I Don't Like You Either.

Melanie Morgan & Ann Coulter Throw Down Over Which Gruesome Method of Execution Most Becomes A "Traitor."

  [published on July 16, 2006 in "The Flatland Oracles," my previous blog]

I'm inclined to treat the latest developments in Lunatic Fringe Queen Bee vs. Lunatic Fringe Queen Bee Wannabe with the amusement their antics usually evoke, but it's really too disturbing. 

You know, I was really concerned that Morgan might actually have out-Coultered La Coulter with that first round of nonsense about sending Keller to the gas chamber, but OF COURSE AC wasn't going to sit still and let this Coulter-come-lately.  Nope, she jumped right in the ring, and now the two are duking it out to see who can be the most 'outrageous' under the guise of a 'friendly' exchange of death penalty preferences.

Clearly my girl Ann---the Dems' secret weapon---is becoming desperate as more and more women rush in to compete for her place as Queen of the Lunatic Fringe. This Melanie Morgan---how dare she?!--- is clearly trying to wrestle for Ann's scepter. 

Not in this lifetime, Mel!   Left-wing Coulterphiles everywhere agree that even the most extreme crazy-ass fascist-type statement that an aspiring capital W wingnut can utter falls flat and sounds stupid if not backed up by Coulter's enormous, seemingly limitless rage at all things liberal.  Not to say that Coulter's rants don't sound stupid, but they sound stupid in the scary way that hatred backed by real rage.   Morgan is an amateur at the shock-the-donkey game compared to AC and I refuse to take her seriously as competition for La Coulter. I really get the feeling that she is TRYING to be offensive; but to beat out AC, you have to BE offensive and we Dems, damn it, can tell the difference.   

Coulter Out-Coultered! Or, Thank God I'm a Democrat, Some More.

[published on June 30, 2006 in "The Flatland Oracles"]

From the Huffington Post, the following:

[quoted material begins]

Greg Sargent: Right Wing Talk Show Host Says "Any Newspaper Editor" Who Publishes Classified Info Should Be Murdered By Family Members of Slain Troops and Sent to "Hottest Corner of Hell".

Actually, no, that isn't parody. I've been conducting a rather bracing on-the-record email interview with Melanie Morgan, the sometime guest on MSNBC and right-wing talk show host on San Francisco's KSFO-FM. You may recall that Ms. Morgan recently said that she'd happily countenance the slow and agonizing execution of Bill Keller over his decision to publish the big Times piece on the U.S.'s secret financial surveillance program. In yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle Morgan was quoted saying this about Keller:

Ann Coulter "Praises" Senator Lieberman

  [published on Thursday, June 22, 2005 in "The Flatland Oracles," my previous blog]

I don't know about the rest of you, but my week would not be complete without a word from our li'l fire-brand.  Disappointingly, her comments are (by Coulterphil standards) fairly tempered and free of the sort of outrageousness that causes such rejoicing among liberals everywhere.  Damn it, I like my Coulter over the top and overflowing with bile and vitriol! 

The pull quote from the Huff post got my attention, but it turns out that AC is only saying about Lieberman what many Dems have said:  For a Democrat, he's a credible Republican.   She didn't really say she admired him; she said that she admires him less than "your run of the mill garden-variety Republican" but more than your average Dem.  He must be so happy! 

Anyway, in case you didn't already see it, here's a link and a quote.   

[quoted material begins]

Ann Coulter: "I Would Admire A Politician...Like Lieberman"....

COULTER:....I would admire a politician, not as much as basically your run of the mill garden-variety Republican, but as far as Democrats go like Lieberman, who apparently does want to defend America and fight the war on terrorism. He is the one facing a primary fight.

CAVUTO: You know, there is talk about him maybe bolting to a third party. The seeds are there for a third party movement. Do you buy that?

COULTER: I think he should come all the way and become a Republican. He wouldn’t be our best Republican but at left he’d fit in with the party that wants to defend the country.

[quoted material ends]

After all, she's only saying that as a Republican Lieberman wouldn't be the best, which is basically the same thing the Democrats seem to be saying about him as a Democrat.  Nevertheless, it's not very nice of Ann Coulter to praise him for it.  You can't deny that she is a clever girl, at least when it comes to prodding the Dems' sore spots. Lots of angst around today about the lack of unity among the Democrats.      

