Weird, especially in light of Jill Carroll's statement today, which was an effort to address and quiet precisely the kind of talk I predicted would take place." In response to assertions by "National Review" writer John Derbyshire that the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre should have been more forceful in defending themselves, Podhoretz wrote: "The notion that a human being or group of human beings holding no weapon whatever should somehow 'fight back' against someone calmly executing other people right in front of their eyes is ludicrous beyond belief, irrational beyond bounds, and tasteless beyond the limits of reason. 'Why didn't anyone rush the guy?' Derb asks. Gee, I don't know. Because he was executing people? Because if you rush a guy with a gun, he shoots you in the head the way he executed the teachers in each classroom?" Podhoretz went on to ridicule Derbyshire's claim that he was touching a "third rail" by raising a subject nobody else wanted to discuss. Podhoretz has frequently clashed with Derbyshire on immigration policy and other issues. Podhoretz often writes about popular culture, and was called the "resident pop culture expert" at "National Review Online" by Jonah Goldberg. Dennis Miller has called Podhoretz his "favorite movie reviewer." Podhoretz has written that "it doesn't make sense to judge pop culture by its politics." In 1999 a column he wrote for "The New York Post", "A Conversation in Hell", which featured a conversation between Satan and Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., was killed because of its controversial nature. Podhoretz's first marriage, to Elisabeth Marie Hickey, in 1997, ended in divorce after less than three months. Since 2002, he has been married to Ayala Rae Cohen, a former co-producer for "Saturday Night Live", who works for International Creative Management (ICM Partners). They have two daughters and a son. Podhoretz is related by marriage to the diplomat, lawyer and political scientist Elliott Abrams.