David Horowitz blasts Ann Coulter for demonizing Dems! Friends, this is news. Horowitz also runs through the history of American anti-Communism. His perspective is that Joe McCarthy's irresponsibility and recklessness did a great deal of damage to the anti-Communist cause, because there really was a very serious threat caused by Communist infiltration of the US government. The threat was more or less already cleaned up by the Truman Administration before McCarthy got started in 1950. Here's Andrew Sullivan on the same subject.

Sullivan also links to the story of Michael Savage's totally deserved firing for gay-bashing on the radio. It's a perfectly legitimate political position to oppose gay marriage or gays in the military or whatever. It is a completely different thing when one wishes for gays "to get AIDS and die". I wouldn't have someone who thought or talked like that on my radio station.

I do not much like Ann Coulter. I have chuckled more than once at her outrageous rhetoric, but she is not a responsible commentator and is not to be taken seriously. Pas d'ennemis a droite, my ass. If we can tone down Coulter and get rid of Savage, like we did with Morton Downey Jr., the conservative movement will get a lot more respect in centrist circles. and the centrists are who we need to convince if we want to grow. There's very little room to the respectable right of the Republican Party, but plenty of room to grow in the direction of the center. And if the Democrats manage to make a circus out of this primary campaign, which I'll bet you euros to croissants they manage to do, lots of those middle-of-the-road folks are going to look at the Republicans and say, "All right, here's your chance. These Democrats are losers, you can't count on them. So show me why I should think about voting Republican."

Well, I think there are already plenty of good answers for that, which I won't go into, but Ann Coulter and Michael Savage totally turn off the centrists. Of course they have a right to free speech, but can't we toss a blanket over 'em and muffle them somewhat?

PS--I don't think Coulter is all that good-looking. Attractive compared to most normal people, of course, maybe a 7 or an 8 on a 10 scale, but we're not talking supermodel here.

Here's another one from Front Page. This isn't a particularly good book review, but it does make a point that I have written about before and that I still believe. I think you can judge a person on how he treats animals. I don't mean you have to just wuv kittycats and puppydogs, I mean that a decent person has to oppose any unnecessary cruelty and suffering that animals are put through. Like, I know, people eat meat and so animals must be killed. But let's do it as humanely and painlessly as possible, at least.

One kind of unnecessary suffering a pet animal might go through is owner neglect and carelessness. Does anybody really believe that Bill Clinton gave a crap about the poor old PR dog, Buddy, that he got himself when the Monica situation was beginning to heat up? Well, not long after Bill became ex-president, Buddy got hit by a car. Bill was shocked and saddened, of course. I guarantee you Bill got sick of him and turned him loose in traffic. He's that kind of self-absorbed son-of-a-drunken slut.