Posts Tagged ‘ann coulter’

By John Ruberry

Every day is well, a day.

Except for prominent dates on the calendar, Christmas and New Year’s Day come to mind, there is an official day–although I am unaware of any sanctioning organization–for every day of the year.

Perhaps I am wrong. Because there is NationalToday.com

For instance, according to that austere body, February 11 is National Guitar Day and June 26 is National Canoe Day. 

Most notoriously, September 19 is International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Our 365 calendar–or 366, since this is a Leap Year–can digest one more “day.”

Today, I officially declare, December 8, as International Pundit Day. NationalToday.com, please take note.

A pundit, according to Merriam-Webster, is “a person who gives opinions in an authoritative manner usually through the mass media.” It is one of the few words in the English language that comes from Hindi.

In the early 2000s, many blogs, most notably Instapundit and Gateway Pundit, appeared on the political radar. And yes, to a lesser extent, my own Marathon Pundit.

Blogging has become mainstream since then, as have podcasts.

Yes, podcasters are pundits too.

Why December 8? Well, why not?

But if you need reasons, December 8 is Ann Coulter’s birthday. As you probably know, she’s a noted opinion columnist, and yes, pundit.

And it’s my birthday too.

Say it loud and say it now, I’m a pundit and I’m proud.

And if you are not a pundit yet, you can begin now.

And if you know a pundit, say “thank you!”

And now is the time in Pundit Land when we dance!

John Ruberry, who is celebrating his birthday and International Pundit Day today, regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

…when she can write stuff like this:

(6) Are gay rights part and parcel with basic conservatism? If so, why are so many elected Republicans so skittish/unsupportive about the subject? If not, tell me why.

No, we don’t generally care for identity politics of any sort, much less hearing about people’s sex lives, even Nino Scalia’s. (And judging by the number of children he has, it’s pretty active.) Conservatives believe in individual rights, low tax rates, fighting terrorism and punishing criminals — so do gays! They also happen to believe Judy Garland was the most underappreciated and misunderstood person in the history of show business. I don’t think most gays care about gay marriage; they like going to the gay marriage meeting because it’s a good way to meet other gays.

I wish I wrote that

Paul Walderman in his quest to find something positive for the left to write about; discovers what he thinks is a gem on Ann Coulter:

Remember Ann Coulter? Seems like just yesterday she was Queen of the Right, the whole political world hanging on her every bile-laced tirade. Yet she’s all but disappeared.

Not that she isn’t trying. She’s still got her weekly column over at Human Events (latest entry: “Alvin Greene: The Most Qualified Democrat I Have Ever Seen” – Har har!). She still makes regular appearances on Fox, showing up to gab with Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity. But she seems to have completely lost her ability to move from the right-wing outlets into the mainstream discussion.

This is an excellent example of what is called “projection”. For the left it is always about personal relevance. Am I on the front pages, do I get enough attention, can I get instalanched?

As Walderman notes, but dismisses, Ann is a regular columnist, and has regular TV appearances. He doesn’t mention that she also regularly makes the NYT best seller list whenever she writes a book and still packs anyplace where she speaks.

In other words she is doing just fine and doesn’t need the validation of a dying Mainstream Media to make herself important. She has a comfortable life and will continue to have one.

More importantly to her, her philosophy is winning in the arena of ideas these days. I suspect she will trade that for an extra appearance on the View or one more time a month on Joy Behar’s show any day.

Perhaps she is confusing Miss Coulter with another blondish lady who although holding titular power is striving to be relevant:

When you can’t find good news about your own side, I guess you have to take your crumbs where you can.

…but stories like this remind me why you couldn’t pay me to live there:

“The University of Ottawa is really easy to get into, isn’t it?” she said in an interview after the cancelled event. “I never get any trouble at the Ivy League schools. It’s always the bush league schools.”

Coulter said she has been speaking regularly at university campuses for a decade. While she has certainly been heckled, she said this is the first time an engagement has been cancelled because of protesters.

“This has never, ever, ever happened before — even at the stupidest American university,”

There are quite a few American universities that might be jealous, shame about that pesky first amendment isn’t it? Smitty comments:

Mark Steyn will no doubt have something blistering on this one, but Canada, you really have wet yourself. Your osteoporosis has reached a point where a woman with long hair and pointed remarks cannot offer them without you fearing for ’safety’. For crying out loud in the dark, I hope all honest Canucks, who can remember a time before the last hair was shaved off their public bottom in the name of some bogus ‘empathy’ god, just come South of the border right now.

Over at Atlas Pam is her normal quiet self:

These same savages welcome the most hate speech sponsors with open arms and open legs, but truth is verboten….
…They welcome Israel Apartheid Week and its accompanying violence. They welcome Robert Fisk. They welcome George Galloway, today’s Oswald Mosley….no protest except when he was barred from Canada by the Feds for supporting Hamas…..he is a hero of free speech……

They embrace inciter to genocide, George Galloway.

They employ a Muslim terrorist wanted in France for blowing up a synagogue.

Don’t be shy Pam, tell us how you really feel.

Canadians, if you aren’t embarrassed you ought to be. If you are embarrassed but aren’t going to do anything about it then you ought to consider Smitty’s suggestion above. Oh and he’s right about Steyn:

This is the pitiful state one of the oldest free societies on the planet has been reduced to, and this is why our free speech campaign matters – because those who preside over what should be arenas of honest debate and open inquiry instead wish to imprison public discourse within ever narrower bounds – and in this case aren’t above threatening legal action against those who dissent from the orthodoxies. Lots of Americans loathe Ann Coulter but it takes a Canadian like François Houle to criminalize her. The strictures he attempts to place around her, despite his appeal to “Canadian law”, are at odds with the eight centuries of Canada’s legal inheritance.

It’s not a coincidence that Mark is typing this from the US, Ann again.

I would like to know when this sort of violence, this sort of protest, has been inflicted upon a Muslim — who appear to be, from what I’ve read of the human rights complaints, the only protected group in Canada. I think I’ll give my speech tomorrow night in a burka. That will protect me.

I feel bad for those Canadian vets at Normandy who game their lives for this. I suspect they would be asking someone to explain how it came to pass that the only person with balls in Canada is an American woman?

UPDATE: At 12:16 A.M. Glenn Reynolds linked to a poll at CBC news on if Ann’s speech. As of 5:35 a.m. the poll is inaccessible. I wonder why? Perhaps they don’t like the results.

Update 2: Alinsky when he was not clogging restrooms suggested people use their own rules against them. Ann obliges.

The “[i]nflammatory right-wing pundit” spoke at the University of Western Ontario yesterday. In a move that has to be tongue-in-cheek, Coulter said she will file a human rights complaint alleging that University of Ottawa vice-president academic and provost Francois Houle’s e-mail to her constituted “hate speech.”

I hope it is not tongue-in-cheek I say use their own courts against them. Make them defend their rules and spend their money to do it.