Customer Reviews

Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr. "Three vs. William F. Buckley Jr."

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This is explained as a semi-annual running-of-the-arrow for William F. Buckley, Jr., as he defends himself against the probing panelists,(lawyers all) Carter Burden(John Davidson looks), Harriet F. Pilpel,(radiantly coifed and well-spoken) and the universal liberal, Allard K. Lowenstein(Mark Lane seriousness).The duelling begins and all participants suffer the blows and parries in good faith. Harriet Pilpel fires away at Buckley on the fairness of attitudes toward the young and capital crime, then weighs in on feminist issues, the Equal Rights Amendment and its societal ramifications. Whenever Mr. Buckley appears wounded, Mr. Burden or Mr. Lowenstein re-centers the discussion, allowing him to slip out of argumentative peril. Ms. Pilpel appears to be personal in her thrust Buckley's way on his defense of the fetus as being a life upheld, as he conveniently withdraws behind the Bible. It is a worthwhile punch-out of wider legislative domains, side-slipping capital punishment, whether it is sufficient deterrent and so forth into the hypocrital nature of national policy in our arms shipments to the Saudis; whether it poses a threat to Israel, etc. You can almost feel the argumentative swords clash with some force,allowing the participants to step back and recover their breaths. That old saw, the obsolete attitude of the Cold Warrior, that democracy will collapse if we admit military weakness by golly gee rears its head here, but does not weaken the high level of intelligent argument on display in this program. A Very satisfying display of comrades-in-argument.