Jonah Goldberg
National Review senior editor Jonah Goldberg is a bestselling author and columnist and fellow of the National Review Institute. His nationally syndicated column appears regularly in scores of newspapers across the United States. He is also a weekly columnist for the Los Angeles Times, a member of the board of contributors to USA Today, and a contributor to Fox News. He was the founding editor of National Review Online. The Atlantic magazine identified Goldberg as one of the top 50 political commentators in America. In 2011 he was named the Robert J. Novak Journalist of the Year at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). He has written on politics, media, and culture for a wide variety of publications and has appeared on numerous television and radio programs. He is the author of two New York Times bestsellers, The Tyranny of Clichés (Sentinel HC, 2012) and Liberal Fascism (Doubleday, 2008).
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With just hours left in 2010, Michael Bloomberg manages to go the extra mile to offer even more asininity. The Blizzard of 2010 may have forever dented Mayor Bloomberg’s popularity. The mayor admitted today that the botched snow removal effort this ... -
Uh Oh
Things are worse in New York than we thought. One resident hiding in subway car reportedly said “And I thought these things smelled bad on the outside.” (Hat tip Debby) -
Funniest Headlines of the Year
Warning: some are saucy. -
Pop Quiz
This is a pretty depressing news quiz by Pew. What’s depressing is how easy it is. For the record, I got 12 out of 12, though I think a person who describes themselves as well-informed on current events could be forgiven ... -
In Other News
Steve Hayward makes a prediction: 1. One of the cable channels will offer up a summer replacement reality show, Jonah and the Cosmos, about an insouciant syndicated columnist transporting a squad of dogs across the country to Alaska in a minivan. ... -
As Gay Becomes Bourgeois
So now openly gay soldiers get to fight and die in neocon-imperialist wars too? David Brooks saw such ironic progressive victories coming. In his book Bobos in Paradise, he wrote that everything “transgressive” gets “digested by the mainstream bourgeois order, ... -
Top Ten Charts of 2010
According to Heritage. -
Good Luck With That
Christopher Beam has written a long essay on Libertarianism and its (alleged) problems. I have a pretty strong suspicion he’s not having a great time opening his email today. I suspect he feels a bit like he went to ... -
Post-Census Party-Pooping
It’s a festive time: singing on the sidewalks, good cheer at home and the office. I’m of course referring to the revelry that descends on the library carrels and fluorescently iridescent cubicles around Washington when the census data ... -
Galupo's High Bar
Stan – I think my friend Scott Galupo is trying too hard. By his standard, Lenin and a lot of other Bolsheviks weren’t socialist either! After all Lenin’s New Economic Policy allowed for private property and profit. Another non-socialist? ... -
Jewish Witches Unleash Rapist Cats At Gitmo
Also, via Debby, this shocking revelation from a released Gitmo detainee. From the transcript (since the video is glitchy): Walid Muhammad Hajj: There were, of course, Jews among the [staff of] the Guantanamo Base, and they would set traps for ... -
When Is Your Quantum Moment?
Dear Reader (and your Sprockets monkey), Readers laughing, Editors gassing, Meeting G-file after G-File, And in every e-mail “news”letter you’ll hear . . . Okay, I couldn’t finish that. But I leave it up to you folks to suggest a ... -
Man-Eating Giants Found
No, really. Well, sorta. -
The Final Five?
My column on the likely five GOP frontrunners has generated some dismay and some relief. -
From the Olbermann Highlight Reel
I loved this from last October: “[The Tea Party-backed Republicans are] a group of unqualified, unstable individuals who will do what they are told, in exchange for money and power, and march this nation as far backward as they can ... -
Progressive Hubris Cont'd
Some fun comments in my post yesterday. I’ll offer a few responses. A commenter named Russel says: What another deceiving post by Jonah Goldberg! First of all, with respect to Eugenics, he is cherry picking the past. I am ... -
Capture the Flag
My second Ross Douthat plug of the day. He has a nice rejoinder to Jonathan Chait’s efforts to wave away concerns about regulatory capture. I thought this bit was particularly well stated: First, there’s an obvious distinction — as ... -
Embattled Christians -- If You'll Forgive the Expression
Ross Douthat has a nice column today on the plight of believing Christians at Christmas time. An excerpt: In a sense, of course, there’s no better time to be a Christian than the first 25 days of December. But this ... -
Chait v. Gillespie and Veronique de Rugy
I assume/hope we’ll be hearing more from Veronique about all this. -
Strauss & Schmitt in China?
