Rock On - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
Rock On
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BAGHDAD’S BEST
Re: Shawn Macomber’s Metal Militia, Eastern Divison:

A little musical outfit from Liverpool once sang, “You say you want a revolution/ Well, you know/ We all want to change the world.” Great rock ‘n’ roll (and, yes, I am of the generation that called music from the heart and soul rock ‘n’ roll and not rock) has always been about revolution and catharsis. The quality of the catharsis is based largely on the strength and fierceness of the forces against which one is rebelling.

American and British youth once had a great deal against which they could throw themselves in their struggles to define themselves: society was rigid and social roles were clearly laid out, but the great social experiment of the Sixties destroyed, or greatly realigned, the standing mores. The youth that grew up in the Post Punk America and Brittan grew up in a more stable and affluent world than did those who came of age between the mid Sixties to the mid Seventies.

Their rebellion, still a necessity of modern youth, was of a more flaccid nature because many, if not most, social barriers had been overturned. Making a revolution from the comfort of your parents’ upscale house is not easy; the enemies are often phantasms and delusions. Acrassicauda has real agents of opposition and antagonism against which they are rebelling. Their sound is loud and powerful because the energy released in their struggle against the man (i.e., state sponsored censorship and staid imams) is powerful and real.

To them and those like them, Viva la Revolution and Long Live Rock and Roll.
Ira M. Kessel
Rochester, New York

Thank you, Mr. Macomber, for your review of this documentary and pointing out the problems with Western “hard” artists such as Metallica and Radiohead. There are a few heavy metal songs I enjoy, and I’m not ashamed to admit that. But it does seem that the more successful these bands become, the worse they become.

Most of their eternal whining reminds me of something a friend of mine in high school told me. “It’s really hard to be in the upper-middle class.” Well, now that I’ve made it to the middle-class, I don’t have any problems with it. And of course, I have refused to spend a single penny on anything Metallica has ever done due to their attacks against Napster. Really, to think that a band that got its name recognition through the distribution of boot-leg tapes would become so incised over a higher-tech equivalent…

But to the members of Acrassicauda: Rock on!
Charles Campbell
Austin, Texas

COMPROMISE PACKAGE
Re: Jeffrey Lord’s Freedom and the View From Obamaland:

Yeah, we all know what the real Democrat party wants to do to the liberties of their dissenters. But the Republicans chose John McCain.

His response would sound something along the lines of: “I would talk to my friends across the aisle, and work out a compromise package.”
P. Aaron Jones
Sadr City, Michigan

Senator Obama and a number of other liberals are in good company: Castro, Kim Jung Il, Lenin, Stalin, Pol Pot and Adolf Hitler, just to name a few. Is anybody really surprised?

Fidel Castro came to power, ostensibly, to remove a rather oppressive military dictatorship and stayed to perpetuate an even more oppressive communist dictatorship. In 1935, it was Adolf Hitler who said, “This year will go down in history! For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient and the world will follow our lead into the future!” Lenin and Stalin promised a “Worker’s Paradise.” The people of Russia are still waiting; those that are still alive. In the People’s Paradise of North Korea, the people can only eat if China ships them food. In Pol Pot’s Cambodia it was necessary to kill 2 million people who just couldn’t seem to “get with the program.”

Today, 60% of the world’s population can barely afford to eat. Yet, 90% of Americans can afford to pick up a $4 double mocha latte on their way to work every morning? Why? Because America works. And as the old saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The only thing that is broke, in this country, is Liberalism. Maybe it is time to fix that.
Michael Tobias

Jeffrey Lord’s assessment of leftist Democrats’ fascist ambitions is accurate, but he fails to mention the real kicker: the electorate may actually want it. Authoritarian government requires less personal responsibility, less thinking and less input. The bet here is many Americans have little problem with having someone telling them “what to do, and when to do it.”

Forty years of pumping intellectual sewage through our public schools was not for nothing.
Arnold Ahlert
Boca Raton, Florida

Chilling.

Can you figure out a way to get a copy of Jeffrey Lord’s frightening but all-too-accurate scenario into the hands of every registered voter in the country?

More chilling. Can you figure out a way to get all of them to read it?
A. C. Santore

Jeffrey Lord hit a grand slam with his article! I have long believed that there are people in our own government who would as eagerly deprives us of our rights as any Nazi or Communist would have.
Dean Vander Linde
Grand Rapids, Michigan

EVILCRATS
Re: G. Tracy Mehan, III’s McCain’s Missouri Break:

Why should conservatives worry about Missouri or the 2008 elections if it elects a Republican or Republicans? In 2006 a significant number of self-described “conservatives” believed it was more important to punish Republicans than defeat Democrats, throwing away an election or two was good politics and “blue dog” Democrats were conservatives (gag) — magical thinking at its best. Based on sentiments routinely expressed in the alternative media, there are plenty of these anti-Republican “conservatives” still around touting Democrat propaganda that President Bush and Republicans are bad for the country… So why should conservatives worry about Missouri and the 2008 elections when by their actions many of those who claim to be “conservatives” seem ready to further empower Democrats?

