REWIND: Reason Magazine’s 1983 Interview with William F. Buckley Jr.
Posted: December 4, 2014 Filed under: History, Mediasphere, Politics, Reading Room, Think Tank | Tags: 1968 Democratic National Convention, Atlas Shrugged, Central Intelligence Agency, Democratic Party (United States), Firing Line, National Review, Reason (magazine), Republican Party (United States), Saul Alinsky, TheBlaze, William F. Buckley 1 CommentI came across this delightful interview with William F. Buckley Jr. the other night when searching and browsing Firing Line video archives (see the 1990 Christopher Hitchens Firing Line episode, from earlier today, here) started reading it, and ended up reading it multiple times. What a pleasure to discover this. It’s captured from the pre-digital era, so it’s stored as a PDF of a photocopy directly from the print magazine, you can access the whole thing here. Below is just one image file, which links to Reason. The March 1983 interview reveals Buckley’s characteristic thoughtfulness, charm, rich vocabulary, humor, and well-mannered social persona, his Roman Catholicism, the founding of the National Review, decades of work on Firing Line, his friction with figures like Ayn Rand, his literary and scholarly alliances, and opponents, his spy novels, his views on libertarianism, contemporary conservatism, and much, much more. The Reason interviewer’s questions are good, too, informed, and engaging.
I was particularly interested in Buckley’s use of the word “schematic”, to describe what he doesn’t have an appetite for, favoring instead an eclectic and evolving world view. This interview barely scratches the surface. To get a sense of the fresh appeal (and timelessness) of Buckley’s thinking, refer to National Review’s “Our Mission Statement“, which Buckley wrote in 1955. As one NR reader notes, “the edits on this for 2014 would be minimal.” Though 1980s references appear in the discussion, I’d say the same could be said about this interview.
New York City Commemorates 9/11 Anniversary With Annual Tribute in Light
Posted: September 10, 2014 Filed under: History, Mediasphere, War Room | Tags: Anthony Quintano, New York City, Oliver Darcy, September 11 attacks, TheBlaze, Tribute in Light, Twin Towers, Twitter, World Trade Center Leave a commentVia The Blaze‘s Oliver Darcy:
New York City commemorated the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks Wednesday night, powering on nearly 100 7,000-watt xenon bulbs to illuminate into the sky two beams indicating where the Twin Towers once stood.
The powerful scene was captured by multiple photographers, including Recode editor Anthony Quintano. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] CNN Journalist Detained and Kicked by Turkish Riot Police – Live On Air
Posted: May 31, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Global | Tags: CNN, Istanbul, Ivan Watson, May 31 2014, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Taksim Square, TheBlaze, Turkey 2 CommentsJournalist @IvanCNN gets detained in Turkey — live on air: http://t.co/NhcUSHSaCo pic.twitter.com/Ysn4TeJTgA
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) May 31, 2014
For TheBlaze.com, Zach Noble reports: In a sign of how tense things have gotten in Turkey these days, a CNN journalist was detained and kicked by police — live on air.
Reporting from Taksim Square in Istanbul, CNN’s Ivan Watson was showing the audience lines of riot police, stationed there to prevent a resurgence of anti-government protests on the anniversary of last year’s Gezi Perk riots.
That’s when he was surrounded and detained on camera.
“Where is your passport?” an official begins yelling, as Watson tries to keep the broadcast going. Read the rest of this entry »
Mark Steyn speaks with TheBlaze on his new book, and everything from global warming to Common Core to the First Amendment
Posted: April 23, 2014 Filed under: Art & Culture, History, Politics, Reading Room | Tags: Benito Mussolini, Cold War, Common Core, Italy, Mark Steyn, Romano Mussolini, Ronald Reagan, TheBlaze, United States 1 CommentFor TheBlaze, Benjamin Weingarten writes:
We spoke with best-selling author and columnist Mark Steyn in connection with the release of a newly updated version of his entertaining and insightful book of obituaries and appreciations, “Mark Steyn’s Passing Parade.”
[Explore Mark Steyn’s book: “Passing Parade: Obituaries & Appreciations” expanded edition at Amazon]
In a wide-ranging interview, Steyn spoke with TheBlaze Books on his newly updated book, the fate of America, and issues ranging from gay marriage to global warming to free speech to education and Common Core. The interview, which we conducted in-person, is transcribed below with edits for clarity and links.
