And now, the fake news

The Jewish Journal's annual Purim cover is out now, and it's got a few gem jokes that reference news of note mentioned here in the last year. There's Eliot Spitzer and the whore of Babylon, the U.N.'s response to continued rocket attacks on Sderot and, of course, Ann Coulter and The Perfect Jew. My favorite "headline" though is about Israeli PM Olmert's ridiculously low approval rating. (Truth to be told, his approval rating spiked in July to, gulp, 8 percent.)

Obama Girl's Coulter crush

This brilliant little ditty by Leah Kauffman seems to have gone viral while I was MIA (aka playing poker in Vegas last week; oy vey). Notice the Jerry Falwell cameo and the sound bites from other Ann Coulter memorable moments.



"New York City during the Republican National Convention. In fact, that is what I think Heaven is going to look like ..."

Coulter speaks at USC

Ann Coulter spoke at USC last night as part of "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week." Luke Ford was there:

Half the crowd rose to give Ann a standing ovation when she walked in and 95% of the crowd rose to applaud her at the end.

About 30 protesters held up placards and chanted against bigotry outside. "Down with Coulter, stop the war!"

"Hey hey, ho ho, racist bitch has got to go!"

Coulter Chronicles: More on Jewish 'perfecting'

Omri Ceren, a rhetoric PhD student at USC, sent me an interesting, long, thoughtful blog post on Ann Coulter, Jews and the "manufactured scandal of the week."

It combines the best elements of liberal sophistication: the banality of multiculturalist tolerance, the humorlessness of scolding identity politics, and the blubbering of righteous indignation. It's the shallow beginning and the myopic end of the belief gap. Liberals take their own fashionable, spineless disattachment from the world - "believing too much in something is so unsophisticated." They follow it to its logical conclusion of vapid multiculturalism, where asserting passionate belief is an attack on some incredibly fragile Other - "believing too much in something is intolerant." And then when they have to deal with a normal, healthy person of faith, their self-righteous myopia triggers everything from shocked offense to a mindboggling inability to even understand what's at stake.

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So to recap: Coulter is stating that part of being a Christian is believing that Christianity is true, which has the fortunate side effect of also implying that Jews are saved for believing that Judaism is true. What a bigot!

We'd be inclined to believe that this is just a way for Democrats to say "see, the right has anti-Semites so it's OK when our top politicians talk about New York money people and our anti-war base thinks its edgy to carry signs saying Nazi Kikes Out of Lebanon." Except there's something a little more deliberate - and shameless - here. Just like with the fake Rush scandal and the fake O'Reilly scandal, the distance between the first eye rolling declaration of moral offense and the distribution of action alerts calling for Ann to be taken off the air was suspiciously small. We question the timing. No, really - we question the timing.

The problem I have with Coulter is not always what she has to say, or even how she says it. It's just that she's saying it.

As someone who does not simply practice Christianity as a social definer but believes it's message is of eternal importance, I agree with Ceren and some of the commentors on the original post that it's OK to think your religion is the One True Religion. Even when that implies that you're going to Heaven and everyone else is going to Hell.

The question is when and how do you say that. I don't think tolerance doesn't means ambivalent agreement. It's about sensitivity and understanding, and it's a value that led me to religion reporting: Not that every religion is a different manifestation of righteousness, but that every person deserves to be treated the same for their beliefs.

Maybe Coulter is capable of such "tolerance." But I don't buy it. And, anyway, when offensive rhetoric seems to always be coming out of Ann Coulter's mouth, can any of it be taken seriously? Especially a week after she's published a new book.

Coulter: Jews need 'perfecting'

I hesitate to quote Ann Coulter, but Monday night on CNBC she told Donny Deutsch, who is Jewish, that the United States would be better without Jews. (DISCLAIMER: Crazy Coulter is not an official ambassador of Christianity; unfortunately, though, all Christians fall into the unofficial-ambassador category.) Really, it's just not easy explaining my beliefs to non-Christians when kooks like Coulter and alleged crooks like Tom Delay are in the public eye.

DEUTSCH: Christian -- so we should be Christian? It would be better if we were all Christian?

COULTER: Yes.

DEUTSCH: We should all be Christian?

COULTER: Yes. Would you like to come to church with me, Donny?

DEUTSCH: So I should not be a Jew, I should be a Christian, and this would be a better place?

COULTER: Well, you could be a practicing Jew, but you're not.

DEUTSCH: I actually am. That's not true. I really am. But -- so we would be better if we were - if people -- if there were no Jews, no Buddhists --

COULTER: Whenever I'm harangued by --

DEUTSCH: -- in this country? You can't believe that.

COULTER: -- you know, liberals on diversity --

DEUTSCH: Here you go again.

COULTER: No, it's true. I give all of these speeches at megachurches across America, and the one thing that's really striking about it is how utterly, completely diverse they are, and completely unself-consciously. You walk past a mixed-race couple in New York, and it's like they have a chip on their shoulder. They're just waiting for somebody to say something, as if anybody would. And --

DEUTSCH: I don't agree with that. I don't agree with that at all. Maybe you have the chip looking at them. I see a lot of interracial couples, and I don't see any more or less chips there either way. That's erroneous.

COULTER: No. In fact, there was an entire Seinfeld episode about Elaine and her boyfriend dating because they wanted to be a mixed-race couple, so you're lying.

DEUTSCH: Oh, because of some Seinfeld episode? OK.

COULTER: But yeah, I think that's reflective of what's going on in the culture, but it is completely striking that at these huge megachurches -- the idea that, you know, the more Christian you are, the less tolerant you would be is preposterous.

DEUTSCH: That isn't what I said, but you said I should not -- we should just throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians, then, or --

COULTER: Yeah.

DEUTSCH: Really?

COULTER: Well, it's a lot easier. It's kind of a fast track.

DEUTSCH: Really?

COULTER: Yeah. You have to obey.

DEUTSCH: You can't possibly believe that.

COULTER: Yes.

DEUTSCH: You can't possibly -- you're too educated, you can't -- you're like my friend in --

COULTER: Do you know what Christianity is? We believe your religion, but you have to obey.

DEUTSCH: No, no, no, but I mean --

COULTER: We have the fast-track program.

DEUTSCH: Why don't I put you with the head of Iran? I mean, come on. You can't believe that.

COULTER: The head of Iran is not a Christian.

DEUTSCH: No, but in fact, "Let's wipe Israel" --

COULTER: I don't know if you've been paying attention.

DEUTSCH: "Let's wipe Israel off the earth." I mean, what, no Jews?

COULTER: No, we think -- we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say.

This is not to be confused with atheist Richard Dawkins' Jews-control-America comment. But, more importantly, what megachurch pastor would invite such an insidious mind and insincere tongue into their sanctuary?