RIP, Bill Buckley

I was too gobsmacked yesterday to comment on the death of the Great Man of Conservatism, William F. Buckley, Jr.

Buckley was our Churchill. Churchill stood up to Nazism in the 40s on both the ideological and political battlefields even as he marshalled troops around real battlefields. Buckley stood up to the great evil of our time---socialism and its ugly twin communism---and won without firing a shot. Both men possessed unmatched mastery of the English language, and used it to devastating effect. Both were bon vivants and wonderful characters, heroically magnanimous and yet indomitable. Both possessed vision and intellect in boundless measure, and energy which kept them in the field long after lesser men had retired. Churchill once wrote, "We are all worms, but I am a glowworm." Buckley glowed just as brightly and with the same amount of twinkle.

Thank God we were blessed with Buckley when we were. Such men come along maybe once in a generation. In the winter of conservative discontent, we can only hope that even now the next such man toils away in our ranks, steadily honing his intellect and sharpening his wit for the battles to come.

More here and here, and just about anywhere you look.