Monday, March 17, 2008

Right From The Beginning

Well, I'm eating my words. I can't remember how many times Jared quoted Pat Buchanan over pizza at Mr. Gattis on Chimes street (or is it State street? It kind of makes a U and I don't know where State ends and Chimes begins) off of LSU and I would make some smart remark like, "Jared, I'm going to be so glad when you grow out of this stage."

I don't agree with PJB on everything, and he makes some comments that make me squirm, but I had to face it, how many conservative thinkers are there out there? The talking heads on the radio are neither conservative nor thinkers. What other conservative voices are there? Besides that, PJB is sharp as a tack. Also, now that, I think, he no longer has plans to run for president, it's easier to identify with him. Brilliant, great speaker, great writer, fierce in debate, but no politicial.

Anywho, he's pretty fun to read, so I'm reading RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING, and may read more ( I plan to, but you how it is being an slow-dyslexic-reader-book-enthusiast with ADD) of his stuff after that (maybe his new book?). RFTB is his memoir through 1988. I imagine that it was written as part of his aborted 1988 bid for the White House.

Cerebella, as much as I hate to feed your militancy for the Latin Mass and the church of mid-century, you would love this book, particularly the first 79 pages, which chronicles his childhood in 1940's and 50's Georgetown and Chevy Chase.

2 comments:

Jared said...

Civis, ah the good ole days of school ... well, let's just say days. No really, as you know I enjoyed college (all levels of it), especially since you were with me through much of it. I first read Chesterton b/c of your non-stop chatter about Orthodoxy.

Re PJB, what has always impressed me about his writing is his vast knowledge of history. One article I recently read dealt with ethnicity and nations in Europe. To get to the point he was making one needed to have a thorough understanding of European history and geography.

Just for full disclosure I don't agree with everything PJB says either. Nevertheless, he is a dying breed of thinking conservative who is also popular.

Tucker Carlson called him the smartest guy on their channel, MSNBC. Easily.

For Belloc fans, Robert Bork and Buchanan each begin one of their books discussing something from Belloc. Has any contemporary more popular than these two ever quoted Belloc (positively) in one of their works? I haven't found one yet.

The new book sounds good to me Civis. Does the public library have a couple of copies?

Civis said...

Funny you mention PJB and Belloc in the same comment. Both have a vast and detailed knowledge of history; neither are familiar with the concept of scholarly references!

Dunno if the library has a copy, though thier catalog is on the net. Used copies are cheap on Amazon which is where i will get my copy.