Well, this is interesting! Mark Lillla discovers that the Chinese are debating Leo Strauss and Carl Schmitt. From the piece: This conversation came to mind recently after I returned from a month of lectures and interviews in China. I had ... -
Now Who's Thrown Under the Omnibus?
My column today is on the omnibus bill. I woke up this morning to discover that the omnibus bill failed, thus nullifying my column. Some might say that the breaking news gods are punishing me for my hubris. But I ... -
Thrown under the (Omni)Bus
The gold standard in contemptuous politics remains Emperor Caligula’s appointment of his horse, Incitatus, to the Roman senate. Well, Harry Reid (D., Nev.) is getting some long-delayed senatorial payback. Figuratively speaking, Reid plans to drop on the president’s ... -
Behind Bill Clinton’s Smile
You’ve got to give Barack Obama credit. His learning curve gets steeper and steeper, but he continues to climb. “I’m going to let him speak very briefly,” Obama said Friday before making the fateful decision to allow a ... -
Re: Issa Joins Opposition
I don’t get it, really. Here’s part of Issa’s statement from Katrina’s post below: “While my vote will ultimately depend on the final bill brought to the floor of the House,” Issa told Politico, “the flawed ... -
Every Zombie Death on Walking Dead
Because, well, it’s a video of every zombie death on Walking Dead (yes, I get the irony of the phrase “zombie death”). -
At Least They're Consistent
After all you’d expect a group that doesn’t believe in labels to reject the concept of intellectual property. Brooklyn-based artist Thomas Porostocky’s friends and fans have been tipping off NY media that his art has been used ... -
Re: Christmas Shopping with NRO
I just want to second Derb’s recommendation. The War for Righteousness is an immensely useful and readable book. -
Breaking: VA Court Rules Healthcare Mandate Unconstitutional
More to come, no doubt. -
Austria v. Turkey
This has been sent to me by a bunch of folks. For what it’s worth, this is part of a quick take from a friend of mine who follows these sorts of things pretty closely. Yeah, that’s a ... -
Sanders and the Job of Congress
I was listening to Bernie Sanders’s filibuster in the car a few minutes ago. He made an interesting statement. I’m paraphrasing, but he said the job of Congress — representatives and senators — is to fight for the interests of ... -
Thursday's Weird Links, on Friday
If you were a subscriber to the G-File, you would have seen these already: The word “mistletoe” literally means “dung twig.“ Loo of the Year Awards. What would happen if every element on the periodic table came into contact simultaneously? ... -
Dr. K's "Swindle"
A reader and professional GOP Hill wonk writes: The total “cost” according to congressional accounting is $850 billion. Dr. K’s figure definitely includes the “cost” of just keeping current tax policies in place in 2011. Keeping the 2001/2003 tax cut laws in ... -
Dr. K's 'Swindle'
I take a back seat to no man in my admiration of Charles Krauthammer, but could someone around here take a look at his math? Because I’m a little confused (I know, I know, many would call that a ... -
Tax Reform, He Cried
Well, that sound you hear is Rich Lowry cackling. The triangulation has truly begun with Obama’s announcement that he wants to pursue tax reform in 2011. Or has it? If you listen to (or read) the NPR interview, his priority ... -
White House Christmas Tree: Still Hideous
This is not a shot at Obama. I thought the trees under Bush were ugly too. For some reason the White House thinks it’s a good idea to take a majestic and massive tree and drop a lit-up blanket ... -
When Words Fail
Most theories for why the president came unglued like a papier-mâché doll in a steam bath during his press conference this week center on the fact that he can’t stand having his liberal bona fides questioned. When Iran ... -
Re: Bravo for Ricochet
Mark: I agree it’s a conversation worth having, even though as you know from listening to the podcast, I’m not for a radical retrenchment of American international engagement. But I also agree with you that rethinking our priorities ... -
This Just In
The latest Ricochet Podcast is out. I’m on it. That is all. -
Politics Without Labels? What a Silly Concept
A group called “No Labels” is getting an awful lot of buzz these days, despite the fact that it has raised only $1 million. (Though it sounds more impressive if you say it like Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers movies: <... -
What About the North Koreans?
