Conservatives Rock

My friend blogged about the list of 50 Greatest Conservative Rock Songs
This of course is much like the list of the 50 Most Influential African Americans in Indie Rock or the 50 Greatest Japanese R&B Singers. The author, John Miller who I will refer to as J. Dingleberry McFucktardleroy III sifted through the letters of his readers and dug long and hard to find some gems. Some thoughts from his quotes:

"What makes a great conservative rock song? The lyrics must convey a conservative idea or sentiment, such as skepticism of government or support for traditional values" Yea, liberals aren't skeptical of government. Funny, it seems like the majority of liberals I know are very skepitcal of government, especially when filled with lying weasels and fuckheads who stumble around busting up the planet. Oh, and what are traditional values? Ethnocentrism? One "Right" religion? I am really curious

More, by song #

1. "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who - "The conservative movement is full of disillusioned revolutionaries; this could be their theme song, an oath that swears off naïve idealism once and for all.Yea, disillusioned they haven't been able to tell everyone else how to live their lives morally and codify those thoughts into law. Also haven't been able to bring back the glory days of tickle down economics. Oh and all of these "revolutionaries" should swear off this naive idealism. So, forget about trying to change the future it's so naive. I guess sticking it out with the status quo is the new Revolutionary. Well, nothing like stick-to-it-ness.

3. "Sympathy for the Devil" - "What’s more, he is the sinister inspiration for the cruelties of Bolshevism" Ooooh scary. Bolshevism pretty much went tits up as a viable threat more than 10 years ago. Time to move on.

4. "Sweet Home Alabama" - "A tribute to the region of America that liberals love to loathe, taking a shot at Neil Young’s Canadian arrogance along the way" If you were black, Alabama wasn't so sweet. About 7 years before Young's Southern Man, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote Letter From A Birmingham Jail. 5 Years before Alabama State Troopers beat the shit out of peaceful marchers in Selma, Alabama. Was Alabama the only place like that? Absolutely not. It took The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to ensure African Americans had a hope of playing on a level playing field. Young's song embodied the disgust of people over the racism that choked the life of African Americans in many parts of the South at that time. Damn those arrogant Canadians for hating racism. Let's sing happy songs and give anyone who doesn't like our little way of life the finger.

I could go on and on. This list is chock full of bullshit. He reaches and tries to ascribe conservative ideals to many songs where they don't belong. He also lists a number of songs that are from such a different era that you would be considered to be considerably backwards to still identify with them. Oh, and I want to point out a particularly fucked observation regarding #28 Janie's Got A Gun "How the right to bear arms can protect women from sexual predators" Pathetic. I in fact support the right to bear arms, but using that as an example of how it is GOOD is just reaching. In fact it would have been more gratifying if it was Janie Cut His Cock Off With a Dull Knife. I suppose that tite wouldn't allow it to be sold in Wal-Mart though.

Well, I could call this guy a name all day, but I've had enough

Historical Thinking

I love history, but i have not read nearly enough of it in recent years. I am going to try to rectify that. I will go back to my favorite subject, World War 2. Why? Because it doesn't get any bigger than this. There are so many different ways to look it, but I am going to after some thoughts:

1. Reaffirming my senior seminar class from college. I wrote a shitty paper and still got an A. Thesis wasn't clear, support was crap, but I lucked out. Definitely better to be lucky than good in this case. I want to rexamine the topic though.

The topic was basically; Germany's primary failure to win it's goals in World War II stemmed directly from war planning that not only did not anticipate the true nature of the coming war but was also counter-productive to its own military goals. This will take a long time, but it is something worthwhile to look at again.

2. Historical what-if's are fascinating. I love reading alternative history. Well done they are like Science Fiction, the world we know turned upside down. I want to read more on some subject to better understand what might have been if different actions were taken. Some early contenders:

A. What if Hitler comitted a significant portion of his invasion force to drive on the Allied forces in Dunkirk? Could he have split forces and both held any counterattack and destroy the retreating force? If a majority of over 200,000 British troops surrendered, would it effectively knock Britain out of the war?

B. If Hitler held back from further aggressive moves after fully reincorporating the Rhineland for a year or two extra could he have bought more time for his armed forces to prepare without his future enemies making as significant improvements themselves?

Those will be more than enough to read up on. I'm sure it will be quite awhile before I come close to better understanding the situations.

Now that I've put everyone to sleep..

Useless

I just saw a Lincoln pick up truck for the first time, Mark XL or something like that. This idiot had the thing all chromed up and totally decked out. What the fuck do you need a beautified pick up truck for. It's useless. You can't use it for utility because it's glitzed up you can't haul more thant 2 people in comfort. Useful. This guy probably has a designer cockring made at Tiffany's. Moron

Music Update

What I am listening to right now:

Mark Lanegan - Not intended for bringing you into an up mood or stirring you to action for sure. The album I'll Take Care of You is made up of cover versions of folk, country & blues songs, and the collection isn't of some of the more popular of the genre. The variety is a nice collection of songs of different musical roots. Although the mood is at best subdued through the entire album it is worth a listen to when chilling out. Lanegan's voice is perfect for the mood of the songs, apparently this mood is something that most of his albums have in common. My favorite is Creeping Coastline of Lights, a song that just hypnotizes me. If this song hasn't been used for a movie shot panning along Coastal Los Angeles it needs to be.

The The - This is the Day and Uncertain Smile have been favorites of mine for a long time, but I recently found another song I now love. Pillar Box Red. Not sure what it is about the song but it just grabs me. Perhaps it is the emotion that builds in the song yet doesn't go overboard. Whatever it is I love it.

Recent Groups to check out:
The M's
Voxtrot

Music I could do without for years to come:
James Blunt - You're beautiful, you're beautiful.. you're fucking sappy

Black Eyed Peas - The only thing decent they did was Let's Get it Started for NBA promos. Then they made "My Humps" and Fergie pissed her pants and it's gone to hell from there.

Hollabackgirl by Gwen Stefani - My new inductee into the Total Shit Music Hall of Fame. Congratulatios Gwen

Back Online

Work has been incessant, but I have the fortune/misfortune to need to print for hours on end. The good thing is that I can't spool out a lot of jobs at once so I can't work on any new maps while printing. So I get time to cruise Murmurs and write.