A new book of interviews with Hunter S Thompson dropped on my desk yesterday. It’s a good read. HST may not suit conservative tastes. His popular image is irritatingly contrived — manipulated to sell books and posters and films to silly adolescents who think drugs are cool. But the man was fascinating: a libertarian, a patriot — of a strange, selfish sort — and a bold writer who followed H L Mencken’s dictum that “The only way a journalist should look at a politician is down.”

As such, he knew a decent magazine when he saw one:

Interviewer: Are you still in touch with Patrick Buchanan?
HST: Occasionally. We’re still friends. Patrick is a libertarian, or at least in that direction. I think of politics as a circle, not a spectrum of just right and left. Patrick and I are often pretty close. Patrick’s an honest person. He’s a straight guy and very smart guy. His magazine, the American Conservative, is really interesting. It’s all anti-Bush, basically. I’m pleased with that.

Filed under: Uncategorized