Every now and then I feel compelled to write a column pointing out the simple fact that one day no one will understand why the world let North Korea endure as one of the most evil regimes in human history. ... -
The Friedman Column That Keeps On Giving
Pejman Yousefzadeh just can’t resist ripping into what may have been Tom Friedman’s worst column of the year. I liked this bit: [Friedman writes:]Americans just had what they call an “election.” Best we could tell it involved ... -
Save the North Koreans!
If North Koreans were pandas, would we have let them suffer so? In October 1993, Edward N. Luttwak wrote a brilliant essay for Commentary magazine asking a similar question: If the Bosnian Muslims had been bottlenose dolphins, would the ... -
XBox (with Kinnect) v. Wii Cont'd
Lots of helpful email has come in, but this guy is clearly auditioning to be my Game Console Guy: Mr. Goldberg, Credential wise, I have owned the Wii since it was released, have well over 40 games for the system and ... -
XBox (with Kinnect) v. Wii
I mentioned on my Twitter thingamajig that I’m thinking of getting my daughter a video console. I want something that is kid friendly and involves physical movement, not just thumb-action, and offer opportunities for whole-family-play. At first, consensus was ... -
Robert Gibbs to Brief at 12:45
Should be an interesting press conference. I think it would be hilarious if he came into the room wearing one of those super-padded suits they use for training attack dogs. -
Obama as Bush 41
While we’ve spent so much time comparing Obama to Carter, maybe we’ve left out the other one-term president of recent memory: George H.W. Bush. Bush, let’s recall, had soaring popularity ratings and then plummeted because of ... -
Caribou!
Greg Pollowitz tweets: OMG. Palin didn’t shoot Bambi, she shot Rudolph! “Caribou is a term used in North America for wild reindeer http://bit.ly/fDmghr”. The link is to the Wikipedia page for Caribou. I chuckled at this ... -
Re: Sarah Palin's Alaska
I haven’t watched any yet, though I keep meaning to. I have seen quite a few clips. Anyway, I just thought I’d make one point. In some of the commentary and coverage of the show, there seems to ... -
Tangled & Zombies
Just a quick note: Saw “Tangled” with my daughter and niece today. For a princess movie it was really quite good. Kids liked it a lot. Meanwhile, I gotta get said kid to bed so I can watch the “season” ... -
Congrats, Sort Of
It’s good news for the administration and the country that we finalized a trade deal with South Korea. But it doesn’t look like a super-terrific trade deal.
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Re: Khodorkovsky’s Fate
This is example 3,097.876 why I feel lied to by action movies. Clearly, if Hollywood was telling me the truth about how the world works, Khodorkovsky would have hired a team of ex-military mercs to spring him from jail by now. -
Michael Vick & Dogfighting
I’m working on a column on the Michael Vick brouhaha. But in the meantime, here’s a column I wrote on the subject back in 2007. It’s one of the few I’m legitimately proud of. -
The Moral Mush of Pacifism
Colman McCarthy has a really exasperating op-ed in the Post today arguing that ROTC must remain banned from campuses, even after the DADT repeal. As I briefly mentioned in my column yesterday, the lifting of DADT is really inconvenient for ... -
True Grit (minor spoilers)
I saw it with the missus and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it. But I have some “buts.” I had heard about it being a departure for the Coen brothers in that it’s a mainstream “Hollywood” movie, but ... -
HoBos
I’m hearing a lot — pro and con — about my column today on the Homosexual Bourgeoisie, or “HoBos.” I don’t want to get into a whole long thing about this, but there are a couple points worth responding to ... -
TV Recommendation
If you’re holed up somewhere in the cold and looking for something to watch I suggest you find the BBC series “Luther.” It’s a cop show starring Idris Elba (Stringer Bell from The Wire) and it’s a ... -
It's an Honor Just to be Nominated
But feel free to vote for me in category number 6 anyway. -
A Little Census Sobriety
If anyone is out there, my column today is on why we shouldn’t get too carried away about the GOP’s census gains. -
An Important Message During the Holidays
’Nuff said: -
Jewish Witches at Gitmo Cont'd
My post below produced the best comment of the year, if you ask me: “That explains why all the cats stayed home on 9/11.” -
Meat House
This is why men need to get married, eventually. (Via Debby, natch): Does Peta know about this? -
Draft Rubio?