Give us a brief synopsis of your newly updated book, “Passing Parade: Obituaries & Appreciations.“
Steyn: Well my big books in recent years have been on the big geopolitical, socio-economic picture. A lot of statistics, lot of numbers, lot of big picture stuff. “America Alone” is essentially a book about demography – I mean I got a best-selling book about demography which doesn’t happen very often, but it’s about fertility rates, really. “After America” in some ways is about debt – it’s about multi-trillion dollar numbers. And they’re all big picture things, but for me the real pleasure is writing about people, and reminding yourself…that it’s not all fertility rates and debt/GDP ratios, but that at the right moment of history, one individual can make a difference. And the people in this book are people who made a difference. That can be in the sense of winning the Cold War like Ronald Reagan did, or it can be in the sense of William Mitchell, who’s the guy who invented Cool Whip…I like writing obituaries. The only thing I would say is that it’s hard to write about people you…you can’t be entirely negative or hateful about people. There’s gotta be something in there [within the person] that you respond to.

One of Mussolini’s records. (Image Source: jazzfromitaly.blogspot.com)
And it’s interesting – even someone like Romano Mussolini, who is the Mussolini’s son – Il Duche – the big-time fascist dictator of Italy…Romano Mussolini was a jazz pianist of all things, and I met him once when he came to play in London. His group was called the “Romano Mussolini All Stars.” And after the war in Italy, his dad had been hung from a lamppost, the bottom had dropped out of the dictating business, but Romano got to be the jazz pianist that he’d always wanted to be. But he thought the Mussolini name wouldn’t go well, so he changed his name to the equivalent of “Romano Smith and His Trio.” And nobody came to see him. And then he discovered that actually, the Romano Mussolini All Stars, that that was actually quite a draw with the jazz crowd. But there’s even in that – as I said, Mussolini wound up hanging from a lamppost when they caught up with him with his mistress, but even…the final anecdote about that is that the last time Romano saw his dad, when his time had almost run out, and everybody was catching up with him, and his dad came in effectively to say “Goodbye…” he didn’t know it would be the last time he saw him and he asked him to play some music fromFranz Lehár, from The Merry Widow. And just that, even in the…just that little vignette is like a very poignant, human moment, in the life of someone who a couple weeks later was hanging from that lamppost.
I think you always have to if you’re writing – even if you’re writing about – whoever it is, there’s gotta be some little way into the story that makes them human.
And you know as bad as things are – when I think back to that time for example, and I think when Neville Chamberlain was forced out of the prime ministership in the spring of 1940, if the Tory party had picked Lord Halifax instead of Winston Churchill, the entire history of the 20th century would have been different. And so the lesson you draw…we’re in New York City…Winston Churchill was almost hit by a car crossing 5th Avenue in 1932 or whatever it was – if that taxicab had actually left the tread marks over Winston Churchill — again the entire history of the second half of the 20th century would have been different. And so the lesson you draw from that is that yes the debt numbers are bad, yes the demographic numbers are bad, yes all the big picture stuff, the trends, the macroeconomic stuff is all bad, but even so, one man, the right man at the right moment can make all the difference…extraordinary people can make all the difference.
One of the obituaries that I thought interesting was Strom Thurmond’s. Give some readers insight into the story in which you were stuck in an elevator between Barbara Boxer and Strom Thurmond.
Steyn: I was covering the impeachment trial of President Clinton, which was the first time I’d been exposed close up to the United States Senate, which is not a lovely site. And one of the few interesting things as that trial wore on was actually Strom Thurmond because he – Clinton had the sort of two sexpot lady lawyers – and Strom Thurmond used to bring candy for them each day, and then press them with his 112-year old lizard-like hands into their fingers. And you could see the women were like, fatally taken aback by this, but at a certain level they understood that this was what it was gonna take to prevent their guy from being removed from office. And in the end, Strom did not vote to remove Clinton from office, in part I do believe because he had the hots for those lawyers. Read the rest of this entry »
[Video] Footage Captures the Moment Federal Agents Storm California Gun Parts Store
Posted: March 17, 2014 Filed under: Guns and Gadgets, Law & Justice, U.S. News | Tags: AR-15, ATF, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, California, Firearm, Henry Waxman, Receivers, TheBlaze 4 CommentsFor TheBlaze, Becket Adams reports:
Federal agents on Saturday executed a search warrant on a gun parts store in California, despite the store owner filing a temporary restraining order against their agency.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had demanded thatDimitri Karras, the CEO of Ares Armor in National City, Calif., turn over the names of nearly 5,000 customers who had purchased an 80 percent lower receiver that reportedly failed to meet ATF specifications.
