Slander

Rating:
Summary: Ann Coulter is not only on the Right, she is right
Review: Well-researched and fully-documented, and supremely witty, Ann Coulter's page-turner book destroys the arguments, misrepresentations, and outright lies of the Left. The title of the book is accurate to a tee.

One hates to be unkind to one's sincere enemies, but the enemies that Coulter exposes are generally insincere, irresponsible with facts, and bitter in their methods. They deserve Coulter's stern rebuke.

Despite its "negativism," the book actually celebrates freedom, truth, and goodness.

Rating:
Summary: Hypocrisy flows like water from the pages
Review: ...The hypocrisy will flow from the pages and penetrate to the bone.
Ann (yes, the same Ann who has said women should have their voting rights stripped away due to lack of logical, non-emotional reasoning) cleverly disguises herself as a argument analyst by using Plexiglas-clear attacks on leftist/liberals/Democrats, as from her view they are apparently one in the same.
The attacks are clear and use the same judgmental, over-emotional babble that is spewed by extremist on both sides of the spectrum. Perhaps a laugh is just as good as a mental blanket that will shield logical reasoning from the red-herrings and falsities?
This could have been a good book if the arguments made were to be used as blanket arguments against those extremist who argue on both the liberal and conservative fronts, but instead this book catapults Ann to the top of the conservative ranks and allows her to become nothing more than a cheerleader who pledges blind allegiance to the conservative right...

Rating:
Summary: ...all the way to the bank.
Review: Yes, just what the world needs -- someone else convincing all of us that if we classify people by groups we are justified in hating them without ever having known them. Bravo!

Oh, I could write a ton about what I think of this type of dumb rhetoric, but I think an author ten times better than Ann said it better:

"If you think an entire social class did something stupid, you're being stupid." --Steven Brust

Rating:
Summary: Newsflash: Ann Strikes Again, Liberals cry unfair!
Review: ...

Coulter, ever known for her rapier wit and relentless defense of conservatism, is in finest form in this recent work, which ironically, just ascended the New York Times bestseller list. In a homey yet biting voice, she skewers the Left's weak attempts to project an outmoded, irrational agenda.

"The liberal catechism includes a hatred of Christians, guns, the profit motive, and political speech and an infatuation with abortion, the environment, and race discrimination. ... The most crazed religious fanatic argues in more calm and reasoned tones than liberals ..." And that's just on the first page.

Liberals can't argue because their positions are not the result of reasoned analysis or a calm weighing of the facts. They come to their conclusions through the rote commitment of a litany, itself the product of hysteria, fear, and a calculated appeal to emotionalism. It's hard to defeat the statistics on concealed carry laws, for example, but that doesn't stop the Violence Policy Center from publishing such jeremiads as License to Kill, which assails Texas' gun culture for sowing mythical urban killing fields. The intent is not to educate, but to stimulate, to quicken the pulse of frightened soccer moms and direct their inchoate angst against guns and the men who own them.

The techniques have ample precedent. Josef Goebbels used them quite successfully.

Coulter's background as a constitutional scholar shows through, as she cuts through the thicket of liberal argle-bargle and reduces the counterpoint ad absurdo. In May of 2001, former Clinton lackeys James Carville and Paul Begala detailed their battle plan for Democrats in an editorial to the New York Times. The core of the piece was that the Left had to start attacking George Bush and his agenda: "First, call a radical a radical. [Peculiar advice coming from two of the most conscienceless radicals in the arena.] Mr. Bush's agenda is neither compassionate nor conservative; it's radical and it's dangerous and the Democrats should say so."

Coulter's summary of that strategy: "That's the new plan. It's the same as the old plan. Call Republicans names."

And she proceeds to list countless occasions on which Democrats - or their lap kitties in the media - slap labels on Republicans in a transparent attempt to forestall further discussion of perfectly valid points. In fact, she says, one of the cornerstones of Democratic rhetoric these days is to point out that conservatives are all either stupid, ugly, or stupid and ugly. Katherine Harris was pilloried for wearing too much eye makeup (as if Helen Thomas is a thing of beauty); Linda Tripp's ethical conundrum was reduced to irrelevance in light of her physical shortcomings (like Hillary Clinton is a lingerie model); and Ronald Reagan was a doddering fool who made foreign policy between naps and consultations with Obay seers.

Odd how the lamentable physiognomy of Bella Abzug and her legion of gargoyles didn't diminish the incalculable beneficence of her message. And Al Gore's repeated failures in post-secondary education don't seem to disqualify him for the presidency, although George W. Bush's mediocre performance at Yale seems to indict his mental acuity.

These aren't the reasoned arguments of informed debaters, Coulter declares, but the playground antics of frustrated children. The liberal cause attracts only those people who are willing to ground their philosophy in puerile epithets, which explains why more and more, the Left is home to the unbalanced, the marginal, and the closet psychotic.

