[Physicist]

I think having to explain the distinction between a "joke" and hyperbole as a literary tool takes all the fun out of the exercise...

Look, call it what you like: joke, hyperbole, lashing out in grief. I'm willing to give Anne Coulter any out you can think of, and I'm sure Jonah Goldberg was, too. But if she wanted an out, she had to take an out, and she didn't. She clearly stands by her statement, literally as written. That disappoints me.

[ArcLight]

I just sent Jonah an e-mail praising him for trying to uphold the standards of excellent and responsible journalism that NR has upheld for nearly half a century. Bill Buckley, early on, decided that extremist rants would NOT be tolerated in the pages of his magazines. Birchers and Ku Kluckers need not apply. Through the years, a buncha rightists have been quietly told to get lost, including Pat Buchanan and Joseph Sobran. Ann was cruising for a bruising and she got it.

It was reading the sober, wry essays in NR that turned me into a conservative; by comparison, everything on the left seemed like shrill, hateful billingsgate. NR's studious avoidance of such bitter rantings is one reason it's one of the most respected opinion magazines in the country. I'm glad Jonah Goldberg is maintaining the tradition, standing athwart the path of vulgarity and yelling "Stop!"