Death Is Sexier Than Sex

[one...two...tree 2,762]

- Lydia Cornell

Sex is sort of losing its appeal. Death is sexier these days, at least that's the impression I get from Ann Coulter, who makes a living calling for the "killing of Liberals" and repressing the free speech of Democrats. She may appear to be joking, but she is not. And Coulter actually claims to be a Christian. Like Pat Robertson and George W, she seems to take perverse delight in defining Christianity as the opposite of itself, so I suspect she belongs to the Antichrist trinity or the Taliban sect of Christianity.

I never mix religion with politics, but for Christ's sake, don't they know that Jesus was a Democrat? In fact, a bleeding heart liberal?!! The Great Peacemaker was the very essence of love and compassion; he was revolutionary in his softness and forbade vengeance of any kind. How the Christian right has twisted Christ's peaceful message is one of the riddles of our times. I've been bewildered to the point of jaw-gnashing agony at how certain fundamentalists can call themselves Christian, when they do not follow the teachings of Christ! I feel I'm going insane. Right after the 2004 election when You-Know-Who was elected, I actually developed a nervous tic in my left eye, like the Police chief in the Pink Panther, who was driven berserk by Inspector Clousseau. Of course there's no comparing the lovable Peter Sellers with the witless, war-mongering leader of the free world, but I don't want my eye twitch to come back so I'm trying to stop hating him so much. I think I figured out a way to talk to Ann Coulter: turn the other cheek and let her hit that one.

But it's so twisted and malevolent that Bush called himself a Christian and did the exact opposite of what Christ would do by rushing to war with 'shock and awe' — and claiming he had an audience with God in this decision! The other day a plumber came to fix our sink and told me his wife has breast cancer; since I've had many miracles from prayer I told him I'd pray for her. Then I quickly apologized, "I'm a democrat — but I pray." He laughed really hard and said, "Yeah well I think Bush is a war criminal."

Are we in the Twilight Zone? The only God I know is the God of Love. These right-wing "Christians" are engaged in the most dangerous perversion of Christianity I've ever seen! And despite what Cheney said recently defending our mission in Iraq — all successful revolutions start from within; nothing is ever truly won by force. We could have gained allies in the underground and hovered over Saddam for years instead of carpet bombing precious Iraqi children, entire cities and looting ancient Babylonian museums. And by the way, whatever happened to that warehouse of weapons that was 'misplaced?' Does anyone remember what I'm talking about?

Anyway, Coulter seems to be a turn-on for certain young Republicans (the ones that go on field trips to hear Coulter spew hate…"with jokes" at anywhere between $16,000 and $30,000 a pop.) It was bad enough when our heroes were just anorectic models and athletes, but now we have a new generation of hate-speak-worshippers. It's true, hate sells, but I predict that the most exciting thing on the horizon is peace, even between Republicans and Democrats. Fighting and divisiveness are getting boring; 'moderate' is the new sexy. I mean in a world where everything is so intensely fringe, the only way to go is to the center, toward harmony. Think of Halle Barry, the most gorgeous mixture of black and white. Think of the 'Gang of 14': meeting in the middle, working things out, getting along — it's ground-breaking! In other words, loving your enemy — which is what The Great Peacemaker taught and what any good Christian would advocate.

So it was with peacemaking in mind — that I returned the call from Bryan Harman, Vice-Chairman of the Alachua Republican Party…

Harman had hired Ann Coulter to speak to the Alachua Republicans at their "3rd Annual Ronald Reagan Black Tie and Blue Jeans BBQ" a few weeks ago. I had called and e-mailed both the chairman, Stafford Jones, and the vice chairman, Bryan Harman — to find out if they could send me a video or audio of Coulter's speech, and also if they condoned her remarks calling for "the repression of free speech of Democrats".