Poor Senator Lieberman.  Just for the record, I get his position and I definitely feel [Ali G. voice and gestures] RESPECT[/Ali G. voice and gestures]. And while the infighting among Dems is troubliing in a way, I think the party needs people on both sides of the liberal spectrum. 

I actually do NOT think that Democrat should = Left Wing in the way that Republican is more and more coming to mean "Right Wing."  I think that over time the more inclusive party will end up with the greatest number of voters and that---barring some sort of crisis that of course we can't rule out----the hegemony of the GOP is on borrowed time. 

I don't want a monolithic party with a rigid platform; and I'm basically against the whole "united front" line of thought because dissent is so valuable in getting people to examine their views.  On the other hand, I have to agree with this  that Dems should keep their attacks on one another focused on the issues, not each other.  I wish I could believe that's what's going to happen. 

So I worry about Senator Lieberman.  Agree with him or not, we Democrats of all shades need him and conservative Dems like him.  I hope being faintly praised by Ann Coulter doesn't discourage him too much.

Secret Left-wing Coulterphiles

[published on June 18, 2005 in "The Flatland oracles," my previous blog]

In PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS ARTICLE ABOUT ANN COULTER...You May Have CRD, Steve Young says:

"I'm so tired of articles about Ann Coulter.  It's just giving her more free promotion to hype her psyche and sell her book(s).  There are those out there who know better and wouldn't waste their time by reading this, that is only gives credence to her...."

[The Huffington Post | Raw Feed]

I'm a secret Coulterphile too, Steve. She is your and my secret weapon against the so-called "Right."  The last thing on earth any of us should want is for her to shut up.  She is so endlessly diverting---in the sense of "diverting attention from those who are reasonable-seeming (though wrong)." 

Let's start appreciating her for  her consistently over-the-top constant discrediting of her own positions.  Don't wring your hands about your (and my) fascination with La Coulter, dude, or worry about "Coulter rubbernecking disease."  Just keep on pointing and laughing. 

So I say:  GO, ANN! You go, girl! Enough of your entertainingly unhinged-sounding diatribes, and all right-thinking Right-leaners will be tilting back centerwards

Estrich on Coulter: Sympathy for the Mean Girl.

[published on Friday, June 16 in "The Flatland Oracles"]

I loved this article by Susan Estrich (here at Fox.com). Just to whet your appetite, here is a little taste of one conservative woman's view of what a woman must do to get a little attention paid to her views here at the turn of the century:

In Ann's case, because I do respect her intelligence, I am forever trying to bring her in from the edge and her response is to point out that it is only because of where she stands that anyone sees her at all.  If she weren't outrageous---if she didn't take those extra steps---"no one" would pay attention.

That is the thesis of Ann's life.

If she were not a thin, gun-toting, half-naked, over-the-line arch-conservative, long blonde haired bombshell-- that is, if she were just a size 4, well-suited, TV coiffed conservative woman-- she'd go nowhere. And she always laughs at me because I, of all people, know that. It isn't just ideology, stupid. It's gender, too.

And here's the test of it: Show me a more moderate Ann. Show me a more moderate version of Ann who has made it by taking the essence of Ann's ideas and eating more and going to fewer extremes

Ann Coulter and Me, Tipper and Hillary.

So. “The thesis of Ann’s life”:  she's the nasty child who sits in the front row and torments the other children to get the “negative” attention she so desperately needs.  Her disastrous recent comments about the 9-11 widows don't reflect her true views; she just said it to make people pay attention to her.   It's nice to have my opinion of Coulter confirmed by people on her team.

Come on, She's Good for a Laugh: How to Talk About Ann Coulter (If We Really Must)

[published on June 12, 2006 in my previous blog "The Flatland Oracles"]

What Would Ann Coulter Do?. On campus, a new conservative women's anti-feminist group is rising, and both their liberal counterparts and conservative mentors are taking notice [TIME Magazine Online: Top Nation Stories]

The answer to that question is, "Write a book of fulminations by the pot against the kettle," e.g.,  Godless.  Ann Coulter may be many things to many people but she certainly does not exemplify the spirit that will inherit the earth. 

