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Free (idiotic) speech [Arrest at Ann Coulter's Austin visit]
Austin American Statesman ^ | Friday, May 06, 2005 | EDITORIAL BOARD

Posted on 05/06/2005 5:07:35 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952

EDITORIAL BOARD

Friday, May 06, 2005

Conservative author and gadfly Ann Coulter must have been delighted by the protesters who disrupted her talk at the University of Texas Tuesday night. It added to the sensationalism she thrives on.

Coulter expects to provoke controversy when she speaks at a university. The $30,000 she earned for her appearance at the LBJ Library auditorium makes enduring some heckling and rudeness worthwhile. Plus, she gathered a few anecdotes for her next best-selling book and can point once again to the intolerance of the anti-free speech left.

But what is good for Coulter and her right-wing screeds is bad for the university, which has seen this kind of thing before. Whether it's Henry Kissinger, Ward Connerly or Coulter, a coterie of radical students and professors insist on sabotaging speakers whose views they oppose.

Worse for UT, the disruptions reported in the Daily Texan, the student newspaper, were particularly puerile. Not just rude and obnoxious, but also silly, stupid and sexually suggestive. Sophomore Ajai Raj, whose vulgarity at the speech got him arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, is hardly a First Amendment martyr.

As Daily Texan columnist James Burnham wrote, Raj's behavior was "inappropriate, uncalled for and entirely pointless."

It's no surprise that students would demonstrate, but the childish level of the protesters — imitating flatulence, flipping the bird and such — is astonishingly base for the state's flagship university. You'd think the top 10 percent could do better.

Coulter is obnoxious, so much so that it's doubtful she believes even half of what she says and writes. But her provocative discourse has made her rich, and the protests, like the absurdity at UT, only add to her bank account.

The antidote for hate speech is truth, not more hate speech. Students at a top university should have learned that by now.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: academia; ajairaj; coulter; hecklers
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To: Enterprise

I heard Coulter on Hannity the other day. She said that the problem was the kids in schools today put two sentences together to facts, so they call names.

Stuff like this just gives her more ammunition. Frankly, I'd hate to get in an argument with Ann.


21 posted on 05/06/2005 5:34:41 AM PDT by I still care (America is not the problem - it is the solution..)
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To: BadAndy
And yes I know KKKlinton gets $150K even though the only place he should be appearing is in a Federal prison.

Yeah, the Austin paper had this splashed all over the front page today. All the liberals hugging their impeached hero, el slicko. One lady said she thought she "was going to faint when she saw him". MEGA BARF TIME. The FReeper wasn't in the dead tree edition, only in the on-line version.


22 posted on 05/06/2005 5:35:25 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (TV News and the MSM - - - ROTFLMAO)
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To: Arrowhead1952
It's no surprise that students would demonstrate, but the childish level of the protesters — imitating flatulence, flipping the bird and such — is astonishingly base for the state's flagship university

How dare he malign the Kerry voter.

23 posted on 05/06/2005 5:36:13 AM PDT by Raycpa
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To: MinuteGal
"What?", you say.....I'ts too filthy for your rag of a newspaper?????

No kidding. They did have the filthy ex, impeached, rapist splashed all over the front page with all the hateful liberals swooning over him.

24 posted on 05/06/2005 5:38:16 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (TV News and the MSM - - - ROTFLMAO)
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To: BadAndy
$30,000 is an obscene amount of money to make for an lecture.

Its not paid to lose money. The ticket sales generate income.

25 posted on 05/06/2005 5:38:23 AM PDT by Raycpa
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To: Arrowhead1952
I get the feeling these journalists liberals print this crap day after day and upon hearing the reaction that it is not accepted as the truth they get very offended and write another one to back it up, and so it goes over and over again. Meanwhile circulation is plunging like a rock and they have not one clue as to why it is happening.
26 posted on 05/06/2005 5:38:26 AM PDT by TheForceOfOne (Laura is wonderful so get off her back pinheads!)
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To: BadAndy

30K isn't near enough for what Ann has to say. What are you, some kind of "progressive" (read: "socialist")?
Speakers are paid what the market will bear. It's called supply and demand (quaint concept) and Ann is in demand. I can't comprehend why she isn't getting as much as the top dollar speakers do, especially since she is the only prominent conservative in the country who says what she REALLY thinks.
Aint that something; cute little intellectual prodigy like Ann being the balls for the whole Republican party and conservative movement? They can't beat her with brains (cretins), but they can attack her with boorish bathroom antics and downright rudeness. It's amazing that UT is even in Texas.


