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Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty

National Review

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Those Evil Natured Robots

Candace Owens suggests that somebody should stab Erika Kirk to prove her hypothesis that Erika is a non-human sentient robot designed to fool humans...

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National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Hampshire College Closes

Obviously, with the decline in birth rates and a decline in the college premium, there was bound to be an eventual decline in the student population...

latest 0

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The Afterlife of Orbánism

Just some thoughts on the remarkable weekend in which, as many anticipated, Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz Party were handily defeated by a united...

yesterday 3

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The Trivial Things We Value

Fine day, save for one thing: I seem to have misplaced my pen. We have dozens of pens in the house, but this one was a matte black Lamy Studio...

08.04.2026 5

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Fury Load

I’m finally getting to the spring issue of the Claremont Review of Books. I have to recommend Michael Anton’s review of Laura K. Field’s Furious...

08.04.2026 6

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Fog of Cease-Fire

I think a lot of observers could have predicted that we were swiftly heading toward some kind of cease-fire once Donald Trump was talking about...

08.04.2026 4

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Hands Off Our Nuns

What is it with American liberals and nuns who take care of dying people? My blood boils when I read that New York State’s “Bill of Rights for...

08.04.2026 5

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

MLB: Please Ditch the Ghost Runner

I’ve been humbled. I thought the pitch clock would be a disaster for MLB, introducing a kind of microwave-oven quality to broadcasts. It hasn’t....

08.04.2026 6

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The Special Operation Against Persian Civilization

🚨 BREAKING: Trump warns 'whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again' if Iran doesn't agree to deal to end...

07.04.2026 8

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Are Republicans Trying to Lose?

So asks my friend Daniel McCarthy in a sharp column in The Spectator, noting how Republicans seem to be walking away from the very things that are...

31.03.2026 7

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Mockery at the Passion

Over at First Things, pastor Peter J. Leithart has a beautiful reflection on the themes from Matthew’s Passion narrative. Soldiers, bystanders,...

31.03.2026 8

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The Drama of Holy Week

In the traditional liturgy of the Catholic Church, Holy Week includes reading each Gospel account of the Passion. For years I’ve marveled at the way...

31.03.2026 7

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The Self-Pity of Liberal Sportswriters

A few days ago, Devin Gordon wrote for the New York Times about the psychic pain he endures rooting for sports figures, namely the Mets, who include...

31.03.2026 8

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The New ABS System Is Fun, for Now

The new system whereby Major League Baseball players can challenge the ball or strike calls of umpires has been a lot more fun than I anticipated. I...

30.03.2026 9

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

It’s Monday. War Is on Hold

We’re getting a new definition of weekend warriors with this administration. We’re in negotiations with a pliant Iran on weekdays when the market...

30.03.2026 6

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Democracy in America, Disaster in Ireland

My friend Johnny Burtka has released a new episode of ISI's Project Cosmos series, this time discussing Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in...

25.03.2026 5

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Grousing About Robots

Bill Kauffman is one of my favorite writers ever. He has come to despise what the Major League Baseball product has become. His prose style might...

25.03.2026 6

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Why Americans Worry

Bret Stephens's recent column in the New York Times tries to educate readers that by historical standards, the war on Iran is an amazing success...

25.03.2026 9

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

It’s Still Bush’s Party

Earlier this month, Michael Lind wrote an essay arguing that the realignment and populism have mostly been a mirage — it’s still the Bush GOP at...

25.03.2026 9

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Pope Leo Finally Expresses Himself on the Liturgy Wars

Although Catholics who attend the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) are a small minority within the universal church, they constitute something of a...

25.03.2026 8

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Appetite for Destruction

There's a huge amount of Sturm und Drang on the American right where, at the peripheries, arguments and some conspiracies are being launched to...

23.03.2026 6

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Vindicated

Last year, three defense department officials were marched out of the Pentagon under the shadow of the accusation that they were leaking classified...

18.03.2026 6

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Europe Has a Right to Be Miffed

I’ve been very critical generally of Europe in its reactions and relations to the Trump administration. I thought that the cumulative effect of...

18.03.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Caldwell Calls the End of Trumpism

Christopher Caldwell has been just about the most perspicacious writer about Donald Trump, the phenomenon since 2015. So it is notable that in his...

