To Stand "Athwart History, Yelling Stop"

A Titan has passed. William F. Buckley, Jr., founder of National Review, and the leading Conservative intellectual of the 20th Century, died today at the age of 82.

Determined, as he wrote in 1955 in the first edition of National Review, to stand "athwart history" and yell "stop" at the, seemingly inevitable, left-wing onslaught, Mr. Buckley re-cast Conservatism as an intellectual movement; thus providing the ideological basis for the political movement that culminated with the Reagan Revolution.

To quote George Will:

"Before there was Ronald Reagan, there was Barry Goldwater, and before there was Barry Goldwater there was National Review, and before there was National Review there was Bill Buckley, with a spark in his mind."

Indeed. Rest in Peace, good sir - and thank you.