Mark Steyn doesn't believe John Effing Kerry:

''Oh sure. I follow and I'm interested,'' says John Kerry. ''I'm fascinated by rap and by hip-hop. I think there's a lot of poetry in it. There's a lot of anger, a lot of social energy in it. And I think you'd better listen to it pretty carefully, 'cause it's important . . . I'm still listening because I know that it's a reflection of the street and it's a reflection of life.''

Really? You're ''fascinated'' by rap and ''listening'' to hip-hop? You're America's first flip-flopper hip-hopper?...

...If only that MTV guy had said to Kerry, ''Yeah, right. Name a song.'' Think Kerry could've? Reckon if you bust into his pad and riffled through his and Teresa's CD collection you'd find a single rap album? Of course, you wouldn't find any in George and Laura's CD collection either. The difference is that President Bush doesn't feel the need to pretend...

... This isn't entirely a matter of trivialities. The fads and fashions of the world aren't confined to the Billboard Hot 100. All over the planet, men in late middle age are pretending to like stuff just 'cause it's what the likes of Maureen Dowd tell them people want to hear. John Kerry pretends to like gangsta rap. Russia pretends it supports the Kyoto Accord. The European Union pretends Yasser Arafat is committed to peace with Israel. The Security Council pretends its resolutions mean something. Kofi Annan pretends the Oil-for-Fraud program is a humanitarian aid effort for the Iraqi people. The International Atomic Energy Authority pretends the mullahs in Tehran are good-faith negotiators on the matter of Iranian nukes.

It's easy to pander to fashion -- whether on pop music, the environment, the Middle East ''peace process'' or sentimental transnationalism. But on MTV, Kerry wasn't done yet. After coming out for hip-hop, he managed to blame the Bush administration's ''behavior'' for making terrorists become terrorists. I guess that terrorism's just a ''reflection of the street,'' too. Doubtless there's ''a lot of anger, a lot of social energy in it.'' The MTV crowd loved the line, and no doubt Jacques Chirac and the Arab League will as well. Welcome to John Kerry's hip-hop foreign policy: Ask the multilateral gang what's hip, and hop to it.

I liked one Rap Artist and that was Tone Loc'.

I could write a dissertation on the New Wave of British Heavy Metal circa 1982 though.

I still listen to Iron Maiden. A thinking mans metal band. I love "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner", also "The Trooper" based on Tennison's poem "Charge of the Light Brigade", "Run to the Hills" about the American Indian Wars or "Aces High" about the Spitfire pilots in the Batttle of Britan. Not to mention "To Tame a Land" about Frank Herbert's "Dune".

Even more eurydite than the Ayn Rand inspired Canadian Hard Rock band "Rush".

The last Album Kerry proabally bought was "Surrealistic Pillow".

I didn't see the interview, but did see The Daily Show air a clip of it. Jon Stewart was pretty brutal in calling this pandering.

I think Kerry just naturally makes such a statement work because he is so stiff that it's impossible to believe him. At least with Clinton you might think he was lying to you, but you knew that Clinton had a certain hipness to him.

Kerry was also asked another question, about whether or not he was "cool" in college. I think that he blew that answer too. The guy certainly has the background to actually come across as a "cool" kid to the MTV audience. I've read enough of his history to know that he had answers that would have worked. All he had to say was "Well, when I was in high school I started a band with some friends. We weren't any good, but we did it to attract girls and that worked pretty well." See? No need to pretend to like rap. Just an honest answer that young people could relate to and would think was funny. And as for being "cool" in college, he could have used that as a means to talk about serving in the Navy. Get back to that comfortable war hero turf.