Rock N’ Books

Kudos to singer Kelly Clarkson for endorsing Ron Paul (and please consider taking the #JifnotP vow to vote for Libertarian Gary Johnson UNLESS the GOP nominates Ron Paul). 

By contrast, a reader of my New York Post piece on the conservative band Madison Rising e-mails to note the longstanding tie between communism and folk music and says, “Bob Dylan realized it too at a certain point when he rejected the Emergency National Civil Liberties Council, when they tried to give him an award.”

My favorite Dylan political moment, of course, remains (the subtly-extended version of) “The Times They Are A-Changin’” being used for the amazing credits sequence of Watchmen.  (And I’m surely not the only person who was reminded of the lesbian kiss in that sequence when he saw this recent-yet-historic military moment in the news.) 

Some will criticize Ron Paul for suggesting he would have tried to keep us out of WWII – but then, he likely would have kept us out of all the other horrors depicted in that credits sequence, too.  He may prove to be a history-altering figure on a par with Dr. Manhattan, so encourage Iowans to start the process by voting for him this Tuesday.

I am not, however, endorsing this Mexican cult’s musical warning about implantable Satanic microchips.   Uh, even though I admit that idea is briefly mentioned in this far catchier pro-Ron Paul rock song by Aimee Allen.

Speaking of musical conservatives, the hip Mark Gauvreau Judge (who I think has finally given up on his middle name) is turning his attention to trying to start up a documentary about the crucial commie-turned-conservative Whittaker Chambers (not associated in any way with conservative punk Angie Chambers).  A film about the author of Witness sounds like a noble project to me, even if Chambers was one of those hysterics over at National Review like the ones I blogged about yesterday who condemned Ayn Rand.  You can help Mark Judge out and say you were a witness to history in the making.

Another nice piece of history (noted by J.P. Freire): this marvelous start to a twenty-year old book review, from a time (as I vividly recall from Brown) when a lot of academic books deserved to be reviewed in this fashion. 

But it may be best to avoid reading books anyway, at least if you’re a woman frightened of having men use them as a conversation starter.  So says trollish feminist blogger Amanda Marcotte, or at least she starts off a recent rant by saying (she-splaining?):

Few things provoke a man gripped by anxious masculinity like the idea of a woman reading, at least a woman reading anything beyond patriarchal assignments in man-pleasing. As any female bookworm can attest, almost no public behavior you can perform is more likely to get men to bother you and demand to know what you’re doing than simply reading a book. It makes sense. Few behaviors signal subjectivity more than reading...

Likewise, if you are a woman holding a Rubik’s Cube and a guy says, “Hey, what’s with the Rubik’s Cube?” he is trying to oppress you.  (To Hell with this whole paranoid, power-obsessed mode of thought: Let’s try liberty instead, people, starting on Tuesday.)