Well, I was all set to blog this morning about having my faith in international institutions renewed by the arrest of Radovan Karadzic, but then I discovered I’d been “tagged” by Dan Drezner to blog about my favorite “guilty pleasure” songs. I have explained to Dan I have a committed relationship with pleasure but only an occassional flirtation with guilt, so the five songs he requested will be hard to come by.

Still, there are those that combine lyrics I want to oppose for political reasons with music that is breathtakingly irresistible… like, Leona Lewis, “Bleeding in Love.” It should be a crime to use a voice like that to whine about not wanting to leave a destructive, violent relationship. C’mon, Hollywood, don’t you realize that 12-year-old girls model their emotional worlds after the songs they hear day after day on the radio? (Don’t tell my daughter that I secretly listen to this song at my office, trusting my subconscious to ignore the words… I just like the music.)

Then there’s the converse: lyrics you could die for to music/images that make you want to barf/boycott the industry. For example, I publicly loathe booty-shakin’ songs with brazenly sexual videos, but it must be said I have a funny soft spot for “Umbrella” by Rhianna. In such situations, one hopes for a remake of some quality: a noble effort is made by Plain White T’s; a superior one by Mandy Moore.

Oh, and there’s the music of Klaus Badelt, which gives me flashbacks somethin’ fierce to my former ill-begotten life as a scallywag…

Oh, oh, and… ok, back to work.

*Robert Farley sums it up pretty well anyhow.