{"id":15907,"date":"2016-01-15T18:34:55","date_gmt":"2016-01-15T23:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/?p=15907"},"modified":"2016-01-15T18:34:55","modified_gmt":"2016-01-15T23:34:55","slug":"oh-ann-you-do-make-me-laugh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/oh-ann-you-do-make-me-laugh\/","title":{"rendered":"Oh, Ann, You Do Make Me Laugh"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"AnnAnn Coulter, that spewing harridan of hatred, bigotry, malevolence and\u00a0xenophobia<\/strong> makes most thoughtful people cringe. Hell, she makes even rabid, right-wing frothers cringe. She makes the Westboro Baptist morons cringe. She makes the Duck Dynasty wingnuts\u00a0cringe. She out-froths them all.<\/p>\n

Coulter\u00a0represents the worst of human behaviour and thought in so many areas, blackening the eyes of even the most fervent right wing, which she alleges to defend. But you have to admit this thick-as-a-brick\u00a0viper is sometimes\u00a0good for a laugh.<\/p>\n

Coulter recently endorsed Donald Trump<\/a> as the Republican presidential candidate. Which\u00a0isn’t surprising: they are siblings in vehement hate speech. But I bet it made all the other candidates relieved: her endorsement would be the kiss of death to any reasonable or moderate candidate (yes, that description is a stretch for the lot of them: they are only moderate in comparison to the frontrunners… that doesn’t reduce their collective reprehensibleness…).<\/p>\n

It would be a better political strategy to declare themselves atheist, gay and stricken with Ebola than to accept Coulter’s\u00a0endorsement. That, at least, might appeal to some voters.<\/p>\n

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Earlier this week,\u00a0uber-wingnut Phil Robertson<\/a> of the sham “Duck Dynasty” series\u00a0endorsed Ted Cruz, which likely had the more moderate candidates going “whew” and mopping their foreheads for having dodged that political bullet… I mean, seriously<\/em>! Who would vote for a guy endorsed by a mealy-mouthed, bigoted<\/a>, \u00a0TV\u00a0charlatan<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Now with Coulter safely ensconced with the blowhard, racist Trump, the\u00a0others\u00a0can relax a bit. Celebrity endorsements like these can do more damage than help to a campaign (the sort of thing that would happen\u00a0if Steven Harper endorsed Kevin O’Leary…). These endorsements\u00a0set the bar so low that no one sane wants to crawl under it and join them.<\/p>\n

But even as you wince while reading the latest dance-in-the-cow-patty statements by Coulter (and Robertson), you have to laugh. Is she really that<\/em> stupid? That ignorant? That arrogant?<\/p>\n

Yes, of course she is,<\/em> but I think with this she’s hit a new low, IQ-wise. As Right Wing Watch reported<\/a>, Coulter actually said:<\/p>\n

“We are talking about the future of not only of America but of the last genuinely Christian country on earth and thus the world. If we lose America, it is lights out for the entire world for a thousand years.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“The last genuinely Christian county on earth”? I wonder what the Europeans think of that. South and Central America? Rome? Admittedly, American has the highest number of self-professed Christians<\/a> of any nation, but given the fractious nature of the religion and the number of fringe groups in that category (the\u00a0Westboro Baptist as the epitome of ugly American Christianist thought….), it can hardly be said to be a cohesive belief.<\/p>\n

And not to mention the Christianist\u00a0worship of guns, which some see as idolatry…<\/p>\n

A historical sidebar:<\/strong> Christianity was declared the state religion of Rome in 380 CE by Emperor Theodosius I. It’s been the religion of most European kingdoms, countries, principalities, fiefdoms, colonies and city states ever since. It still is.<\/p>\n

Does Coulter think they all simply vanished in the intervening 1,600-plus years? Does she think none of the rest think of themselves as “genuinely Christian”? Probably not the American variety of gun-toting, murderous, intolerant, anti-gay, anti-life, anti-foreigner\u00a0Christianists, of course. Maybe something more tolerant, more humane, more liberal (there’s that word Coulter hates…).<\/p>\n

Well, Coulter\u00a0was never very good about history. She believes, among many zany, silly things, that Canada sent troops to Viet Nam<\/a> to fight beside Americans.<\/p>\n

Does\u00a0she think the US would suddenly see all its Christians flee to other lands, if Trump fails his presidential bid (yes, we live in hope…)?\u00a0Yeah, I can just see it. Syria pondering the waves of terrorized Americans begging for asylum… and a dark age descending for the next millennium.<\/p>\n