27 posted on 05/06/2005 5:40:01 AM PDT by Nucluside
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To: I still care
Ann actually listens to what is being said, understand it, and then slam dunks it. Many of the people she skewers lack the capacity to understand what she says, and what they are saying themselves. And they have such a limited attention span that they are chirping and tweeting within a few words because they are being overwhelmed.

As others have posted, remember the operating principle of the left: "A mind is a terrible thing to use."

28 posted on 05/06/2005 5:40:26 AM PDT by Enterprise (Abortion and "euthanasia" - the twin destroyers of the Democrat Party.)
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To: Raycpa

A headline the other day said Dan Rather gets $75,000. I can only imagine what Bubba makes? Probably $250,000 a pop.

GW


29 posted on 05/06/2005 5:43:39 AM PDT by gregwest
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To: junta
Coulter is obnoxious, so much so that it's doubtful she believes even half of what she says and writes. But her provocative discourse has made her rich,

The Stone Age Press attacks from the Tarpits! Ann Rox!!

Pray for W and Our Troops

30 posted on 05/06/2005 5:43:48 AM PDT by bray (Pray for Iraq's Freedom from Mohammad)
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To: BadAndy

She is making $30K for a speech. Don't blame Ann blame the school.


31 posted on 05/06/2005 5:47:22 AM PDT by Americanexpat (A strong democracy through citizen oversight.)
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To: BadAndy
No wonder I am paying ridiculous tuition expenses for my kids. I love Ann but if this is what speakers get for an appearance this is outrageous

Most of the time, speakers are paid by some kind of endowment or fund set up exclusively for that purpose by a donor. This system prevents boycotts and angry phone calls from parents.

What that means is, as a parent I cannot protest to the college when Ward Churchill speaks at my kid's school, they keep their hands off that kind of stuff. The exception is the stupid choices made for commencement speakers - now THERE is where parents and donors can make a difference, IMO.

32 posted on 05/06/2005 5:49:42 AM PDT by PLK
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To: Arrowhead1952

I wonder how much they would love him if he was six inches shorter, 40 lbs heavier, bald and had a wart on the end of his nose?


33 posted on 05/06/2005 5:50:44 AM PDT by Americanexpat (A strong democracy through citizen oversight.)
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To: Arrowhead1952

The dim bulbs at tu will be more than happy to shell out Dan Rather's fee of $75,000, of course.


34 posted on 05/06/2005 5:51:41 AM PDT by kittymyrib
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To: Arrowhead1952

This is from a paper who routinely called that foul mouthed old hag Ann Richards a folksy, down-to-earth, people's politician. When I was going to UT in the late 70's, she was a Travis County Commisioner, and the Statesman loved her.


35 posted on 05/06/2005 5:55:32 AM PDT by nuke rocketeer
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To: HEY4QDEMS

No, we won't.


36 posted on 05/06/2005 5:58:01 AM PDT by massgopguy (massgopguy)
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To: BadAndy

It's called market economics.


37 posted on 05/06/2005 5:58:25 AM PDT by libstripper
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To: nuke rocketeer
...from a paper who routinely called that foul mouthed old hag Ann Richards a folksy, down-to-earth, people's politician... she was a Travis County Commisioner, and the Statesman loved her.

How true you are about that statement. I'll never forget the way the Statesman thought she was the best politician ever to hit Texas.

38 posted on 05/06/2005 6:02:22 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (TV News and the MSM - - - ROTFLMAO)
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To: BTHOtu

". . .the state's flagship university."

I don't think so.


I thought that too....but consider the source of the article - the Austin American Statesman. What do you expect? And no wonder they don't think she can believe what she says - its the Austin American Statesman!


39 posted on 05/06/2005 6:02:25 AM PDT by Day Kay
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To: Day Kay

There is no "fair and balanced" in that entire city.


40 posted on 05/06/2005 6:07:31 AM PDT by BTHOtu
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