Ann Coulter to Speak at Columbia U. Tonite (12/4)

[JAWs]

Your mind is in the gutter.

And it's blocking my periscope! ;-)

[Doctor Raoul]

I think that makes her look cheap and tawdry. I like it.

[rmlew]

"John Reed" is a screenname, honoring the USCP president who formalized the alliance between the US Communist Party and Soviet Union. Go rent the movie Reds
I believe that Mostafa, aka Reed, is a Egyptian-American commie. He is an acolyte of Edward Said.

[rmlew]

Report from event

The event did not go off well. Bad planning and Coulter's tempormental nature ruined the event.
The planning for the event was carried out by the College Republicans and they dropped the ball. I should have helped, but was too busy with work.
Due to security concerns, the venue was changed last night to another building. This led to some confusions.
The event started late because those taking Ms. Coulter out to dinner, including myself, failed to escort her back in time.
I left dinner early to get to the room, but some people had already gone to the old location. These people, mostly socialist agitators returned to the correct room 25 minutes into the 30 minute speech. Things then began to get interesting. Ms. Coulter informed the audience that she would only take questions from those who attended her full speech. Ms. Coulter took 2 hostile questions and one friendly one. Then some socialist began breaking the rules. When they were not called on, the militants in the Internation Socialist Org began chanting. The non-communist socialist then told the commies to shut up. Ms. Coulter took one more question, but left when she was interupted.
The commies then chanted in victory and took the fight outside where Ms. Coulter was taking questions from more respectful students. She then left.
This whole thing sets a bad precident.
Ron

[Freedom of Speech Wins]

Ron, I was there. Didn't think it went that bad. Might not have been all you hoped for, with questions and discussion. I see your points there, in hindsight I can think of some things I would have liked to have seen asked, maybe even discussed. Wasn't really the format though as far as discussion.

Ann gave a good presentation. She skewered liberal arguments regarding some of the relevant issues pretty badly.

Made liberals look bad, and Ginger took pains to try to say she wasn't a liberal when posing her "question" speech.

Took away from Ann's presentation some well thought out arguments and thoughts.

Interesting to see the mindset of these people in that email and how badly they twist Coulter's words and thoughts to demonize her. Sure they may not like its having been posted.

Where were you sitting?

Heard Ginger say that a student who said something in general support of Ann, was in the lunatic fringe that represents a small minority of people, in an aside to one of the signholders trying to calm them down.

Who was the lady who let the protestors in (looked like a professor)?

One highlights:
That one lady asked, "How can you say the US is not imperialist?" Seemed like that didn't give with what her professors tell her.

Good to hear there are some Republicans at Columbia.

The university corrupted an switched the Republican I knew who went there.

[Freedom of Speech Wins]

When Ginger brought up Indonesia and her positive experience, she didn't mention that the Muslims are killing Christians there.

[ppaul]

Anybody bother to take pics?

[LARoss]

The event did not go off well. Bad planning and Coulter's tempormental nature ruined the event.

Don't be too hard on yourself or Ann. She may be temperamental, but that isn't the problem. Intolerance on campuses is the problem. That Ann keeps charging into this fire is a victory in itself. A lesser person would sing to the choir instead. She's a warrior who won't be silenced. Liberals throw their best weapons of intimidation, lies and citrus! But like she said, they "throw like girls!"

I'll bet Ann's behavior was the result of her battlefield experiences, not just her temperament. She's beeen there often enough to see where the thing is headed and how to respond. It's too easy to be armchair soldiers and criticize her performances.

Sounds like once again, Ann simply let the hateful left -- this time at Columbia -- show themselves for the totalitarians they are. And all she had to do was show up!

[rmlew]

Coverage from the Columbia Daily Spectator http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2001/12/05/3c0de68e743ca Published on December 05, 2001
Columnist Ann Coulter Speaks in Hamilton Hall

Before her speech, Coulter met with a group in Cafe Taci to discuss her views on politics, terrorism.

By Alaya Johnson
Spectator Staff Writer

Ann Coulter might be outrageous, but she's not insane. She made the differentiation last night at Cafe Taci as she spoke with a group of Columbia political leaders before her speech, "Terrorism and its Left-wing Sympathizers," held in Hamilton last night.

To Megan Romigh, BC '03, who contacted Coulter and organized the event, Coulter is a well spoken woman who "can take a tenuous political position and hold her own."

To Hollis Architzel, BC '05, her ideas are ridiculous. "[Coulter] is preaching hate and that is unacceptable on our campus," she said.

Some audience members found Coulter's ideas to be so unpleasant that they booed her off stage during the question-and-answer portion of her speech later in the evening.

