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Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty

National Review

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Common Misrepresentation

In yet another post (of several) trying to end the debate about the common good simply by reasserting that the people who are credited with...

04.08.2026 4

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

What Do You Want to Liberate Me From?

Okay, last and final word on this. To further illustrate that the common good, like liberty or democracy or due process or equality, is  another...

02.08.2026 7

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Common Problems

I’m heading for some time off. But I think I have a little more to contribute before I fall silent. To recap: Dan expressed his doubt that “the...

02.08.2026 8

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

How Do Words Work? A Reply on the Common Good

I confess I had to read Dan’s post “What Exactly Is ‘the Common Good’?” twice before I could believe he wrote it. Was he really suggesting...

31.07.2026 5

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Political Theater at Its Most Satisfying

Here's the full segment with Senator Hawley GOING OFF on Fauci and it's well worth the watch. Send this to EVERYONE you know....

29.07.2026 3

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Devine on Fauci

I know it was before his cowardly appearance before the Senate this morning, but this Miranda Devine column on Dr. Fauci and his diaries is...

29.07.2026 5

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Our Iran Policy Is Completely Adrift at This Point

Bombing or no-bombing, MOU or no MOU: We have a war that our people and our allies don’t want to support. Five months into it, after we were told...

29.07.2026 3

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Mamdani’s Main Opponent

The New York Times writes about our former colleague, now leader of the Manhattan Institute, Reihan Salam: Reihan Salam has a lot in common with the...

29.07.2026 5

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Listen to the Roar

It’s been really fun to watch clips of this Sunday’s All-Ireland Gaelic football championship go viral across social media. The more I watch of...

28.07.2026 9

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Oh Good, Bombing Iran Some More?

Earlier this week, Jim took a dim view of potential talks with the Iranians. The Iranian regime demonstrated, clearly and frequently, that any...

24.07.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Speaking of Revolutionaries

The Washington Free Beacon has a cracker of a book review, in which Ronald Radosh reads the searching memoir of Zayd Ayers Dohrn. You’ll remember...

22.07.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Daniel Ortega Casts Off All Disguise

For those who know, rigged elections do happen in the Americas. They’ve been happening for years in Nicaragua, ever since the Sandinistas brought...

22.07.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

When Elites Fail

Ross Douthat has a thoughtful review of Richard Hanania’s book, which is another brief against “populism” but from Hanania’s odd angle....

22.07.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Zelensky’s Consolidated Rule

Over at The Spectator, Owen Matthews has a sobering dispatch about this week’s big news in Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky has sacked his...

22.07.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Twenty Years Not Enough?

Former Vice President Mike Pence says the lesson of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars is the U.S. was only willing to fight "to a point" rather...

21.07.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

A Faithful Odyssey Would Be a Hard Sell

The critical consensus developing around Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey has several parts. The film has remarkable performances and is made on...

20.07.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

You Can’t Turn a Shredder Into a Printing Press by Feeding It More Paper

Last week, Lyman Stone wrote an op-ed for the New York Times about how the population bust is coming sooner than people realize: There are two major...

15.07.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The Odyssey Is Going to Be a Smash

I’ve questioned the determination in some quarters to hate on Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey before seeing it. Much of this corner of the...

15.07.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

My Memory of Lindsay Graham

At the very beginning of the 2016 cycle, I was asked by a magazine if I wanted to profile Lindsey Graham. They thought it would be fun to assign a...

15.07.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Hungarian Parliament Abolishes Elected Opposition

As if to make their cheerleaders choke on all their words, the new government of Hungary, led by Péter Magyar, used its constitution-shaping majority...

15.07.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Tom Cotton to Save Noon!

In an act of lip-curling intransigence and futile defiance of Nature and Nature’s God, the United States House of Representatives voted to make...

14.07.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

I Regret to Inform You The Bear’s Final Season Worked

The Bear is a drama on FX about a top-tier chef coming home to his grief-stricken family to take over and ultimately transform the beef sandwich shop...

14.07.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Open Mind on Nolan’s The Odyssey

I think Christopher Nolan is a brilliant filmmaker, and especially gifted on the technical side of the ledger. A lot of influencers and accounts on...

08.07.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Scruton on the Sacred and Profaned

From his lecture series “The Face of God”: Only that which is sacred can be desecrated. Hence the habitual desecration of death and sexual love...

08.07.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Iran Won’t Make War with Iran Popular

Iran’s defiance and skirting around the peace deal that was talked up in recent weeks, and its firing on U.S. vessels in the strait is an outrage...

08.07.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The Last Thing to Say About Anthony Bourdain

On Anthony Bourdain's show about travel and food, Parts Unknown, I liked that he was an old-fashioned kind of liberal, one who would make room...

08.07.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

‘The Line Is Burnt’

Readers know my preoccupation with fertility rates and population decline. If, as conservatives, our political and social project is an appreciation...

08.07.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Trad Schism, Again

The Society of Saint Pius X went ahead and ordained four bishops without a papal mandate, reprising the events of 1988. The Vatican, in turn, has...

02.07.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Thomas More’s Prophecy

I’ve been reading Eamon Duffy’s excellent collection of historical and biographical essays, Reformation Divided, which takes a very long and...

30.06.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

What Euros Love About America

I’ve started an informal list of American things that European and other World Cup tourists have professed their love for in America: free refills,...

30.06.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

July Fourth Is for Romance

Maybe Christmas is the king of romantic holidays. It seems like half the “holiday” songs are torch songs, or at least ones that are lovesick. But...

30.06.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

America Has a Big Future in Soccer

The 1994 World Cup, hosted by the United States, was a pivotal moment in the development of interest in soccer in America. It built momentum for the...

30.06.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Leo’s Plea to the SSPX

Pope Leo has written to the leaders of the Society of Saint Pius X, the traditionalist fraternity of priests founded by French Archbishop Marcel...

30.06.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

What’s in an Exonym?

Last night, American World Cup broadcasters insisted on calling Turkey, as I have always known that country to be called, “Türkiye” (rhymes with...

26.06.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Congress Could but Won’t

Congress could just let the housing legislation come into effect and throw their own party and media availability for it. Trump has said he won’t...

24.06.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Brexit Didn’t Cost the UK Its Prosperity

Ambrose Evans Pritchard picks apart the economic case that has been launched to criticize Brexit and fertilize the ground for a case to rejoin the EU....

24.06.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

On the Euro-Rash of Enthusiasm for USA

Over at Unherd, Poppy Sowerby defends American excess: If all the intrepid fans making their way to the home of the brave have to cling on to is some...

24.06.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Cruise Control

Tom Cruise is so determined to entertain big-screen audiences that now every single film release of his is billed as an “event.” The release of a...

24.06.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Everyone Is Complicit

Last week the Supreme Court declined to take up a challenge to the Trump administration’s Section 301 tariffs on China. These are used against...

23.06.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Sauer Grapes

There was a report in the Wall Street Journal last week about a diet that is sweeping through the White House, from RFK Jr. to Vice President Vance,...

23.06.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The Obama Presidential Center Opens

Over at Unherd there is a wonderful piece on “The Obama Carbuncle” — the hideous presidential library that has been constructed in Chicago to...

17.06.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

World Cup Summers a Bit Different?

https://x.com/SohrabAhmari/status/2066291987892871659?s=20 I do. It's almost by accident. I have a few friends who were devoted supporters of...

17.06.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

‘The Illusion of Thinking,’ One Year Later

Last summer, researchers at Apple released a very important research paper, “The Illusion of Thinking, Understanding the Strengths and Limitations...

17.06.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Banning Smartphones for Kids?

Allison Pearson, self-described “libertarian at heart,” writes a surprisingly impassioned defense of the U.K.’s proposed smartphone ban for...

16.06.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Dealing with Reality

The extremism of the reaction to an announced "memorandum of understanding" between the U.S. and Iran has been something to watch. Rumors of...

16.06.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Etiquette for Youth Baseball

Over on a homepage filled with dread about the new Iran peace deal, I have a piece about recreational baseball, the kind sponsored in my area by local...

16.06.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Blame Africans Like Elon Musk

It’s astonishing that Irish and British commentators are trying to hold on to these old familiar tunes. "Very poor white people” are being...

10.06.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Mexico’s Normal Abnormality

It’s astonishing to consider that Mexico is hosting 13 World Cup games, sharing host duties with the U.S. Estadio Azteca in Mexico City will host...

10.06.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The Heart Wants What It Wants

“I love it” said President Trump when asked by reporters about inflation hitting a three-year high, “the numbers were great.” Reports The...

10.06.2026 30

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Orange and Green Not Together, But Not Apart

Aris Roussinos, who has been living in Belfast for some time, says that the normal sectarian divisions are still the structural and social...

10.06.2026 30

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty