Wednesday, March 24, 2010

The unbearable vacuity of Ann Coulter.


If Canada's conservatives had any pride or principles whatsoever, they would be MASSIVELY pissed with hatemonger Ann Coulter right now, since Coulter -- unintentionally, I'm sure -- spectacularly exposed modern conservatism's intellectual bankruptcy in the most glorious way imaginable.

Return with me, if you will, to the evening of March 22 at the University of Western Ontario, and pay close attention to the exchange here:

Fatima Al-Dhaher, a political science student from London, rose and spoke about comments Coulter made after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The firebrand Republican had suggested Muslim countries be invaded, their leaders killed and all Muslims converted to Christianity. She later suggested Muslims denied air travel take “flying carpets” instead.

“As a 17-year-old student of this university, Muslim, should I be converted to Christianity? Second of all, since I don’t have a magic carpet, what other modes do you suggest,” Al-Dhaher said to loud and sustained applause.

“I thought it was just American public schools that produced ignorant people,” Coulter replied, prompting her own round of applause.

Coulter then noted many Japanese were converted to Christianity after the Second World War and “we haven’t heard a peep out of them.”

To shouts of “Answer the question,” Coulter finally replied “What mode of transportation? Take a camel.”

HA HA! Take a camel! Oh, man, that's fucking funny. But seriously. No, really, but seriously, and that's precisely why Coulter -- and by extension, her adoring groupies -- are utterly irrelevant to anything resembling serious political discourse. Because once you got past what was a snotty, pathetic, racist retort, what should have followed was an actual answer.

Because Ann Coulter has (if memory serves) publicly and, by all accounts, seriously suggested that Muslims should not be allowed to fly. But if that's her position, and if she wishes to pass herself off as an actual pundit, then she kind of has an obligation to subsequently explain just how the world's hundreds of millions of Muslins should travel if they need to go long distances.

This is precisely the issue that political science student Fatima Al-Dhaher was raising -- it was a deadly serious question to a deadly serious position, and Al-Dhaher absolutely deserved a deadly serious answer. Instead, what she got was ignorant, childish, content-free, racist snark ... which would have been minimally tolerable had Coulter continued on with, "But, seriously, blah blah blah ...".

Sadly, Al-Dhaher (who admits to being nervous as she was asking her question) didn't have the presence of mind to pull off the perfect comeback. She should have waited until the reported "cheers and jeers" after Coulter's answer died down, then calmly but firmly replied, "No, seriously, how do you propose Muslims travel if they're not allowed to fly?" That would have been the most awesome comeback, because it would have put Coulter entirely on the defensive. There would have been an increasingly awkward silence as it became obvious that Al-Dhaher wanted a real answer, and Coulter was utterly unable to provide one.

But, quibbles aside, that exchange is priceless simply for exposing Coulter for the intellectual empty vessel that she is. Coulter and her groupies love to portray her as a pundit, as a political commentator, and so on. She is none of that. She is a vacuous hatemonger. She contributes nothing of any value to intellectual discourse. Her entire presentation consists of simply shrieking about people and things that she hates, and insulting her critics. There is no content. There is no analysis. There is no thought-provoking punditry. There is no attempt at actually addressing the issues. Quite simply, there is no "there" there. And a CTV news piece managed to nail that beautifully (emphasis added):

Coulter said Tuesday that her comment about taking flying carpets was a joke that was made during an interview with The Guardian newspaper about racial profiling, and had been taken out of context.

"I can say it a lot quicker with a joke, and by the way, they wouldn't be bringing me in here for a speech if I never told a joke, if I never used satire," Coulter told CTV's Power Play Tuesday. "It's not so much a joke, it's satire because there's a political point behind my saying that they can take flying carpets."

Coulter did not elaborate on what her political point actually was.


That's because she didn't have one. She never does. She is, as I have described, the perfect intellectual empty vessel. No meaningful ideas, no serious proposals, no content. And, as I suggested, if Canada's conservatives had even the slightest sense of self-respect, they would be furious with Coulter for portraying them as similarly empty vessels, devoid of actual thought and incapable of anything resembling serious discourse.

But that's not going to happen, is it?

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

she's thick and looks like she'd fuck anyone.... no wonder dr roy jerks off to her...

Conservatives like to be stupid it seems.
I've often wondered why they don't seem to understand the hypocrisy of their actions and now I'm convinced it is because they have the self-awereness of slugs and the comprehension of a tin of bag balm.

Anonymous said...

dr roy was all a quiver that she remembered him and quipped that he could no longer escape to the U.S. to practice his special brand of being a dr.....

For someone that seems to hate our system so much, why is he still here? He never really seems to work, his patients dislike him and he his a drain on the system....

CK said...

I remembered Jabba the roy lamenting about Quebec's distaste for Alberta tar sands and his ever gushing praise of Alberta.

I commented on his blog that he should perhaps move to Alberta and leave the rest of us Quebecers alone.

As for Ann and the U of O, call me a conspiracy theorist, But Coulter is rich because of tea-bagger cosnspiracy theorists, but I always thought it was bizarre for U of O to be on her itinerary; Western and Calgary would be normal venues as they are 'conservative' and bigotted and thus, would be a captive audience.

I'm wondering if this whole debacle was staged by both Ann and Ezzy, themselves.

Remember, that email the Houle sent to Coulter was somehow leaked to the National Pest, THE Fox News of Canada?? This was no accident.

Dr.Dawg said...

*applause*

sooey said...

She doesn't actually believe in what she's saying. And it shows to everyone except idiots like Michael Coren et al.

sooey said...

Cancelling her speaking engagement was a fairly predictable over-reaction by a university administration and should hardly be applauded.

deBeauxOs said...