Already considered by some an incendiary conservative columnist, Coulter's response to the Sept. 11 attacks has shoved her, for better or for worse, into the forefront of the public consciousness. Her column, written the day after the attacks, called for the United States to "invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity." And though that statement prompted the National Review Online to drop her syndicated column, quite a few others have picked it up.

Even before that particular ideological bombshell, Coulter has been criticized by Democrats and moderate conservatives alike for her radical right-wing opinions on subjects ranging from the Confederate flag to the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal.

But Coulter hasn't been entirely happy with the recent media blitz. She said at dinner that her quotations are always taken out of context—and at times they are completely fabricated. She was especially critical of Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post who recently wrote an article critical of her Sept. 11 response.

Coulter's wry personality and self-confidence made it easy to shake off criticism. That confidence was apparent in her reaction to a poster from the College Republicans advertising her appearance.

"I never said that," she said, laughing, when she saw the poster of herself in a slinky black dress with a quote that read: "I'm empowered by my looks to say things that most Republican men wouldn't."

At first, it seemed as though the ad campaign designed by the College Republicans had reached few students. When Coulter began her speech a little after 7 p.m., the audience was small and quiet.

She began with a criticism of liberals who she claimed have been "engaging in defeatist blather about the war in Afghanistan."

"Liberals are not just wrong, but completely, symphonically, and perfectly wrong," she added—a comment that prompted laughter from some members of the audience.

As the speech progressed, more students slipped in, but there was still only a mildly disgruntled murmur when she declared that "America is the only non-imperialist superpower in the history of the world."

Due to an organizational mix-up, People for Peace and other left-wing student groups arrived late, forcing Coulter to pause her speech while they filled the Hamilton lecture hall. Though she refused to take the questions of the late-comers, she did continue her speech, but the mood of the audience was considerably less friendly.

Her comments such as "the most gullible consumers: liberal women," and re-assertions that Christian missionaries would help curb the Muslim radicals in Afghanistan prompted many outraged comments from the late students. Some of them carried posters with statements like: "Say no to the new McCarthyism" and "Defend immigrant rights."

It was hard to imagine an atmosphere more different from the one in which she had begun her speech. The question and answer period began to turn into a debate between Coulter and the audience.

In response to a follow-up question on her stance on American imperialism, Coulter described the nations to which the United States gives monetary aid as "little children," a comment that prompted some audience members to call her a racist.

At one point during the speech, a man in the back of the room directed a question to the protestors instead of to her. Coulter declared she would not stay at the podium under such circumstances, and left while students chanted "don't come back" to her retreating figure.

Security officers stopped students from approaching Coulter after she left, possibly anticipating a situation similar to the one that occurred at Cornell, her alma mater, earlier this spring when students rushed the stage during one of her speeches.

Despite the dramatic conclusion, Romigh, who is a Spectator columnist, said she still considered the event a "huge success."

"We were expecting something because she is such a controversial figure," Romigh said. She said she was disappointed that the students were "so unwilling to listen to the other side. ... They failed to uphold their part of the bargain."

Part of the miscommunication about the venue for the event came because Romigh anticipated a large turnout and changed the location at the last minute from the International Affairs Building to Hamilton. She said the late students were "basically acting like infants in front of a speaker that [we] invited to campus."

Madiha Tahir, BC '03 had a different view of the situation. "[It was] extremely unprofessional of her to walk out on that," she said afterward.

But for Ginger Gentile, CC '02, president of the Columbia Students Against Sweatshops, Coulter's actions defended at least one inflammatory statement she had made in her speech.

"I think that she proved her argument wonderfully," said Gentile sarcastically. "She stated that women were unable to make decisions [under pressure] ... she was put under pressure by protestors, she fretted, she was unable to make a decision, and she left."

[rmlew]

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2001/12/05/3c0de77e5e686
Columbia Spectator Online - The Spectator Interviews Coulter about Recent Media Coverage Published on December 05, 2001

The Spectator Interviews Coulter about Recent Media Coverage

Spectator: How do you feel about the recent media coverage of the attacks, their aftermath and the war in Afghanistan? Has there been too much censorship in the media, and do you feel that the National Review censored you when they dropped your column?

Coulter: You read the paper and you didn't really read about any hate crimes against Muslims. People were being incredibly nice. They were love-bombing their fellow Muslims. The one danger that no one was really talking about was that everyone was walking on egg shells about speech.

Spectator: Would you argue that there has been hysteria on both sides of the issue? Have the liberals been censored as well as the conservatives?

Coulter: Well, it's a good question. The only one, interestingly enough, that The New York Times pointed out (it finally noticed after I pointed it out on Politically Incorrect)...their article involved only people getting in trouble for saying anti-American things. They did not consider Falwell, me, various other people that everyone was going hysterical about. I think...it's just general hysteria.

