William F. Buckley

by Liberty and Power

Apparently, he is now dead. I have no obits to link to, but the notification is appearing at the top of most news sites.

UPDATE: Well, there's this.

Update 2: just to clarify (and preempt some flaming) - I'm not much of a NR guy, and Buckley's brand of conservatism wasn't as pro-liberty as I'd like -- indeed, sometimes downright anti-liberty -- but his providing an intellectual and popular voice for conservatism made the left less complacent and, even if it wasn't his intention, helped open the door for libertarian voices to jump in to the fray. (Was that too many mixed metaphors? Sorry.)

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Sheldon Richman - 2/28/2008

I agree with Roderick. I was never under the Buckleyian spell. My take is here.

Roderick T. Long - 2/27/2008

While I guess I prefer Buckley to the current crop of foaming-at-the-mouth conservative bozos like Coulter and O'Reilly, that's not saying much. Despite his occasional libertarian impulses, I see Buckley as bearing a large responsibility for helping to shape the conservative movement into its current militarist/theocratic/corporatist identity, through his vigorous purge campaigns against unacceptably libertarian elements on the right.

Ayn Rand was purged for not being sufficiently religious or sufficiently traditionalist; John Flynn and Murray Rothbard were purged for not being sufficiently hawkish; even Isabel Paterson, whom Buckley had once idolised, was denied publication in NR for not being sufficiently pro-Dupont-Chemical.

Steven Horwitz - 2/27/2008

So far, anyway:

Radley Balko - http://www.theagitator.com/2008/02/27/william-f-buckley-jr-rip/