As far as I know, it was Coulter and her entourage who called off the event because of security concerns. Perhaps the organizers didn't want to assume responsibility. Perhaps the U of O didn't want its liability insurance premiums to increase.

The protest group was chanting. Someone pulled a fire alarm. There were more people wanting to attend (including many of the protesters) than the hall could hold. It was reported that at least 10 Ottawa police cruisers were called for crowd control.

No firearms,though.

Ti-Guy said...

I'm deeply disappointed by what I've seen so far in the mainstream media about all of this. A brief discussion on the CBC yesterday, with the imbecile Kory Teneycke, Jennifer Ditchburn, some other political strategist and the insufferable Evan Solomon was pretty standard; same old discussion featuring the usual unexamined tropes about free speech, the right to offend (?), Coulter's status as a comedian (?) and the usual reactions to her.

The cretinous Kory Teneycke ventured that she's the equivalent of Al Franken. He even asserted that if you replace the word "Muslim" with "Jew" in Coulter's shtick, you get Al Franken. Really, he said this. And he's paid a lot of money to say things like that.

Anyway, just get the hell out of my country, nazi harridan.

Oh, and I'm glad her event was cancelled at U. of O. Fuck with us, and we'll fuck with you until we're done. That's how Canada has remained "unsquashed" by 'Merca, Ms. Coulter.

blackdog said...

American woman stay away from me -American Ultra right wing nutjob American woman stay away from me - Go fuck your ultra right wing boyfriend Stphen Baldwin (who threatened a 22 minutes "reporter") recently. You don't joke with these nut cases cause they WILL kill you! Stay in the fucked up US of Assholes where you belong!

Cliff said...

She's a rodeo clown in a fright wig. A scary-scrawny hate addict with the biggest hands and Adam's apple I've ever seen on a woman (American conservatives keep demanding to see Obama's birth certificate, liberals should be demanding to see Coulter's.) and a perpetual 'Look what I did' smirk that makes her look like an unpleasent toddler who's just smeared her poo on the wall and is enjoying her own 'naughtiness'.

On the one hand she wants to be considered a serious pundit and advocate for authentic policy positions - on the other she defaults to 'Can't you take a joke?' whenever her insanity is challenged.

She's irrelevant to the discourse.

SecondComingOfBast said...

"Remember, that email the Houle sent to Coulter was somehow leaked to the National Pest, THE Fox News of Canada?? This was no accident."

No, it obviously wasn't an accident, but why exactly is it a problem? Was the content of the e-mail being misrepresented? If so, how? Seems to me it just raised a point. People have free speech in Canada, but some speech is just more free than others.

Just curious-had Keith Olberrman, Bill Maher, Al Franken, etc., been invited to speak at the U of O, would they have received such an e-mail? Somehow, I seriously doubt it.

The Doc said...

Why is it ok to wish death to all muslim leaders, but not ok to wish it on Coulter?

(I KNOW the answer... I was simply stating the question for the world).

Anonymous said...

Shenanigans courtesy of International Free Press Society of Canada and the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute. Or thank you Ezra and all those cute young American white chicks with there pearl earings and bleached out tooth jobs. What a world.

wv whouncun

The Doc said...

TPT,
"Just curious-had Keith Olberrman, Bill Maher, Al Franken, etc., been invited to speak at the U of O, would they have received such an e-mail? Somehow, I seriously doubt it."

I'm personally unaware of any of those people actually singling out minorities and implying that they should be killed, invaded, or otherwise destroyed. I'm personally unaware of any of those people publicly defending a murder of a person they disagree with. I can't recall any of them stating anything more offensive than "X is an idiot, because Y".

Maybe I'm wrong.

I've read the email in full. I can't see anything particularly offensive in it. The UofO stated that it was delighted to host her, and that it was wonderful that she was speaking. It did state that there are some things about 'free' speech here in Canada which are different, and that she should know that there are consequences to threatening people, especially an identifiable group, here. Otherwise, have a great speech.

I really don't see what the UofO did wrong.

This is a woman who has asked for all leaders of Islamic nations to be killed. And defended the shooting of an abortion doctor. Colour me shocked that the university wanted to ensure she knew that this sort of thing is frowned upon here.

Lario said...

Regarding the "Kill all Muslim Leaders and convert their citizens to Christianity" quote by Ms. Coulter, She made that comment in an Article in the National review on September 13, 2001.
http://old.nationalreview.com/coulter/coulter.shtml

Cameron Campbell said...

I know that this has been covered already, but not specifically enough to my satisfaction.

so, by your leave, The Doc, I'll ask it again.

The Pagan Temple, could you please point us to a reference where "Keith Olberrman, Bill Maher, Al Franken, etc." have ever called for the death of a minority group, lamented that a terrorist bomb wasn't planted nearer people they don't like, suggested that Canada shouldn't exist, etc etc etc? I'll accept links to primary sources thanks.

Ti-Guy? What is a "Kory Teneycke"? Does he not get the difference between a jewish guy making jokes about his co-religionists and a (nominally) Christian wishing/suggesting death up on Muslims?

How did we get here?

PeBo said...

So the definition of satire is a joke with a political point? Gee, I didn't know that. She obviously understabds "Satire" the same way that Alanis Morisette understands the word "Ironic" - not at all.

I guess being blatantly racist is OK when it's "coultersatire".

I really wish there was less attention for this "woman" (spell that with a "C")...spoiled brats usually get louder and more obnoxious when they get attention, and ann's 20 minutes was up ten years ago.

  said...

Fatima Al-Dhaher is part of a group of radical violent Muslims who want to wipe out Israel.

Fatima shouldn't be allowed to travel ANYWHERE outside of a 5 mile radius of where she lives.