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Coulterized Conservatives

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Posted Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2006, at 8:04 PM ET

Here is Doubleday's Web page for D'Souza's book.

Translation: We had it coming! When this argument was made by the far left (stating the causes were American neocolonialism, globalization, etc.), it was rightly denounced. Let's see whether it gets denounced when made by the mainstream right.
Again with Hillary Clinton! Whip me baby, tear your fingernails into my scr--ahem, sorry. Ted Kennedy is included for nostalgia's sake, Barney Frank is included because he's gay, Bill Moyers is included because he controls a lot of lefty cash these days, and Michael Moore is included because he manages to be wildly irresponsible and hilariously funny at the same time.
Among the things that repulse Muslim countries about American society is that we permit kite-flying and allow women to go bareheaded in public. D'Souza is kidding himself if thinks he can appease religious fanatics abroad by taking condoms out of high schools and reinstating the Pledge of Allegiance at home.
This is probably a cryptic reference to the Iraq war, which outside of the fantasies of a few Bush officials had no relationship to the war on terror until the United States provoked one by invading Iraq and then occupying it incompetently. See "Fiasco" by Thomas E. Ricks of the Washington Post.
The "not our exercise but our abuse" distinction is a pretty one, but D'Souza (or rather, Doubleday's publicists, whose summary of D'Souza's argument I presume accurate) just got done saying that any criticism of the war on terror is beyond the pale. That suggests his definition of "abuse" is pretty broad. I look forward to finding out what D'Souza means in condemning "the sexual liberty of women." Are orgasms no longer part of the right's agenda? Mrs. D'Souza may have a problem with that. While we're on the subject, does Mrs. D'Souza use birth control? I can't deny that much of American culture is vulgar and licentious (though I prefer the term "sophomoric"), but D'Souza's objection is specifically to the "aggressive exportation" of same. He may have stumbled into common cause with leftists abroad who want to keep out McDonald's and "Wedding Crashers."
Curtailing? Um, how?
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Posted Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2006, at 8:04 PM ET
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Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate.
Photograph of Ann Coulter on Slate's home page by Brad Barket/Getty Images.
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