(August 22, 2006.  Um.  I'd like to disown the next part of this note, but I'm not going to delete it because it's what I said. 

But what was I THINKING?  My response to Godless was certainly within certain traditions of Christianity  (remember the SNL sketch?  "WIIIIIIIITCH!") and it amused some of my friends. 

But I don't mind the witch metaphors so much as the attack on her appearance.  How middle school is that?    And it's irrelevant.  In fact, I think Ann Coulter is rather beautiful; but her beauty, however it serves her in attracting public attention, is entirely irrelevant to the value---or lack thereof--- of her ideas.   

And from this you can see for yourself that trying to be good is the death of the humor to be derived from making  another human being your target and taking aim.  Sorry.   Yes, I know this is the same woman who called the 911 widows "harpies." 

Even so.  "Don't descend to their level," my mom used to say, "or people won't be able to tell that you're the one who's right."  Exactly.

And I bet she'd be quite pleased to be compared to Lilith and that she agrees she could eat any conservative man alive.  [Alan Partridge voice/]  But not literally of course.  That would be hideous.[/Alan Partridge voice]  Just a thought.

Anyway, I'm not going to disown this, because it's what I wrote and therefore it belongs to me.  And I still hate and despise the thing she says.  But I plan to stick in future to stick to what's relevant.)

She is not an 'anti-feminist'; rather she's the apotheosis of the right wing version feminism.  In a world where feminism did not exist, Ann Coulter would be relegated to her broom.   Put together all the atavistic male fears evoked in the breast of right-wing males by the word "feminism" and what do you get?  You get Ann Colter: hollow-eyed, gaunt, and hungry looking, scary, brimming over with free-floating vitriol, castrating,  humorless, seeking whom she may devour....

She's Lilith, not Eve, and if she were really as powerful as she aspires to be, she'd eat alive any conservative who dared to challenge her world view with the same gusto as she would devour a Liberal.      

I am sure that many puffy pink Republican men who read her books must be simulataneously terrified and ecstatic to find their views and misgivings "confirmed" in her writings.

I can only hope that any network of young conservative women that may be "arising" on college campuses will read the comments that have been attributed to her before deciding to follow in her footsteps.  For them, the solution to Ann Coulter is "critical thinking."  I am not yet at the point where I believe that all conservatives (and particularly the young ones) are incapable of it.

Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Dogs of War! The Sayings of Ann Coulter [Res ipsa loquitur]

                                    

The author of  the Kendallball.net blog is one of the Harding University alumni who by matter of factly pointing out that Coulter’s message isn’t exactly consistent with Christ’s apparently helped bring about Harding’s cancellation of her engagement to speak there as part of its “Distinguished Lecturer Series.” (The Harding cancellation is discussed here in “Calling Off Ann Coulter,” at Inside Higher Ed.) In the Kendallball.net blog, in a response to the author's original posting, I found a link to an entertaining and informative article in The Washington Monthly entitled “The Wisdom of Ann Coulter.” For a sampler of her sayings, please click on that link.  I promise you, they are choice.

The Inside Higher Ed article described Ann Coulter’s rhetoric as ‘provocative and sometimes bombastic.” That’s certainly one way of describing it. I'd go for ‘intemperate and frequently childish.”  But “Yip! Yip! Yip! Grrrrrr” would also do.

Seriously, how could anyone hear or read this stuff without falling over laughing? I mean, I take it she’s serious---deadly serious---and that she apparently wants people like me to choke on the vomit some of this is clearly meant to induce, but….is she serious?  It seems as if she is.  Am I reading it wrong?

I honestly don't know how to take her rhetoric.  I’m a mere soft, soppy liberal, a bleeding-heart left-leaning spineless arty-farty Christian ivory tower-dwelling geek. I’m middle-aged, diffident, and ordinary.  If I weren't those things, I might call her a gaunt attention-begging media-created harpy without humility, humor, or decorum through which to filter her seemingly inexhaustible rage. But I am middle-aged, spineless, non-famous, and ordinary-looking, so as I was saying, what's my opinion of her worth?  And anyway, to say something so vicious is really against my principles.  Having said or implied it I am already feeling remorseful and ashamed.  Unlike La Belle Dame sans Merci, I think that ad hominem attacks are not only crude, but  transparently fallacious.