No, Really, I Hate Ann Coulter

Again I preface this post by saying I don't really hate Coulter. I hate the things she says. Especially when she says things like she did in her last two columns. Now, I know that Coulter is a right-wing extremist. (Can anyone else think a group of right-wing extremists using a severe twisting of religous beliefs to attack the culture of their percieved enemy? Hmmm....let me think...) But her recent statements leave the realm of political discourse (or, rather, leave political discourse even further behind than she already has) and enter the world of of propaganda.

In her 9/11 column Coulter talks about a lesson plan suggested by the National Council for Social Studies The lesson plan involves a short story entitled "My Name is Osama".

Calculatedly inciting hatred toward white American boys, the story is about a nasty little boy, "Todd," who taunts an Iraqi immigrant named "Osama." This is the lesson to commemorate the biggest hate crime in history committed by someone named "Osama" against people with names like "Todd."

Well, the thing that Coulter misses entirely is that the "biggest hate crime in history" was not just committed against people with names like "Todd." It was also committed against people with names like "Moustafa" and "Mario" and "Manuel" and "Keiko". The greatest thing about New York City is that it is the opposite of homogenous. It is filled with people bearing names running the spectrum from "Todd" to "Osama". The attack was not on "Todd". The attack was on "Americans". This is something that Coulter likes to cite and then simultaneously deny. To quote her again from a passage I find maddening,

By "America," I obviously mean to exclude newsrooms, college campuses, Manhattan, and Los Angeles

Here we see Coulter's brand of severe doublethink in effect. The 9/11 attacks happened to "Todds" (i.e., average, white, sterotypical, apple-pie "Americans"), and yet the place where (one of) the attacks happened, namely Manhattan, is not "America." Which is it?

In Coulter's 9/4 column, titled "Murder For Fun and Prophet", Coulter mentions several examples of Muslims who have committed horrific acts, and "exposes" elements of hypocrisy in the Quran. Now, being a devout agnostic, I am the first to point out hypocrisy in any organized religion. For instance, "Thou Shalt Not Kill", unless you're setting a "witch" on fire, killing an abortion doctor, in the military (self-explanatory), or govenor of Texas. Also, "Love thy Neighbor", unless they're Native Americans you've given smallpox-infected blankets to, illegal Mexican immigrants desparate for work, scientists daring to recognize that the Earth revolves around the sun, or in the military (there's a link for ya...)

Coulter convieniently forgets to mention the hypocritical elements in her own religion, not to mention the fact that she herself is constantly violating the major tenets of it.

"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war."

Way to turn the other cheek, Ann.

Again, thanks to Anti-Coulter for most of the info.