Unholy Laughter

Everyone seems to have a sense of humor these days, while I sit in my coldwater flat, eating black bread and leek soup, and scowling.

Andrew Sullivan has been talking all week about our Post-PC culture which can laugh at anything. Some of his readers have noted that this is a sign of despair more than anything. Everything is screwed- let's have a good popper!

But, maybe it's also easier to laugh when you believe that your actions have no real consequences...

Lakshmi Chundry notes of recent Marine memoirs:
The slacker memoirs are often funny and sometimes insightful. For the most part, these are decent guys who loathe the bloodlust and common military incompetence that destroy so many lives. Their perspective, however, is blinkered by their need to stay in "character," i.e., the smart-ass who refuses to take anything seriously, including the casualties of war. Even Hartley, who is more clued-in than his compatriots, can only express his unhappiness at the lopsided body count--"a near 1:3 ratio of dead evildoers to innocent and ridiculously poor Iraqis"--with flippancy: "It's like we should have bumper stickers that read, 'I [HEART] DEAD CIVILIANS.'"
This "whatever, dude" detachment...

Gaby Wood on Female Chauvanist Pigs:
While male chauvinist pigs have long been derided, the coinage of Levy's title has risen to the top, claiming that her love of 'all things bimbo' is the gloriously liberated end-result of second-generation feminism. The Female Chauvinist Pig, Levy argues, is 'post-feminist. She is funny. She gets it.' She asks: 'Why worry about disgusting or degrading when you could be giving - or getting - a lap dance yourself? Why try to beat them when you can join them?'

Right. But, wait, I don't get it...