columnists

Thomas Friedman's Gut Feeling Explains The World

Hamilton Nolan · 10/01/12 08:53AM

Imagine what it must be like to be the editor of globalism's Rain Man, Thomas Friedman. Your job, ostensibly, is to hammer this man's prose into some semblance of logical readability, and yet he has built a fabulously lucrative career on his total lack of logic, readability, or, really, variety of any kind. Clearly, his editors have now made the only sensible choice: "Eh, just put that shit right in the paper exactly how he typed it on his Blackberry." (*Big shot of heroin*)

Hussy Whorish Hollywood Vampire-Banger Was Not a Virgin in Real Life!

Hamilton Nolan · 08/01/12 08:45AM

Angry self sin-loathing heterosexual human sexuality sex columnist Andrea Peyser has long supported strong role models for young teenage girls of America who want nothing more than to lead a simple life involving simulated rape scenes with vampires within the confines of a traditional marriage. Well. Andrea has some very, very sad news to break to you, tween-age aspiring vampire fuckers: that movie Twilight was apparently not a documentary.

David Brooks Is Not Coherent

Hamilton Nolan · 07/27/12 09:08AM

Glasses-adjusting New York Times-version-of-a-Republican David Brooks is a highly talented political columnist-craftsman, in the sense that he is able to lay a thin veneer of pop psychology-varnish over even the most cracked glass coffee table of intellectualism* (*David Brooks-style mishmash alert). Today, Brooks puts forth his most breathtaking ideological prescription yet: our leaders should always be doing opposite things at all times.

Oh, Jeez, Mitch Albom Is All Hot and Bothered by 50 Shades of Grey

Max Read · 06/26/12 05:48PM

Rich liar Mitch Albom, once described by H.P. Lovecraft as "a grotesque scaly body with rudimentary wings," has written a column about 50 Shades of Grey. Reading it is like coming across a big shotgun next to a tiny barrel with an enormous, beautiful fish inside, only the fish has already hung itself from a tiny noose.

Thomas Friedman Writes His Only Column Again

Hamilton Nolan · 06/25/12 09:55AM

Fabulously wealthy CEO whisperer and newspaper columnist Thomas Friedman is little more than a human-shaped random word generator programmed with the "Computers and Internet" section of a fourth-grade vocabulary textbook and fitted with a mustache. He writes one single column, sometimes using different proper nouns or cycling through slightly new platitudes, in order to allow a new headline to be written. The Only Thomas Friedman Column That Exists—which ran right on schedule yesterday—opens like this:

The Pap Problem; or, How to Not Write Like Mary Elizabeth Williams

Hamilton Nolan · 05/24/12 11:48AM

The thing that every "Life" or "Style" or "Pop culture" columnist must keep in mind at all times is that the things they write about are not important. (I include much of Gawker.com's content in this sweeping generalization.) These types of columnists do not write about economic policy, or international relations, or genocide or poverty or war. They just write about the latest bit of eye-catching news-lite distraction, like everybody else on the internet. Because of this, there is absolutely no excuse for these pap columnists not to take a firm stand on the "issues." Because it doesn't matter!

How to Write an Opinion Column That Takes No Position Whatsoever

Hamilton Nolan · 05/15/12 09:56AM

Richard Cohen is (for some reason) employed as a professional opinion columnist by the Washington Post. He is paid to write columns—featuring his own opinions—about the issues of the day. This is the entirety of his job. Yet Richard Cohen has a wondrous talent possessed by few in his rarefied sphere: he can write an entire opinion column with zero actual opinion.

Andrea Peyser Is Very Interested in Hot Teen Nipple Piercings

Hamilton Nolan · 04/26/12 08:22AM

Slut-obsessed sexual sex columnist and hate machine Andrea Peyser is unafraid to speak out when hot, young, sexual teens are doing something potentially sexual, with their bodies. Journalism, you see, is the reason that Andre recently spent the day prowling St. Marks Place, watching young kids who've been taught at Elementary Sex Palaces get piercings in dark, unspeakable places. "We have 16-year-old girls who want their nipples pierced!'' one piercing guy tells Andrea Peyser, I imagine after she hit him with a blackjack, stripped him naked, tied him to a bed, and demanded, "Tell me about teenage girls getting their nipples pierced, or else."

The Path of Thomas Friedman Is Beset on All Sides by the Inequities of the Selfish

Hamilton Nolan · 04/18/12 09:53AM

Hirsute-lipped Sesame Street character Thomas Friedman, America's most respected newspaper columnist, does not "have it easy," just because he lives in a sprawling mansion and holds a job that consists of rewriting the same exact column over and over again every week, merely substituting different—but equally trivial—anecdotes gleaned while looking out of the window of a car, train, or airplane in which Thomas Friedman rode on his way to meet some business person.

Tom Friedman Travels the World to Find Incredibly Uninteresting Platitudes

Hamilton Nolan · 03/28/12 09:51AM

Mustachioed soothsaying simpleton Thomas Friedman long ago mastered a formula for justifying business trips all over the world by writing columns about them—columns that, while not genuinely insightful or even pleasant to read, contain a sufficient number of plausible-sounding platitudes to enable your average Xerox Corporation regional manager to sound informed during his morning meeting with underlings and sycophants.

Peggy Noonan: '[Male Genitals]'

Hamilton Nolan · 03/16/12 03:10PM

Breathy Reaganite Peggy Noonan dislikes the coarseness that has crept into our public dialogue. The coarseness, she dislikes it. But there it is, in our public dialogue. Peggy Noonan did not create this world. Creating this coarseness is not something which sings to Peggy Noonan's soul. But she must acknowledge it. She is a columnist, you see. The coarseness, it is a topic of our time. "All this has devolved into a political argument about who's worse, the right or the left," sighs Peggy, metaphorically, by writing a sentence in her WSJ column. "I don't think that's the most important question, but since it's on the table the answer is the left."

Attention, Everyone: David Brooks Likes the Mets

Hamilton Nolan · 03/09/12 10:40AM

Wealthy, influential, and widely read pundit, author, and pop- sociology-flouter David Brooks today uses his New York Times op-ed column to announce to you, me, and everyone else around the world: he still likes the Mets. Yeah. Thought about liking the Nats, but... had to stick with the old Mets. Mmm hmm. But did he find a way to work in some pop sociology?

Andrea Peyser's Year in Review: 'The All-American Booty'

Hamilton Nolan · 12/19/11 09:28AM

What a year it's been for Andrea Peyser, the sourpuss racist lesbian xenophobe sex fiend who serves as the conscience of New York City's most fascist tabloid. Today we are blessed with Andrea's "Year in Review" column, widely considered journalism's most exciting day after the Pulitzer Prizes. Equally looked-forward-to is our condensation of this column into readable form! Without further ado, we present The Shorter Version of Andrea Peyser's Year in Review Column, Which Is, Naturally, on the Topic of SIN: