Sunday, February 22, 2004
New Mission: Target Ann Coulter
If you've followed right-wing attack politics in the past year, you've heard of Ann Coulter. She's the strident blonde author of books called Treason and Slander, which, while intended to directly attack liberals, seem to be more accurately described as contents true to their one-word titles. The argument that her books are little more than deceptive opinion pieces is discussed at the Spinsanity website.
She's irritating, and nearly every time I see her on TV or read her articles, I find some glaringly obvious stupidity that she seems gleeful in demonstrating, like a evil clown.
So, ever since Rush Limbaugh has dropped from the radar as a hypocritical drug addict demanding the civil services and liberties that he has campaigned against for many years, Ann has blipped onto the screen. As I digest her weekly diatribes, I'll point out the insanity that she spews, strain through the hate she bubbles in her cauldron, and generally lay out her laundry from the perspective of an investigating progressive thinker.
Let's start with her most recent op-ed piece: She replies to the many senators and journalists who have called a recent column of hers a lie. Now, anybody who has the skills of piling deceptions upon deceptions like she does knows the basic trick of plucking your favorite straw man from an opinion piece, and arguing that this one item is, in fact, no lie. That way the author of a piece doesn't have to fight the relevant battles- she may simply include at least one true statement, like, "Bush's National Guard service is the most thoroughly investigated event since the Kennedy assassination", err... wait, let's not use that as an example of truthfulness, maybe, "When Bush left the National Guard in 1973 to go to business school, the war was over", oh rats, this is a lie too (the Vietnam War ended in 1975), hold on, maybe this: "Cleland lost three limbs in an accident during a routine noncombat mission". There! A true statement, that she can now present as the target of misguided liberal accusations. Never mind that the entire rest of the column hurls insults and unsupported accusations all over the place, including a completely disproved myth that Al Gore received the "special dispensation" of military duty that Bush is accused of.
Well that's it for Week One. I'm sure the opinion pieces by Coulter will continue to entertain in their own unique way, and I hope my review has done as much.
If you've followed right-wing attack politics in the past year, you've heard of Ann Coulter. She's the strident blonde author of books called Treason and Slander, which, while intended to directly attack liberals, seem to be more accurately described as contents true to their one-word titles. The argument that her books are little more than deceptive opinion pieces is discussed at the Spinsanity website.
She's irritating, and nearly every time I see her on TV or read her articles, I find some glaringly obvious stupidity that she seems gleeful in demonstrating, like a evil clown.
So, ever since Rush Limbaugh has dropped from the radar as a hypocritical drug addict demanding the civil services and liberties that he has campaigned against for many years, Ann has blipped onto the screen. As I digest her weekly diatribes, I'll point out the insanity that she spews, strain through the hate she bubbles in her cauldron, and generally lay out her laundry from the perspective of an investigating progressive thinker.
Let's start with her most recent op-ed piece: She replies to the many senators and journalists who have called a recent column of hers a lie. Now, anybody who has the skills of piling deceptions upon deceptions like she does knows the basic trick of plucking your favorite straw man from an opinion piece, and arguing that this one item is, in fact, no lie. That way the author of a piece doesn't have to fight the relevant battles- she may simply include at least one true statement, like, "Bush's National Guard service is the most thoroughly investigated event since the Kennedy assassination", err... wait, let's not use that as an example of truthfulness, maybe, "When Bush left the National Guard in 1973 to go to business school, the war was over", oh rats, this is a lie too (the Vietnam War ended in 1975), hold on, maybe this: "Cleland lost three limbs in an accident during a routine noncombat mission". There! A true statement, that she can now present as the target of misguided liberal accusations. Never mind that the entire rest of the column hurls insults and unsupported accusations all over the place, including a completely disproved myth that Al Gore received the "special dispensation" of military duty that Bush is accused of.
Well that's it for Week One. I'm sure the opinion pieces by Coulter will continue to entertain in their own unique way, and I hope my review has done as much.
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