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.

Zinedine Zidane lyrics

In 1972, under a scorching June sun
In the French Coastal town of Marseilles
Two Algerian immigrants awaited the birth of their 5th child
Later that day, a star was born

Verse
Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Veron
Suarez, Van Basten, Gianluigi Buffon
Xavi, Iniesta, Drogba, Hazard
Tevez, Schweinsteiger, Steven Gerrard

Alessandro Del Piero, Neymar, Forlan
Ozil, Nakata, Jean-Pierre Papin
Ballack, Van Persie, Beckham, Giggs, Scholes
But the strongest of them all

Chorus
Zinedine Zidane, Zinedine Zidane
Superstar, superstar
Zinedine Zidane, Zinedine Zidane
Superstar, superstar

Verse
Lionel Messi, Gareth Bale, Kewell
Nedved, Maldini, Aguero, Raul
Casillas, Cavani, Benzema, Mandzukic
Mario Balotelli, Zlatan Ibrahimovic!
Lothar Matthaus, Shevchenko, Cantona
Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Romario, Rivaldo, Robinho, Ramirez, KAKA
Falcao, Franck Ribery, Pirlo, Cahill, Kompany
But the strongest of them all

Chorus

Bridge
And he’ll burn through the dark like a fire (Puskas, Eusebio)
So much more than the world was dreaming of wa ya ya (Beckenbauer, Platini, Best)
He’ll fight (Charlton)
And his light (Cruyff)
Will shine on and on and on (Baggio)
Oh, why (Diego Armando Maradona)
With his will to survive (Pele)

Chorus

Outro
Cannavaro, Karagounis, Chicharito, William Gallas
Sanchez, Mark Bosnich, Hulk, Alexi Lalas
Wilkshere, Honda, Busquets, DICKIE, Simao
Thierry Henry, Modric, Vidal
Park Ji Sung, Donovan, Eto'o, Zizou
ZIZOU

Zinedine Zidane, Zinedine Zidane
He is a part of things, he is a part of things

It would have been Vidal's second booking of the evening, although he should have already been sent off when he tried to amputate Marcelo's left foot.

*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.

Ahhh, the juxtaposed characters with whom the vibe resonates familiar....Vidal could probably liven-up any dinner party or boor the entire guest list into altered states.

You'd remember that party...

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.

>> ^xxovercastxx:

At the risk of sounding like a dumb American... The part about 'asshole' being an Americanism is implying that it should be 'arsehole', yes?


Well she's saying that as an English person, her daughter should be using the term arsehole, not asshole

Return from whence you came!
>> ^spoco2:

Meh, just mean spirited humour, not my sort of stuff I'm afraid