The first response I got back was from Jones, who simply said in his e-mail that "Obviously Coulter was just using satire." Next, Harman called me back and we spoke for 45 minutes. We were warm and polite to each other. Harman knew me from TV and knew I was writing a book "How To Talk to Ann Coulter, If you Must." (Dan Borchers, a conservative Christian of Coulter Watch and Brad Friedman, investigative journalist of The BRAD BLOG are collaborating with me on this book.) Before I had the chance to ask Harman any direct questions, he defended the choice of Ann Coulter as the speaker for their BBQ ?fundraiser? — saying they raised $20,000 for their party! (But they paid coulter $30,000 to speak; I don't get the math.) When I started to probe these numbers, he interrupted me to talk about how great the fundraiser was, how much fun it was to hear Coulter speak. I mean here was a true Republican icon in their backyard!

By the way, Borchers told me he saw Coulter speak, and that her cult-like charisma was mesmerizing. Students in the audience were enthralled by her; whipped into a frenzy, chanting her name. I wrote a book on the Trotsky assassination and did a lot of research on Josef Stalin. Terrifying similarities arose when I started researching Ann Coulter's narcissistic "cult of personality". She does a lot with a sneer and a chortle.

During my conversation with Harman, I was tempted to be confrontational, but made a conscious decision to remain objective and get inside the Republican mind-set. We don't need to lower ourselves to Coulter/O'Reilly/Limbaugh/Savage's level just because anger and divisiveness get good ratings. We should rise above this mean-spirited tendency to have "contempt prior to investigation" as William James said. So I asked Mr. Harman what motivated him as a conservative and how his party could condone her "hate-speak". He laughed and said, "It's just satire, all in fun." He said that she was "exciting, entertaining and funny — and extremely opinionated." As long as she wasn't boring, that's basically all that counted, he implied. Anyway, "she raised a lot of money for us!" They could have gotten some bland speaker, but she lights a fire under people. (Sort of like Jerry Springer — she reduces one's intellect to bullying and confrontational grenade throwing — the lowest common denominator.) "But she's just kidding around," he emphasized.

"But I don't believe she's joking even though she's smiling (when saying terrible things)," I said. "And not to accuse anyone of being a fascist — so please don't take a soundbite out of this conversation and blow things out of context — but the Nazis began their campaign for the holocaust with jokes and satire in order to dehumanize the Jews. Stalin did the same thing; lots of witty jokes demeaning everyone who displeased him. And some people actually said Stalin had hooves!

Harman said, "Well nowadays, you can't have a boring speaker. If you look at TV, everyone is an extremist." That's when I realized that moderates are actually so unusual these days, they are truly the new frontier.

"But Coulter talks fippantly, jokingly ? about 'killing liberals and democrats'," I continued. "Talking about killing people is just not that funny." Unless she's moving her Adam's apple at the same time, as a sideshow, I thought. "And the sarcasm she uses is dehumanizing. She uses double-think, saying 'liberals and traitors and terrorists; different stages of the same disease.' She advocates killing us!" Harman nervously laughed my comment off. And she is paid $30,000 to speak to impressionable young minds who have no sense of history or nuance.

About the author....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Cornell

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

- Lydia Cornell

Sex is sort of losing its appeal. Death is sexier these days, at least that's the impression I get from Ann ----------------------------------------------------snip!----------------------------------

About the author....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Cornell

Lydia Cornell is an American actress......

figures eh?

[ChristinaM 0]

What's that supposed to mean, Charles? I don't follow your thought process.

I thought it was actually pretty reasonable, and reasoned.

[workin4somethin 0]

I think Ann Coulter is similar to the t.v. evangelists, and our president... they're all in it for money.

[incanada1234 0]

I think Ann Coulter is similar to the t.v. evangelists, and our president... they're all in it for money.

Whereas liberals are in it for....what again?

[workin4somethin 0]

I think Ann Coulter is similar to the t.v. evangelists, and our president... they're all in it for money.

Whereas liberals are in it for....what again?

That would be... "money".

[incanada1234 0]

I think Ann Coulter is similar to the t.v. evangelists, and our president... they're all in it for money.

Whereas liberals are in it for....what again?

That would be... "money".