Posted on 06/14/2006 9:48:34 AM PDT by 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.
Called my local Borders yesterday, was put on hold to some female music I'd never heard before. I asked what they were playing and it was the ditzy shits. They said they play it through the store's pa system all day.
WHAT THE >>>>>>>
I like it.
Well, when I talk to her tonight, I can put in a good word for you, if you'd like. :-)
Absolutely a must-read commentary!
This should be reprinted (with permission, of course) several places.
I do not think it [that word] means what you think it means. -Inigo Montoya
WOW, GREAT point! : )
"The London Times even labeled her the "Bitch Goddess of American conservatives." I guess they were offended by all that name-calling.
Ann coutler is THR CONSERVATIVE DIVA. She has well earned the title!
Me too.
You can bet she has already started writing her next book ... she is provided with such exceptional material by her opponents.
Yiur # 31. LMAO!
Flannery O'Connor said that to the hard of hearing you yell and to the nearly blind you draw large bright pictures (paraphrase). That is what Ann does vis a vis innumerable mephitic secular orthodoxies. The hatred and bile she attracts is evidence of how effective she is. If she truly were a vicious, vacuous, viper, they'd ignore her. They don't because her biting observations strike at the heart of their liberal lies and they are left gasping and dying as their exposed political blood pools on their soulless chests.
And, she NEVER backs down in the face of their assaults
Wow, what a brain, and a rapier witt, and confidence, etc. sigh... I think I'm in love! :-)
What did Ann write or say that causes you to reach the conclusion she is a demagogue?
For reference, from dictionary.com
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/demagogue
dem·a·gogue also dem·a·gog Audio pronunciation of "demagogue" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (dm-gôg, -gg)
n.
1. A leader who obtains power by means of impassioned appeals to the emotions and prejudices of the populace.
2. A leader of the common people in ancient times.
3. an orator who appeals to the passions and prejudices of his audience [syn: demagog, rabble-rouser]
The critics of the book show that they do not begin to understand her arguments. They haven't even read the last half of the book. I expect we will see a serious review of this important book in Commentary soon.
No, I think it does:
dem·a·gogue also dem·a·gog (dĕm'ə-gôg', -gŏg') pronunciation n.
A leader who obtains power by means of impassioned appeals to the emotions and prejudices of the populace.
The whole lib universe loves to use a coffin as a soap box.
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