Ann Coulter's Latest

You remember back a year ago or a year and a half when Ann Coulter was writing about how Liberals who opposed the war on Iraq were basically traitors? One question that I and many others had was what about Anti War Conservatives and Libertarians (The Cato Institute at the time was putting out a steady stream of articles attacking the plan to invade Iraq)? Are conservatives who attack the war traitors too? Unfortunately, what with her busy schedule and all, as far as I know Ann never answered that particular question.

Well, in the issue du jour, The Passion, Ms. Coulter is apparently determined not to make the same mistake twice. So she slams into William Safire for his criticisms of the movie. She makes this wonderfully ahistorical argument. "With all the subtlety of a Mack truck, Safire called Gibson's movie a version of "the medieval 'passion play,' preserved in pre-Hitler Germany at Oberammergau, a source of the hatred of all Jews as 'Christ killers.'" (Certainly every Aryan Nation skinhead murderer I've ever met was also a devoted theater buff and "passion play" aficionado.)"

What a characteristic response! Ms. Coulter, the passion plays were a phenomenon of the Hitler regime (and the middle ages of course) and were used to incite that culture to hatred. Modern Skinheads wouldn't use them, because we now have Racist music and video games and, of course, the wonderful internet to bring them together. And we have "The Passion" which if one were a Skinhead, one might find it a confirmation of one's beliefs. Not that Mel Gibson should be held responsible for what viewers of his movie might bring into the theater with them, of course.

Ms. Coulter encourages Liberals to "get over" the Spanish Inquisition, because only 30,000 people were killed and Stalin killed a lot more than that. Although to be fair, Stalin did have the advantage of modern technology to assist him in his killings. I'm sure the Spanish Inquisition did the best they could.

What's also interesting is that I see no indication that Ms. Coulter has seen the movie. Instead of taking on what Mr. Safire says about the movie, she chooses to move the conversation to a discussion of what Christianity is; a story of salvation. That's all well and good, but it doesn't really answer the question of whether Mel Gibson's movie, along with telling that Jesus died for all mankind, also tells us that Jews did it and therefore they basically deserve what ever we chose to do to them.

Ms. Coulter begins her article with this paragraph, "William Safire, the New York Times' in-house "conservative" - who endorsed Bill Clinton in 1992, like so many conservatives - was sure Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion of the Christ" would incite anti-Semitic violence. Thus far, the pogroms have failed to materialize."

Well, I guess since we haven't started rounding up Jews and executing them, that there's nothing to worry about. Unless you live in Denver, perhaps (although it should be noted that hundreds of people from Denver also turned out en masse to help clean the Synagogue).