This editorial paragraph is found in “The Week” section of the current issue (February 13, 2006 cover date) of America’s premier conservative journal:

Contestants for the Miss America pageant in Las Vegas, Nev., were subjected to the usual pre-pageant interviews by the panel of judges. The questions are apparently directed toward issues pertinent to the interviewee’s state. Miss Nevada, a fetching 23-year-old blonde named Crystal Wosik, was asked about the Yucca Mountain repository for spent nuclear fuel, a sore point for anti-nuclear activists in Nevada. Replied the winsome Ms. Wosik, perhaps driven by an excess of pride in her home state: “It has to go some place, and that was the best-built facility in the country.” But what if people die? asked the flabbergasted judges. Replied the lady: “We just have to take one for the team.” Admirably public-spirited and patriotic, you might think. Alas, in the beauty-pageant world, public spirit is not supposed to extend any further than airy expressions of concern for world peace, disadvantaged children, and “the environment.” Miss Nevada did not make the final ten, and the contest was won at last by Miss Oklahoma, a ballet dancer and anti-drunk-driving activist. Worthy enough, no doubt, but Miss Nevada had our vote.

Now this is one of three dozen other paragraphs and editorials–and many more articles and essays and reviews and columns–that one will find in the new National Review, and while it’s neither political in its analysis nor policy-oriented, it does reveal one essential thing: it is NR, and NR alone, that has that biting wit on cultural matters that you just won’t find anywhere else. Why not let NR put a policy in your head and a smile on your lips–subscribe to the new Digital edition (it comes in PDF, Image, and Text formats) for only $21.95 (you’ll save nearly $40 off the regular rate, and nearly $73 off the cover price!) and you can read the February 13th issue immediately, as well as have access to many past NRs. So what are you waiting for?–sign up for NR Digital now. Or for those who prefer good old reliable paper, we have a special subscription offer to National Review magazine (now in its 50th glorious year!) that gives you 4 FREE issues of fortnightly conservatism. And now, back to The Corner.