Rating:
Summary: Guilty of her own accusations
Review: I tire of this endless absolutism. No single perspective is ever always right...and rarely are they always wrong. I feel sometimes as if I'm on a Junior High basketball court booing or cheering along with a group of vapid cheerleaders, villifying the other side of the gym with whatever venom I can muster...even when it's obvious they are pretty much just like we are.

The fact that she mis-quotes and decontenxtualizes her sources is a real disappointment...it removes one more voice from meaningful public discourse.

Rating:
Summary: Annie Kicks Butt and Takes Names!
Review: This book will be appreciated by people for whom facts, logic, evidence and reason mean something. The left won't like it or even read it, so they will miss out on the following example of "Coulterian" humor:

""Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do...If they had that much energy, they'd have indoor plumbing by now."

For years, the biased, lying hypocrites who comprise the leftist news media have used a juvenile technique that is patently obvious to any conservative (i.e., adults.)

When accused of liberal bias, they engage in the diversionary tactic of producing ostensibly legitimate complaints from other listeners, readers, or viewers complaining of a "conservative" bias in the news industry.

This gives the general public the false impression that a particular news organ (or the industry in general) is fair, impartial, and actively resisting "extremists" of both stripes.

This practice worked well until the advent of Lexis/Nexis which permits subscribers to empirically test allegations of news media bias by quantifying them. This Ms. Annie has done, and the left isn't going to appreciate her efforts in doing so.

Ms. Annie has proved beyond any reasonable doubt that the "elite" media is a hive of leftists, hypocrites and un-American traitors who, despite much lip service to the contrary, don't believe in the First Amendment any more than they believe in tax cuts.

Indeed, in hundreds of examples and in dozens of contexts, Ms. Coulter illustrates the viciousness and hysteria that characterizes the news media's response to challenges to its near-monopoly power. They are dug-in like the 101st Airborne at Bastogne.

This book should be read by any thinking person, if for no other reason than her description of the left's attempted coup following the Presidential Election of November, 2000.

Rating:
Summary: why not commence christian crusade in afganistan?
Review: Many liberals cannot believe that anyone would suggest that we invade muslim countries and spread christianity.

Don't be surprised at all. Ms. Coulter's views are neither "extreme" nor "radical" and many Americans believe that in the long run, Islam itself must be confronted and forced to undergo some kind of reformation to become integrated with the 21st century or else be left behind like Africa. Religion is and always will be the most powerful social force and religious wars in the 21st century are no different than the crusades of the past. Don't forget why islam or the Hashishan did not spread to China; their Mongol conquerors simply slaughtered every muslim settlement, men, women and children. History is not pretty, muslims are not innocent peaceful victims and we wouldn't be enjoying our high standard of living if mean, evil men did not brutally slaughter their way to victory.

Rating:
Summary: LIBERALS HATE LOGIC
Review: Well done, Ann. You must have a photographic memory. Sorting thought the volume of material and putting it together -- wow! I consider myself well informed and yet I was amazed.
If you didn't make me laugh so much it would have been a long read.
I notice your detractors in these reviews who claim to have read the book all use exactly the non-arguments you show in the book. Not a wisp of logic or fact from them. They didn't really even read it!

Rating:
Summary: Hypocrisy Abounds
Review: I find it odd that a woman who accused the Clinton's of decorating the White House Christmas tree with crack pipes can throw the word slander around so easily. For someone so concerned with the conspiracy of the liberal media, she has made an awful big name for herself, wouldn't you say? She also caused quite a stir with her nasty comments about Norman Minetta, saying, among other things:

"According to initial buoyant reports in early February, enraged travelers rose up in a savage attack on the secretary of transportation. Hope was dashed when later reports indicated that the irritated travelers were actually rival warlords, the airport was the Kabul Airport, and Norman Mineta was still with us." Adding, "He is given plumb government jobs solely and exclusively because he is a minority."

Could Ann be constantly displayed on TV because of her long locks and delicate bone structure? Hmmm...me thinks Norman has more of a history than dear Ann.

Anyway, she can be vicious and plumb off-her-rocker. I seriously think she is cursed (Or blessed, depending on your view) with a personality disorder.

Regardless of all the negatives...she does have some points and her writing is never unamusing.

As a liberal who isn't going to call Ann a name, I just find it funny that someone who makes her living off of slander of a sort accuses others of it with not even a hint of sarcasm!

Rating:
Summary: An important book at a critical time
Review: Although Coulter's tone is often over the top her message is important and timely. This is a dangerous time and we need to hear views from all sides and not just from the PC controlled mass media. Unlike most books that talk about the media she has done her homework and has documented (with footnotes) the distortions that take place. After reading this book you will never hear the news the same way again: the use of name calling rather than discussing the issues is the rule. This was never productive but today it could lead to the loss of life. Buy the book and pass it on to a friend.