Christopher Buckley Won't Be Coming to the National Review Christmas Party

Christopher Buckley, the only son of William F. Buckley, came out recently with an endorsement for Barack Obama. This isn't sitting well with the National Review, but Buckley Jr. still owns 1/7 of the magazine. I caught up on Junior in this New York times piece. I learned that Buckley Jr. is the author of Thank You for Smoking--I have to admit I didn't read the book but I thought the movie was fabulous. Buckley is scheduled to appear on the Daily Show.

I watched Charlie Wilson's War last night--a nice Afgan/American history lesson in an easy-to-swallow Hollywood format starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. The director of Primary Colors tells the story of a Texas playboy congressman raises funds from $5 milllion to $1 billion to covertly arming the Afgans to fight the Soviets, then seen as the front of the Cold War. Later, these same Afgans seize power as the Taliban. Philip Seymour Hoffman's character best states the moral of the story with his Zen Master tale which goes something like this.

A boy in a village received a horse as a gift. The villagers say the horse is a blessing. The Zen master says, "We'll see." The boy falls off the horse and breaks his leg. The villagers then call the horse a curse. Again the Zen master says, "We'll see." Then, all the young men of the village go to war but the boy is spared because he has a broken leg. The villagers decide that the horse was in fact, a blessing. Zen master: "We'll see."