P.J. O'Rourke

author profile

born

November 14, 1947

gender

male

place of birth

Toledo, Ohio, The United States

website

http://pjorourkeonline.blogspot.com/

genre

Nonfiction, Humor, Politics

about this author

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Patrick Jake O'Rourke is an American political satirist, journalist, and writer. O'Rourke is the H. L. Mencken Research Fellow at the Cato Institute and is a regular correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, The American Spectator, and The Weekly Standard, and frequent panelist on National Public Radio's game show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! He is perhaps best known in the United Kingdom as the face of a long-running series of television advertisements for British Airways in the 1990s.

He is the author of 13 books, most recently On The Wealth of Nations, a commentary on Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (and the first in The Atlantic Monthly's "Books That Changed The World" series...more

10 posts
P.J. O'Rourke's Blog

P.J. O'Rourke isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but he does have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from his feed.

Why it's good to come from nowhere

I GREW UP IN TOLEDO, if up is the word. Northwest Ohio is flat. There isn't much up. The land is so flat that a child from Toledo is under the impression that the direction hills go is down. Sledding is done from street level into creek beds and road cuts. In Toledo people grow out — out to the suburbs, out to the parts of America where the economy is more vigorous, and, all too often, out to a ... ...more

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0 comments Published on April 13, 2007 06:47 | 5 views

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books by P.J. O'Rourke

avg rating: 3.76 | 3,746 ratings | 430 reviews | 30 distinct works | 24 fans

	Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government by P.J. O'Rourke avg rating 4.06 — 505 ratings — published 1991 11 editions	my rating:
	Eat the Rich: A Treatise on Economics by P.J. O'Rourke avg rating 3.76 — 418 ratings — published 1998 7 editions	my rating:
	Holidays in Hell by P.J. O'Rourke avg rating 4.01 — 371 ratings — published 1988 8 editions	my rating:
	All the Trouble in the World: The Lighter Side of Overpopulation, Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague, and Poverty by P.J. O'Rourke avg rating 3.91 — 322 ratings — published 1994 9 editions	my rating:
	Give War a Chance: Eyewitness Accounts of Mankind's Struggle Against Tyranny, Injustice, and Alcohol-Free Beer by P.J. O'Rourke avg rating 3.82 — 257 ratings — published 1992 7 editions	my rating:
	Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut by P.J. O'Rourke avg rating 3.50 — 242 ratings — published 1995 10 editions	my rating:
	On The Wealth of Nations (Books That Changed the World) by P.J. O'Rourke avg rating 3.48 — 228 ratings — published 2006 8 editions	my rating:
	Modern Manners: An Etiquette Book for Rude People by P.J. O'Rourke avg rating 3.69 — 212 ratings — published 1989 4 editions	my rating:
	Peace Kills: America's Fun New Imperialism by P.J. O'Rourke avg rating 3.36 — 194 ratings — published 2004 9 editions	my rating:
	Republican Party Reptile: The Confessions, Adventures, Essays, and (Other) Outrages of... by P.J. O'Rourke avg rating 3.81 — 156 ratings — published 1987 3 editions	my rating:

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quotes by P.J. O'Rourke

"Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it."
— P.J. O'Rourke

tags: books, good, impressions

109 people liked it

"Freedom is not empowerment. Empowerment is what the Serbs have in Bosnia. Anybody can grab a gun and be empowered. It's not entitlement. An entitlement is what people on welfare get, and how free are they? It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights -- the "right" to education, the "right" to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery -- hay and a barn for human cattle. There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences."
— P.J. O'Rourke

17 people liked it

"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys."
— P.J. O'Rourke

10 people liked it

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