Thursday, June 15, 2006

Everyone hates Ann Coulter. Yay!!!!

I'm sure it says something about my emotional maturity, but it fills me with glee to see Ann Coulter being thrashed about in the media again recently.

Yes, all the arguments that she's just getting unneccesary attention for her hate-filled tirades apply. And I'm sure you're right. Just don't spoil my fun.

First off, there's her appearance on the Today Show. Ann, it's not smart to make like you sufferred on 9/11 just as much as the people of New York, while in New York.

It's a stupid thing to say anywhere, but you shouldn't say it to the faces of people who were standing in the streets watching bodies fall out of buildings in real-time, instead of through their television screens. They won't understand the subtle point you're trying to make.

PZ at Pharyngula has a nice takedown of some of her new book, Godless.
A reader (who will be nameless, unless he wants to confess in the comments) sent me a chunk of Coulter's book, Godless. It's worse than I feared. It contains the usual stock creationist crap presented at a rapid pace, full of the usual bald assertions of outright lies, intentional misinterpretations, and lots and lots of quote mining. Seriously, it looks like every paragraph contains multiple falsehoods or screwy manglings of science.
Not that I'm surprised. It must be so easy to be someone like Ann Coulter. All you have to do is make shit up, put it in book form, confuse footnotes with endnotes, and you're rich. You could work in the comfort of your own home!

In fact, I think I'm in the wrong business. Someone get me a blonde wig!

PZ also mentions why Coulter isn't better ignored.
Here's a counterargument: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." I've watched good people do nothing about creeping lunacy and anti-intellectualism for decades. I watched appalled when that senile fool Reagan was elected. I was even more appalled when George W. Bush, airhead extraordinaire and utterly unqualified ignoramus, became president. The citizenry howls to destroy the science standards in our public schools, or complacently votes to lower property taxes at the expense of our children's minds. While we've quietly raised a rich crop in scattered little plots, we are about to be overwhelmed by the nightmarish weeds that overrun our neighbors'. We must stand up and shout, finally…and hope it's not too late.
I agree. Coulter and her ilk must be shown to be the lying hypocrites that they are. If your kitchen is crawling with roaches, you shouldn't just let them scurry around unseen in the dark. No, throw the light of day on those bastards, and grab the raid!

Over at Feministe, there's a contest going on in the comments for this thread to come up with the best insult for Ann without insulting race, gender, or otherwise. One of my favorite insults for Ann used to be that she was really "Andy Kaufman in drag." Not referring to anything about her appearance or dubious feminity, but rather to her schlockyness, and how it was so over the top that it had to be a joke a-la Kaufman.

However, I can totally see how that could seem insulting to the transgendered and will no longer use it. I remember reading on some blog somewhere that I don't remember comments about how Ann Coulter was a 'cunt' and how the person commenting would really 'like to rape her.' And that was one of the more disturbing things I've ever read on a blog. Not to mention all the comments about how she's anorexic, has an adam's apple, what have you. So no more of that.

But read the contest suggestions. My favorites are "Fascist Barbie" and "Vomitbag."

Finally, there's this amusing image from Mike Tidmus' blog: Codless.

And yes, I'm still pregnant.

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