To Ann Coulter's Critics: "Shut Up And Read"

Charleston City Paper ^ | June 14, 2006 | Michael Graham

[suspects]

I know, I know. Ann Coulter is Satan.

She's vicious. She's outrageous. She is not to be tolerated. I understand.

But I have a quick question for you: Have you actually read her book?

I mean, as you're gathering your ropes and lighting your torches and looking for a well-placed tree limb, don't you think you should take an hour or two and, you know, read what Coulter actually said?

"But Michael, who would ever read such filth? Such hateful extremism! She's a witch! Burn! Burn!"

And so goes the debate with the American Left...

Call me crazy, but before I joined prominent Democratic lawmakers around the country demanding that Godless be banned from book stores (the dunking stool and public stocks will be waiting for Coulter at the Paramus, N.J., Barnes & Noble next week), I'd want to know what is in the darn thing. Based on their writings and public statements, it appears that not one of the would-be book banners has done so.

"Why waste our time, Michael? She's just a bomb-thrower. A name-caller!"

True, it's hard to take seriously people who describe their political opponents as "stupid," "ugly" "vile," "viperous," "rabidly hateful," "foaming-at-the-mouth," "sub-human," or who suggest they go kill themselves. But Ann Coulter didn't say any of these things. No, these are comments from media outlets like the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Ad Age magazine about Ann Coulter.

The London Times ­even labeled her the "Bitch Goddess of American conservatives." I guess they were offended by all that name-calling.

The editorial invective rolls across Coulter like a muddy river from the maw of the mainstream media. However, what the London Times and New York Times and, alas, the Charleston City Paper are unlikely to do is actually review Coulter's book. And the one thing the hair-pulling liberals shaking with rage on talk TV refuse to do is confront the actual arguments Ann Coulter presents.

The Coulter cranks scream over two sentences in Godless about the "Jersey Girls," those four hyper-political, media-hungry 9/11 widows Coulter shames by quoting them accurately. Meanwhile, there are 281 pages of arguments, insults, and outrageous-but-on-point invective that raise issues worth debating. Plus footnotes.

Did angry Democrats join forces with the "Witches of East Brunswick" to politicize the 9/11 Commission for personal satisfaction and political gain? Shouldn't people spreading the idiotic fallacy that George W. Bush was responsible for the World Trade Center attack be criticized, even if they lost loved ones on that horrific day? Did these women cheapen the legacy of 9/11 as they appeared in Democratic campaign ads and pushed Democratic talking points on Larry King?

Ann Coulter says "yes." She's got pages of arguments and cheap shots to back it up. Whatta you got?

Oh, sorry, I forgot. You're a liberal. You don't read books you disagree with. You ban them. That's why you're so much better than those mouth-breathing evangelical morons who elected Bush.

Reading Godless means no longer being able to declare sainthood for pseudo-spy Valerie Plame or her hapless, fourth-rate hack of a husband, "Ambassador" Joe Wilson. (Coulter's recounting of Wilson's failed foreign service career, culminating in his post as Ambassador to Gabon, is hilarious.)

Reading Godless means facing the fact that the American Left has abandoned the principle of self-government and now opposes the very idea of democracy when it comes to abortion, the definition of marriage, and the operation of "public" (insert ironic laugh here) schools. She also reminds us that, before 1860, Democrats were also proudly "pro-choice" on the issue of slavery, too.

Coulter's opponents avoid all this by simply refusing to fight. She comes out swinging, they come out whining. Unfortunately for them, the facts aren't going to change, the arguments won't go away, and 500,000 people are going to read her book. When they're done, they'll be smarter, she'll be richer, and you — my book-banning, name-calling, debate-avoiding liberal friends — will have done more than Coulter ever could to prove her point.

Is Ann Coulter mean? Is she nasty? Maybe, maybe not. But the question normal people will be asking is "Is she right?" My advice to you would-be "Ann"-nihilators would be to stop whining and start reading.

[Nachum]

A newt

She turned me into a newt!

A newt?

