Culture
Justin Curia
The Kings seemed to want to portray themselves as rebels, but they rebelled against imaginary authority of their own creation. Matthew’s throwing a fit over a drink lacking a straw befit these imaginary rebels, as did Caleb’s forcing his roadie to wait around awkwardly with a bottle of Gatorade while he whooped it up with the crowd. Whatever Caleb was gabbing about was lost in the symbolism of his hapless roadie, whose sole purpose seemed to be to wait around awkwardly holding a bottle that could have just as easily been set down on the stage by Caleb’s feet. Rebels don’t need straws, nor do they need errand boys to hold their drinks.
Culture Politics
Kevin Hilke
If any American conservative publication of broad appeal can claim to be a home for conservative intellectuals today, it is not The National Review. It might be The American Conservative.
Politics
Jonathan Pope
Sarah Palin is a succubus for American liberals. We could deal with a pro-life, pro-oil, pro-war, pro-God wack-stupid Governor when he was from a rich political dynasty, but when it’s a she and she comes from Middle-earth and is insatiably proud of her own faults, she’s like the no-bullshit dream girl of our Woody Allen fantasies. Everyone compares her to Tina Fey; the better comparison is to Diane Keaton. Palin is turning the middle American dumbasserazzi on to the hotly nerdish girl, thirty years later; and, in the process, she’s getting liberal America wet and hard.
Politics
Eric Freeman
This weekend, Sarah Palin was prank called by the Masked Avengers, a group of Quebecois shock jocks pretending to be French president Nicolas Sarkozy. To give you some sense of the level of viciousness on the call, “Sarkozy” spends most of the time telling harmless in-jokes; apart from a few mocking references to the Hustler-produced Palin porno parody, “Sarkozy” primarily makes reference to people like his advisor Johnny Hallyday, Canadian PM Steph Carse, and PM of Quebec (a fake position) Richard Z. Sirois. Yet Palin doesn’t figure out that it’s a big joke until the radio hosts tell her.
