Burning It All Down

 

Ira and Bill

Huffington Post in 2011: Former American Civil Liberties Union head Ira Glasser remembers William F. Buckley, Jr. An excerpt:

One more thing must be said, and it was his most attractive quality: he was, on a personal level, an uncommonly kind and gracious man, and a good and loyal friend. I cannot say I was his intimate friend, but in the years I knew him, I saw him on a great many occasions, as a dinner guest, a travel companion, a debating colleague and an adversary. I was there at many a salon, where he enjoyed a social evening of good food, drink and spirited discussion. I saw him with peers, and I saw him with employees. I saw how he behaved with me, and how he behaved with my wife. He was, unfailingly, kind, graceful, and attentive. As imperious as he could be -- and relished being -- in his public persona, that is how unassuming and sensitive to others he was privately. I have known more than a few people in my decades of public life who took exemplary positions on the abstract questions of human rights, but were terrible people privately. Buckley was the opposite: I deplored many of his public positions and thought their consequences cruel and insensitive; but in private he was wonderful and decent and generous to those around him. He was, therefore, a good friend, in a way I never imagined was possible when we first began our series of public policy debates over 30 years ago. I shall miss him.

Boom!

 

Your Personal Compass

Nicholas Bate provides sound advice on setting your personal compass.

It's thought-provoking. I know of many activities that are highly enjoyable, but I am not sure how often I've reached the level of "fun."

I need to work on that. 

A solution which is amusing in itself.

The Background

 

First Paragraph

One hour from Salt Lake City, in a Utah town called Eden, is a breathtaking vista of snow, trees, and sky called Powder Mountain. In 2013, a group of remarkable twentysomethings raised $40 million to purchase the 10,000-acre site. On it they're going to build an eco-retreat and second home (or third or fourth or fifth) for successful entrepreneurs who want to make the world better.

- From Never Eat Alone and Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time by Keth Ferrazzi (2014 edition)

Warnings Were Made

 

In 2021, dozens of retired generals and other high-ranking officers from the French army signed a joint letter warning that, unless the French government got control of the immigration and integration failures that had roiled their country, civil war was a real possibility. The government and media might have considered that these men had a point. But the French authorities took the other option, the same one chosen by governments across Europe: They shot the messengers. Not literally, in this case. They merely hounded the signatories, stripped many of them of their pensions, slandered them, and more. This is the modern equivalent of carrying out a punishment beating pour encourager les autres.

- Douglas Murray, France Stares Down the Abyss of History, The Free Press, October 19, 2026

[Photo by Lucas Lemoine at Unsplash]

Heather Mac Donald's Analysis

On Target

 

Jennifer Sey Goes to the WNBA Finals

 And meets a contingent of loons.