I got better...

ftp://olympus.peganet.com/misc/monty/newt.wav

[Kenny Bunkport]

The Conservative Book Club. Join, and you can get Ann's book for $1.00.

[dblshot]

There once was a pundit named Ann
Whose book Liberals cried, “Ban!”
While sales zoomed higher
They screamed “don’t buy her!”
You think that was always Ann’s plan?

Coulter possesses a really sharp wit
And those Jersey Girls really got it.
So they cast a dark spell
“Give Ann Holy Hell”
And their familiars in the media went to it.

They called this beauty such names
And tried to make her the blame
But their spells didn’t last
So the 911 commission's cast
Didn’t convince us of their Bush hating claims.

You can read all about it now
And see what, who, when and just how,
She exposed media bias
So it won’t still get by us,
Ann take yourself a well earned bow.

[Ladysmith]

Every time Ann writes a book, the lefties screech over it. The manner that they do so validates everything Ann explains about their character in the first place.

Rather pathetic, really.

[backinthefold]

My dream....

 

my oldest daughter grows up to emulate Ann Coulter

 

and my other daughter to emulate Michelle Malkin

[johnny7]

Michael Graham nails it.

[Kenny Bunkport]

The road to hell is paved with leftwing rhetoric.

[Ol' Sox]

I'm also reading it now. I purchased it last night, partially to make the clerk at Barnes and Noble go and get it for me. I am considering bringing it to my brother-in-law recovering from surgery at the hospital, but I'm afraid he'll pop a stitch.

[Publius6961]

True, it's hard to take seriously people who describe their political opponents as "stupid," "ugly" "vile," "viperous," "rabidly hateful," "foaming-at-the-mouth," "sub-human," or who suggest they go kill themselves. But Ann Coulter didn't say any of these things. No, these are comments from media outlets like the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Ad Age magazine about Ann Coulter.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

[Kenny Bunkport]

At least she's open minded about it.

[george76]

[BelegStrongbow]

A Beleg, of course. thbbt

[Rakkasan1]

Mourning in America - John Tierney
"Grieving relatives certainly have a right to be heard, and their stories need to be considered by legislators and judges. But having tragedy strike your family does not make you an expert on public policy. Instead, it warps your perspective. You become the most narrow special-interest group, obsessed with redressing a personal loss no matter what the cost to society. * * *

". . . The parents of abducted children couldn't anticipate all the wasted police resources and harassment of innocent adults that resulted from their laws. Putting photogenic patients in front of Congressional committees is not the best way to divvy up budgets for medical research.

"The widows and widowers of the victims of Sept. 11 are not urban planners who should get veto power over the rebuilding at Ground Zero. The parents of Americans killed in Iraq do not have special expertise in foreign policy.

"Whether they support the war or not, they are expressing their personal views, and not necessarily even their slain children's. Cindy Sheehan camped outside President Bush's ranch in Texas to protest the war, but her son voluntarily re-enlisted before his death."

John Tierney, Mourning in America, New York Times, June 10, 2006.

[Fester Chugabrew]

She comes out swinging, they come out whining.

BUMP!

[msjhall]

"...500,000 people are going to read her book."

Make that at least 500,002 because I have two friends that are going to read my copy.

[Jeff Chandler]

Last night we had Gore on

I changed the station before Algore told how he would have handler Katrina. What a maroon!

[blowfish]

Sorry, I don't support demagogues - left, right or center.

[dinok]

Ann is the only Republican/Conservative with the guts to say it like it is.

My wife and I love her. In a political way...realy...

[ml/nj]

Except when it comes to science.

I'm not familiar with any scientific misstatements Ann has made. Perhaps you could supply two examples? (Make sure that they are not sarcastic remarks. Some people do have differentiating between assertion and sarcasm in Ann's writing.)

ML/NJ

[JLAGRAYFOX]

Annie Coulter, the Drudge Report shows your book is kicking butt and taking no prisoners. Wonderful!!! As for the NJ Democrat scum & vermin political whores, screw them and the entire Democrat "Traitor/Treason" Party. Attack, attack, attack and more, destroy the Democrat Party at the polls this year!!!