All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

William F. Buckley, Jr., was a giant of American conservatism, a writer and debater and round-the-world sailor who built a movement felt from City Halls to the White House.

He died today at the age of 82.

For more on his legacy, click the monitor at left.

Ward Sloane is a CBS News producer based in Washington.

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Please don’t take this the wrong way.

As I read the first wires on the death of William F. Buckley this morning, I thought how appropriate that he should die during the year that the conservative movement seems fractured, a shadow of its once formidable presence.

Buckley was conservative before conservative was cool. He was brilliant, Ivy League, handsome and very, very, VERY articulate. And he was, well, so very self confident. All of his talent and style combined to rebirth the moribund conservative movement in this country. From his founding of the National Review to the day he stepped down from moderating his signature talk show, “Firing Line.” It is fair to say that Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich all owe their place in American history to the man who once famously wrote that he didn’t know anyone smarter than himself.

Ronald Reagan was the man who is most associated with making the “L-word,” that is, Liberal, a dirty word. But it was Buckley who first started mocking and ridiculing liberals as being out of touch with mainstream America. Eventually he demonstrated through thoughtful and forceful debate that conservatism could not only survive, but thrive in the American marketplace of ideas. There are others who contributed, but Buckley was the vanguard.

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This past week, it was if the world of sports went stark-raving mad, with potential scandals rocking basketball, football, biking -- not to mention baseball and Barry Bonds and the matter of that home run record.

So we fired off our 10 questions to veteran sportswriter William Nack, who was a senior writer at Sports Illustrated for nearly 25 years and whose most recent book is “Ruffian: A Racetrack Romance.” He’s been there, done that, seen it all -- until, perhaps, this past week.

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1) Has, in fact, the sports world gone mad?

It is impossible to cover sports in this world for some 35 years, as I have done, and not come away from the experience with a keenly cynical, skeptical view of all things having to do with Sportsworld. Having said that, however, I must add at once that the news stories that have broken---with the scandals literally lined up, cheek by jowl, on sports pages around the world---have had the effect of boggling even the most jaded of sporting minds. The wheels are clearly coming off the wagon...

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As you can see from the commencement speech we posted earlier, I was given the honor of addressing the brilliant and diverse Williams class of 2007 yesterday. I thought I'd take a moment to tell you a little bit about the experience — and how hopeful it made me about young people and about our country’s future.

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In addition to the grown-ups, there were some terrific student speakers at yesterday’s Williams College commencement. I wish I could attach all of their speeches—because all of them are worth reading—but one student’s remarks stood out. Auyon Mukharji gave a wise and often hilarious address that I think is relevant not just to Williams students, but to college kids everywhere. Here's a link to his speech posted on the Williams College Web site.

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As I promised on Friday, here's the speech I gave at Williams College, in Williamstown, Mass yesterday:

Thank you President Schapiro, and good morning everyone — dedicated faculty and staff, proud parents and, of course, graduates! I am honored to be a small part of this very big day.

Having heard so much about Williams and Williamstown from my brother-in-law Jim Batchelor — class of '72 — and from my sister, Clara, who left Smith to spend her junior year here (mostly because of Jim), it’s as beautiful as they’ve described. It’s no wonder Thoreau said after visiting here in 1844, “it would be no small advantage if every college were thus located at the base of a mountain.”

And after doing a little reporting, I’ve learned a lot about this school and its legitimate bragging rights as a college of firsts — the first to sponsor a scientific expedition, the first to build an astronomy observatory in America.

And Williams was the first school in the country to adopt the Oxford tradition of sporting caps and gowns at graduation — an effort to make the class more egalitarian. So it’s because of Williams that hundreds of thousands of graduates this time of year will be sporting this figure-flattering, dress-it-up, dress-it-down ensemble.

And Williams, no doubt, is the first and last school in the country to adopt a purple cow as its mascot. I’m sure this bovine bruiser instills a tremendous amount of fear on the football field.

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Making headlines this week is the case of a Georgia man suffering from a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis now quarantined in Denver. Just how much of a risk does this virulent strain of TB pose to the general public? We asked Dr. William Schaffner, who heads the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, to help bring some perspective to the issue. He's the subject of this week's 10 Questions.

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1. First, the simplest question—what is tuberculosis exactly, and why is it so dangerous?

Tuberculosis is a bacterial disease that affects the lungs most prominently. It is spread by exhaling infectious material that then is inhaled by close contacts. Spread usually requires prolonged, close contact in a confined area, such as a room (or an airplane). Without treatment, active tuberculosis can cause a slowly progressive disease that can result in death.

2. That unidentified TB patient, who is the first federal quarantine since 1963, is carrying a particularly drug-resistant strain of the disease. How could he have contracted it?

Where the patient acquired this multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis infection is not yet known – and is a question of great interest! Most such multi-drug resistant infections occur in the developing world.

3. The man took two long-distance cross-Atlantic flights, and four shorter flights within Europe. What is the risk for the people who sat near him—or on the same plane?

The risk is quite low. First, the patient likely was not very infectious to others. Second, previous similar investigations suggest that, if there is a risk, the persons seated in his immediate vicinity are the ones needing the most attention.

4. Are the people on the shorter flights in as much danger as the people on the longer flights?

The likelihood of transmission of tuberculosis increases with increasing time of exposure. That is why the longer flights are the major focus of the public health investigation.

5. Can this man be punished for ignoring the warnings of health officials not to go on these flights?

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Does the name Mary Alice Williams ring a bell?

The esteemed anchor and reporter from NBC and CNN joined our writers' desk in September. She chats with Katie, and gives her own First Look at tonight's Evening News.

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"The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone's neurosis, and we'd have a mighty dull literature if all the writers that came along were a bunch of happy chuckleheads." - William Styron, author of The Confessions of Nat Turner and Sophie's Choice, who died yesterday at the age of 81.

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Today's First Look gives a first look at tonight's Evening News -- and a first look, too, at a couple of the writers who put it all together, including the newest scribe to join the team: Mary Alice Williams. Click the monitor to watch.

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