Coulter Redefines Vile

Ann Coulter's behavior toward John and Elizabeth Edwards is absolutely repulsive. It demonstrates that is a mean-spirited, ill-bred mindless body. It is unfortunate that she is permitted to earn a living in any legal way, and yes: as a teacher, I'm offended that someone as ignorant and inconsiderate as she is can earn far more money than I do by displaying how mean-spirited, ill-bred, ignorate, and inconsiderate she is. Now I also concede that conservatives love her, but they're pretty low on the food chain, too: What they like is that she is "strong" (which really means obnoxious) and "tells it like she sees it" (which means that she's out of touch with reality and therefore says things that no one with two functional brain cells could ever agree with.) And in her latest exchange with Elizabeth Edwards, she shows how low she is.
"Why isn't John Edwards making this call?" she asks at one point. If she were a woman who had any meaningful relationship with any other human being, she would probably realize that women respond quickly and sharply when anyone attacks someone they love. You know that stuff about females defending their children? After 31 years of marriage, I can tell you that my wife is equally fierce defending anyone she loves. There have been instances when I was working on setting aside an affront and she was furious. So Ann, if you actually had any relationships, you'd know that Elizabeth probably picked up the phone while John was shrugging it off with "It's Ann Coulter; she's a bitch anyhow."
Ann Coulter doesn't seem to realize that the conservative guys who like to fantasize about her and make her rich would love to keep her barefoot and pregnant if they were married to her. (Ann Coulter bearing children--there's a scary thought!) That's the conservative idea of how marriage should be, after all. But John and Elizabeth Edwards, being liberals, do not live in the eighteenth century. As far as I can tell, they've got an egalatarian marriage, and in an egalatarian marriage, the motto could easily be "Git 'er done." If there's something that needs doing and you can do it, do it.
She claims that John Edwards has a bumper sticker that says "Ask me about my dead child." Is there anything more inhuman than that? But Ann wouldn't realize that because--guess what--she has no children, perhaps because no man would want her to bear his children. I can think of only one thing that might allow a single woman to appreciate the loss of a child: gang rape.
And she equates John and Elizabeth raising money for his campaign to her selling books. Okay, Ann. Pay attention, now, because this is going to be hard for someone of limited intelligence to follow. John and Elizabeth Edwards are raising money for a presidential campaign because they honestly believe that John espouses positions that would serve the country well. For them, his victory, for which I hope and pray, would mean significant loss of income for at least four years. It would mean having to put up with people like Ann Coulter every day as well as being scheduled 24/7. For John, who faces the possibility of losing his wife to cancer in the next few years, it could mean bearing a terrible grief in public, with the world finding fault with his behavior no matter what he did.
This is not the same as selling books--a subject that I know something about having written a book and being at work on a second. There's really no downside. You write the book; you collect the royalties. Maybe you do some interviews, but it's up to you. Maybe, if you write best-seller stuff, you go on a promotional tour, but again, it's up to you, and it's over in a few weeks. And while John and Elizabeth Edwards articulate positive policies for the country, you, Ann Coulter, are unable to do anything more significant than bad mouth them, and these days it seems that you even bad mouth your own president.
Is it Ann Coulter's right to spew her idiocy? Of course it is, although I wish that her parents had raised her better. It's also her right to endure any unpleasant consequences that arise from her venom, and I hope that they will be immediate and severe. It's her right, but it isn't right. And those of you who call yourselves conservatives and Republicans? Pay attention, because she claims to be speaking for you. I hope for the day publishers and television networks return to pulling the plug on outrageous people instead of seeing them as profit leaders. And I hope for the day when conservatives can look at Ann Coulter's views, see their own views, and be sickened.

Shall We Try Fairness?

If Paris Hilton actually has fans, I'm not one of them. If she hadn't been featured doing her boyfriend in a video, she might well have remained pretty much anonymous. And she has played her notoriety for all it's worth, providing that maybe all you need is a publicist and you, too, can be famous for being famous. I confess to making jokes, when she was engaged to that guy, Paris What's-his-name, about how confused she'd get trying to have a conversation with him in which she used his name.
And then she got busted, convicted, and ordered to jail. Her stay was short, but she will actually be under home confinement for longer than the twenty-three days she was to spend in jail. She got credit for time served, as happens in many cases. And she walked out of jail to alternative confinement. Some people in the press are already writing their snarky columns about what a break she's getting. Maybe they're just upset because they were looking forward to twenty-three days of snarkiness about Paris in jail.
Let's be fair, though. Ms. Hilton walked into the jail late Sunday night with every expectation that she would serve every one of the twenty-three days she was ordered to serve. She didn't make a production out of beginning her sentence, although the press did. She had, in fact, shown up in the news only rarely between her conviction and reporting to the jail. Her statement sounded as if she might have matured somewhat.
The press is scoffing at the medical reasons for her change to alternative incarceration. It is not ours to question. Let's take what I believe they regard as the worst case: She was as one reporter said, "bent out of shape at being in prison." It's said that she cried a lot and didn't eat. That really sounds a lot like depression. Having suffered from serious depression myself on a couple of occasions, I can say with certainty that depression would interfere with any effort at rehabilitation, and if it's left untreated, it can become even worse. How much do you put someone through for traffic violations?
I've had a difficult teenager who narrowly escaped incarceration on a number of occasions. I've had a nephew who ended up doing a year as a habitual offender because he drove without a license repeatedly. Both have turned a corner, and I'm proud of them. And Paris Hilton may have, too. She showed courage and responsibility that I really didn't think she had. If she's trying to turn around, good for her. I may not be a fan, but if she's trying to be a better person, I'm willing to be a cheerleader for her.