October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012
A man that I respected (to the extent that I knew him), as an iconoclast and free thinker with a scathing wit. He was wealthy and famous enough to safely challenge a system often led by people he knew firsthand, in the model of Mark Twain and H.L. Mencken.
To my delight, he picked apart politicians, mocked religion and prudery, and opposed wars from Vietnam to Iraq. A couple of years ago, I read his book “Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace or How We Came To Be So Hated,” which was an excellent comment about much of what the American public was led to (or willfully chose to) ignore about our willingness to be led into bloodshed.
A sad intellectual loss for our culture. We desperately need men who are able to accurately and fearlessly shove a sharp stick into mediocrity and complacency.