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Michael Kinsley
Michael Kinsley was named editorial and opinion editor of the Los Angeles Times in June 2004. Kinsley is responsible for The Times' daily editorial and letters page, the Commentary (op-ed) page and the Sunday Opinion section.
Most recently Kinsley was a columnist for Slate.com and the Washington Post, and a contributing writer for Time magazine. In 1995 he founded Slate, the online magazine published by Microsoft, and was its editor for six years. For two decades he was associated with The New Republic, as its editor and as author of its "TRB From Washington" column. He was editor-in-chief of Harper's, editor of the American Survey department at The Economist, and managing editor of The Washington Monthly. He co-hosted CNN's "Crossfire" for six years, and also moderated William F. Buckley's "Firing Line" debates.
Kinsley has written regular columns for The New Republic, The Wall Street Journal and the Times of London. His writing also has appeared in The New Yorker, The Reader's Digest, Condé Nast Traveler and Vanity Fair, among other publications.
He earned a B.A. degree from Harvard College in 1972, attended Oxford University and graduated from Harvard Law School with a J.D. degree in 1977.
Michael Kinsley
Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Todd Akin: Going for distance
August 30, 2012
In an interview on the eve of his acceptance of the Republican Party's nomination for president, Mitt Romney sought to distance himself from his running mate and criticized those who would, as he put it, "chain us together."
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Kinsley: Mayor Bloomberg's war on soda
June 7, 2012
The basic case against New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's latest crusade — to outlaw the sale of extra-large sugared soft drinks — is Libertarianism 101: In a free country, people should have the right to do what they want, even if it's bad for them.
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Kinsley: Middle East states of mind
December 13, 2011
In November 1947, shortly after the United Nations voted for partition of the Holy Land into separate Arab and Jewish states, Chaim Weizmann was cited by the New York Times as saying that "the most important work now was to build Palestine."
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Kinsley: Obama fired the first shots of the class war
December 9, 2011
"This isn't about class warfare," said President Obama on Tuesday, in his speech at Osawatomie High School in Osawatomie, Kan. But in fact, the president for the first time dived into many of the themes that have been urged on him by left-wing class warriors: the disappearing middle class, "the breathtaking greed of a few," "insurance companies that jacked up people's premiums with impunity," "mortgage lenders that tricked families into buying homes they couldn't afford" and so on. We can't "go back to business as usual" — a universally endorsed principle at all times.
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Michael Kinsley: The Washington lobbying dance
April 5, 2011
My first day of work at Microsoft, 15 years ago, I wore a DOJ baseball cap that a friend had given me when she heard I was going to work in Redmond. DOJ stood for Department of Justice, which is where my friend worked. I wore the cap into the office on my first day, intending this to be a little joke. The Clinton Justice Department had recently filed an antitrust suit against Microsoft, threatening huge fines and even a breakup of the company. But I learned a lesson: Nobody thought the hat was very funny.
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Social Security Fictions
March 18, 2005
Two of the most laughably overvalued words in Washington are "studies show" (right up there with "sources say"). In academia, a study is an occasion for thinking and discussion. In politics, a study means you can stop thinking and cut off discussion.
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The Meathead Proposition
February 13, 2005
Try to forgive my obsession, but here is another proof that President Bush's designs for Social Security cannot work. This one's not mine. I first heard it from the actor/director and liberal activist, Rob Reiner. Like the argument I have been hawking (see latimes.com/proof), this one doesn't merely suggest that Bush is making bad policy, it demonstrates with near-mathematical certainty that the idea he endorses cannot work. Period.
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Privatization's Empty Hype
December 26, 2004
As I wrote last week, I'm convinced that Social Security privatization is not merely a bad idea but a certain failure, and I offered a logical proof, challenging supporters to find the flaw or give up.
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Let's Face It, Blogs Are Better
December 19, 2004
If you're going to peddle opinions for a living, self-assurance is essential. If you don't have it, you need to bluff. People don't want to read a lot of "Oh dear, this is so terribly complicated, I just can't make up my poor little mind…. " Many's the pundit who has retired on full disability after developing a tragic tendency to see both sides of the issue.
