Irony Alert
Dean
A lot of people are rather up in arms about nastiness toward Condoleezza Rice in editorials and editorial cartoons these days. The Queen links to some examples.
I sort of think the complainers have a point. But just as I was getting really sympathetic, I walked into our living room this evening and my lovely wife had [shudder] Hannity & Colmes on. If you follow me much you know I wish someone would put a muzzle on Sean Hannity. I am firmly of the opinion that he was the subject of a cruel and malicious psychological experiment as a child, and probably spent a year in a cage where every time he said the word "liberal" a food pellet appeared in his bowl. It would explain a lot, wouldn't you think?
Okay, anyway, like I said, I was starting to feel annoyed at the rough treatment of Rice, when I actually heard Sean Freaking Hannity turn to his guest and say, Ann Coulter, don't you find these Democratic attacks on Condoleezza Rice incredibly mean-spirited?
Some moments are so priceless they defy comment.
I have to admit that Coulter gets off a funny zinger once in a while, and I know some of her fans watch her just because she's screamingly funny, not because they take her seriously. Whatever. Within a few minutes they had Democratic flack Bob Beckel, and I have to admit that while this guy's as much of a partisan hack as anyone on the scene, he's also got a sense of humor, and watching him go toe to toe with Coulter was kind of entertaining. At least I could laugh at both of them.
Still though: Sean Hannity says, Ann Coulter, aren't Democrats being horribly mean-spirited? Heh. I mean, I wish I could get the video of just that moment and frame it.
People like this did almost as much to divide this country after 9/11 as the Howard Dean moonbats did.
Hannity is awesome and during the election cycle he sounded more sane and calm than any moonbat this side of Hawaii.
I love Hannity and he's damn sexy too!
Hannity is freaking annoying. I have no idea how anyone can stand him.
to match the duo marketing
duhniche audience.I haven't locked into any mean-spirited anti-Rice cartoons or commenters except to say that last night on CNN, Larry
SeltzerKing had former Secy/State Lawrence Eagleburger whose opinion was the Dr. Condi Rice a was a bad choice for the job but he did allow that she had considerable talents within hearing range of GWB that did not necessitate she be placed in the Secy/State position.I personally don't have much of an opinion of Hannity, because I can't spend more than ten seconds listening to his radio show before I hear AGAIN, "...and tonight on Hannity and Colmes..."
He's got four hours a day on a mike, so I don't know why anyone would want to spend three of them listening to him plugging the fourth. Other than that, he's just a bulldog - all bark.
Saying I prefer both Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck is a gross understatement. Both of them are much more detailed in their criticisms of the Democrats, and when they resort to name-calling, it's after an exhaustive proof the name's accurate. Not to mention they're funny as hell.
Good way to get Democrats on your side with that.
Then there's the titles of Ann Coulter's last several books: Slander, Treason, Backstabbers, Slimeballs, and Doodie-Heads.
(I made the last three up, but 'fess up, you weren't sure at first were you?)
There was a time when I took a lot of this as humorous. Back in the early '90s, B.C. (Before Clinton) I found Rush Limbaugh kind of fun. I disagreed with about half of what he said, but he was a maverick and something of an iconoclast, and sometimes said things I thought needed saying. Especially because things were horribly PC back then, much moreso than now, and I credit him in part with changing that.
Then came Clinton. At first it was funny but the obsession with him got completely out of hand and I could no longer read or listen to much of it for more than a few minutes at a time. Then when the Republicans took over the Congress, he become a total lock-step party-liner. How disappointing.
I remember when Al Franken first came out with his big response, Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot and, while I disagreed with about half of it, I found it a pretty fair assessment of Limbaugh.
Now we have this army of Limbaugh-inspired people like Hannity, Coulter, Savage, et. al., and now the left-wing responses to them. Honestly I viewed it all as a lot less serious prior to 9/11. The one side or the other annoyed me, but really it was just shallow entertainment in many cases.
