Conservative Book Club? Yecch!

Thanks to the wonders of junk mail, just today I found out about American Compass "The Conservative Alternative". I want to tell you, wherever this compass is pointing, RUN the other direction. I feel stupider already - come lower your IQ along with me...

If you didn't follow the link yet, American Compass is a book club, one of the many  clubs operated by the huge Bertelsmann media conglomerate, including Book-of-the-Month, Quality Paperback, Mystery Guild, Science Fiction Book Club...  

I regularly get junk mail from all of these, and recycle it with no second thought. But this one is special. If you're lucky enough to also get the catalog, make sure to enjoy it, because the artwork and slogans aren't on the website.

The cover background has the Statue of Liberty, and a flag, and the headline "One Nation, Under God, Indivisible. Take A Stand." Cover authors include Bill Bennett, Tom DeLay, and Ann Coulter. How could any patriot not read further? [I have to admit, it was the cover pic of the beauteous Ann in her little black dress that made this brochure irresistable. But I digress.]

The slogans inside are a hoot. "Great Books For The People Of Our Great Nation". "Protecting Our Nation One Page At A Time". "Stay Vigilant For Yourself And Your Family." [and they use all caps all the time to make it even more urgent.] Besides the authors on the cover, we have such greats as Dinesh D'Souza, David Horowitz, Newt Gingrich, Max Boot, Tim LaHaye, Michael Savage, and Bill O'Reilly. I saw "William F. Buckley" and thought there might be a little real content, but it's just a bio of him. And more Ann - not one but two more copies of "Godless" and the little black dress. The pic on "How To Talk To A Liberal" is much less flattering and only appears once.

My favorite wingnut title: "All American - Why I Believe in Football, God, and the War in Iraq".

I'm  not blaming Bertelsmann. It's strictly business; all those other book clubs also sell stuff that shouldn't have ever been written, let alone published. For the sake of business there are a lot of non-wingnut books in the same catalog -- which become much funnier in this context. I will leave it to someone else to discuss the conservative philosophy expounded in "Hannibal Rising". A page of bios, headlined "Beacons of Inspiration to Light The Way Forward" has the predictable Reagan books - but also Princess Diana and  - Doc Holliday?! "Spanish For Dummies" seems horribly out of place here among books by anti-immigration ranters. Also Rachel Ray, and a whole lot of mainstream mysteries.

But to prove they're firmly in the land of all spin all the time, I return to their logo slogan, "The Conservative Alternative". Alternative to WHAT? They can't resist founding themeselves on the myth of the liberal media. I searched in vain for a liberal alternative to this; it's sure not at Bertelsmann.