How is it OK for Ann Coulter to say this?

[oberliner]

First paragraph of her "opinion piece" on Yahoo News reads:

"Six imams removed from a US Airways flight from Minneapolis to Phoenix are calling on Muslims to boycott the airline. If only we could get Muslims to boycott all airlines, we could dispense with airport security altogether."

Why is this sort of racism given a free pass?

[Nikki Stone1]

1. Because she is protected--obviously

By whom is the question

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. Plenty of Americans agree.

A portion of Americans agree with Michael Richards too. But a larger portion agree with Coulter.

[Vorta]

38. Exactly- and in that, she's correct.

The idea that a Muslim boycott against US Airways would hurt the airline proves that Arabs are utterly tone-deaf. This is roughly the equivalent of Cindy Sheehan taking a vow of silence. How can we hope to deal with people with no sense of irony? The next thing you know, New York City cab drivers will be threatening to bathe.

Rightly or wrongly, there are few Americans who would be upset if there were no Muslims on the plane with them. If nothing else, it would mean that one risk group had been eliminated.

[MadHound]

39. So what's next, white fundamentalist Christian males?

Remember Eric Rudolph and Timothy McVeigh? I guess that makes white male Christians a "risk group" then:shrug:

Sorry, terrorists can be of any ethnic group. Thus that makes everybody part of a "risk group". That's why profiling is so stupid, you get caught up in a one track mindset, and whoops, there goes that tall blond woman onto the plane, with a bomb strapped to her shapely leg.

Yes, there is a large group of Americans who wouldn't be upset if Muslims no longer flew in this country. Sadly, bigotry and fear seem to be the order of the day with a large segment of the population.

[3waygeek]

3. Because she's not doing stand-up n/t

[GainesT1958]

4. If Little Oral Annie was stripped-searched at every airport...

Maybe she'd be a little less sanguine about Muslims not flying!:eyes:

B-)

[Bigmack]

26. Who ya gonna force to see her nekkid?

No security worker anywhere should have to see that.

[MaineYooper]

29. that's an image I could have lived without.

ew.

:puke:

[Counciltucky]

5. Because she's a Republican.

Racism in anything to do with politics, or messing up anything you say, only matters when one's a Democrat.

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. That's not racism; it's religious bigotry.

Muslims aren't a "race".

And since Coulter's the same person who said "we need to invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them all to Christianity" this isn't really surpring; she's been spewing the same hateful drivel for a while now. I don't think anyone with more than three functioning brain cells actually thinks anything she says matters, at this point.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. Same thing.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Der Blaue Engel]

15. The bigotry is the same thing

and don't think for a minute that Coulter didn't really mean people who are of Middle Eastern descent, or that her ignorant fans distinguish the two.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

18. Actually, many of them are.

Racism is a very serious problem in Northern Ireland, I believe.

But it's not the cause of the Troubles, which I suspect is the point you were making.

On the other hand, I think it's more accurate to characterise that one as "cultural" rather than "religious". Catholics and Protestants in NI aren't killing and oppressing one another to defend consubstantiation and apostolic succession and sola scriptura; they're doing it because their fathers hated one another, and their fathers hated one another, and so on. "Catholic" and "Protestant" are just convenient gang badges.

[cboy4]

19. I think his point with "same thing" is racism and bigotry are

equally as painful if you're the person on the receiving end.

[Vorta]

32. No it isn't. Jerry Falwell- case in point.

[Straight Shooter]

8. They hate us for our Coulters. n/t

[ComerPerro]

9. the word "opinion", unfortunately

but it only protects RW bigots

[SalmonChantedEvening]

11. She's a professional attention junkie.

And the outrage, which is deserved, as well as the support from the truly inane in society, are what she craves.

A loveless soul reduced to getting attention by screaming absurdities.



I'd pity her if the nausea ever subsided....

[Ksec]

12. Oreally has boycotts on entire countries.

Now theres a genuis....Coulter and Oreally have a child and it comes out squealing.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. Not only is AnnThrax a racist/religious bigot, she's a stupid, ignorant racist/religious bigot.

