Jon Ronson

Jon Ronson was on The Daily Show last week plugging his new book The Psychopath Test. He's the guy who wrote the book from which they made the movie The Men Who Stare at Goats. (Not a great movie, but you can't go far wrong gazing at George Clooney for 90 minutes over an Alamo Drafthouse pizza.) He and Jon Stewart were very funny together, so I checked out Them: Adventures with Extremists, in which Ronson describes hanging out with Klansmen, zealots, and conspiracy theorists, including Austin's own public-access celeb Alex Jones. Here's one of the funniest bits:

Thom hunched his shoulders as he told his self-deprecating jokes. He is a friendly and cheerful man, with an amiable demeanor. Had he not been the Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, I'd have described him as having the humourous demeanor of a Manhattan nebbish. The door was open for me, many times, to say to him, "Oh, Thom! You're such a nebbish!" But that would have been a mistake. Still, it was surprising to find myself in a situation where I was toning down my Jewish character traits so as not to alienate a Ku Klux Klan leader who reminded me of Woody Allen.

We own the book The Men Who Stare at Goats (DVD link is above), but it's checked out, and you'll have to get behind me on the holds list. You can get Them, though; it's so funny and reads so fast that I finished it overnight and brought it right back. The Psychopath Test is on the way.

Jon Ronson (author's web site)

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