“Searching is fun! Paper work sucks.”
— ATF Agent
Karras, a former U.S. Marine, agreed to turn over the receivers, but refused to reveal the names of his customers. He then filed the restraining order.
Federal agents responded by obtaining an ex parte order, meaning they did it without Ares being present, giving them permission to execute a “lawful search.”
The ATF “is conducting a lawful criminal investigation of the illegal manufacture, distribution, sale, and possession of AR-15 variant lower receivers, which are considered firearms under the Firearms Control Act,” the federal agency said in its ex parte application, dated Friday.
Here’s more amateur video of the search:
It’s worth noting that the ATF application refers to the receivers in question as “firearms,” which would seem to be an incorrect application of the term. Outgoing Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) introduced a bill last August that would define 80 percent lower receivers as “firearms,” but the legislation has not passed.
[VIDEO] Dana Loesch Takes On ABC’s Dumb Anti-Gun Special ‘Young Guns’
Posted: February 1, 2014 Filed under: Mediasphere, Self Defense | Tags: Dana Loesch, Diane Sawyer, Instagram, Piers Morgan, PJ Media, TheBlaze, TheBlaze TV 3 Comments“Under the guise of caring for children…”
“…I mean if we’re going to be afraid of things, let’s be afraid of that which actually exists in reality, not some pistol boogeyman born of a gun phobia.”
‘Red State Welfare’ Myth Debunked
Posted: January 22, 2014 Filed under: Economics, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Politics, Scott Mandia, TheBlaze, United States 2 Comments
State personal income in the past six quarters has increased mostly in “red” states and states run by Republican governors, TheBlaze reported earlier this month.
However, after TheBlaze noted this trend, a few readers argued that this was because “red” states typically receive the lion’s share of federal funding.
Do they really?
Read the rest at TheBlaze

Just Because You’re Paranoid, Doesn’t Mean You’re Wrong: Ex-Official Says FBI Can Secretly Activate an Individual’s Webcam Without the Indicator Light Turning On
Posted: December 7, 2013 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Robotics, Science & Technology, U.S. News | Tags: Assistant director, FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Marcus Thomas, TheBlaze, United States, Washington Post 1 CommentOliver Darcy reports: The FBI can secretly activate a computer’s webcam to spy on an individual without turning on the indicator light, a former official revealed to the Washington Post in an article published Friday.
According to the Washington Post’s account of what Marcus Thomas — former assistant director of the FBI’s Operational Technology Division in Quantico — said, “The FBI has been able to covertly activate a computer’s camera — without triggering the light that lets users know it is recording — for several years, and has used that technique mainly in terrorism cases or the most serious criminal investigations.”
Trayvon Martin Revenge Murder?
Posted: August 24, 2013 Filed under: Mediasphere | Tags: Darlin Fugit, Dondre Johnson, Jerricca Nortfleet, Mario Patterson, Memphis, Memphis Police, Santucci, TheBlaze, Trayvon Martin, Zimmerman Leave a commentby David Santucci
A young white male was walking to his car on a city street late at night on August 12 when he was confronted by a trio of black individuals. They shot him dead. Police have arrested three people and charged them with first degree murder. But some in the victim’s family can’t understand why the shooting is being called a failed robbery when they say the evidence suggests something possibly more sinister: a hate crime.
David Santucci, 27, had just started his new job as a nurse. According to his family, “he was an awesome guy…he wanted to be a missionary…he wanted to help people.”
The murder happened in Memphis, TN less than two weeks ago. Santucci was killed by a single 9mm shot through his heart. To its credit, the Memphis police department apprehended the suspects in less than fifteen minutes. Various reports say that all three suspects made statements that implicated them in Santucci’s murder. And they’re calling it a robbery gone wrong.
Miguel De Diago is one family member who doubts this killing was a failed robbery. He’s the the brother-in-law of David Santucci and told TheBlaze some stuff just doesn’t add up.