A reader reacts to my column: Jonah, Of your five finalists for 2012, not one is terribly likely to beat Barack Obama, wouldn’t you agree? Palin polarizes the most, Gingrich has tons of baggage, Mitch Daniels = Phil Gramm ‘96 in more ... -
Don't Rule Jeb Out?
So far the most interesting response to my column comes from a bunch of readers who claim, suggest, suspect, assert or hope that Jeb isn’t as firmly on the sidelines as I think. For what that’s worth. I ... -
The Would-be GOP Kings
Who among us can contain their excitement? The GOP presidential-primary season has begun! By my count, there are 24 people who are beneficiaries of nontrivial presidential buzz: Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, John Thune, Tim Pawlenty, Mitch Daniels, Mike Pence, ... -
Socialism v. Liberalism v. Communism
Dave Weigel should be commended for trying to be fair to Stan’s book. And I’ll leave it to Stan to respond to the point-by-point stuff. But there’s one aspect of Weigel’s review that bothers me. It’... -
Belarus Burns
Robert Bidinotto sent out an email last night asking for help calling attention to the mess in Belarus. Since he says it better than I could, here’s the email: Fellow Bloggers and online friends, Please forgive this intrusion. But ... -
Progressive Hubris
Paul Waldman has a chest-thumping post in which he writes, in part: But it’s never bad to remind ourselves that with the important exception of abortion rights, the culture war moves in only one direction, and that direction is ... -
Chart Fun
The immigrant data over time. Very cool. -
Michael Moore & Wikileaks
I’ve been sort of out of it for the last week, so maybe I missed this in the Corner. But you just have to love that Castro banned Michael Moore’s Sicko because it was too ham-fisted for the ... -
Your Sunday Chuckle
Foster Brooks roasts Don Rickles: -
Tonight’s mystery guest on The Barack Obama Comedy Hour is…
Dear reader (and the leather-clad gimp in the footlocker at your feet), One of my favorite TV conventions is the cameo appearance. If you try to look up the definition of “cameo appearance” on the interwebs, you’ll become hopelessly ... -
Radio Silence
Sorry for checking out for the last day or so. Crazy times. The G-File is coming…tomorrow. -
The Senate Omnibus
The massive allegedly pork-laden bill is out (I’ll be discussing all this on Special Report this evening). -
When Italians Betray You
I loved this bit from yesterday’s NPR story on Berlosconi’s troubles: Bookmakers have had a hard time figuring the odds of Berlusconi’s survival. A week ago, he was declared politically dead. But in the last few days, ... -
Top Chef All Stars (Spoilers)
Just catching up as The Corner’s unofficial Top Chef critic. So far, the wisdom of taking (some of) the best non-winning chefs from the previous seasons seems like a brilliant idea, TV-wise. But I am bummed that they’ve ... -
Once More Into the No Labels Breach
I couldn’t help myself yesterday, and I watched a chunk of the No Labels “event” yesterday. High-frick-n-larious. Never before have so many has-been liberal politicians been convinced that they have a new lease on political life for no discernibly ... -
Liberal Epistemic Closure Takes A Beating
Josh Marshall: A year ago, no one took seriously the idea that a federal health care mandate was unconstitutional. And the idea that buying health care coverage does not amount to “economic activity” seems preposterous on its face. But the ... -
Prediction
With the news that a rival illegal-data-dump outfit, OpenLeaks, has opened up shop, I can see a host of thumbsucker op-eds coming down the pike about how Wikileaks was the Napster of leak operations and Assange is the Shawn Fanning (... -
TNR and the Crisis of the American Intellectual
Interesting stuff from our friend Ron Radosh. -
Obama's Bad History
In his press conference Obama said this: This is why FDR, when he started Social Security, it only affected widows and orphans. You did not qualify. And yet now it is something that really helps a lot of people. When ... -
What Might Have Been
If Obama had pushed a one-year suspension of the payroll tax instead of the first stimulus, wouldn’t the country — and Obama – be much better off right now? He would have gotten money directly into the hands of the American ... -
Congratulations Tulane
For picking Tom Friedman as your commencement speaker. -
Another Point About the WH Christmas Tree
Since everyone seems to agree with me that White House Christmas trees are garish and ugly, I thought I’d press my luck and make a bigger point. It’s funny, almost everywhere else in the culture the trend seems ... -
Is That The Sound of Hillary Laughing?