Then 9/11 hit and in my mind--and still to my mind--it was time to give up all that childish stuff. Instead, it's gotten worse. I mostly blame the left (you just don't call the CiC a LIAR who put you into war based on LIES unless you have some heavy duty evidence, that's too serious and guaranteed to cause almost permanent resentments), but the name-calling from people like Coulter and Hannity and Savage, well, I can't countenance that. I just can't.
She's still nasty.
Heh.
And, of course, every once in a while there's a really funny or insightful line. But you kind of pay for that by listening or reading in the first place.
On the whole I don't care much for any of these "preach to the choir" types. Limbaugh is mostly gentler, but Hannity isn't so great (and he's NOT good-looking). Michelle Malkin is shrill. And Michael Savage is out of control, and intellect-free.
I do like Michael Medved, and Dennis Prager (when he's not talking about gender roles). I adore Larry Elder, who actually has discussions with people that enlighten the rest of us. All three of these guys seem more interested in changing minds than in throwing out red meat.
Yours,
Wince
That aside, I happened to be watching the exchange in question, and I literally laughed out loud when Hannity went to Coulter for backup on how mean the Dems are.
Heh. Hannity and Coulter were the ones that bucked me up during the election by using verbal nuclear warheads on their opposition.
But I love Dean's jest here:
"Sean Hannity says, Ann Coulter, aren't Democrats being horribly mean-spirited?"
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
That is a scream and half, ha! ha! That would be like asking Steven Malcolm Anderson if he thought somebody was being too harsh and cruel, too intolerant and dogmatic, or too perverted and sex-obsessed.
Hannity and Coulter. Most interesting, the two of them. I was in a bookstore a few months ago and saw Sean Hannity's books and thought that a man's man would like him. And then, the very next day, I was reading Dean's World, and Dean said something derogatory about Hannity, and then John Kusch (a liberal) said he liked Hannity, that Hannity was sexy. John Kusch -- what a MAN he was! A MAN'S MAN. I sure enjoyed reading his comments here in Dean's World, and also his blog. Where did he go? I miss him. Anyway, both men's men like John Kusch and heterosexual women like Rosemary Esmay find Sean Hannity to be extremely sexy in his manly way. A real MAN. A real MAN'S MAN'S MAN.
I'm not man enough to be a man's man. Just last night, Eric Scheie linked to Glenn Reynolds who linked to that Hannity and Coulter interview about the attacks on Condi Rice. The picture of Ann Coulter was very sexy to me, more so than the pictures she has on her books. I saw another good picture of her eating a salad during the Republican convention. The first time I ever heard of Coulter was shortly after 9/11/2001, when she said about the Muslims that we should "invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity". Then, I saw that picture of her in the Jewish World Review.
I haven't yet read her books on the "Backstabbers", "Slimeballs", and "Doodie-Heads" (though I expect those should be coming out soon), but I have read "Slander" (on the media), "Treason" (on Communism vs. "McCarthyism"), "High Crimes and Misdemeanors" (her case for impeaching Clinton), and her latest collection of screeds "How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)" (on how all liberals are backstabbers, slimeballs, and doodie-heads). She has an extremely interesting _style_.
I agree with most of what Coulter says, but one main criticism I have of her is that she's such a knee-jerk partisan. She sees everything as Republicans (good) vs. Democrats (bad). Yet, in her latest book, she has a whole chapter praising the American South (i.e., the Southeast, a.k.a., "Dixie"). For most of their history, that section of the country was completely Democratic. The "Damn Yankee" Republicans were up North. If you like the South, you have to like Democrats.
A book I contrast to hers is "None Dare Call It Treason" by John A. Stormer (1964), which hit on many of the same conservative and anti-Communist themes, and was a bestseller on the Right during Barry Goldwater's campaign (along with Phyllis Schlafly's "A Choice Not An Echo" and J. Evetts Haley's "A Texan Looks At Lyndon"). One difference, though, is that Stormer's book, unlike Coulter's, was explicitly _not_ a partisan diatribe. He took on both political parties. (He also was extremely manly-looking.)
