Michael Kinsley, the dignified journalist and dinner companion to David Denby, starts his review of the new Newsweek reboot with this: “Having recently been dumped by Time, I naturally had great hopes for this week’s much-anticipated makeover of Newsweek.” And 2,000 annoying words later — including a long bit about masturbating to a large photograph of the homophobic idiot Miss California — he closes with this: “Don’t forget to cancel your subscription to Time while you’re at it.” MORE »

This is a very special party crash, because we actually did crash it: despite being on the panel that selected one of the winners, we weren’t actually on the list for The Week’s annual award dog-and-pony show. It all worked out in the end, of course, as we’re consummate complainers.

The event, held last night at the Four Seasons, honors people whose opinions a group of rich old people can generally agree are pretty good, or at least entertaining. Oh, and a blogger.

We attended, of course, with the lovely Liz Gorman, whose lovely photos are here. Our write-up can be found, as always, after the jump.

The Week Opinion Awards Gallery

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There’s a pretty good li’l blind item in Michael Kinsley’s column this week (thesis: people on the Internet sure are full of themselves MySpace MySpace blog bloggy blog): MORE »

• On Sunday’s “Blondie”: “Is the mailman always on Dagwood’s bowling team? Was he sent by Mr. Dithers?”

• Pitchfork review of new Paul Simon album: Have we done this sort of thing before? Sent out Eno to make songwriter relevant?
• Michael Kinsley column: WHAT THE HELL IS MICHAEL KINSLEY TALKING ABOUT?

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wonkette: i’m sorry, but indulge me.
wonkette: WHAT THE HELL IS MICHAEL KINSLEY TALKING ABOUT?
operative: i think you need some wacky theme music to kick in when you ask that
operative: benny hill, or something
wonkette: HE FORGOT TO GET TO THE OPINION PART OF THE OPINION PAGE
wonkette: it’s like you keep reading it, figuring he’ll get to some sort of point, and then…
operative: is he hopping mad? or he’s the happy one?
operative: perhaps some editor cut out the graf before the last line that explained everything
operative: because if it made sense, then it wouldn’t be a Kinsley column, would it?
wonkette: next week he will write an op-ed on Kim Jong-il that sums up the history of the Korean war, and then says “shit, figurin’ out stuff is hard!”
operative: if only he had been alive 220 years ago, the Federalist papers would have kicked ass!
wonkette: if he’d been alive 220 years ago, the federalist papers would’ve been a sarcastic summary of the magna carta
operative: I think that was Tom Paine’s bit at the Continental Congress Talent Show
wonkette: all i know is “speaking of crazy talk” is just about the most appropriate way possible for kinsley to start a paragraph MORE »

wonkette: k, tell me something: WHAT THE FUCK IS MICHAEL KINSLEY GOING ON ABOUT HERE
operative: ???
wonkette: it’s like he’s writing from an entirely different world
wonkette: a wondrous world of his imagination
wonkette: “It’s probably true that most billionaires have acquired their wealth in ways that make life better for the rest of us.”
wonkette: WHY IS THAT A GIVEN?
wonkette: WHY IS THAT PRESENTED AS SOMETHING HE ASSUMES HIS AUDIENCE WILL ALREADY TAKE FOR GRANTED?
operative: I enjoy the half-hearted debunking of Social Darwinism
wonkette: i can’t even figure out what he’s arguing because the premises all involve parallel universe logic
operative: way to be a moderate from the late eighteenth century, Mike
wonkette: “Surprisingly, not *all* rich people are morally superior to you.”
operative: “Meanwhile, science undermines the notion that people deserve moral credit for their smarts, daring, vision, dedication and similar virtues, even when these are applied in socially beneficial ways.”
operative: what does that mean?
operative: what the hell is moral credit?
operative: can you use it to buy a plenary indulgence?
operative: was he just building up to the idea that maybe we should have a special billionaire’s tax?
wonkette: HE SAYS HE DOESN’T AGREE WITH THAT IDEA
operative: but, but…
operative: I DON’T UNDERSTAND MORE »