HILARIOUS slap at The American Conservative, via Los Volokh. Seriously, if you have ever leafed through this misbegotten mag, read John Holbo’s take.

I annoyed The Rat no end by reading their recent “The Smiths Are Conservative!” piece over lunch and alternately laughing hysterically and quoting lyrics at her to convince her that this piece was truly weird. I mean, I love the Smiths. And you can, I guess, point to “Sweet and Tender Hooligan” as a slam on the whole “criminals are kindly and misunderstood” mentality (“He swears that he’ll never, never do it again, and of course he won’t/Not until the next time”).

If memory serves, the AmConMag article did not mention S&TH; even though it may be the only Smiths song that actually fits the case. Well, maybe I exaggerate–frustrated desire is conservative, I think–anyway it’s certainly not liberal! But, uh, where to begin with the refutations of the AmConMag piece… here, here, here, here, here, here.

Holbo asks for the “highlights” (using the term loosely, I guess…) from the Smiths piece. Sadly, it is hiding from Nexis, and all I can remember is that the author argues that the characters in “Hand in Glove” are hidden by rags because… Britain is too socialist. Is it just me or is there a subtext being missed here? Oh well, the world won’t listen, and all that….