“Why haven’t you written a commentary on Ann Coulter?” seems to be the question I’m getting lately, and it’s a doozy. I have plenty to say about that crazy bitch, but herein lies the issue that brings me a great deal of grief.
Ann Coulter will do and say anything to get press. Her latest bout of vocal diarrhea happened on the Today Show when she told Matt Lauer that “she’s never seen a group of women enjoy their husbands’ deaths so much”. She was referring to the ladies who lost their spouses in the Towers and planes on September 11th. Even repeating it, I still find it hard to believe anyone would say something that hateful about such a terrible situation, but it doesn’t surprise me that it was Ann.
Ann will do and say anything to sell her books. She is an attention whore at heart, and provides no real social commentary or solutions. Basically, Ann wants to say things that get you talking about her, which is why I was reluctant to comment. My mother gave me great advice once when I was dealing with an elementary school bully; she told me to ignore him, and he’d just go away. Mom was right, I ignored him, and once he saw that there was no way to get a rise out of me, he moved on to another grade-schooler to torture. My temptation is to do the same with Ann.
Her book titles are meant to insight anger and contempt, because in her world the population is divided up very black and white; you are either a liberal (which to her is the verbal equivalent of motherfucking asshole) or you are “on her side”. A liberal, as I understand it, is someone who is liberated in thought from mainstream thinking, a liberal doesn’t like to be given an ideological regimen to spew out verbatim just to be accepted by the greater populace. A liberal, essentially, is someone with a liberated mind. This is not Miss Ann.
Ann is a dittohead; a wonderful nickname given to the latest crop of spin doctors working on behalf of the neo-conservative regime that have taken over this country. She shares company with people such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Alan Colmes (who is not and never has been a liberal), and the rest of the entire Fox News family. I’ve never seen a dittohead add anything to an intelligent conversation, or talk about ideas for improving the democracy that this country is supposed to have in place. Ann and her cronies just repeat what they are told to repeat, and say it in the most inflammatory manner in order to sell their latest book and capture as many headlines as possible.
In the liberal and progressive circles, when someone very left-wing crazy comes along and makes outrageous statements, like that college professor who referred to the people who worked for the financial companies in the Twin Towers and died on 9/11 as “little Eichmanns”, we recognize them as whackos, and ignore them. Liberal and progressive thinkers are never given as much press as their right-wing counterparts, because their objective isn’t for inciting a highly publicized verbal talk show war, but to come up with ideas for improving the system.
Maybe Ann had more of a reason for berating the 9/11 widows than selling a few copies of her latest book, but if that’s the case, then her motives were definitely about defending the regime at all costs. A segment of the 9/11 widows were very active in making sure that there was a commission established to investigate what went wrong leading up to the attacks. They pushed for answers, and the Bush Regime doesn’t like people questioning them, so perhaps this is the reasoning behind Ann’s targeting of a group of women who get to spend the rest of their lives watching their children make accomplishments without their fathers present to congratulate them. If Ann’s attacks go beyond publicity, then they are mean-spirited at best, and at worst, defend the lack of action by the Bush Regime at the expense of real families and children who will never know their fathers. You don’t club baby seals, kick puppies, or tell widows that they enjoy their husbands’ deaths (unless the widow is Anna Nicole, of course).
It pisses me off to no end that I have to waste my time commenting on assholes like Ann Coulter, yet it took me less than ten minutes to write this up. Like Britney Spears, Ann is a fucked up media whore, which makes her an easy target for criticism. The world isn’t better, because she’s in it, but at least we can have the satisfaction of knowing that, again like Britney Spears, her time in the social arena will probably be short.
Henry Rollins recently wrote a fantastic "love letter" to Ann Coulter that is worth checking out. Thanks Natalia! http://worshiptheglitch.com/2006/06/henry-rollins-love-letter-to-ann.html
10 comments:
Go here for more Coulter fun...I got 10 out of 14 because I gave her too much credit for being a human being. WTF was I thinking?
Goddamn Neo-Cons, I say! >_<
(Methinks I shall get a BlogSpot.. not that I actually *need* ANOTHER blog. Hahaha.
She looks awful from what I have seen of her. She isnt big news in the UK at least for the moment. Wont take long for her to filter over to the 51st state.
The one thing I love about reading your blog is that you really do cover all the bases. The only thing is that it makes leaving comments difficult!
Never heard of her n glad I haven't. Got an awful feelin' I might though.....
You're right about her need to give up her own thinking in order to get attention. The problem is, she then feeds this lack of critical thinking to the masses, who make her book #1 in the country. Then, there are more converts to this "identity" (the Far Right is not a political philosophy, it's a clique. "Act like us, and you're cool, otherwise we'll trample you"). It's a vicious cycle, and I wish I had your optimism as to its outcome.
Henry Rollins is great. It should be comforting to Ann Coulter to know someone cares.
Debbie - thanks for the comments, it's so nice to hear Christians speaking out against those who try to hijack their faith. I believe that Ann doesn't represent the bulk of the American Christian populace, but unfortunately, that populace has been silent (or received very little press). This has been confirmed over and over by my sister, who is also a Christian.
I recognize that this administration is pro-Israel, as are most Republicans and Christians, unfortunately the Palestinians have done a great job of convincing the American left that they are the oppressed underdogs.
My bitch with this administration is less about them being Christian, after all, which presidential administration hasn't been Christian? My complaint against them is that they have used Christianity and the Christian base to do some really bad shit here and abroad.
My hope is that Christians will continue to speak out against pundits like Ann, as well as, those in the administration who claim to act based on Christian values, yet don't. When Jews act absurdly, we are the first ones to call our own kind out, and I hope that Christians would do the same. Believe me, if I met Paul Wolfowitz for coffee tomorrow, I'd have a mouthful for that yid.
One of the only funny jokes I've heard on SNL in recent years was a particular sketch where Daryl Hammond was imitating Chris Matthews on Hardball. Ann Coulter was one of the pundits speaking and at one point he interrupts her inane barking with, "Shut up! You look like a knee-cap with hair!" Hahaha, I think that sums her up quite well..at least asthetically.
What I want to know is why these 9/11 widows were paid millions of dollars simply because their husbands died in an attack.
Thousands of people meet horrible deaths every day--beaten, raped, murdered--and their families get nothing.
Why is it different because those people died in an attack? What makes them special?
It's PR on the government's part, nothing more. Those 9/11 families dererve nothing, unless everybody who gets killed in the prime of their lives has money sent to their families.
The 9/11 families were compensated through many sources. First off, most of the deceased had life insurance policies through their employer as well as supplemental insurance (the kind you elect to get when you have kids just in case). All of the New York City employees had pensions that were automatically paid to their surviving spouses. Then there were the telethons and donations from all over the country. Most of the donated money was set up as college tuition trusts for the surviving children.
I kind of wonder if the media played up the amount of money left to the 9/11 families. Did they really receive millions and millions of dollars? I guess we will find out over time, but aside from maybe a charity stipend for a set dollar amount, and the normal life insurances (which any spouse of a deceased individual would receive), I'm doubting that these women and families are going to be appearing on the Forbes 500 any time soon.
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