Some actual or attempted airplane hijackings by non-Muslims:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cuba-US_aircraft_hijackings -- A list of over 100 attempts to hijack airplanes to Cuba. The hijackers weren't Muslims.

In 1971 "D.B. Cooper," a non-Muslim, hijacked a 727, extorted cash from the airline, parachuted out and was never seen again. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper

In 1975, Samuel Byck, another non-Muslim, tried to hijack a DC-9 in order to fly it into the White House to assassinate Nixon.

In 1994, Auburn Calloway, an angry non-Muslim FedEx employee, tried to take over a DC-10 and fly it into FedEx headquarters.

There are many others. Annie, you repellent harpy, read some history. There are a lot of bad people in the world, many of whom are white Christians.

[Ian David]

14. It's not okay for Muslims to pray. But it's okay for Republicans to bring pipe bombs on a plane.

See:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2744070#2754311

[Dragon Turtle]

16. IOKIYAR

[Yukari Yakumo]

17. Because we've long known she's a racist.

Just look here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/04/04/25_coulter.html

[Donald Ian Rankin]

20. Because of the First Ammendment.

"Freedom of Speech" doesn't just mean "freedom to say things I agree with".

If she starts actively trying to incite criminal violence against Muslims, that becomes something she shouldn't be "given a free pass" for. Anything short of that she should be allowed to get away with without legal censure.

[misternormal]

21. As much as I hate to, I have to agree with you...

... Ms. Coulter is one of my least favorite people. But... if we as liberals wish to have anything to stand on at all, we have to say that the 1st amendment is for all...

Like it or not... we either have it or we don't. There is no gray area.

[oberliner]

22. Oh I didn't mean legally - I meant how come she doesn't have to

go on, say David Letterman, and apologize for her offensive comments?

[mondo joe]

24. Well who would be in a position to MAKE HER do any such thing?

The people who buy her crap agree with her.

[T Town Jake]

25. Sad but absolutely true.

(n/t)

[Donald Ian Rankin]

30. Richards doesn't want people to think he's racist, Coulter wants people to think she hates Muslims.

As such, it's in his interestes to apologise, and not in hers.

[lynne]

34. A matter of personal choice -

- Richards saw his statement as possibly ruining his career, which is why he apologized. Coulter's statement just bolsters her career so she doesn't have a reason to apologize.

[Green Mountain Dem]

23. So calling a couple of

hecklers the "N" word is different than implying that all muslims are terrorists? Why does one require an appology and intense MSM attention and the other is ignored by the same MSM?

[mondo joe]

27. Because Coulter is already known to be a pig, thus not news, and Richards

is news.

Furthermore, Coulter's words are in line with her audience so no damage to her.

Richards had a pretty mainstream audience, so there is a question about the public's response.

[Vorta]

33. Because it isn't surprising anymore when Coulter says stuff like this.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

28. She can say what she wants - the Bill of Rights guarantees her that

What is disturbing is that so many Americans eat this garbage up.

[LeftishBrit]

31. Well, this is hardly new from her!

Didn't she also say that Timothy McVeigh should have targeted the New York Times building; that a senator, whom she didn't like, should be shot; and that a Supreme Court Justice, whom she also didn't like, should be poisoned?

She is clearly a bigoted nutter, far too fond of violent imagery and hate-speech. What worries me most is not that she exists and says these things (there will always be a few deranged people), but that there are sufficient numbers of supposedly 'normal' people prepared to read her articles and books, for her to continue to be able to make a profit from them.

[kevinbgoode]

35. Con-servatives are allowed to say anything they want

- the rest of us aren't allowed to say anything that might offend con-servatives, however. It's what they call "freedom". . .and their code word to censor speech by everyone else is called "morality."

[SemperEadem]

36. because this is a predominantly white Christian country

and she's saying exactly what they want her to say... if the same remark was made about not allowing white Christian Protestant ministers to fly on any airline, you'd have heard a huge outcry.

[NNN0LHI]

37. Because she is one of Lou Dobbs favorite guests and Lou isn't racist...much n/t