What is the best proof yet that Rush Limbaugh is the true voice of the modern, hilariously out-of-touch conservative movement? His tacky $44 million Palm Beach compound!

The line on Sarah Palin's $150,000 shopping spree is that it, uh, hurts her blue collar cred. It's not very "Joe the Plumber" to spend more than three times the median American household income on a month's worth of clothes from elitist high-end stores. The woman's Real American authenticity has been her best asset, but that huge number, those receipts, the stores, all of those shocked everyone. Because she still looks exactly the same! Which is why this story isn't as simple as it's been painted. She's not beer heiress Cindy McCain pretending to be a woman of the people (which Cindy has obviously never done)—Palin was handed a blank check to go shopping, and she shopped exactly like a typical upper-middle class suburban mom would've shopped. And all the criticisms of her shopping are actually elitist! Seriously! Always hilarious Washington Post fashion critic Robin Givhan wrote all about Sarah Palin's "exceptionally ordinary" style just last month.

"North! To Alaska—c'mon, the rush is on." Caribou, moose, and redneck jokes, gun porn, and now a real, live, out-of-wedlock teen pregnancy. How will the chattering classes of the blue states respond to the family saga of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin? Why, with the same flinty-eyed suspicion and close-mindedness that we profess to hate in the "God, gays, and guns" country of rural Americans. The Palin family background gives otherwise intelligent people the chance to indulge in the basest and most cartoonish of regional and rural stereotypes.Exhibit 1: The use of the word "Baby Daddy" by everyone from Drudge to Radar to Us Weekly to the Daily Intel. Everyone's using this phrase, because it's easy and snarky. It's not particularly original, though, and it's no longer funny if everyone else is saying it. Cut it out. (Also, I am aware that many persons of color sometimes use this phrase un-ironically, but you sound like an ass if you're white.) Exhibit 2: Alaska, OMG! Even the highfalutin' Bill Maher couldn't help reaching for some easy laughs, jumping into the fray with, "when [Palin] got a phone call at three in the morning, it was because a moose had gotten into the garbage can." Funny! But also: "If [McCain dies] this stewardess can handle it." Snob! Exhibit 3: Redneck Hillbilly White Trash Hicks Levi Johnston, Bristol Palin's soon-to-be teen dad, called himself a redneck out of pride, so there's his excuse. Everyone else, however:

Chris Matthews is actually incapable of conceiving of "regular people" who aren't him. Which is to say, aging white men with blue-collar backgrounds, probably from the eastern seaboard. The stream-of-consciousness pundit just came out and explicitly said it on his show yesterday, asking, "can Obama now win over the regular folks, white folks, against John McCain?" White folks! They're so regular! Previously, Chris asserted that he knew for a fact that only "people with money play pool these days," in his insane campaign to convince everyone else of his dearly held belief that the only people in America who count are those who are exactly like his own cartoonish and inaccurate sense of himself, the millionaire television personality. Anyway. The clip is after the jump.

Right in the heart of the Xmas-to-New Year's News Dead Zone, Mayor Bloomberg announced a sweeping change in the way New York City will measure poverty. The national standard remains tied, more or less, to the price of milk. Income and "annual cost of buying basic groceries" have determined who is poor in the US for four decades. Bloomberg would like to add other, more realistic standards—rent, utilities, child care—while taking into account "the value of financial assistance received, like housing vouchers or food stamps." Mike hopes this more exact method of defining who is the worst off compared to him will spread to the rest of the nation, and improve distribution of federal, state, and local aid. Also it will probably mean that there are a lot more poor people in New York than previously counted. Maybe you're one of them!

Jonathan Clements says wealth is overrated and rich people are all contemptible morons and that money will not make you happy! Also he's the Wall Street Journal personal-finance columnist. So don't go around making so much money, guys! You'll end up empty and depressed, because every time you eat dinner at the nicest restaurant in the world, you'll be forced to confront the sad knowledge that there is no nicer restaurant. Then you'll climb into your waiting helicopter and go back to your sad mansion, where, tragically, you've grown used to your servants. Yes, in the end, what truly matters is assuming the attitudes and outward trappings of the upper-middle class regardless of your actual worth and not being all gauche and show-offy about it.

You're Not Super Rich? You Lucked Out. [WSJ]

"While teens on Facebook all know about MySpace, not all MySpace users have heard of Facebook. In particular, subaltern teens who go to school exclusively with other subaltern teens are not likely to have heard of it. Subaltern teens who go to more mixed-class schools see Facebook as "what the good kids do" or "what the preps do." They have various labels for these hegemonic teens but they know the division, even if they don't have words for it. Likewise, in these types of schools, the hegemonic teens see MySpace as "where the bad kids go." "Good" and "bad" seem to be the dominant language used to divide hegemonic and subaltern teens in mixed-class environments." [Danah]

The New York Times mag fills a front-of-book page with a grab bag of the week's correspondence. Some of the people they print are mad, some are sad, and some are impressed. Who are these people? Why did they decide to write in? Did they read whatever they're writing about during brunch? Or, was it on a porch! Gawker Weekend will provide you with that back story.