"Uh, this is William F. Buckley, uh....I've been taking peyote all morning and, uh....welcome to the home version of 'Crossfire.'"Er... Ping?
He must have hit his head in the shower or something.
Did Buckley lose his mind?
Is WFB corresponding with Jack Kevorkian?
He and Peggy Noonan must've gotten 'hold of some bad wine (or...in Peggy's case...whine).
"Uh, this is William F. Buckley, uh....I've been taking peyote all morning and, uh....welcome to the home version of 'Crossfire.'"Buckley should look at Andy Rooney and figure out what happens if you keep working as a media figure after you've gone senile.
Sad to say, but I aggree. I don't wish death on the man in a malicious sense, but I don't think it is wrong to pray to offer a man rest and the transition into heaven.
I guess I don't see what the problem is.
I understand Buckley's desire that the Pope dies with the dignity he so well deserves, but sometimes you just shouldn't say certain things.
The time is long past for William to change the oil in his hair.
This is what happens when old writers live too long: they start to judge when it is right for others to die...
Nah, I wasn't wondering, I was convinced that Buckley was a long time gone.
Buckley is getting very old. He is pretty well retired now and it is clear why that is so. His prose has deteriorated, his organization is gone.
Sic transit gloria mundi
This is really sick. Although in charge, the Pope doesn't actually run the Vatican. The day to day matters can be run by multiple levels of administrators, as has always been done. If a doctrinal matter needs to be addressed and JP is truly incapacitated, it can be deferred and decided upon until he either recovers or dies, after which the new Pope can decide. There can only be one Pope. Some people seem overly eager to see either JP die or resign.
Personally, I find your post title smug and offensive.
Buckley is the founder of the modern conservative movement, and one of the people who shaped the ideas and philosophy of a generation. He is one of the people who built the foundations of what would later become the Reagan revolution.
He is entitled to some respect from the people on this site.
I dont always agree with Bill, but he is entitled to his opinion, as are we all.
To characterize him as a senile, crack smoking, pot smoking, selfish old coot (did I miss anything) sounds like agitprop to me.
It sounds like the crap we see over on the leftist political cult site...Democratic Underground.
As far as Buckleys point...I believe you missed it. Once you go through the experience of watching a loved one go through the final death throes of a painfull terminal illness, maybe you will understand what Buckley is talking about.
When, in the middle of a long-night's party, one is heard to exclaim joy at another's leaving, the departed is either on a beer-run or is spoilimg the reveler's fun.
Castro did not melt and in fact immediately cracked down on the church more vigorously than before the pope's visit. So much for Papal Diplomacy.
Buckley should have kept his death prayers to himself. Come to think of it, maybe Buckley wants to die and is projecting his subconscious wishes on the pope, who clearly does not want to expire.
I didn't sense the wickedness in this old Mr. Buckley's article that many others did, but instead only candor. It is plain to see that the church is suffering, in jarring dissonance with the challenges to be faced. He, like me, or at least I hope, wishes this good man well, but senses the urgency of vigorous and vibrant leadership, renewal.
One in every three babies born in France is a Muslim. Italy has 1.2 babies per couple; abortion and morning after pills are freely offered in Spain; gay marriage is a reality in many European countries, soon even in La Cattolicissima Espana.
In 30-50 years Belgium will be Belgiumstan, France will be 50% + Islamic, Sweden as well. In UK avowed satanists are allowed to become officers on warships; Dozens and dozens of churches in Italy and France and other places no longer have priests to officiate, some are being deconsecrated and turned into discos.
And meanwhile Italian Catholic churches distribute and share rainbow flags with No Globals and Red Peace demonstrators.
The situation of the Church in Europe is appalling. Catholicism, old and wonderful Catholicism, rich and brilliant Catholicism, the kind that could reach to peasants and scholars, the Catholicism of poetry and hard logic, work and prayer, celebration and piety, carnival and lent, the Catholicism of guidance, is decaying before our eyes.
Going to mass, well, at least here in Italy, has become a dreadful, uninteresting, anti-aesthetic, joyless bore, with nothing to kindle hope or spark enthusiasm, but plenty to allow one, already prejudiced by years of Gramscian propaganda to sense corruption, decay, weakness.
I'm not imagining firebrand demagogues or catchy drumbeats, I'm imagining arguments, words, mysteries, rituals, enthusiasm, meaningfulness, resurrection, the kind of Catholic Church that would make Chesterton proud, the same that allowed him to successfully answer the Shaws and Huxleys of his day... and even enthuse me, a half-dead Hudobna from torpor.
I realize it is hard to wish both things: health and nothing but well for a frail and aged Pope and yet a revival of Catholicism to face the REAL and impending disasters. One is the logical negation of the other. Logic is also the negation of God. Logic is also what has made euthanasia and abortion popular in Holland.
Probably Mr. Buckley's silence on the matter would've been the proper choice, but he's a journalist, a Catholic journalist, expressing the views of a great many alarmed and unhappy Catholics.
Some Catholics make a vow of silence, others, journalists make a vow of speech. Mr. Buckley's virtue is his sin and his sin is his virtue, and that is why he wished a good and peaceful death to a good and peaceful man as we go reeling towards a bad and violent future.
I would hate to be the parents of many on this thread.