With Ann Coulter, how far is ‘too far’? OK, here goes. I went to high school with Ann Coulter. Or so my yearbook indicates. I have no recollection of her. Maybe it was our age difference. At any rate, back then I don’t believe she was a very memorable figure. There she is on page 36, as a member of the class of 1980 at New Canaan High School. And there she is on page 146 (in the pic shown here), as a rather dark-haired member of the fencing team (!). (Apparently, she later traded in her rapier for blunter instruments.) I mention this now because Coulter is once again out marketing a book in her inimitable style, this time suggesting that some 9/11 widows are reveling in their husbands' deaths because it’s given them fame and—monetarily, at least—fortune. Every time she trots out another inflammatory sound bite destined to make the front pages, she embarrasses the pants off my hometown, since her New Canaan heritage is all too well-known. (Gawker even referred to her as the New Canaan Natterer a few days ago.) And given that New Canaan is a well-known Republican bastion, the knee-jerk assumption is that the townsfolk agree with everything she says. (I highly doubt that.) Obviously, Coulter is no dummy; she has a laser-like focus on selling books. And it works. But this time, even Bill O’Reilly thinks she may have gone too far. Still, you have to ask what “too far” means, exactly. In the marketplace, sadly, it means nothing as long as her books remain on the best-seller lists. —Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

June 15, 2006 | Permalink

Comments

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Didn't mean to imply it wasn't a useful word. Just meant to point out how people swarm to certain words at certain times and then abandon them like a $50 hooker who's served her purpose.

Posted by: mingthemerciless | Jun 16, 2006 1:29:00 PM

OK.
BUT it would be a good idea in your writing to avoid cliches such as the $50 hooker, avoid them like the plague.

Posted by: Tom Messner | Jun 16, 2006 1:37:03 PM

ditto with "avoid them like the plague" tom.

Posted by: mingthemerciless | Jun 16, 2006 2:51:40 PM

I'm so sick of the Ann Coulter=Michael Moore argument. I don't like Moore very much, I think he's paranoid and self-righteous, and his 9/11 movie, with it's fifteen minute montage about those weak Democrats who wouldn't stand up for Al Gore never mentions his own campaigning for Ralph Nader, which is unbelievably dishonest. That said, I've never heard Moore advocate violence and outright murder, as Coulter does regularly, then hiding behind some weak "it's just a joke" nonsense.

Posted by: Jim | Jun 16, 2006 3:00:15 PM

irony, ming, irony

Posted by: Tom Messner | Jun 16, 2006 3:09:42 PM

like in
"it is bad to ever split infinitives"
or
"mispeling makes one look illiterate"
or

Posted by: Tom Messner | Jun 16, 2006 3:12:15 PM

Coulter may lack the empathy gene, but she definitely has the marketing gene. If the right-wing talking head thing ever bombs out, she can always find a spot in the advertising business (just not at our shop).

Posted by: Robert Rosenthal | Jun 17, 2006 8:35:08 AM

It is clear that you are allowed to criticize, insult, discredit and vilipend whomever you want as long as he or she is not a democrat. Liberals are of course off limits.

Posted by: Max | Jun 18, 2006 8:34:38 PM

Except on "Fox News," or AM radio, of course, where the "vilipending" blows the other way... all the time. There should really be less vilipending going on around here. We honestly can't get anything done, what with all the vilipending.

Posted by: We Like Ike | Jun 19, 2006 10:09:23 AM

After her next testosterone treatment, her ovaries will descend into full-time testes, and the line of her jaw will become a full-time WMD.

Posted by: dean | Jun 19, 2006 4:12:19 PM

What’s the big deal? Nobody reads anymore.

Posted by: Jonah Hughes | Jun 19, 2006 10:32:17 PM

Coulter & right-wingers hate widow spokespersons because attacking the person is the only tool they posess.

Posted by: K | Jun 20, 2006 1:41:25 AM

K, you've nailed it.

Posted by: John Frum | Jun 20, 2006 11:17:02 AM

Looks like a boy with a sword to me.

Posted by: | Jun 23, 2006 4:31:59 PM

ann coulter is a fucking cunt. looks like she's had a few surgeries since high school-was it because HER shelf-life might be dwindling?

Posted by: dace | Jul 2, 2006 12:52:50 AM

Jealousy has the ugliest face of all...

Posted by: | Jul 21, 2006 11:26:22 AM

Ann Coulter cracks me up. She is somewhat intelligent but has no social skills whatsoever! She's shameless. She's attacking these widows because she CAN. Just like they're posing on Vanity Fair, because they CAN. How is she so different from them? I've seen enough of Ann, but, how ironic, these famous millionaire widows have no desire to share the spotlight with her. They know there's no argument. Yeah, yeah, Ann, we're selfish fartknockers, our husbands died and now we're rich and Bush sucks. Now let's go, the FOUR of us, and write a book about how much money Ann Coulter is making off of us.

Posted by: haha | Nov 2, 2006 3:34:02 PM

PLEASE READ THIS BLOG AND BOOK: I HAVE KNOWN HER ALMOST ALL OF MY LIFE - HENCE MY OWN PROMINENCE.

THIS IS THE CASE AGAINST ANN COULTER:

http://anncoulterloves.blogspot.com/

Posted by: CYBER_WARFARE_HQ | Jul 5, 2008 1:18:24 PM

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