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IMPORTANT DEATHS

Irving Kristol Dies

The “godfather of neoconservatism,” Irving Kristol, died at 89 today. Although he has been quieter in recent years, Kristol’s personal political history is famous, and probably over-exaggerated, but goes something likes this: when he was an undergraduate at the “radical” City College of New York, from which he graduated in 1940, his small group of Trotskyite (or at least anti-Stalinist) leftists held ferocious debates from Alcove 1 of the college’s lunch room with the pro-Stalinist leftists in Alcove 2, about politics.

Then Kristol decided that the left was insane, and communism could only manifest itself in evil dictators who needed to be overthrown as usurpers of liberty. This was neoconservatism, or something. Kristol would later sell his cadre out to the religious right, which was growing to dominate the Republican party.

And at some point, he spawned, which was of course his greatest offense.

Irving Kristol, 1920 - 2009 [Weekly Standard]


4:10 PM on Fri September 18 2009
By Jim Newell
5118 Views

  1. OReillysVibrator says at 4:13 pm, September 18th, 2009

    Do we have confirmation, i.e. Bill Kristol saying he’s alive?

  2. nbawriter says at 4:15 pm, September 18th, 2009

    Am I supposed to forgive him at this time for spawning a chronically wrong fucktard? Because I don’t.

  3. And his boy, Lil’ Bill (who never once relied on his Father’s name and reputation) beshat sarah Palin. Evil seed, indeed.

  4. President Dork says at 4:17 pm, September 18th, 2009

    There’s a good documentary about his strange ideological transformation called “Arguing the World.” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129758/

    “This documentary tells the story of a hotbed of Jewish intellectualism, New York’s City College c. 1930, and in particular follows the careers of four of the greatest minds to emerge from that environment. In following the divergent paths of Bell, Glazer, Howe, and Kristol, the film serves as a powerful record both of American intellectual history and of the peculiar role of a generation of Jewish thinkers in riding and shaping that history.”

    What’s the minimum acceptable time we have to wait before calling him out on his lifelong journey of epic misguided douchery?

  5. Monsieur Grumpe says at 4:17 pm, September 18th, 2009

    Captain Kangaroo is dead? Nooooooooooooooooooooo

    ooooooooooo!

  6. shortsshortsshorts says at 4:18 pm, September 18th, 2009

    bye bye evil fuck. so sympathy for the devil.

  7. shortsshortsshorts says at 4:18 pm, September 18th, 2009

    @shorts NO SYMPATHY. JEEBUS YOU DUMB FUCK. Just die now.

  8. LittlePig says at 4:20 pm, September 18th, 2009

    It’s clear from that picture that William inherited the rictus look from Pappy.

  9. Jim Demintia says at 4:21 pm, September 18th, 2009

    Burn in Hell, you colossal asswipe. I hope the first thing you see in the afterlife is the hundreds of thousands who lost their lives to your evil ideology, coming to claim your bones.

  10. SayItWithWookies says at 4:22 pm, September 18th, 2009

    One less McCarthyite, pro-religious-right, anti-government-helping-poor-people, American exceptionalist, imperialist boob. He is survived by his wife, two children, and a veritable infestation of crappy ideas, bad logic, bad economics, bad foreign policy, military ignorance, the connections to see them all through to their inevitably horrific conclusions and the myopia not to acknowledge any of that. Regardless of whatever sort of father or person he might have been, the corpse of his ideas deserves to be buried in a bucket of lukewarm piss.

  11. So old Irving led a Troskyite insurrection from an “alcove” at City College? Ballsy…

    Like young Bill ginning up a war from a brownstone in Georgetown.

  12. hobospacejunkie says at 4:25 pm, September 18th, 2009

    Yeah, good choice, Irving. Communism may beget evil dictators, but W & Cheney did their best to live up to that example. I’m sure they could’ve killed numbers to rival Stalin, if only they’d been more ruthless and held power via military coup for 30 years. Say hi to Satan for me, Irvy.

  13. magic titty says at 4:25 pm, September 18th, 2009

    It’s spelled “Crystal”, btw, dude. Later.
    Eat me, Denby.

