

The decomposition of the stinking corpse of Reaganism isn't pretty.

LOL.

Where do lefties get these vivid descriptions? "The decomposition of the stinking corpse of Reaganism"?? How utterly macabre.

Well, Halloween is coming up, is it not?

Well, this was inevitable. America has been trending more and more liberal, despite the supposed Regan revolution of the early eighties (indeed, even the Reganites knew that the Regan revolution was a bust). The last small government conservative was Calvin Coolidge, yes Herbert Hoover was a big government liberal. In addition, Irving Kristol, the founding father of neo-conservatism was originally a marxoid liberal who developed neo-conservatism as an intellectual rejoinder to Hayek and Friedman.

#6 Does the National Review have any function...?

There seems to have been a narrow window - perhaps in the Reagan era? - when the National Review might have been a reputable publication.

I haven't followed its history in detail, but there seem to be people who think of the NR as still being in that narrow window of time between its early decades, when it opposed civil rights, and the clown show that it's been in recent decades.

If only the National Review could figure into a Woody Allen script. Here's a bit from Annie Hall:

ALVY
(Taking Robin's hand)
I'm so tired of spending evenings making
fake insights with people who work for
Dysentery.

ROBIN
Commentary.

ALVY
Oh, really, I heard that Commentary and
Dissent had merged and formed Dysentery.

ROBIN
No jokes-these are friends, okay?

Theoria, I love that scene, but I think you're looking for a different quote later in the movie.

(Annie calls Alvy over in the middle of the night because she's been frightened by a spider.)

She hands him a magazine.

ALVY
(Looking down at the magazine)
What is this? What are you, since
when do you read the "National Review"?
What are you turning in to?

ANNIE
(Turning to a nearby chair for
some gum in her pocketbook)
Well, I like to try to get all points
of view.

ALVY
It's wonderful. Then why don'tcha get
William F. Buckley to kill the spider?

Excellent! I had completely forgotten about that.

I have watched too many Woody Allen movies too many times. Since this (one forgets) is a site for sharing books, I recommend:

Four Films of Woody Allen (which has Annie Hall),
Three Films of Woody Allen, and
The Complete Prose of Woody Allen.

Here's another one of my favourite scenes that I recall during arguments that blame 'Blacks'. I guess you know the movie:

Tex, new black sheriff, to old townswoman: "Mornin', ma'am. And isn't it a lovely morning?"
Old townswoman: "Up yours, nigger."
. . .

Jim, to Tex: "What did you expect?

'Welcome, sonny' ... 'Make yourself at home' ... 'Marry my daughter' ?

You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers... These are people of the land... the common clay of the New West...

You know... morons."

Very funny clip. Thanks for the Woody Allen links.

Anytime. Gene Wilder was a Mel Brooks staple, but he also appeared in Woody Allen's "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex, But Were Too Afraid to Ask":

What is Sodomy?

It was nearing Halloween. Theoria walked down the dark street, trying to seem confident even as her heart fluttered in her chest, like an overworked simile trying to escape from a cage. The clouds scudded across the moon, making the light intermittent, unreliable. She jumped. Behind that bush, what had moved? She slowed and approached the shrub, hoping her enlightened worldview would dispel her fears. “There are no monsters,” she told herself. As she neared the bush she peered into it and sighed with relief. It was only a cat, calmly licking its paw. It noticed her and returned her gaze incuriously.
A clammy hand fell upon her shoulder. She yelped and whirled. “Who—“
It was Reagan! He leered at her with vile glee, one eye hanging from its socket. The stench of his rotting body assaulted her. “Neo-liberal policy!” he gasped hoarsely. “Neo-liberal policy!”
Theoria screamed and instinctively punched at his face. Her hand only bounced off the unfeeling, decaying flesh as Reagan brought his own hands toward her throat. Theoria knew she had only moments. Thinking furiously, she pointed behind Reagan and said, “Look! Democrats trying to cut the defense budget!”
Reagan whirled in rage. “Where?!” he thundered.
Theoria broke free and ran, ran as never before in her life. She could hear the terrifying zombie pursuing her, but undead flesh was no match for the sinews of the living and she quickly increased the distance between them. When she was tens of yards away she stopped and faced the monster.
“Keynesians 1, Austrians 0. Final!” she shouted in relief. “The undead will never conquer the indomitable spirit of the living!”
“Hey!” said Reagan. “‘Undead’ is offensive! It’s ‘differently alive,’ please.”
Theoria ignored him, turned, and jogged for the safety of home.

Was that simile trying to escape from the cage or the page?
Like an overworked simile trying to escape from the page.

Beautiful!

I was thinking of it trying to escape from a cage, but your version is at least as good, imho.

A good effort; on the other hand, perhaps we should leave such satires to the above professionals.

Enjoy The Whore of Mensa.

As a man who has a thing for intellectual women, I found parts of that strangely intriguing.

If there is no such agency, there should be.

High IQ call girls with college diplomas from decent schools can cost a searching john up to 3,000 to 10,000 dollars a night. You can find these intellectual dynamos in Manhattan and other places with high rents and home to a large population of intellectuals and businessmen.

Marginal Utility be a bitch, yo.

Ah, but those are call girls. What if you just want to talk?

Depends. These girls are used to spending their time with men who belong to the upper strata of society. What would you have to offer them?

An audience!

Most of those men are too busy securitizing derivatives to listen to what some girl has to say about Melville.

codyed, what makes you equate men in the upper strata of society with being intellectual? Is that the same logic that says wealthy people are obviously smart?

