The two magazines I have subscribed to the longest are Newsweek and Esquire. Coincidentally, one of the reasons I stuck with them over time was based on the merits of their financial writers - Allan Sloan for Newsweek and the recently-back-from-hiatus Ken Kurson for Esquire. Eventually, the increasingly leftward tilt and regularly scheduled Anna Quindlen claptrap were too much and I let my subscription to Newsweek lapse. Esquire, which recently won the Too Cute by Half Award for publishing a boilerplate “George Bush is Very Bad” article by the very insightful Ron Reagan (right after the death of his father), is teetering on the same demise.

What does that have to do with anything? Nothing really, but in the November issue, there is an interview with Matt Stone and Trey Parker, creators of the movie, Team America: World Police:

Esquire: The movie makes fun of celebrities who try to speak out about politics. Who are the biggest targets?

Matt Stone: Basically the activist, liberal Hollywood Left. If you don’t laugh at Sean Penn on TV talking about the political implications of invading Iraq, then you don’t know what funny is.

Trey Parker: Having to sit there and listen to George Bush do and say a bunch of stupid shit while he was bombing Iraq was no more offensive to me than watching Alec Baldwin go on TV and say “Let me tell you what this war’s about.”

Very insightful, indeed. Maybe I’ll stick with them a little bit longer. After all, their Q&A columnist predicts a Bush victory… “and no, it won’t even be close.”