    OReillysVibrator: Nice!

    shortsshortsshorts: No worries, Shorts. I knew what you meant. Maybe. Wait, what were you trying to say?

  14. RoscoePColtraine says at 4:30 pm, September 18th, 2009

    I thought Paul Harvey died already.

  15. user-of-owls says at 4:30 pm, September 18th, 2009

    hobospacejunkie: Jim Demintia: Mountains of corpses, oceans of blood, blah, blah, blah.
    At least he didn’t leave the scene of an accident on Martha’s Vineyard.

  16. Kristol Naught.

  17. Extemporanus says at 4:31 pm, September 18th, 2009

    magic titty: It is indeed a sad day to be a Skesis.

  18. bitchincamaro says at 4:32 pm, September 18th, 2009

    What? A genuine neo-con who actually wore a uniform and fought in a war? How can this be?

  19. blinky_twinkie says at 4:33 pm, September 18th, 2009

    The 2009 Summer Death Parade of Stars continues…

  20. ManchuCandidate says at 4:33 pm, September 18th, 2009

    At least he lived long enough to see his movement meet its destiny of becoming the political/military/foreign policy joke it deserves to be.

  21. President Dork: Twenty minutes is fine with me.

  22. Now is the time on Sprocket when we dance. And dildos are still illegal in Alabama.

  23. Continuation of Kronstadt by different means? Except that Trotsky led the crushing of the Kronstadt rebellion. i dunno, following these guys gets murky. At least Smiley vs Karla had an end — not so here.

  24. Speed Ball says at 4:40 pm, September 18th, 2009

    Yo Irving Kristol, your death was pretty good, and I’ma let you finish, but Leon Trotsky got an ice-pick in the back of the head somewhere in Mexico city by a KGB assassin… and that was the best death ever.

  25. Prommie: That’s why Jeebus made cucumbers.

  26. american mutt says at 4:42 pm, September 18th, 2009
  27. zenferret says at 4:44 pm, September 18th, 2009

    So will neocon Lyndon LaRouche outlast the others? Woo boy if he becomes their standard bearer.

  28. Extemporanus says at 4:47 pm, September 18th, 2009

    OReillysVibrator: Bill Kristol thinks your comment was an EPIC FAIL.

  29. Snarkalicious says at 4:58 pm, September 18th, 2009

    Newt Gingrich would still hit it, tho.

  30. Maybe Billy will rush off to join him. A boy can dream, can’t he?

  31. btwbfdimho says at 5:11 pm, September 18th, 2009

    One small vote less for Glenn Beck in 2012 and one irrelevant leap for humanity.

  32. Wisdom from the Irv:

    “A liberal is one who says that it’s all right for an 18-year-old girl to perform in a pornographic movie as long as she gets paid the minimum wage”. Minimum wage = porn.

    “Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions - it only guarantees equality of opportunity.” Bullshit on the second part.

    “The major political event of the 20th century is the death of socialism.”
    Hahahahahhahahahahhahahaha, a-heh. Glad you got to see the 21st, Irv.

  33. Brendan M. says at 5:21 pm, September 18th, 2009

    Christ, you guys, a man is dead! Have you no shame? I know we may not agree with all of this guy’s political views, but he was a human being with a family who loved him. Politics shouldn’t override basic decency and kindness. I’m reminded of something David Broder once wrote - wait, it was that Kristol? Okay, he can burn in hell.

  34. King of Pants says at 5:21 pm, September 18th, 2009

    Speed Ball: +1 Frida Kahlo painting

  35. King of Pants says at 5:22 pm, September 18th, 2009

    zenferret: Lyndon LaRouche wishes he could hang with the neocons.

  36. Tundra Grifter says at 5:23 pm, September 18th, 2009

    Geez - sorry to hear it. Was he Bill’s dad - or Billy’s?

  37. randomsausage says at 5:23 pm, September 18th, 2009

    Did he also shag Ayn Rand — I mean that’s how this whole neocon thing started, isn’t it?

