\nAnd nowhere in American pop culture after 9\/11 did the id <\/em>of the vast mass of America between the Hudson and the Sierra Madre get expressed better.
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![](\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3617\/3627147222_4b6c32f7e9.jpg?v=0\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhich isn’t to say there wasn’t competition.\u00a0 Springsteen’s The Rising <\/em>evoked loss<\/a>, commemorated heroism<\/a>, and opened the faucet on the best evocations <\/a>of spirituality during times of tragedy <\/a>in American pop music history. Neil Young’s “Let’s Roll” and Big and Rich’s “Eighth of November<\/a>” took very different approaches to illuminating the best in American, and human, character against horrendous odds.<\/p>\n All well and good.<\/p>\n And it’s true; there are times when diplomacy and nuance and meeting your enemy halfway and being aware of ones’ own faults is essential – even in wartime. There is no substitute.<\/p>\n So kudos, Toby Keith.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It wrenches the needle off the jingo meter. It still provokes somber tut-tutting from our betters about the knee-jerk ignorance of NASCAR America. And nowhere in American pop culture after 9\/11 did the id of the vast mass of America between the Hudson and the Sierra Madre get expressed better. Which isn’t to say there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,6,14],"tags":[211],"class_list":["post-4686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-midwest","category-mitch","category-music","tag-love-and-hate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4686"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26892,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4686\/revisions\/26892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBut there are some times, some moods, when putting a boot in someone’s ass, the American way, is all that will suffice.\u00a0 There are times when, like Churchill’s “Dunkirk” and Reagan’s “Shining City” and “Brandenburg Gate” speeches, I just need to hear it.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/www.pix2mail.com\/photo-picture-image\/2009\/03\/b-52-dropping-bombs-and-launching-flares.jpg\")
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