It’s simple: Democrats erroneously believe taxes are too low, drilling for oil in the US is wrong, national health care is good medicine, Social Security and entitlements don’t need reform, any border security is too little too late so why do it, it’s more important to make Europeans happy than America powerful, appeasing Muslim terrorists will make America safer, fighting Muslim extremists in their own backyard is a bad idea, too many babies are born in the US, the handicapped make great political pawns, American corporations are evil, small business is exploitive, labor unions represent working Americans, supporting the troops means betraying them in war, there isn’t enough government spending on failed programs, more Democrat earmarks is money well spent, Robert Byrd is fiscally conservative, alternative energy sources will make America energy independent, “cap and trade” is good for business and the environment, Michelle Obama loves America, Jay Rockefeller is a patriot, Jesus advocated homosexual marriage in the Sermon On the Mount, traditional Christians are Bible thumping morons, it isn’t racism if you’re an ordained African-American hate monger, fairness means gutting the First Amendment, the Second Amendment insures criminals and terrorists have the right to guns in the US, GITMO is a hellhole, the Iranian theocracy is misunderstood, we need to be like Europe and pay more for gas not less, Hugo Chavez and Robert Mugabe are role models, there’s no difference between the two parties, McCain is too old and Barack Obama is experienced enough to be President.

However you slice it Democrats are dangerous. No matter how unappealing voting for the lesser of two evils may be for some people it’s still better than allowing evil to win.
Michael Tomlinson
Jacksonville, North Carolina

About two weeks ago, America Online (AOL) ran a few “straw polls” which showed McCain beating Obama by 55% to 45%.

In one of those polls, over 440,000 people voted. In another poll 27,000 people voted, with McCain winning by the same margins. Once you vote in one poll you cannot vote again.

Does it mean anything? I think it does. From previous polls I have seen on AOL, voters tend to lean a bit left.

I realize this is anecdotal evidence from me, but I thought you might find it interesting. Also, I found it as a glimmer of hope for the Republic!
John Fox
Carrollton, Texas

FOUND ON ROAD DEAD
Re: Larry Thornberry’s Having It Both Ways:

The nation is never well served when Democrats pick the Republican nomination for President. It has happened twice in my lifetime. The first time was when Nixon was force out. The Democrats did not want a strong Republican for President and they went looking for a complete zero. They found Gerald Ford. His only ambition in life was to go to Palm Springs and play golf with his Democratic golfing buddies. That is all he was good for.

Now we have John McCain. Also chosen by the Democrats and their friends the “leadership” of the Republican Party. A man with no morals (Keating 5? Dumping of first wife? Beer distributorship? Indian Casino?), no plan, no brains, no energy, no enthusiasm, he is another zero much like Ford. Come election time he no doubt will do even worse than Ford.
Burton J. Hollabaugh
Marion, Indiana

With apologies to Gerry Goffin and Carole King:

We need the oil so badly
Democrats will ban drilling, sadly
Today you say that drilling is okay
But will you say so tomorrow?

Is this your final position?
Or are you still in transition?
Don’t take away the things you said today
Will you still say them tomorrow?

Unless the oil is flowing
Down from the land of the midnight sun
Gallons of gas will be going
Very soon for $10.01

I found your words so thrilling
When you said “Go start drilling”
So tell me now, and I won’t ask again
Will you still say so tomorrow?
Byron Keith

LOCK AND LOAD
Re: Robert VerBruggen’s Uneven Stevens:

The nexus between private firearms ownership and military service was established in the early 1960s. The army commissioned the Arthur D. Little, Co. to survey American soldiers. The main difference was that one group had firearms experience prior to entering the army, and the second group had no prior firearms experience. The group with firearms experience tended to do better in all forms of training, including subjects that did not involve weapons or woodcraft. It was also discovered that the group with prior firearms training were more likely to be enlistees, rather than draftees, were more likely to sign up for the combat arms branches, like infantry, armor, & artillery, were more likely to volunteer for combat assignments, and were more likely to re-enlist or select the army for a career. Thus, it was discovered that private ownership weapons is connected with the quality of our armed forces. This should not be surprising, in that during the Civil War, it was discovered that when urban soldiers entered the army, they did not even know how to load firearms, resulting in a sudden need for recruits to receive firearms training. The second amendment is not restricted to the right to be in the army or militia, because private ownership of firearms results in superior soldiers.
James Patterson

CLEAR AND PRESENT STUPIDITY
Re: Derek Eddy’s letter (under “Delahunt in Disgrace”) in Reader Mail’s Al Qaeda’s Spotter:

Okay, so I’m a day behind in my reading (Wedding anniversary Sunday; late night, much rich food), but I need to point out to Mr. Eddy that on September 11 al Qaeda walked through Logan Airport (there’s video of it) on their way to slaughtering the 3,000 people Mr. Eddy dismisses so blithely. Evidently, al Qaeda walking the hallways of East Boston doesn’t rise to Mr. Eddy’s standard of national defense.
Reid Bogie
Waterbury, Connecticut

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