Hamell on Trial put on a great show last night. I learned that the song "Coulter's Snatch" (warning, rude, obviously) was directly inspired by George Lakoff's "Don't Think of An Elephant." I hope Lakoff's proud of that.
What's weird is how it's actually weird when a performer is unapologetically "fuck the administration." If I'd gone to a show in 1997 and the performer said the equivalent of "Fuck Bill Clinton" I wouldn't have thought anything of it. It wouldn't have offended me. It wouldn't have occurred to me to have my political sensibilities offended. Rock music has always been, in part, anti-authority, as has comedy, and in 1997 Bill Clinton was indeed The Man and saying "fuck The Man" is an American tradition. Yet, for some reason it's "controversial" now.
On a related note the drift in shock jock style talk radio has been really striking. It used to also be pretty anti-authority without any sharp political leanings, and now it's much more pro-authority mock the helpless.
