In 1968, Buckley debated Gore Vidal. Here's the most famous part of that debate:

BUCKLEY: No, I won’t. Some people were pro-Nazi and, and the answer is they were well treated by people who ostracized them. And I’m for ostracizing people who egg on other people to shoot American Marines and American soldiers. I know you don’t care—

VIDAL (loftily): As far as I’m concerned, the only pro- or crypto-Nazi I can think of is yourself. Failing that—

SMITH: Let’s, let’s not call names—

VIDAL: Failing that, I can only say that—

BUCKLEY (snarling, teeth bared): Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in your goddam face, and you’ll stay plastered—

Vidal was right about the Right, only he was about 50 years ahead of his time.

Fun Fact :

John Lithgow is the off-camera voice for Gore Vidal


Kelsey Grammer is the off-camera voice for William Buckley Jr.

rarely have a found a conservative that i find entertaining,while making valid points,and this guy milo does just that.

i was put off by the breitbart affiliation,but i am glad i gave this guy a chance.

he is a self-proclaimed provocateur,conservative and cultural libertarian.he is also a gay christian,,which just seems like an oxymoron.

i may try later to introduce the sift to his distinctive brand of dialogue.

he is very smart and reminds me of a mix of hitchens and gore vidal,but a conservative.

*related=http://videosift.com/video/Gore-Vidal-on-Media-and-Government

Gore Vidal on the media has been added as a related post - related requested by kulpims on that post.

Gore Vidal on Media and Government has been added as a related post - related requested by kulpims.

Upvote for the Shatner reference. That was a promo for a biopic starring The Shat as Gore Vidal's grandfather. The guy's been around forever, hasn't he?

Twain is a great choice - definitely read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. It's LOL funny. Some of my favorites among the American classics are Poe, Emerson, Washington Irving, Walt Whitman, Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut, Gore Vidal (are those last two counted as classic yet?). Edgar Allen Poe is a must. I first read The Pit and the Pendulum in my 30s and it scared the shit out of me. He clearly had access to the best drugs available in the world at the time. Other top Poe choices - The Black Cat, The Cask of Amontillado, and The Tell-Tale Heart.
In reply to this comment by kymbos:
I'm reading Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club, which is a pretty good page turner.

I'm interested in reading some classic American literature if anyone would recommend some for a guy who has never really read any of the classics (like Mark Twain, Hemmingway, Fitzgerald).

I'm green.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/29/opinion/29collins.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

Gail Collins did an op ed on Bachmann, referencing this moment.

Excerpt:
History is superimportant to Bachmann, who claims that she left the Democratic Party when she was a college senior, after reading “Burr,” Gore Vidal’s caustic historical novel. “He was kind of mocking the founding fathers, and I just thought ‘what a snot,’ ” Bachmann told The Star Tribune. It was, she said, a transformational moment so critical to her worldview that she can still remember what she was wearing. (“A tan trench coat, blue pin-striped shirt, like a tailored shirt, and dress slacks.”)

It’s not everybody who switches political parties over a historical novel, but Bachmann’s vision of the past is the core to her ideology. The men who created the Constitution were perfect heroes, so infallible that they fully understood the right to bear arms would someday include semiautomatic pistols capable of firing 30 bullets in 10 seconds.

Last week, Bachmann was in Iowa, setting off alarm bells about her possible presidential ambitions and delivering a speech in which she claimed that the founding fathers had “worked tirelessly” to eradicate slavery. She then cited John Quincy Adams, who was not a founding father.

I think Gore Vidal is well past his peak. In terms of present quality of content, I would indeed lump him with Scarby.

^ Did you really just lump Joe Scarborough and Gore Vidal together?

"I was like everyone else when Obama was elected - optimistic. Everything we had been saying about racial integration was vindicated, but he's incompetent. He will be defeated for re-election."

With such a long intellectual history, it's a pity no one taught him how to think. I understand many of the advances in scientific thought weren't here yet when he was growing up, but he doesn't have any excuses for not reading up on things when he still had his mind a decade ago.

His wording predicting Obama's defeat in 2012 implies maybe 80%-99% certainty, depending on how literally you interpret it. His crystal ball must be amazing. Contrast that with the odds at Intrade, which gives the Democrats almost 2 to 1 chances of winning that election, and gives Obama an 87% chance of winning his party's nomination.

Intrade is a political futures market, and it's considered more accurate than polls, etc. Meanwhile, know-nothings like Gore Vidal and Joe Scarborough continue assigning certitude to whatever pops into their addled minds.


(Thanks for posting the link, though )

WHo was it- Gore Vidal? Truman Capote? who said "No matter what they do to Nancy Sinatra, she still looks like a pizza waitress"

Your video, Gore Vidal pwns pastor on humanism, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Gore Vidal, Keith Ward, Susan Greenfield, Melvin Bragg' to 'Gore Vidal, Keith Ward, Susan Greenfield, Melvyn Bragg' - edited by jwray