The former editor of Commentary Magazine is the redoubtable Norman Podhoretz, who won a Kellett Fellowship to Clare College, Cambridge in the 1950s, entirely on merit.

Norman Podhoretz is the author of My Negro Problem And Ours, [PDF] and this postscript, and a number of serious articles and books over the years. Some examples

• "Lolita," My Mother-in-Law, the Marquis de Sade, and Larry Flynt) April 1997 about the rise of pornography
• "Sexgate," the Sisterhood, and Mr. Bumble June 1998 about Clinton and the feminists
• What Happened to Ralph Ellison August 1999 about the complex history of the author of Invisible Man
• A Dissent on Isaiah Berlin February 1999, which is frankly, too deep for me

You can disagree with Norman Podhoretz, and I know a lot of people who do, (a lot of people) but you can't help taking him seriously as an intellectual.

This is the new editor of Commentary Magazine, John Podhoretz,

The Corner on National Review Online
Thursday, October 18, 2007

“Immigration Is Incompatible With a Modern Society”

So sayeth Mark Krikorian. Thank you, Mark. You have written honest words. And this is where I came in. Nearly four years ago, speaking out in modest support for the original Bush proposal on immigration, I was hammered by John Derbyshire and others for not understanding the profound difference between LEGAL IMMIGRATION (good) and ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION (bad). Now it seems we are to view immigration — all immigration — as incompatible with a modern society. So why didn’t you immigration restrictionists just say so in the first place, instead of hiding behind the word “illegal”? Why didn’t you then acknowledge your problem wasn’t with law-breaking at all but rather with the fact that any people are coming in? Could it be that you knew then it was an extremist view that only had support on the fringe, but that there would be real strength behind using the illegality of illegal immigration to rally people to your cause? And that now, with  real movement in your direction ideologically, you now feel freer to advocate openly what you have always hinted at but have never quite said so blatantly?

Again, I thank you for your honesty. America is no longer to admit immigrants. Period. I hope you will now drop the weasel adjective “illegal” from the rhetoric from here on in, because otherwise, you will just be trying to snow people.

10/18 10:19 PM

This is just sad. I suppose I could refute the "points" he's making, but it's probably better to let it speak for itself.