Coulter's Crudeness

Boston Globe ^ | 6/19/06 | Cathy Young

[pissant]

SEVERAL years ago, left-wing cartoonist Ted Rall published a cartoon mocking the ``terror widows" -- the bereaved of the Sept. 11 attacks as well as Marianne Pearl, the widow of kidnapped and slain journalist Daniel Pearl -- as a bunch of greedy and shallow attention-seekers. The outrage was universal. A number of press outlets, including The New York Times website, pulled the cartoon. Subsequently, when the Times and The Washington Post stopped carrying Rall's work, conservatives called it a victory for decency.

Now, the right has its own Ted Rall in the infamous Ann Coulter. In her new book, ``Godless: The Church of Liberalism," Coulter takes a whack at the ``Jersey Girls," four Sept. 11 widows who have been highly critical of the Bush administration. She refers to them as ``self-obsessed women" who ``believe the entire country was required to marinate in their exquisite personal agony," and then concludes with this zinger: ``These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief -arrazies. I have never seen people enjoying their husband's death so much."

A number of conservatives, including prominent Republican blogger and radio talk-show host Hugh Hewitt, have denounced Coulter's statement. Unfortunately, many others have rallied to her defense. Radio and Fox News talk-show host Sean Hannity has mildly suggested that she may have gone too far, but has avoided condemning her outright and has given her plenty of airtime on his show.

Bill O'Reilly, the host of the Fox News show ``The O'Reilly Factor," has been harshly critical of Coulter's comments. Yet several of his conservative guests vigorously defended her. Republican strategist Karen Hanretty opined,

[Non-Sequitur]

Always followed by dishonesty...

According to who?

[najida]

Taken chances,
pursuing dreams,
bungee jumping,
trying tequila shots while standing on your head,
loving someone,
loving someone in spite of them not loving you,
forgiving stupid people because you were stupid once,
caring for someone you love while they die,
caring for someone who doesn't love you while they die,
caring for someone you don't know while they die,
growing a garden,
trying to shop for food for 4 people on money for 2,
trying to live without toilet paper for a week,
rating over 100 on the personal stress tests....
for 5 years straight.
walking away when you want to stay,
staying when you want to run,
deciding that you'd rather have chocolate than size 4 jeans,
speaking your mind because everyone who could tell you what to do is either dead, insane or in a coma.

And that's just this week :)

[youngjim]

You can't have it both ways. Ann can't one minute be the brilliant brain and the next be the emotional rapier. She can't be the paragon of virtue and the hottie in the mini selling on her sex appeal. She can't be the unmarried/childless/never lived woman one minute and worldly and wise the next.

That whoosing sound is the point of their statement going right over your head.

Projecting your ignorance is hardly an effective argument. That you cannot understand the concepts of "polemic", "irony", or "satire" in AC's prose doesn't merit a judgement that she has not "lived", or that she is "white trash whose Mama didn't raise her right." Instead it sounds more that you have not "analyzed" while you have been "living."

Coulter is a NY TIMES BEST SELLER, a lawyer, and a world traveler. Your banal pettiness OTOH, makes this reader wonder if indeed you've "lived."

[maica]

Do you remember the Gingrich years and the "Contract with America"?

This was 1994, before Fox news, and no TV commentator could remember those three words. They always said "contract on America" or occasionally, "contract for America".

That was not accidental. The speakers were professional users of words.

The same with the Jersey girls. They practically had their own show with Chris Matthews, they appeared so frequently. They did not overtly say that they spoke for anyone but themselves, and their own families. It was the Leftist media that made them the talismen for all September 11 discussions. They allowed themselves to be used for these purposes.

[bfree]

Just curious, who are you to set the definition of conservative values?

[untrained skeptic]

So how would you characterize someone who uses the terms "white trash" and "one trick pony" to describe a woman with the following credentials? (Taken from her web site for convenience sake).

Coulter graduated with honors from Cornell University School of Arts & Sciences, and received her J.D. from University of Michigan Law School, where she was an editor of The Michigan Law Review.

Coulter clerked for the Honorable Pasco Bowman II of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and was an attorney in the Department of Justice Honors Program for outstanding law school graduates.

Not to mention she's the author of four New York Times bestsellers.

The comment about her being unmarried and childless at 43 also kind of stands out as petty.

Coulter is purposefully rude and crass. She has cultivated an image to bring attention to herself and what she has to say.

One of the most important things you may not have noticed about her is that she invites criticism on herself because you find out a lot about others by observing how they go about criticizing others.

Half of Coulter's charm is the intelligence behind her biting wit, another part is watching how react to her.

[pgyanke]

You mention a lot of things Ann can't do... say's who? You? Just like a liberal to ignore reality... Guess what? She's doing it. If you want to get in the way of the Ann steamtrain, you can get run over but before you tell her what she can and can't do, you should at least note what she's doing.

In your post you hold yourself up as the arbiter of what a conservative stands for and what they may or may not do... care to post your resume so we can see your basis for claiming superiority?

[najida]

Jill Conner Browne is a best selling author and I think she's had more books than Ann....

And she's where I got the 'mama didn't raise her right' phrase.