Spectator: But Falwell got in trouble for blaming Sep. 11 on homosexuals and abortion clinics.

Coulter: Pretty much straight Christian doctrine on the Christian Broadcasting Network. What he said was "God didn't protect us on Sept. 11." The same way the FAA is looking at what went wrong, and the CIA is looking at what went wrong, a Christian minister looks at what went wrong. And he says "God wasn't protecting us, we've got to get back to asking for God's protection and help." He's a Christian minister, he says "we have rejected the all mighty and he's not protecting us." Two weeks ago, Bill Clinton blamed the attacks on Indian dispossession and slavery, and you don't see everybody jumping down his throat for it.

Spectator: Would you claim that you are a religious person?

Coulter: Yeah, I suppose I'm a Christian, it's just not like I'm constantly writing about it and thinking about it. I think for a lot of people it's become a lot more prominent after the Sept. 11 attacks, not only because people are upset and getting back to spiritual part of their lives, but also because the people who attacked us claimed that were doing it out of this religious fervor

Spectator: Do you really feel that fundamentalist Muslims in Islamic countries would even listen to the missionaries that you advocated sending?

Coulter: Look, it's amazing those girls got out of a death sentence. That wasn't a subtle point I was throwing in. I mean, journalists aren't making it out alive. They aren't in prison on a death sentence. That's a really amazing thing.

Spectator: What precisely was your rationale in your speech for insulting someone by calling them a woman?

Coulter: First, I'll tell you, it's a joke. And then I'll give you this much serious commentary. I mean, there is a difference between men and women. We may all be equal before God, but without being crass, there are quite obviously biological differences.

One of the differences is at ground zero. I don't know if you've been reading all of these bitter responses to a Maureen Dowd column...about how hunks are in now. All these bitter, angry letters coming in from women saying "oh no, all the women heroes, all the women rescue workers at ground zero." Well, I looked at every one of those pictures of firemen killed at ground zero and not a one of them was a woman.

There are many wonderful things about woman, but what we really need right now is men. They are the ones fighting this war. I think that this is going to end this idea of women in combat. And they're the ones cleaning up at ground zero.

Spectator: So what do you think a woman's place is in recent events?

Coulter: To be supportive and to admire men for their heroic acts.

Interview conducted by Alaya Johnson, Spectator Staff Writer

[athiestwithagun]

I have a much -- ahem -- "better" fake of Miss Coulter but I am not ready to get thrown off FR just yet

[LARoss]

But for Ginger Gentile, CC '02, president of the Columbia Students Against Sweatshops, Coulter's actions defended at least one inflammatory statement she had made in her speech. "I think that she proved her argument wonderfully," said Gentile sarcastically. "She stated that women were unable to make decisions [under pressure] ... she was put under pressure by protestors, she fretted, she was unable to make a decision, and she left."

Well, Ginger, you have proven the truism that children rarely understand the actions of an adult.

[anncoulteriscool]

Ann's answer to the Are you a christian question seemed a little odd.

[rmlew]

Ginger (or the little red lady) is actually president of the Columbia Student Solidarity Network , which was founded at Students for the Nicaraguan Sandanistas.
If you want to see confused students, check out their website.

[Endeavor]

Thanks to you and your compadres for inviting Ann and giving her a forum.

Ann is tough, and I greatly admire her courage to continuously take on the intellectually dispossessed. I do hope she has a strong personal network of support because you just can't keep getting savaged and stay sane. My prayers are with you, Ann - you are a terrific warhorse - stay sound and sane.

[Lancey Howard]

And though that statement prompted the National Review Online to drop her syndicated column, quite a few others have picked it up.

Excellent!

[LARoss]

Ginger (or the little red lady) is actually president of the Columbia Student Solidarity Network , which was founded at Students for the Nicaraguan Sandanistas. If you want to see confused students, check out their website.

I can't help having this wicked curiousity to know who is footing dear Ginger's bill at such a prestigious university! Girls cruising on Daddy's dime who take these militant stances as though they even have a clue about suffering amaze me. Even if she's a struggling student paying her own way, she still has no clue.

I am a Christian, not confused about how to answer that one when asked. Jesus commands us to be servants -- to help one another. But it is always in love. Not the open contempt and disrespect these children show anyone who sees things differently than they do.

If they were my kids.... ah, let's not go there...

[Doctor Raoul]

Ann's answer to the Are you a christian question seemed a little odd.

The proper context is "I suppose (long pause) I am a Christian".

[ppaul]

Spectator: So what do you think a woman's place is in recent events?

Coulter: To be supportive and to admire men for their heroic acts.

Right on Miss Coulter!