Michelle Malkin is sexy to me. I had a dream a couple nights ago about her. I hated her, she was completely fascist, but she was _very_ sexy. In that dream, she wrote a very interesting book, a book that I strongly disagreed with, but it was the kind of book I dream about, with lots of spectrum diagrams and dualisms.
Tammy Bruce is very sexy to me also. She is much more independent, a Lesbian, a feminist, pro-choice on abortion, and also a gun owner, for the death punishment, and she voted for Reagan (and now for Bush). The very titles of her two books against the Left, "The New Thought Police" and "The Death of Right and Wrong", illustrate what is wrong with the Left and what is right with the Right, i.e., freedom, free thought, individualism, and also moral values, absolutes of right and wrong, dogmatism. Her _style_.
Above all, I love Camille Paglia, the most original and profound thinker since Ayn Rand, synthesizing Rand, Spengler, Nietzsche, de Sade, Freud, Jung, synthesizing Roman, Greek, and Egyptian mythology with Italian Catholicism, synthesizing the Apollonian and the Dionysian. I can't wait till she comes out with Volume II of "Sexual Personae". Her _style_.
Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Tammy Bruce, Camille Paglia, Condoleezza Rice, and, of course, THE QUEEN OF ALL EVIL....!!!! And, HAIL TO THE KING....!!!! Their _styles_!
Steven, your hailing one day got me goat, then I ended up cracking up so much realizing you just love the same couple I do and maybe we do need more of those kind of cheers!
Sooooo, HAIL TO STEVEN MALCOM ANDERSON!!! You are funny, I hope you know that. And darn right serious when you should be.
I give bloggers credit, I really do. I think perhaps I will start one as Dean as so often encourages people to do. If I ever do, I will not be the only one onboard it. Dean is right there for Rosemary and nobody better mess with her. I think it takes a strong woman, Rosemary, Mrs.du Toit and Kim to go forward.
Hail to all the women bloggers!
She is smart, realistic and not dogmatic. And pretty darn sexy, too.
I adore Ann Coulter's wit. She is hysterically funny and, I think, spot on most of the time. I used to think Al Franken was funny but he seems more mean spirited and ridiculous now - trying to hit people and such. He's lost his cool which means he can't be witty and amusing anymore, just shrill and that means boring IMO.
But truth be told, I'd much rather listen to someone like Charles Krauthammer who nails it every time and can be very witty in an understated way. My second favorite is William Kristol, his hair is intellectual as well as his opinions.
Limbaugh is intelligent, but his ego (even though it's mostly in jest) is a bit much.
Coulter and Malkin make some great points, but are filled with hate.
And I would marry Neal Boortz if I were any less into women. I haven't been listening to him for that long, but I don't think I've disagreed with him once. He's a Libertarian who is hawkish on national defense... perfection.
Thank you! HAIL TO YOU, TOO!!!! And, yes, hail to all the women bloggers (blogresses)! As well as the men like Dean and Eric Scheie (Classical Values) and Jeff Soyer (Alphecca).
JaneM, What is intellectual hair? Is it cut short with a nice side part? Is it completely opposite of scarey Colmes? Or is it heaven forbid, The Donald Trump pull over? Well, maybe it is like America's Mayor, Rudy that got smart and just let his skimpy hair with balding head show he was manly and humble about it. JaneM, now listen, dis is important to me. You know how I am about serious stuff by now AND I let everybody know I was NOT all so nice, when you wuz gone. I was a brat and a snot and spicey like jalepeno peppers. (just added the peppers, but true).
Ha Ha Ha, I was one of those Mom's that licked my fingers to pull down the cowlick on my little Rascals, ya know like poor Alfalfa!?!