Buckley's notorious bigotry
Dinesh D'Souza tries to excuse "That Notorious Buckley AIDS Column" via several means, none of them convincing. First, he attempts some chronological obfuscation by claiming "Buckley had written a notorious column during the 1980s" and "not much was known about AIDS in the early 1980s." These statements are both true, and both are misleading.
By writing "during the 1980s" rather than giving the column's date of 18 March 1986, D'Souza tries to obscure its true age, and thus justify its homophobia via ignorance. What was known about AIDS "in the early 1980s" is irrelevant, as a great deal was known--for those who cared to learn--by 1986. (By way of context: The first CDC reports were issued in 1981, the retrovirus was isolated in 1983, and antibody screening for blood donors began in 1985. 1986, the year of Buckley's tattoo remark, saw the release of Surgeon General Koop's celebrated Report on AIDS.)
D'Souza claims that Buckley's suggestion of tattooing people was AIDS was made "somewhat light-heartedly," but I fail to see humor in such Nazi-esque forced tattooing of those who already suffer from a fatal disease. Tattooing "abandon all hope..." on their lower backs is as abhorrent an idea as sewing pink triangles onto their work camp uniforms.
Far from being a mid-1980s aberration, Buckley revisited the tattooing idea in 2005, suggesting that "maybe it is up now for reconsideration." He displayed his homophobia to the end; if he couldn't make history stop, he could at least stop learning about subjects that upset his fragile heteronormative worldview.
How pitiful.
update (3/5 @ 2:59pm):
D'Souza posted his column at ClownHall, and I've been having some fun with the trolls who hang out there.