Obama’s press conference may be the launch of his reelection triangulation campaign. But it was also an admission: Hillary was right, or so I argue. Meanwhile, David Brooks makes a different but oddly related argument. -
F*** The President?
When Rep. Joe Wilson yelled “you lie!” — which he most certainly should not have done, everyone was convinced that racism was the only explanation. But when a Democrat shouts, admittedly in a different forum, F*** the president, no such speculation ... -
Posted Without Comment
Uh… If you think a TSA grope is bad, gay men seeking asylum in the Czech Republic are forced to drop their pants and get hooked up to a penile plethysmograph to find out just how gay they are. After ... -
Anti-Christian Hate Crime
This is just disgusting: Vandals have destroyed one of the most celebrated Christian pilgrimage sites in Britain and chopped down a tree said to have sprouted from the staff of Joseph of Arimathea 2,000 years ago. The Holy Thorn Tree of ... -
If this is “triangulation,” I can’t wait to see “total surrender.”
Dear Reader (and the horse you rode in on), Now that’s what I’m talking about. Who among us didn’t love Barack Obama’s back-to-back press conferences in which he denounced the Republicans for their bipartisan agreement and ... -
Tom Friedman Strikes Again
I love this: More than ever, America today reminds me of a working couple where the husband has just lost his job, they have two kids in junior high school, a mortgage and they’re maxed out on their credit ... -
Patty Cake Squabbles
This is the family friendly video of the day in the Goldberg household: -
Our Sputnik Moment is Back?
It’s easy to forget that the White House wanted to talk about Obama’s “Sputnik moment” speech this week. I have some thoughts about it over at the E.B. -
Olbermann, Holocaust Deniers, Assange Oh My
This is simply the kind of thing Michael Moynihan is frick’n awesome at. -
Assange as Time Man of the Year
Look, I’m no fan of Assange, nor do I like the increasingly ridiculous MOTY feature (or I guess I should say POTY now). But Assange is a legitimate choice. He’s a newsmaker who represents something bigger than just ... -
Since Jefferson Dined Alone
The brain trust convening in the comments section of my USA Today column is pretty amusing. They also seem irony impaired. -
Re: White House to Left: 'We Wanted a Fight'
Bob: Re Biden’s selling-mission, and sticking on this Bush 41 analogy, here’s an excerpt from a Michael Oreskes article in the July 13, 1990, NYT: QUAYLE DEFENDS BUSH’S TAX STAND Vice President Dan Quayle sought to reassure a nervous group ... -
The Depolitized Zone?
The opening from my USA Today piece on this No Labels outfit: A group called “No Labels” is getting an awful lot of buzz these days, despite the fact it has raised only $1 million. (Though it sounds more impressive if ... -
Obama V. Events
Mark Halperin in Time: Should Obama effectively confront these dynamics, he will still need some luck. Busy as he’s been, he has not yet experienced a single major moment that has benefited him politically. The most dramatic events of ... -
Well, Time Is Subjective
Dan, by my clock it is 6:12 AM and your first post is at 7:02 AM. I would very much like your assistance with the stock market when you have a free moment. -
Lies: Now On the Big Screen
Even the editorial board of the Washington Post couldn’t stomach the new Plame-Wilson movie. -
From Michael Lerner's Lips
Rarely do I hope anyone takes Michael Lerner’s advice, but there’s a first time for everything.