menu_open Columnists
Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty

National Review

We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

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 5

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 8

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 4

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 8

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 6

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 8

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 8

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 7

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 10

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 9

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Will Markets Fall for Lack of Power?

Ambrose Evans Pritchard thinks the markets, lifted by AI mania, are about to crash into a series of simple constraints. We simply don’t have the...

09.06.2026 6

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Rioting in Northern Ireland

Charles posted earlier about the horrific crime in Northern Ireland where a Sudanese migrant nearly beheaded a local. The viral video of the appalling...

09.06.2026 5

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Indulging Extremism Is a Bad Sign for Ukraine

A couple of news stories that establish an ominous pattern if you're reading the prospects for Ukraine. From Politico Europe: Polish President...

29.05.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

South Korean Fertility Went . . . Up?

South Korea has been the poster child for worldwide terminal fertility rates. Rates are going down, pretty fast, everywhere and they’ve been doing...

28.05.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Earning More, Spending It Faster

I missed it last week, but the Wall Street Journal had a nice column explaining the felt “squeeze” in a middle class that is earning more than...

26.05.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

We’re Becoming Inured to Assassination Attempts

You might have missed it, but someone else decided to fire a hail of bullets at the White House. Freddy Gray writes in The Spectator on America’s...

26.05.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Will Pratt Make Hollywood Outsourcing a Plank of His Campaign?

Spencer Pratt has done a lot of work calling out Los Angeles government for its failures in the wildfires that devastated Altadena and Pasadena...

26.05.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Synodality Speaks

The Vatican has released the results of its synodal sessions. It’s one of these weird mystery documents the church puts out that is so in love with...

20.05.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Throwing an S-Fit over S-Style Guitars

Fender, the famous guitar maker, has recently won a case in Germany that its Stratocaster style of body is a work of art that can be copyrighted. The...

20.05.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Brilliant Spencer Pratt Ad

Go and read Armond White on the weird compelling satirical style of Spencer Pratt’s ads in the Los Angeles mayoral race. The Real ‘Flight 93’...

20.05.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Against a Legislative Noonday

The Washington Post reports that the House GOP is resurrecting the Sunshine Protection Act. The law would allow states to switch to permanent daylight...

20.05.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Taiwan Standing for Itself

In the continuing fallout from the short, unflashy summit between President Donald Trump and Chairman Xi Jinping, Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te...

20.05.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Warming Up Yesterday’s $28 Lunch

I’m often the first to defend struggling Millennials and Gen Zers. Housing really is harder to achieve now than it was for Boomers. And I don’t...

19.05.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The Fall of China

People can go broke predicting collapse in places they don’t understand. But, it is harder and harder to look at China and not see a state and...

13.05.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The Case for Late-Night TV

Stephen Colbert hosted all the other hosts of late night programs — or at least shows he considers his peers, because he included John Oliver, who...

13.05.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The Worst-Run Country In Europe

David McWilliams argues that Ireland, blessed with an annual avalanche of multinational tax revenue, ends up being the worst-run country in Europe:...

13.05.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Gas Prices Between Republicans and a Strong Economy

The pumps near my home are selling regular gas for over $4.80 a gallon. These are the highest sustained prices I can remember. The background to this...

12.05.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Sovereignty vs. Integration

I hope to be doing more on this very soon. But I think the populist nationalist turn in global politics has been very poorly understood, and because...

12.05.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The Heresy of Formlessness, 20 Years Later

The German novelist Martin Mosebach wrote the original manuscript for The Heresy of Formlessness, his book-length defense of the traditional Latin...

12.05.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Restraint by Default

Helium, gas, oil -- worldwide shortages and price spikes due to the war with Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Now, we're facing the...

07.05.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Not a Headline for a Success

NEW exclu from @NBCNews team: "Trump’s abrupt U-turn on a plan to re-open the Strait of Hormuz came after backlash from allies. Saudi Arabia...

06.05.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Honesty at Last

I was waiting for something like this. While I don’t pretend to hold a torch for the PGA, some of the marketing around the short-lived LIV golf...

06.05.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Eugenics and Self-Abomination

Sometimes an author lands on an insight that your mind had been circling for ages, waiting for clear articulation. I had that experience with a new...

06.05.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Arctic Power

The New York Times has a wonderful feature on an American experiment in training troops for battle in the extremes of the Arctic. Well worth your...

04.05.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Will Gas Prices Become a National Obsession?

This is obviously happening in much of the rest of the world. In Asia, there are serious shortages of cooking gas. In Europe the price of petrol, and...

04.05.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The Helium Crisis

People have noticed that the great AI build-out, including all those data centers, is driving the economy forward, or at least driving a lot of the...

29.04.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Worst Best Lists

The New York Times put out a list of the 30 best living songwriters. It’s a mess. Some of the names make sense: Babyface, Stephin Merritt. But you...

29.04.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Are Preppers Deluded?

The New York Times has a provocative column by Kit Dillon on preppers and what we really need during an emergency. He takes as paradigmatic the...

28.04.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Exhaustion on the Home Front

Owen Matthews looks at the signs of war exhaustion in Russia and Ukraine and wonders if domestic turmoil could determine the outcome before attrition...

28.04.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The Coming Rupture in the Catholic Church

The Society of Saint Pius X was founded in 1970 by the French traditionalist Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. It was founded to preserve the celebration of...

28.04.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Energy Price Watch: Europe

Here’s a little survey. Ireland, from the Irish Times: Irish wholesale electricity prices climbed by 19.2 per cent last month compared to February,...

28.04.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Baseball Is Pure Joy, and Horror

You think you’ve seen it all. He literally … wore that one 🤯 pic.twitter.com/KCQyjDMEAX — MLB (@MLB) April 22, 2026 He literally … wore...

22.04.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

After Orbán: Liberal Authoritarianism

With precise timing — just as the incoming government in Hungary would begin negotiations for releasing withheld transfer funds in the billions —...

22.04.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The Mets Should Bring Back Jewish Heritage Night

Political obsessives have been trying to get the New York Mets into hot water for a while now. The teams’s star shortstop, Francisco Lindor, has a...

16.04.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Trump’s Missing Young People

Many Twitter accounts are documenting the underwhelming turnout for the latest Turning Point USA event. There are two explanations for this. Now that...

16.04.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

The Agony and the GHB of Clavicular

Hollywood Reporter is relaying that Looksmaxxer influencer “Clavicular” was hospitalized after an overdose — rumored elsewhere to be of GHB, a...

16.04.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Political Violence Apart from Theories of Power

Over at Compact, Leighton Woodhouse has a fascinating review essay looking at the extremisms of the 1990s in America, and he comes to the conclusion...

15.04.2026 10

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty

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...

15.04.2026 10

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...

15.04.2026 20

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...

14.04.2026 20

National Review

Michael Brendan Dougherty