18.03.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Congress Should Take Responsibility for the War

Rich Lowry has argued sensibly that, no, in fact, we did not go to war with Iran for Israel. “Trump runs U.S. foreign policy,” our fearless...

18.03.2026 9

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Can Trump Declare Victory?

Trump defined victory by redefining “unconditional surrender” to mean his assessment of whether we’ve destroyed Iran’s navy, its ability to...

18.03.2026 8

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The Decline of the American Irish Diaspora

Mayor Mamdani was surprised to face a question from reporters yesterday asking whether he favored the unification of Northern Ireland with the...

17.03.2026 9

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The End of the House of Lords

The last 92 hereditary peers are being removed from the House of Lords according to the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill. I should perhaps dance...

11.03.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Cats We Don’t Understand

The New York Times science section has a delightful story on a comprehensive new study on why cats land on their feet. This is something humans have...

11.03.2026 8

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Can’t Anyone Just Be Normal?

This little sign-off of Lindsey Graham’s is so weird. GRAHAM tonight to Hannity: “God bless Israel. We should move all our stuff to Israel.”...

10.03.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Irish Dependence on American Multinational Tax-Sheltering

Ahead of the annual Saint Patrick’s Day gab fest, in which the head of the Irish state gets face time with the leader of the free world, Irish...

10.03.2026 7

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Is the Coalition Cracking?

John Guida of the New York Times opinion page interviewed me late last week to discuss the war in Iran, and what counts as America First foreign...

10.03.2026 7

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

EU Backs Away from Anti-Orbán Energy Hostage Taking

Here’s the headline from the Financial Times: Ukraine is under pressure to let the EU inspect a damaged pipeline carrying Russian oil to Hungary and...

04.03.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Restraints on Our Ambitions

Kelly Grieco of the Stimson Center points out how quickly we would blow through half of our THAAD system with SM-3 interceptors if we deployed them to...

28.02.2026 9

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Questions About Iran

Are we keeping this just to air power? If not, will Congress get involved? If Jim and others are right that Trump has set the bar at regime change,...

28.02.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

A War Without the People

My colleagues are calling it war. I'm not sure. Does one announce a war at 3 a.m. on a Saturday in a Truth Social post? Aren't conservatives...

28.02.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Choosin’ Texas

Man, there is nothing like a simple, clever country heartbreak song. Last year, for me it was Charley Crockett’s “Odessa.” And this winter I...

28.02.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The Pentagon at War with Anthropic

Earlier this week, the CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, maker of the extremely popular Claude AI products, put out a letter saying that Anthropic...

28.02.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The Russian Way of War

Earlier this week, Jim Geraghty reflected on the state of the war in Ukraine after four years. He writes: What I can’t understand is Americans who...

27.02.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The Era of Vice

Oren Cass has a rip-roaring critique of the drift of the current administration toward legalizing, expanding, or removing guardrails from around the...

27.02.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

U.K. Assisted Dying Bill Is Dying

The U.K. government has said it will not give the assisted dying bill any further debate time in the House of Lords, meaning that the parliamentary...

27.02.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The AI Job Apocalypse Is Not Here Yet

Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter and head of Block.xyz (owner of payment platforms like Square), has announced that he is firing 40 percent of his...

27.02.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The Remnant Being Born

It’s interesting to see so many Catholic dioceses around the world reporting booms in conversion. France expects more than 10,384 adult catechumens...

26.02.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Moderation on AI

I just don’t see it. All the doomerism about AI seems nuts to me, as I think these LLMs (Large Language Models) and what they are capable of doing...

25.02.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

MLB’s Anti-Umpire Strategy

Well, the first spring training games have debuted the new pitch-challenge protocol for baseball, in which players or coaches can challenge and ask...

25.02.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Will the French Prescribe Death?

In January the French Senate rejected the “aide à mourir” (aid in dying) bill that was passed by the National Assembly in 2025 as part of...

24.02.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

U.S. Standing Tall in Munich, Europe Crying

I’ve been scandalized watching the initial coverage of the Munich Security Conference, which continued last year’s absolute European freak-out on...

13.02.2026 90

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

A Preview of Post-Populist Liberalism in Spain

05.02.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

We Are What We Pretend to Be

03.02.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Nuremberg Feels Incomplete

01.02.2026 9

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty