P.J. O'Rourke

Patrick Jake O'Rourke (born November 14, 1947) is an American political satirist, journalist, and writer. Born in Toledo, Ohio, he was educated at Miami University (Ohio) and Johns Hopkins University. public domain File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... November 14 is the 318th day of the year (319th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 47 days remaining. ... 1947 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Satire is a literary technique of writing or art which principally ridicules its subject (for example, individuals, organizations, or states) often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. ... Journalism is a discipline of collecting, verifying, reporting and analyzing information gathered regarding current events, including trends, issues and people. ... Writing is a process which may refer to two activities: the inscribing characters on a medium, with the intention of forming words and other lingual constructs that represent language and record information, or the creation of information to be conveyed through written language. ... Toledo, Ohio. ... Miami University, founded in 1809, is the second oldest college west of the Allegheny mountains. ... The Johns Hopkins University is an internationally prestigious private institution of higher learning located in Baltimore, Maryland. ...

He confesses that during his student days he was a left-leaning hippie, who in the 1970s underwent a damascene conversion. He emerged as a political observer and humorist with definite libertarian, sometimes conservative, and decidedly anti-liberal viewpoints. Flower-Power Bus Hippie (or sometimes hippy) is a term originally used to describe some of the rebellious youth of the 1960s and 1970s. ... This article provides extensive lists of events and significant personalities of the 1970s. ... A 19th-century picture of Paul of Tarsus Paul of Tarsus (originally Saul of Tarsus) or Saint Paul the Apostle (c. ... This article deals with the libertarianism as defined in America and several other nations. ... Conservatism or political conservatism is any of several historically related political philosophies or political ideologies. ... Usage of the word Liberal In the United States, the common meaning of liberal has evolved over time. ...

O'Rourke wrote articles for several publications before joining National Lampoon in 1973, where he served as managing editor among other roles. Going freelance in 1981, O'Rourke's pieces appeared in magazines such as Playboy, Vanity Fair, Car and Driver, and Rolling Stone. He later became the foreign-affairs desk chief at Rolling Stone, where he remained until 2001. The National Lampoon began in 1970 as an offshoot of the Harvard Lampoon humor magazine. ... 1973 was a common year starting on Monday. ... 1981 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Playboy is an adult entertainment magazine, founded in 1953 by Hugh Hefner, which has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc. ... This article is on the novel, Vanity Fair. ... Cover of Car and Driver from age of psychedelic lettering Car and Driver is an American automotive enthusiast magazine. ... Rolling Stone is a music and music industry magazine. ... 2001 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

An early proponent of gonzo journalism, O'Rourke's nascent master-work in the genre was a National Lampoon article, appearing in March of 1979, "How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink." The article later appeared in his first book, Republican Party Reptile (1987), which became a bestseller. As the book's title implies, O'Rourke espoused economic and geopolitical views that were notably right-wing (rare among comedic writers of the day), yet his views on sex and drugs remained uncomfortably liberal for many of his conservative fellows. Gonzo journalism is a journalistic style, most famously used by Hunter S. Thompson. ... 1979 is a common year starting on Monday. ... 1987 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... In politics, right-wing, the political right, or simply the right, are terms which refer, with no particular precision, to the segment of the political spectrum in opposition to left-wing politics. ...

O'Rourke can best be described as a libertarian (and has, in fact, sarcastically proposed two other American political parties: one to cater for those with his peculiar mixture of views, and another for those who hold the opposite mixture).

His other books are The Bachelor Home Companion (1987), Holidays in Hell (1988), Modern Manners (1990), Parliament of Whores (1991), Give War a Chance (1992), All the Trouble in the World (1994), Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut (1995), The American Spectator's Enemies List (1996), Eat the Rich (1999), The CEO of the Sofa (2001), and Peace Kills: America's Fun New Imperialism (2004) ISBN 0871139197. 1988 is a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1990 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1992 is a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... 1995 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1996 is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... 1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Currently O'Rourke is the H. L. Mencken Research Fellow of the Cato Institute and is a regular correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, and occasionally appears on National Public Radio's radio game show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!. H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was a twentieth century journalist and social critic, a cynic and a freethinker, known as the Sage of Baltimore and the American Nietzsche. He is often regarded as one of the most influential American writers of the early 20th... The Cato Institute is a non-profit public policy research foundation (think tank) with strong libertarian leanings (despite wide public perception that it is a conservative think-tank), headquartered in Washington, D.C. It is named after Catos Letters, a series of early 18th century British essays expounding the... The Atlantic Monthly (also known as The Atlantic) is an American literary/cultural magazine that was founded in November 1857. ... NPR logo NPR redirects here. ... Wait Wait. ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about:

P. J. O'Rourke

• P. J. O'Rourke Home Page
• The Onion A.V. Club interviews P.J. O'Rourke
• LibertyGuide.com profile
• O'Rourke's The Liberty Manifesto
• Unofficial P.J. O'Rourke web page
• List of terrorist groups and their goals (WARNING: offensive language)