Alas, last week when all of America was expressing shock, shock at Ann Coulter’s ice-cold diss of some 9/11 widows, I was confined to bed and under doctor’s orders to keep my poison pen dry. Although, it might shock many of you to know that I would not have wasted any ink hurling vitriol at Coulter because of what she wrote. But since it’s bad form to come late to a good fight, I shall suffice only to make the following observations:
Coulter has been pilloried for referring in her book Godless: The Church of Liberalism to four 9/11 widows from New Jersey as, inter alia:
…witches who are enjoying their husbands’ deaths….How do we know their husbands weren’t planning to divorce these harpies? Now that their shelf life is dwindling they’d better hurry up and appear in Playboy.
Harsh indeed! But here’s what you should know about this cat-fight:
If TV personalities like Matt Lauer of the NBC TODAY Show were so morally outraged by what Coulter wrote, they would not have dignified her by giving her a forum to repeat it, ad nauseam, on their (family-friendly) programs. Of course, the fact is that they all know it makes for good TV ratings to invite Coulter on to perform her predictable, satirical schtick. And the mercurial, sado-masochistic, self-promoting Coulter is all too happy to oblige because she knows these performances clear the path for her to go laughing all the way to the bank and to the top of the NY Times bestseller’s list.
Even worse is the fact that, not so long ago, these indignant TV personalities were themselves criticizing 9/11 widows for using the millions they got in government compensation for their husbands’ deaths to go on promiscuous shopping sprees. Never mind the scandal many of them caused by seducing their dead husbands’ firefighting buddies – who were asked to console these grieving widows – away from their wives and children.
Finally, if truth be told, even I expressed consternation at the posturing of 9/11 widows who seemed to think that their husbands’ deaths conferred upon them the right of final approval on every phase of post 9/11 redevelopment in New York City as well as the right to veto every measure contemplated for enhanced national security.
So, don’t let the fact that Ann Coulter is a cold-hearted bitch blind you to the truth hidden in what she writes. Moreover, be wary of TV talking heads who feign moral outrage for the same reason Coulter writes such outrageous stuff: it makes for good TV and it sells, sells, sells!
Ann Coulter, 9/11 widows
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