  38. Tundra Grifter says at 5:27 pm, September 18th, 2009

    S.Luggo: #1. A conservative thinks it’s ok for an 18-year-old girl to perform in her married boss’s (or master’s) bed for free.

    #2. That’s been re-written by the right wingnutz to “no guarantee of equality of outcomes.” Based on that, they now oppose equality of opportunity - why bother?

    #3. My bad. I would have said WW II - the continuation of politics by other means…

  39. Tundra Grifter says at 5:30 pm, September 18th, 2009

    Nobody’s named “Irving” any more. I think the last person was the actor “Ving” Rimes - named for famous newscaster Irving R. Levine (Levin? Hollywood & Levine? - one of them!).

  40. Heywood Jablome says at 5:35 pm, September 18th, 2009

    SayItWithWookies: BAM! What he said…

  41. ManchuCandidate says at 5:36 pm, September 18th, 2009

    S.Luggo:
    He was “rite” about the equality of opportunity, especially if you needed to hire someone as editor and knew some kid named Bill and his last name was Kristol.

  42. randomsausage says at 5:40 pm, September 18th, 2009

    A poem, I think, is in order:

    So farewell, Irving Kristol
    Founder, some say, of the Neo-cons
    Some might have stopped at that
    But no, you shot your old man jizz
    Into an unsuspecting ovum
    And sent forth a giant douche

  43. smitallica says at 5:47 pm, September 18th, 2009

    Today, we are all dead Zionist warmongering…

    Oh fuck it. I just hate his son so baaad.

  44. Scandalabra says at 5:49 pm, September 18th, 2009

    As Dottie Parker famously commented when told that Herbert Hoover had died, “How could they tell?”

  45. the problem child says at 6:04 pm, September 18th, 2009

    bitchincamaro: It must have been while he was still a patriotic-minded Communist.

  46. SayItWithWookies: You are too generous, cold piss only, so no warmth is transferred.

  47. Lazy Media says at 7:01 pm, September 18th, 2009

    I’m not sure what makes him worse, being a Communist in the first place (which implies ignorance and/or college attendance) or becoming a Reaganite imperialist (which implies dickheadery). Radical leftists suck almost as much as neocons, but at least the young ones can be excused for not knowing anything.

  48. Is the “City College of New York” an accredited institution?

  49. Numbat Dundee says at 7:13 pm, September 18th, 2009

    First time as tragedy, second time as farce, third time as Sarah Palin.

  50. Long Form Def Certificate says at 7:23 pm, September 18th, 2009

    Brett Favre will have a huge day this Sunday. Not ’cause another father named Irvin(g) died. Ol’ Gunslinger’s just playing the Lions.

  51. Way Cool Larry says at 7:24 pm, September 18th, 2009

    He looks nice enough in that photo, and I can sort of see the sense in his political transformation… but it makes me shudder to think he is the man who brought forth and shaped Bill Kristol… one of the biggest fucking douchebags on the planet…

  52. AnnieGetYourFun says at 7:27 pm, September 18th, 2009

    OReillysVibrator: Dude, nice. I actually guffawed loud enough for my boss to look over at me suspiciously.

  53. Reefpilot says at 7:53 pm, September 18th, 2009

    Didn’t he diddle his shoot-off Bill Kristol, ala Mark Foley page-style?

  54. SayItWithWookies: Gee, Wooks, don’t sugar coat it. Tell us what you REALLY think of the man . . . .

  55. rocktonsammy says at 8:51 pm, September 18th, 2009

    Birth Certificate please.

  56. rocktonsammy says at 8:53 pm, September 18th, 2009

    So hes gone, Bill ain’t going to all Keef Olberoing us for making fun?

  57. imissopus says at 8:56 pm, September 18th, 2009

    Contest: what bill will congressional Republicans want to name after Irving?

  58. Pop Socket says at 8:58 pm, September 18th, 2009

    He was a communist that became a neoconservative, starting a grand tradition of Kristols always being wrong.

  59. Carrie_Okie says at 9:01 pm, September 18th, 2009

    The Douchefather is dead.

  60. Did this guy pound his meat to Sarah Palin, too, or does that shit skip a generation?

  61. zaccapeters says at 10:36 pm, September 18th, 2009

    @numbat dundee : That is way too good for me not to steal it.

  62. Dilaceratus says at 11:47 pm, September 18th, 2009

    I was going to say that this death was a mixed blessing: The bad news being that Bill Kristol apparently had a shot at making it to age 89, the good news being that that at least this Sunday morning would be one where one could safely turn on the television without having to see that schmuck Bill Kristol.

    Then I realized that the tasteless act of flogging his father’s death on the teevee was precisely the sort of thing Bill Kristol would do, so I guess my personal celebrations have been short-lived, indeed.

    Still, one less.

  63. Paul Tardy says at 11:52 pm, September 18th, 2009

    http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/036543.html

    … Using his early training as a Trotskyite, and a natural talent for organizing, recruiting, and demagoguery, he managed to take over the Stupid Party, i.e., the conservative movement and the Republicans. Whatever was good, he purged or smeared, in the cause of what he dubbed “neoconservatism” …

  64. Suds McKenzie says at 12:06 am, September 19th, 2009
  65. Rot in hell you smelly bag of bones.

  66. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to start the betting pool! By this time next month, which of the following facts will finally be revealed about this “neoconservative lion?”

    A gay lover? A black child? A black gay lover? Mountains of personal debt (at least half of which to the IRS)? Starred in or was otherwise involved in the making of (e.g. fluffer) an obscure pornographic film? Paid for an abortion? Isn’t really Bill’s father? Lied about his military service? Secret Muslin? Thought the poor ain’t so bad?

    Sorry, having collected Medicare and Social Security is a given.

  67. Scandalabra: You lie. Not Hoover. Calvin Coolidge, the Great Stone Face.

    Thus we see one more example of the failure the Public Option, this time in snark. When will we ever learn?

  68. Better American Than You says at 3:22 am, September 19th, 2009

    I think his best work was from the mid-60’s. “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” and “I Got You (I Feel Good)” were…oh, sorry, thought you were talking about the Godfather of Soul.

  69. Where’s he buried? If I pass by, I’ll be sure to urinate on his grave.

  70. LoweredPeninsula says at 1:02 am, September 20th, 2009

    Speed Ball: “Yo Irving Kristol, your death was pretty good, and I’ma let you finish, but Leon Trotsky got an ice-pick in the back of the head somewhere in Mexico city by a KGB assassin… and that was the best death ever.”

    Brilliant.

    Tundra Grifter: I belive “Scooter” Libby’s first name is Irving. So, they are still among the living.

  71. villageatrois says at 2:21 am, September 20th, 2009

    Dead at last! Dead at last! Thank God Almighty, he’s dead at last!

  72. nader paul kucinich gravel says at 2:27 pm, September 20th, 2009

    Wall Street
    Art students
    9/11 snow job
    Chicken hawks
    Moving company
    Propaganda media
    DNC stealth neocons
    Anti-semitism accusers
    The chosen the superior
    2-3% of the US population
    Extortion blackmail bribery
    By deception ye shall wage war
    AIPAC’s Israel-first dual-nationals
    For profit NotFederal NoReserve scam

    Words are plentiful deeds are precious!

  73. Jim Demintia says at 9:46 pm, September 20th, 2009

    nader paul kucinich gravel: What are you doing? Get out of my mind!

  74. Count Spatula says at 8:10 am, September 21st, 2009

    What is a better item to punctuate the end of neo-conservatism than a corpse?

  75. Tundra Grifter says at 9:15 am, September 21st, 2009

    Speed Ball: Speed Ball: Not to be too Monday morning on you, but I believe it was an ice axe. I remember this because ever since I first read it I’ve wondered “Who has an ice axe in Mexico city?” It’s not exactly the Swiss Alps…

  76. Tundra Grifter says at 9:19 am, September 21st, 2009

    LoweredPeninsula: Scooter - the “Did you know aspens have a single root?” poet. I recently read the Western aspens are dying off - from shame?

  77. Where’s the death certificate!?

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