What bothers me is that conservative "discourse" is so simple-minded and dumbed-down that they stoop to using junior high terms like "faggot". What next? Lezzie? Cootie?

Ann Coulter is the grown-up, bitter version of the kind of pretty, but really bitchy junior high school girl that made fun of people with acne or glasses. Shouldn't we be beyond that as a society? What happened to the grown-ups?

Besides, no actual conservatives read or care what Andrew Sullivan writes anyway. The only people who read his blog or op-eds in middle brow publications like TIME are liberals who are fascinated, curious and horrified that gay conservatives exist, much like the oft compared Jewish Nazis or black Klansmen.

And can we please stop bashing Ann Coulter based on her gender? Calling her a man is really bizarre and pointless. She's a despicable person, period; so are the people she represents.

Glen Greenwald over at Salon got it exactly right:

"The people feigning upset over those matters are either active participants in, or passive aiders and abetters of, a political movement that, at its very core -- not at its fringes -- knowingly and continuously embraces the most wretched and obvious bigotry and bloodthirsty authoritarianism. They love Ann Coulter -- and therefore continue to make her a venerated part of their political events -- because she provides an outlet, a venting ground, for the twisted psychological impulses and truly hateful face that drives the entire pro-Bush, right-wing spectacle.

None of this is news, really. This is a movement propelled by an insatiable hunger for more slaughter and more wars. It is centrally dependent upon hatred of an Enemy, foreign or domestic -- the Terrorist, the Immigrant, the Faggot, the Raghead, and most of all, the Liberal. As John Dean brilliantly documented, that is the only real feature that binds the "conservative" movement at this point, the only attribute that gives it identity and purpose. It does not have any affirmative ideas, only a sense of that which it hates and wants to destroy. So to watch as the crowd wildly cheers an unapologetic hate-monger is perfectly natural and not at all surprising."

1. Becoming the poster child for conservatives that hate homos and being willing to stand by your principals to the end, therefore breathing fresh energy into the gay community about discrimination and its effects;

2. Adding fuel to the fire by claiming it was a joke;

3. Further marginalizing Fox News by only appearing on that program, knowingly running away from an actual debate;

4. Showing our straight allies and others that people like you continue to exist, have an agenda and seek to marginalize a class of people.

Keep up the good work Ann. You've probably shaved 2 years off the marriage trail and I want to thank you personally for that.

Reread or relisten (and listen this time). She didn't say or call anyone anything. But, you have to hear it in the Washington context.

Right now I'm thinking of a word for you, but I'm told I shouldn't use "Douchebag" in public.

And Colin, your joke would have been better if you said that if you used "douchebag" you would have to go to rehab.

Um, he's not in Time magazine anymore, and if you bothered to read his blog you would see that he actually does have conservative readers.
The party is splintering, and we have people like Ann Coulter to thank for it.

My apologies to both you and the other conservative who read Andrew Sullivan's blog. I'm off to rehab!

"This is a movement propelled by an insatiable hunger for more slaughter and more wars. It is centrally dependent upon hatred of an Enemy, foreign or domestic -- the Terrorist, the Immigrant, the Faggot, the Raghead, and most of all, the Liberal. As John Dean brilliantly documented, that is the only real feature that binds the "conservative" movement at this point, the only attribute that gives it identity and purpose. It does not have any affirmative ideas, only a sense of that which it hates and wants to destroy."

Also. If you wouldn't call a black man a 'nigger,' or a gay man a 'faggot,' who would you call a 'retard?'

This degrades women.

How about if we elevate the level of discourse re Ms. Coulter? Or, now that we've pointed out the inappropriateness of her behaviour, we stop feeding into her cries for attention.

Mamacita: MRI of Ann Coulter's Brain Reveals Startling Facts

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/48878/

You deserve a Pulitzer Prize.