Notorious Liar Mark Steyn Terminated By Right Wing National Review

[Richard Keebler]

From Purges At National Review to Duggar Pedophilia

Fellow Canadian Kathy Shaidle sends her latest Taki’s Magazine
column, “Beta Male Suckiness at National Review.” In it I learn
that Kathy’s benevolence approaches the saintly; only recently
has she terminated her subscription to National Review (NR). I
did so about 15 years ago. The Alberta Report, a Canadian
paleoconservative publication with libertarian leanings, soon
became the subscription of choice in the home of this
budget-conscious, coupon-clipping, immigrant. (Scientific
American was another guilty pleasure.)

Why, you ask, would a budding libertarian not patronize Reason
Magazine? Well, once one becomes familiar with the
libertarianism and writings of the American Old Right—Garet
Garrett, Frank Chodorov, Felix Morley, James McClellan, Russell
Kirk, Clyde Wilson; as well as Murray Rothbard, Hans-Hermann
Hoppe, Ludwig von Mises, Ayn Rand, on and on—Reason rings
hollow; its writers ooze a post-graduate cleverness lacking in
philosophical depth. Yes (and yawn), we libertarians favor a
free market in kidneys and drugs. No, this libertarian has no
desire to read desiccated disquisitions on these dry-as-dust
topics.

Then there is the delicate matter of my one-off submission to
Reason. Here I must pause to apologize to our readers (who’re
probably none the wiser) for the frequent use, in this column,
of the first person. A difference of opinion exists about this
practice, so prevalent nowadays. I (that honestly hurt)
consider its overuse a cardinal sin—even by writers who’ve
earned the right to use the “Imperial I.” The more frequent the
use of “I this; I that” in a column; the crappier the writing.
So says I!

With that disclaimer out of the way, I’ll proceed with one of
the few chatty columns I’m likely to write.

“How Things Would Work In A Copyright Free Universe” had found
favor with the fair-minded, superb editor of Canada’s Financial
Post (Larry Solomon). Not so the gatekeeper at Reason! He
grumbled that my piece fell short of Reason’s standards—so
woefully inadequate was my essay; that said editor hastened to
use the “inferior” material in his syndicated column that same
week. Thus did Reason Magazine become synonymous with pomposity
and dishonesty.

Back to Ms. Shaidle from whom I learn that a National Review
editor has terminated Mark Steyn’s print-magazine column. I
still recall searching frantically for Florence King’s
back-page “Misanthrope’s Corner,” which was retired in 2002.
That’s how long ago I bid “adios” to NR’s print version (I
access Kevin D. Williamson online, as do I appreciate Josh
Gelernter’s mention of my work on South Africa).

But why retire the Steyn byline? Steyn is a star. He also
supports wars and is extremely talented. To wit, he managed to
both defend and diss columnist John Derbyshire, who himself was
dismissed from NR (where he freelanced), for writing “The Talk:
Nonblack Version,” published, too, at Taki’s.

By the time the “girlie boys” of NR came for Ann Coulter, I was
unaware the magazine still appeared in print. Ann’s column was
expunged from National Review after 9/11. The reason? Most real
people had a 9/11 moment. Miss Coulter’s cri de coeur was
particularly memorable. For exhorting, “We should invade their
countries, kill their leaders and convert them to
Christianity,” she was given the boot. This was a puzzling
purge, considering neoconservatives promptly adopted her
recommendations, invaded Muslim countries and killed their
leaders.

In fact, the neoconservatives at NR supported all Coulter’s
recommendations save the peaceful one (Christian conversion).
Still do. Clicking through the ENORMOUS icons on the new NR
website reveals that Lindsey Graham, John McCain’s evil
ideological twin, is touted alongside the Patriot Act, whose
“expiration” is mourned. (Fear not, fearless ones, your
metadata remains unsafe. The USA Freedom Act, to replace
Section 215 of the Patriot Act, is a mere mutation. It
privatizes the Patriot Act, by co-opting corporations into the
service of the Surveillance State.)

Kathy Shaidle is displeased with NR for different reasons. She
floats the possibility that founder William F. Buckley might
have, “allegedly,” covered up for “liberal celebrity pedophile”
Gore Vidal.

Unlike Buckley, whose prose was impenetrable, Gore Vidal was a
brilliant belletrist, who dazzled with his original insights,
and was wonderfully unsparing about assorted anal activists and
all manner of “vulgar fagism.”

Personally, I’m more inclined to forgive the late Mr. Vidal his
“predilections”—”poor choices,” as reality TV’s Duggar dynasty
absolves child molestation—than I am to succor the simpering,
sanctimonious, fruitfully multiplying Duggars, and their
priapic son (Josh), who preyed on his sisters.

As to why talent is vanishing from the TV screens and mastheads
of mainstream media (which is what NR is): There’s a reason
that everywhere the likes of S. E. Cupp, Kimberly G-string,
Juan Williams, Alan Colmes, Judy Miller, Kirsten Powers, Leslie
Marshall, Andrea Tantaros, Jedediah Bilious, Margaret Hoover,
Dana Perino, Kathryn Jean Lopez, Rich Lowry, Katherine Timpf
(OMG!), Hannity’s Tamara Holder (OMG! again) and their
editorial enablers are weighing in on weighty matters: However
hard they try—the aforementioned cannot outsmart their hosts
and higher-ups.

Indeed, mediocrity strives for conformity. Republicans have
their own fellatio machine to maintain. For the GOP political
establishment, intellectual equilibrium is optimally maintained
when the Cupps outnumber the Coulters, the Malkins and the
Steyns; a reality that would remain unaltered were James
Burnham, Russell Kirk and H. L. Mencken themselves to
materialize before our very eyes.