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Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
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June 18, 2006
Ann Coulter Hatas and Tolerance
To Jasmin Borhan, Executive Vice-President of Corporate Communications for Bertelsmann:
Dear Ms Borhan,
Fellow named "Sprague Dawley" has a "Diary of a Rat" blog entry blasting away at Ann Coulter, but really more bashing Random House for publishing her, and Universal Press Syndicate for publishing her weekly column. He lists you there as the corporate contact for her book publisher whom we should wag our fingers at in disdain for publishing the evil one.
See, that's because, "Her comments in her new book and on television that the widows of men who died in the World Trade Center are exploiting the deaths of their husbands and reveling in financial gain from the catastrophe." Perhaps readers could peruse her book and make such judgements for themselves. Wait, no, they don't need to do that. Sprague Dawley et al have already figured it out for us, and there's no need in making her writing available at all. As he titles his column, "Enough Is Enough."
Now, besides the delightfully Stalinist flavor of his spiel, that argument about Coulter exploiting the widows is so perfectly, perversely backwards- and it's not the first time I've heard it. Saying that they're full of crap isn't exploitative. John Kerry using them in campaign ads as the whores for his grief-pimpin' in order to try to get elected president- now THAT is exploiting widows and the national grief- which was exactly Coulter's point of criticism.
So then first of all, thank you for publishing Ann Coulter. She makes ME crazy about half the time, and makes me want to give her hell myself. But if she makes me a little crazy, she's REALLY gotten the goat of every pinko in the land. Where could she even keep that many goats? Does she own a farm or something?
However angry her detractors get, Ann Coulter is doing a good service for the public discourse. Indeed, the vitriol of the hatas is strong evidence of her virtue. In short, Ann Coulter is one of the most truly transgressive major political writers in the world today. She carefully and gleefully tramples routinely on the ground where more timid writers fear to tread. She's the cheerfulest warrior around, and has never ever legitimized her opponents by appeasement. What really tells me she's doing God's work though is when the rightwingers go ballistic on her, trying to prove that they're "compassionate conservatives." Really though, a "compassionate conservative" like President Bush is just a liberal who wants to be thought of as frugal. To me, her work is even more a rebuke of mealymouthed RINO conservatives than of liberals.
Anyway, it's funny how some left wing types react to Ann. It certainly shows their true colors and double-triple standards about free speech and intellectual diversity. I'm not sure about Sprague specifically, but many of these folks have a hissy fit about censorship and intolerance if anyone says anything critical of the Dixie Chicks. You're just like book burning Nazis if you tell some radio station you're not interested in hearing the Chicks.
But boy howdy, are they in a huge hissy fit not just saying they don't like Coulter's writing, but trying to shame and pressure her publisher for even offering her books. Sprague would obviously very much like to suppress Coulter, for he's got nothing to say in response to her arguments but to sputter indignantly that she's making.... MONEY. Why, you're just trying to sell as many books as you can- and you don't even care that Sprague Dawley doesn't agree with her!
I wasn't real thrilled with ex-fans calling radio stations to ask them not to play the Dixie Chicks, but if they're unhappy with programming on a station that they listen to, that's one thing. They're customers expressing dissatisfaction with the product. But no one was trying to pressure the record label to drop them, or stop them from having concerts. A couple of schmucks aside, no one was threatening them or trying to disrupt their shows, as Coulter hatas have been known to do.
It's a Nazi book burning in progress if ex-fans destroy their own copies of CDs they no longer want to hear- but trying to get you to stop offering Ann Coulter books for sale to anyone, well that's just their free speech protest. This Sprague Dawley was right pleased to add a postscript to his story that a bookstore owner has suggested that numerous adverse reactions gave him regrets for having Coulter do a book-signing in his shop. Yup, they're ready to send anyone who would object to gay marriage off to "The Death Camp of Tolerance" to learn to accept diversity, but harassing book stores for selling her books or having her in to sign them- well, that's different.
Also, check out my collection of anti-Ann Coulter images- her Badges of Honor, I'm calling it. Quoting Dan Quayle, Ms Coulter is fond of saying of her critics, "I wear their contempt as a badge of honor." Woo, doggies, do some of these people go nuts with the Coulter-as-Nazi nonsense. Again, I've not seen stuff this harsh even about Michael Moore, who really IS a lying weasel. These incredible screechings are indeed high praise. I bet she's way proud to have earned such high honors. She should be.
THIS doctored image from the Vietnam war on the UC Santa Cruz website is especially sweet. Imagine the reaction if some rightwing idiot photoshopped in, say, Natalie Maines rather than Coulter. Couple a few things like that with stuff like this fool making a big point of publishing what he believes to be Coulter's actual residential address that she's gone to some effort to conceal.
Thankfully, she's absolutely not interested in playing victim, and actively refuses to connect the dots. The beautiful thing is how she absolutely doesn't reward their tantrums by appeasement, getting her feelings hurt, or being intimidated by their evilest tactics. Indeed, it went by little noticed in her June 14, 2006 appearance on Jay Leno's show, but ol' Jay inadvertently laid her the main biggest trap she could ever fall into. By way of trying to make nice after politely and professionally smacking her around a bit, he asked her if she employed bodyguards. It was an open invitation to play for public sympathy over the threats that she surely gets. Thankfully, she's way too much of a man for that, and swatted the idea away with a little kiss for the big tough conservative men she travels with and trusts for protection. Besides the actual content of her books and columns, this example that she sets about how to handle the heat of being an object of intense public hatred is also a fine contribution to public debate. I particularly admire and take personal inspiration from Ann Coulter's example in these matters. Please thank her for me. Al Barger, MoreThings.com
posted by Al at 6/18/2006 07:01:00 PM
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