Posted on 07/09/2002 7:38:31 AM PDT by mikeb704
This week’s New York Times bestseller is Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right. The author is Ann Coulter.
Miss Coulter is well known to regular viewers of the cable news networks. Long blond hair. Long legs. Short skirts. Big attitude and a quick wit that slashes Leftists down to size faster than you can say I feel your pain. Clearly, she qualifies as a pinup girl of the vast right-wing conspiracy.
Using computer searches and other research, Miss Coulter has delivered a 205-page tome that stunningly (for those who haven’t been paying attention) establishes how Leftist politicians, newspapers, television shows and news magazines have turned truth on its head. Those poor mislead souls may point to the supposed perils of conservatism, but they’re the real purveyors of hate. The almost 800 footnotes persuasively document her case.
Despite its number one ranking on their own list, the folks at the New York Times are undoubtedly astounded at the success of Miss Coulter’s book. Indeed, Slander points out how often liberals are flabbergasted at the success of books targeted to conservatives. Examples are provided, and here are just a few.
The Washington Post found Senatorial Privilege: The Chappaquiddick Cover-Up a "surprise national bestseller." United Press International (UPI) took note of ". . . such surprise bestsellers" as Illiberal Education and The Real Anita Hill. Politically Correct Bedtime Stories: Modern Tales for Our Life & Times was deemed "a surprise best seller" by USA Today.
Robert Bork’s Slouching Toward Gomorrah was a "surprise best seller" according to the Chicago Tribune. National Public Radio branded retired FBI agent Gary Aldrich’s Unlimited Access, a book detailing the sleaziness of the Clinton White House, a "surprise best-seller."
It’s understandable that conservative books being bought – and read and discussed – come as an unwelcome shocker to the deep thinkers who’ve propagandized Americans for decades. They are so detached from reality that they simply can’t fathom that some people still prefer to think for themselves. Why, they must wonder, aren’t customers scarfing up all of those riveting Jimmy Carter volumes instead?
I found a particular passage of Slander especially relevant: "Leaving nothing to chance, liberals also hide conservative books. The hiding books trick – long well-known to conservatives – eventually became comical enough to be written up in the New York Times."
Last Sunday I visited a bookstore located in a mall and looked for Ann Coulter’s book. Not finding it, I asked for assistance from a clerk who located it fairly quickly. The reason I hadn’t seen the book was because, in contrast to most of the other books displayed, it was shelved with only the side of the book opposite of the spine showing.
The clerk gave me a copy and commented there was only one left. "Guess we should have ordered more," he said cheerily. Not that I think there’s a conspiracy afoot or anything like that.
Some conservatives may take issue with a few of Miss Coulter’s conclusions. She doesn’t think, for example, that Bill O’Reilly of Fox News is a conservative. She cites his opposition to the death penalty, his support of gun control, his warming up to the notion of global warning, and his belief Elian Gonzalez should have been sent back to the prison that is Cuba as evidence.
She also doesn’t accept Pat Robertson as a genuine conservative. Here she points out his endorsement of Dole over Buchanan in the ’96 primaries, his calling for an end to Clinton’s impeachment, his endorsement for Most Favored Nation status for China, and his apparent acceptance of China’s forced abortion policies.
Perky Katie Couric, who is unfavorably mentioned in Slander, introduced Ann Coulter using the phrase "right-wing telebimbo." Not that Perky Katie thinks that, but someone else does. With enemies like Mz Couric, you just have to love Ann Coulter. Her book is terrific and will confirm – if you need additional confirmation – that your suspicions of media bias are grounded in fact.
Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit The Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com
Thoughts upon finding a pebble.
Just after my shower this morning, my bare foot detected something small and tiny on the bathroom carpet. It was only a small pebble, but it was also an eye-opening revelation about the magnitude and scope of sense perception capabilities inherent in the human body -- one of my multi-million sensors, one neuron on the bottom of my foot, told me ... "Something was there."
And so it goes with the human mind, with the beyond-the-marvelous capabilities contained therein.
Capable of rational thought, using reason, using the mind, man can acquire knowledge, live well, marry and support a family, and man can create -- art, literature, music, inventions, architecture, etc.
But humans can avoid thought, and live blissfully -- for a while; smoking pot, for instance. And humans can avoid reality and live the "just do it" life -- for a while; until, for instance, the inheritance runs out.
But avoiding thought and reality means avoiding truth, truth being the recognition of reality using reason (I felt it, I looked at it, it was a pebble) and knowing truth, especially those automatic truths (IT'S A TRUCK!), is important to one's life.
But there's more to it than that. Avoiding thought and reality can happen in insidious ways and your very mind can be rendered inoperable -- even destroyed -- in the process. Who might want to do that?
The human mind can be molded, wounded, rendered inoperable even destroyed by teachers, preachers, or seekers of power. The young and the weak are especially vulnerable. And when the mind is effectively destroyed (irrationality is a symptom) there goes the potential to use the mind as God designed it to be used -- to think and reason.
"Why would anyone do that?" you ask.
Well, there's money in in, for one reason; but the better answer comes from Ayn Rand saying ... "If men are to be ruled, the enemy is reason."
---
P.S. The "pebble" turned out to be a sesame seed.
Perhaps a grant from the NEA would help boost sales.
a) People are eager for the truth.
b) The country is much more conservative than most people think.
c) Conservatives read, liberals watch TV
d) All of the above.
Yup, despite being #1 on NYT Best Seller list, Walden Books had it stashed amid a pile of drivel, with only a smidgen of a corner visible.
Great book, better than I thought it would be. I'm carrying it everywhere - and reading it slowly.
Bwahahahaha!!!
If that wasn't obvious Liberal bias, I don't know what is. The Liberal Press Corp is grabbing and clawing at ANYTHING that will show the American people, "Look, Bush is as bad as Clinton, they're all the same".
It won't work.
When she dumped all over Rich Lowry and Jonah Goldberg a while back, it opened a window to her character. Not a pretty picture. She's smart, but narcissistic and far too hostile for my taste.
I bought the book, I recommend it highly.
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