BTW,
I've traveled the world and I gotta couple of degress oo!
buried lots of kin and a few spouses--
cared for a bunch of them while they were dying,
got a few nightmarish "this can't be real" phone calls for the quick deaths...
Built some things, lost some things,
Built a few more to replace them....
I've experienced tremendous joy and pure black sorrow (but hey, that's the pricetag ya know ;) )
Been sick,
been in pain,
lost a lot of dreams,
shot a lot of pain down in New Or....
(Sorry, channeling Tina Turner).

I know life....Not as well as some,
but pretty damn well.

[najida]

I'm just spoon feeding back to you guys what I hear on other threads....

Erm, is there like this thread/value firewall that I haven't been told about ;)?

[najida]

I'm matching Ann petty for petty.

If she was a liberal with all those credentials and the tables were reversed, you'd be rippin' her a new one for being one of those 'egghead' libs.

I think it's funny.

She's a pit bull, but she's on our side, so we're going to pretend she's a yorkie.

[pgyanke]

According to who?

Me.

Let's be honest here. Coulter isn't interested in converting anyone.

I'm sure that's news to her. The left expressed their ideas for an agenda and doesn't care about the financial aspects... that's why they need public support. Ann writes to make money and to share her ideas. News for you, the book wouldn't sell if her ideas didn't hold water and if there wasn't sufficient interest. Businesses only make money if they are filling a need.

She doesn't preach to liberals or reach out to those towards the middle.

Oh? I'm sure that's news to her!

She's tossing raw meat to her many devoted followers. Those who wouldn't buy her book without her aiming for the raw nerves. She's after the money and that's it.

I thought you weren't qualified to speak about another's motives? Facts: she wrote a book. It's controversial. It's selling. It's getting people talking. It's advancing the debate.

When was the last time you advanced the national conservative debate?

[T'wit]

>> Please, share with us the plagiarism...

That's funny, isn't it? Who the heck else is good enough for her to plagiarize from?

Other than me, of course :-) :-)

[najida]

See my response to Scottsman and others.

The biggest plus in my resume' is simply that I don't tolerate bullies. Period. And I don't care which side they're on, they get equal treatment from me.....

While their fans are sources of great giggles and mirth :)

Otherwise, I look awful in a mini...but darn cute in a bedlah ;)

[pgyanke]

Whatever. You aren't fit to tighten Ann's mini skirt. She throws fire bombs and stands in the face of return fire until the battle is won. You throw your fire bombs and back away with cute little smiley faces.

I see right through you.

[freespirited]

Jim, I am with Najida on one point.

I saw Ann a couple weeks ago on Hannity's show, when the uproar over her comments about the Jersey girls was just starting. Alan Colmes was pressing her on her very crass (IMO) comment that "these broads are millionaires" (Ann ought to know that a million bucks ain't what it used to be). He asked her if she really believed that these women wouldn't give back every penny of compensation paid to them in the aftermath of 9/11 to have their husbands back.

There is no doubt in my mind that they would.

I never could have imagined that someone would respond the way she did. She seemed perfectly serious in her suggestion that they might actually be happier with the money. Her actual words were along the lines of "Well I don't know. Are they really going to go back to cooking ..."

It was chilling. The feeling I got was of a person who has no concept of the love that develops between a husband and wife.

I think a fair number of people do believe that to be 43 years old and have no concept of that love is to have never lived. You don't have to agree, but I think you should acknowledge that it is reasonable for people to think otherwise.

My respect for Ann has been fading rapidly as I learn more of the book's content. And I am no liberal, that is for sure.

[pgyanke]

My respect for Ann has been fading rapidly as I learn more of the book's content.

In other words, you're not reading it. You're hearing about it. That's no way to form an independent opinion.

[T'wit]

>> It would be an interesting exercise to compare the number of males vs. number of females on these Coulter threads. I'd guess it was 7-or-8-to-1, at a minimum.

I think she appeals to the mind, but you have an interesting theory that she appeals to masculinity. If you're right, it sorta separates the sheep from the goats, doesn't it?

[najida]

~~sigh~~
Thank you....
That's all I'm trying to say. There is an emotion there that she hasn't felt. She hasn't grieved.... not in the way that changes you.

To go off a bit....do you know what most elderly people say when you ask them "If you could see anyone, living or dead, who would it be?"

*thinking you'll get a profound "Jesus, Abraham Lincoln etc

Most of the time, they say "My mama"

[KC Burke]

I don't think the two instances cited in the article are interchangable. One is immediate but general commentary on all those that lost -- the cartoon. The other is biting satire after five years of increasing political activism on the part of a small subset of general widows, the Jersey Girls, who, along with their supporters, feel they are immune to criticism due to their personal involvement.

Since the gold standard of nasty satire is Johnathan Swift's A Modest Proposal wherein he offered and entire program on the use of irish children for food by boiling and roasting, complete with cullinary comments, and the possibility of marketing the food with proceeds to english landlords, I hardly think Ann's comment is even a blip in the progress of literature.

Is it my style? No. But, I am just an internet poster on a common forum.

The true measure of the suitability of the comment is that those crticizing it have to lie about it. They don't cite its context or they call it a comment about all widows of the terrible event. The lie tells us that the biting satire found its true mark.

[Scotsman will be Free]

Sounds like an ad in the personals section. I personally do not believe that you have lived until you have risked your life(excluding stupid stunts) Trying tequila shooters while standing on your head almost qualifies, but not quite. Gardening is boring. I've never taken a stress test.