Because wealthy businessmen and successful academicians tend to have the brain power necessary to be intellectuals. If those individuals were not smart, then they probably wouldn't be in the upper strata of society, unless they were Old Money. But even if they were Old Money, it actually takes a bit of intelligence to hold on to one's wealth instead of pissing it all away.

Also, I'm not equating all successful business men with being intellectuals. But certainly many successful businessmen are interested in intellectual topics. If they weren't, then why bother with a high IQ prostitute?

The sky's blue because blue is the colour of the sky. Besides, why would you have a colour called sky blue if blue were not the colour of the sky?

>32 Existanai:

That was freakin' hilarious! What a way to mock somebody!

Right on! Yeah. Hahaha.

I hope Cody isn't hurt - I was making fun of his reasoning, which is a perfect example of begging the question.

Please explain, existanai. In what way was I begging the question?

Wealthy businessmen like smart hookers. This is because wealthy businessmen are smart. If they weren't smart why would they pick smart hookers?

There's obviously a demand for smart hookers. Since the cost of purchasing the services of a smart prostitute is out of reach of most men, then the only ones who could purchase their services would be successful businessmen. To be a successful businessman requires a number of qualities, such as extroversion, intelligence, and charisma. An invidual can be charasmatic and intelligent but not extroverted and still be successful. However, if a person is both extroverted and charasmatic but lacks intelligence, then he will be unable to navigate the mentally complex realm of big business, therefore precluding him from being a successful businessman.

It could be that most successful businessmen prefer hookers who speak in imperatives and half-sentences. But if that were the case, then the demand for high-priced, highly intelligent prostitutes would not exist.

(You can include financially successful men period, including politicians, lawyers, etc. Businessmen aren't the only ones with the means to purchase the services of globe-trotting prostitutes.)

>34 codyed:

I swear, I love all of you guys. Get a bunch of intelligent people together and let the laughs begin!

How in the hell did the original topic turn from politics to wealthy businessmen and smart hookers to begging the question? This is the type of comedy produced by a tangent that you can't find anywhere else!

It does not take intelligence to be wealthy. Some intelligence is required to become wealthy, but then it takes a minimal degree of intelligence for almost any kind of competency, and intelligence is only one skill among a specific skill set that brings in wealth. Not to mention one needs a strong desire for wealth itself over other things, and the corresponding determination or persistence; if the same individual's intelligence were applied towards a different kind of ambition, such as discoveries through research, there would be almost no guarantee of wealth.

Let's ignore the fact wealth is somewhat relative, and even an objectively greater quantity of wealth is a somewhat arbitrary amount (ask the people who keep track). Past a certain point, even if factors like talent, knowledge, status etc. can be equalized, and even if past income has been quite identical, one's future income is usually up to chance. If we ignore income as a number and focus on income through accomplishments alone (i.e. ignoring stocks and so on), we find there is no clear or reliable reason why some inventions or artistic works or strategies fail even when they are better, or why they fail at certain points of time and succeed at others, or fail under certain conditions and succeed in others (of course, hindsight provides a great number of explanations all of which sound probable, but probably explanations are literally not bankable.)

So while in some fields and in some respects there is a correlation between intelligence and success, success is not necessarily measured by wealth, wealth does not have to be acquired through one's intelligence alone, and success across different professions or industries is not comparable. There is definitely no causative relation between wealth and intelligence, so even if it is fair to say a wealthy person is likely to have a better education, or a professional education that requires intelligence and hard work is likely to lead to wealth, it is quite ridiculous to assume that a person is wealthy because they are smart.

Cleaned up a couple of sentences.

>37 vq5p9:
Perhaps an inarticulate governor, who wears her ignorance as a badge of honor, is more important than a smart hooker to conservatives at the National Review today; and this is what Buckley is upset about.

>41 Existanai: - This is good stuff, and I will give you a reply soon. But I must be heading out.

>42 theoria: - You make my hobby horses seem normal by comparison. Keep up the good work.

Re: wealth/intelligence:

So long, suckers. Millionaire hedge fund boss thanks 'idiot' traders and retires at 37

Today I write not to gloat. Given the pain that nearly everyone is experiencing, that would be entirely inappropriate. Nor am I writing to make further predictions, as most of my forecasts in previous letters have unfolded or are in the process of unfolding. Instead, I am writing to say goodbye.

Recently, on the front page of Section C of the Wall Street Journal, a hedge fund manager who was also closing up shop (a $300 million fund), was quoted as saying, "What I have learned about the hedge fund business is that I hate it." I could not agree more with that statement. I was in this game for the money. The low hanging fruit, i.e. idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale, and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking. These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government. All of this behavior supporting the Aristocracy, only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America....

I have no interest in any deals in which anyone would like me to participate. I truly do not have a strong opinion about any market right now, other than to say that things will continue to get worse for some time, probably years. I am content sitting on the sidelines and waiting. After all, sitting and waiting is how we made money from the subprime debacle. I now have time to repair my health, which was destroyed by the stress I layered onto myself over the past two years, as well as my entire life—where I had to compete for spaces in universities and graduate schools, jobs and assets under management—with those who had all the advantages (rich parents) that I did not. May meritocracy be part of a new form of government, which needs to be established.

There's also a big difference between "being intelligent" and "being an intellectual". The latter is an area of interest that takes a lot of time to develop; as such, it likely detracts from the determined pursuit of wealth.

cody, I've known wealthy people that make Earl's brother Randy look like Einstein. Needless to say they were not the progenitors of their wealth. Nevertheless, they fit the description of wealthy.

Intelligence is a universally sought after trait (at least among the cognoscenti). I don't think intelligent prostitutes (is that an oxymoron?) are expensive so that only wealthy businessmen may take advantage of their services, but like everything else, the demand far outstrips the supply.