Does she think that the USA is more Christian than anyone else despite the\u00a0separation of state and church enshrined in the US Constitution? The First Amendment reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Which means that, regardless of Coulter’s maniacal, monotheistic, myopic claim, anyone can legally worship anything in the USA<\/em>, including the Flying Spaghetti Monster<\/a>.\u00a0(I’m considering getting my ordination papers…)<\/p>\n

In the history of the older Christian nations, not believing in the state’s particular form of Christianity would get you hung, burned, drowned, stoned, beaten, shot or something worse for the last\u00a0millennium and a half. As religions go, Christianity\u00a0wasn’t\u00a0happy\u00a0unless it\u00a0was\u00a0roasting someone alive on a spit.<\/p>\n

But all that\u00a0fun is\u00a0over. Gone when\u00a0the Spanish Inquisition\u00a0was\u00a0officially ended in 1814. Coulter must look back on those days of red hot pokers and the rack with a certain nostalgia. I’m sure she’d bring it all back to meet her own Christianist ideals<\/a>. What joys she’d have, pushing that poker into your liberal, atheist eyes in the name of Jesus… redeem you, she would.<\/p>\n

Still,\u00a0 you have to laugh at Coulter’s spittle-infused statements. If only because taking them seriously would have you parked\u00a0in a rubber room for observation.<\/p>\n

But wait, it gets better:<\/p>\n

Coulter explained that God has a role in lifting up Trump\u2019s candidacy: \u201cIt is like the fall of Rome but, thank God, and I am not using the Lord\u2019s name in vain, I mean that absolutely literally, thank God for raising up Donald Trump and giving us a chance to save the country.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m sorry, but I laughed tea through my nose when I read that. God made\u00a0Donald Trump the saviour. A bit of the son-of-God patina smeared on him by Ann Coulter. Donald Trump as the messiah. Worth the laugh.<\/p>\n

Coulter has an odd view of Christianity, which is summed up in her own words<\/a> as being Tea-Party-like in its belligerent, anti-liberal views:<\/p>\n

…Jesus’ distinctive message was: People are sinful and need to be redeemed, and this is your lucky day because I’m here to redeem you even though you don’t deserve it, and I have to get the crap kicked out of me to do it. That is the reason He is called “Christ the Redeemer” rather than “Christ the Moron Driving Around in a Volvo With a ‘Be Nice to People’ Bumper Sticker on It.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Coulter’s racism, intolerance, isolationist attitudes, xenophobia and general nastiness are summed up in her statement that came with her pro-Trump rant:<\/p>\n

What is the point of talking about abortion or anything else unless you get Donald Trump in to build the wall, deport illegals, end this \u2018anchor baby\u2019 nonsense, stop importing 100,000 Muslims a year, in addition to two million Third Worlders per year. It\u2019s madness what this country has been doing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Build a wall around America, you Jezebel. Keep out all the foreigners, and their heretical products… Oops. You just killed WalMart and about 90% of American box retail stores. Stop allowing immigrants so you can inbreed, and not pollute the schools or politics with different points of view.<\/p>\n

The best part of the piece comes towards the end:<\/p>\n

If Trump loses, Coulter said, she will probably \u201cstop wasting my time on politics\u201d since \u201ca Republican can never be elected president\u201d if the country fails to enact severe restrictions on immigration.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The white supremacist give up on politics? We can only hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Ann Coulter, that spewing harridan of hatred, bigotry, malevolence and\u00a0xenophobia makes most thoughtful people cringe. Hell, she makes even rabid, right-wing frothers cringe. She makes the Westboro Baptist morons cringe. She makes the Duck Dynasty wingnuts\u00a0cringe. She out-froths them all. Coulter\u00a0represents the worst of human behaviour and thought in so many areas, blackening the eyes of even the most fervent right wing, which she alleges to defend. But you have to admit this thick-as-a-brick\u00a0viper is sometimes\u00a0good for a laugh. Coulter recently endorsed Donald Trump as the Republican presidential candidate. Which\u00a0isn’t surprising: they are siblings in vehement hate speech. But I \u2026…… click below for more \u2193<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[261,219],"tags":[166,191,61,95],"class_list":["post-15907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-critical-thinking-2","category-us-international-politics","tag-critical-thinking","tag-election","tag-politics","tag-republicans"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":5526,"today_views":0},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15907"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15914,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15907\/revisions\/15914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}