P.J. O'Rourke lays an egg in San Francisco (Freeper Report)

Commonwealth Club of San Francisco speech/booksigning ^ | 2/13/2014 | Self

[SFmom]

I jumped at the last-minute invitation to hear P.J.O'Rourke comment on current events and tout his new book on the Boomer generation at the Commonwealth Club last night in San Francisco. What a disappointment! He unleashed a scathing---and not funny to me----attack on the Tea Party and Ted Cruz. He said, "This is why politics should not be left to amateurs. Boehner is an adult. Ted Cruz is not." Also added "The Tea Party is a big tree and unfortunately big trees attract a lot of squirrels." In the past I have relished his writing, from National Lampoon's High School Yearbook to "All the Trouble in the World" which kept me in stitches as I endured the vacation from hell years ago.

A conservative he is not! At least anymore! Left without buying the book. Too depressed.

[Wallace T.]

Generational turns occur, and the Baby Boomer era writers and those a little older, like Tyrrell, Bennett, and Buchanan, are fading in importance. Limbaugh, Levin, and Savage are in the 55-70 age bracket. There is a good conservative farm team of thirty- and forty-somethings in the state governments and Congress. The question arises: who will rally the troops? Talk radio may be a dying medium anyway in the world of tweets and iphones. The negative side is that there may be no one. In the last decade, the Christian Right suffered a major blow as its spokesman either passed away, like Falwell and Kennedy, or effectively retired, like Dobson and Robertson. The Christian conservatives have never recovered their clout.

[Dalberg-Acton]

John Derbyshire's links to P.J. O'Rourke's "Foreigners Around the World" piece in the May 1976 issue of National Lampoon.

[Disambiguator]

Republican Party Reptile has the hilarious piece about the Volga cruise with all of the Old Left types. I actually got the chance to question him about whether those characters were real. His response was “frighteningly”.

Like the part about how they keep asking the tour guide the same questions over and over again? "What is the cost of housing as a percentage of worker wages?" X 10

[Bigg Red]

Sorry to learn that. Thanks for informing the rest of us.

[tomkat]

The question arises: who will rally the troops?

Anyone not already familiar with Daniel Greenfield (aka Sultan Knish) are missing out on the absolute best of the bunch, imho.

(LF, heads up for possible incoming  d:^)

[ozzymandus]

PJ quit being a conservative many years ago, if he ever was one. I once heard him bashing Limbaugh, and that was it for me. He was funny back in the NatLamp days, but that was 30 years ago. He’s just another smartass Rachel Maddow now.

[ozzymandus]

I have a big box of old National Lampoons in the basement. Every few years I dig them out and read them in order again. “Mrs. Agnew’s Diary” still cracks me up. Jeff Goldbloom, another media leftie, is also a NatLamp alum, but he was never very funny.

[SpaceBar]

P.J. has evidently jumped the shark. In the 90’s his books were cutting edge. I caught him on public TV a few years back on some round-table panel and the guy looked completely out of it and maybe fighting alcoholism. Very sad. Clean yourself up P.J.

[SFmom]

He sounded sober. However, he did have cancer a while back. Wouldn’t want anyone to have a cancer recurrence.

[Dalberg-Acton]

Do you have the “negligent mother” issue? That’s some crazy stuff right there.

[Louis Foxwell]

on the prowl.

[miss marmelstein]

Yes! Let’s go whole hog and throw in Dave Barry.

[lulu16]

I am also heading to my bookshelves to clear out P.J. O’Rourke. I’ve had them for decades, before I even understood about conservatism. (Living one way, voting another.) I need to make way for Lee’s and Cuz’s future books.

[Dalberg-Acton]

"Negligent Mother" starts on page 80 of the PDF from the Internet Archive of National Lampoon Jan. 1975. Link HERE.

Warning, tasteless 30 meg download.

[Talisker]

Wow, what a letdown. Another one goes to the dark side.

[MasterGunner01]

PJ O'Rourke demonstrates the Dark Side of the Force is strong within him, Obie-Wan.

[Fightin Whitey]

Word!

The only two I can think of with fondness are the late Erma Bombeck and the great Mark Steyn.

(I’m sure that as a New Yorker you would have understood the Trillins and Russell Bakers better than I, an obtuse North Dakota boy...in college I did clip out and save a Baker column entitled “In Praise of Ignorant Contumely”...Chris Buckley wouldn’t know good ignorant contumely if someone slapped him with a stick dipped in it....)

[Osage Orange]

Confused!

[GOPJ]

"Gay groups are like a big tree and unfortunately big trees attract a lot of squirrels."

If a conservative said the above the MSM would label them a 'hater'...

[driftless2]

The first five years of Nat Lamp were tremendous. Then it went downhill fast. O’Rourke had a few funny items, but for the most part it had run out of steam.