in which being a godless freak backfires.

so, i got this book by ann coulter. i know. i know everything that you want to tell me about my very poor reading selection. i know there's only so many books i can read in my lifetime, and that it's a disgrace to reinaldo arenas and donna haraway that i sandwich right-wing propaganda in between their masterpieces. i know all this.

by way of explanation: i spent a lot of time in the good ol' days of my rampant involvement with the southern baptist church trying to avoid thinking, discussing, or reading anything deemed 'bad' by the southern baptist church. this didn't really serve me all that well, in retrospect. so when i caught myself agreeing with the point made in an article saying that the current administration's promise of aid to indonesia is just a ploy to cozy up to the muslims there, to 'win their hearts and minds,' i got scared. because, aid is aid, and the people need it, and really, who the fuck cares if they try to buy people off, it can't actually be done. i was embarrassed by the depths of my cynicism, embarrassed that i made something that really isn't all that political into a piece of evidence to file under 320 in the dewey decimal system of my brain listed as 'reasons to abnormally and excessively loathe the right.' i'm a vigilant hater of slipping into mental habits. in this case, it's where any information that i am given is scanned to see how the right is fucking someone over. it's no different from assuming everything i learn proves that people are godless freaks or that god is an awesome god. it hurt me to write that last sentence. flashbacks of singing in rounds with other pasties.

so that's why ann coulter. my seclusion from all things tv related and from all things bill o'reilly related has kept me out of the right-wing loop, so i didn't know which right-winger to choose. i figured, 'fuck, they're all probably the same, right?' again my ignorance rises up to teach me that i am a person of much ignorance. i wouldn't want conservatives reading arianna huffington to get an example of how lefties think, and it seems i chose the arianna huffington of the right. not to be hating on arianna huffington, i'm sure she's great, noble, and brilliant at lots of things, but she doesn't really present well-documented and well-thought out arguments, from what i've read, which is 1/2 of one book, so i am not an Authority on anything, least of all arianna huffington. i'd want righties to read any column written in the last three years by naomi klein, or listen to five minutes of anything that noam chomsky has ever said. you know, solid, real thought based on facts and shit. ann coulter can't really offer anyone that. i could go on about her really poor word choices, her blatant racism, and other reasons that she induces not anger but sadness in me, but that would be preaching to the converted, and i've already covered how i'm not equipped for positions of Authority.

the search continues for the noam chomsky of the right. and just so no one gets scared, i didn't pay for it. ann coulter in no way profited from my poor reading choice. swear. and yes, i made sure all my vaccinations were up to date first.