Pop culture's ruthless orthodoxy

This is the kind of writing that makes me such a Mark Steyn groupie:

One of the reasons why it's effortlessly easy to 'commemorate' the Second World War is that popular culture had signed up for the duration. It was the war that brought Robert Farnon to Britain, to lead the Allied Expeditionary Force's Canadian band, as Glenn Miller and George Melachrino led the American and British bands. By contrast, nearly four years after September 11, I can't think of any big pop star in uniform except Madonna, who on her world tour last year cavorted in a blue burqa and, when she disrobed, as she inevitably does, was revealed to be wearing a US army uniform underneath. This was in order to make the highly original point that the Taliban and the Bush Administration are both equally oppressive. Well, I never. The herd mentality of celebrity 'dissent'. Would it kill 'em once in a while to dissent from their dissent and try something other than the stultifying orthodoxy of Hollywood cardboard courage?

He drives home a point quite hard, but he never seems to break a sweat. There's elegant writing and effortless (and funny) imagery to make well the point everyone wants to (and needs to) make -- namely, that the Hollywood/entertainment types are idiots, and we do ourselves a disservice to let them control the national dialog, since they have nothing useful, new or interesting to say on the subject.