Slander

Rating:
Summary: Liberal as a curse word
Review: Ann Coulter's over wrought diatribe practices what she accuses others (them nasty Liberals) of doing- generalizing, over simplifying, and as she advertises in her title, slandering those whose ideas and ideals are anathema to her.
For all of the hot air used to jump on centrists on American politics (while accusing them of being horrid leftists), you would think that Liberals ruled the airwaves, with conservatives not able to communicate their views to the general public. Instead, we live in a world where Faux News puts up ill conceived straw dogs to be knocked down by right-wingers whose fingers controls the microphones. Where MSNBC fires liberals and hires reactionaries whose pronouncements are met with joy from the right. The political discourse is ruled by the rude (Coulter here joined by Savage, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Scarborough), and heaven help those from the other side who resorts to reasoned arguements- they are shouted down and ridiculed, while the opposition is marginalized, and our rights are thrown into the trash by an unelected rabble, hell bent on self aggrandizement.
Welcome once again to the Germany of the 1930's, ladies and gentlemen.

Rating:
Summary: There she goes again...
Review: Over the years I've followed the yapping fools on both the "left" and the "right." And I have read their books and researched their research. My conclusion is that Ann Coulter is simply the most diengenous, opportunistic conservative hack in America. I have yet to find a column, or book, of hers to substantially accurate and often so inaccurate that it is nearly inconceivable that anyone could be so stupid as to believe a single thing she writes. This book is no exception and I'm glad it's free at the library.

In order for you to judge my criticism: case in point was her syndicated column toward the end of the main combat stages of the Iraqi war as she sought justification for Bush's war under the cloak of "democracy" and "freedom":

In this column, she claimed Saddam killed 200,000 Iraqi's a year during his 20+ year regieme (projecting to about 4+ million). Clearly at odds with every major human rights monitoring agency in the world which put the death total at about 130,000 over the entire 20 years, including civil wars with the Kurds (25K) and the US-incited civil war at the end of the first gulf war (30K).

Compare that to the (unmentioned) US Census' estimate of Iraqi casualties at the hands of US troops and bombardments in 1991: 86,194 men, 39,612 women, and 32,195 children. Of which over 13,000 civilians were killed by direct fire; not just the indirect effects of war, such as loss of power, contaminated food and water, loss of shelter and medical assistance.

Ann's a piece of work. If you're incapable of critical thinking, enjoy your self-fullfilling read. Otherwise, spend the money on something useful, like toliet paper.

Rating:
Summary: Reckless slander from ill-informed hypocrites
Review: This book just confirms John Stuart Mill's famous quote:

Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: First, let me admit something: I have always considered myself a liberal, though recently, my identification as such has been wavering. If you're like me, and have long suspected that there was something "not right" about politics in this country that you couldn't quite put your finger on, this is the book that will identify it for you.

The single most important claim that Ann puts forth in this book in regards to American politics is that the "conservative Christian" has become America's Emmanuel Goldstein, that state-sanctioned scapegoat from Orwell's 1984. Her analysis, in this regard, is dead-on and everyone interested in improving this nation ought to be grateful to her for it.

In fact, one of Ann's strengths as a political thinker may well be her psychological insight. She is right to state that when liberals "refuse to condemn what societies have condemned for thousands of years-- e.g., promiscuity, divorce, illegitimacy, homosexuality [... ...] the normal human instinct to condemn something bubbles up against a legion of quite modern vices, such as smoking, fur, red meat, excessive consumption, and land development." In my opinion, this goes a long way in explaining the fanaticism with which liberals embrace such fringe causes. She is also right in analyzing the appeal of modern liberalism as one of snobbery. Having just graduated from a liberal University, I can attest to the fact that the best way into the "in-crowd" was to openly revile Dubya, the military, and "organized religion" (except Islam) while repeating feminist slogans.

There are two disappointments in this book. The first is that
Ann doesn't follow her own logic to the inevitable conclusion regarding abortion. She appears to oppose abortion, though she doesn't come right out and say it, which she sees as killing for the sake of convenience. She also states, in the beginning, that those who oppose Abolitionism were "pro-choice" about slavery- a welcome reference to the fact that the pro-slavery section of this country once smeared Abolitionists as being "anti-choice" in the exact same way that "pro-choicers" smear pro-lifers today. But I was waiting for her to note the blatant hypocrisy of liberals who take credit for the extension of human rights to African Americans while preventing the same extension to the last legally oppressed minority group in the nation: the unborn.

The second disappointment is Ann's sycophancy. No one doubts that Bush is treated unfairly by the media, or that Reagan was before him. But there is a reason why Reagan was called the "Great Communicator" and why Bush will never earn that title.

All in all, however, an excellent book.

Rating:
Summary: Coulter's Hateful rhetoric overwhelms her writing
Review: Since I was curious, hearing some hype about Coulter's new book coming out this June, I picked up a copy of this book. It proved to be as hypocritical and as deceptively written as her rhetoric on Fox News, only worse. In her writing, the venom really spews out unchecked, like pea-soup from the mouth of the girl in The Exorcist.

Her footnotes and quotations all look very impressive until you realize she takes things out of context repeatedly, and gives the illusion of many sources where there is only one, or two. She manipulates the reader with a barrage of information that she miraculously pieces together ala Dr. Frankenstein and reaches the conclusion that most media is liberal, bad and untruthful, for the sole apparent purpose of *slandering" and "libeling" anyone who is a Democrat or a liberal.

I have little else to say about a so-called author who writes for the sole purpose of telling everyone how she hates people, who she hates, and the assortment of imaginary reasons why she hates. She approaches the entire political world with a "Good Us vs. Evil Them" attitude, with no inkling of middle ground, rationale, or fairness, which shows she is sadly out of touch with the vast majority of Americans. Maybe with most humans, too.

Skip this book unless you are in the mood to lose all faith in humanity and publishers.

Rating:
Summary: I was surprised how much this didn't vibe with me
Review: I had a difficult time sinking myself into Coulter's world. I picked up this book so that I might be able to give myself a few pointers for arguements against some of my liberal friends. This is just some paper soup to make money, and the information is not very helpful at all. Coulter is like a paranoid conspiracy theorist with an addiction for tradition. The second word in the title says it all!

Rating:
Summary: What a Piece of Trash
Review: Her 'footnotes' are wrong. That's all I have to say. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

She is as biased as you can be. But I guess the FoxNewsies love that.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining...
Review: It was definatly an entertaining read. She is obviosuly very passionate, but does tend to profess a lot of hate speech. If she would tone done the rhetoric and hire a couple of more fact-checkers, I would have been able to take the book a little more seriously.

Rating:
Summary: What a airhead
Review: Best use for this book is for kindling to start my O'Reily bonfire.

Rating:
Summary: Lowest Common Denominator
Review: It never ceases to amaze me how rapid right wing conservatives will FLOCK to whomever parrots the same, tired right wing dogma.

I read this book in order to gain insight into the workings of the American right wing's mind. Let me say that, despite reading the entire book, I failed to find anything more than narrow-minded sensationalism written with the intention of keeping mindless right wing ditto heads titilated and angry.

Coulter, with her made-by marketers blonde hair is neither a scholar, nor an authority. This book contains shoddy research meant to satisfy naive readers. Better to break down and begin reading the newspaper than allow Coulter to make political decisions for you.