Ann Coulter is back in the news...duh! The following video clip is from the CNBC show, The Big Idea, hosted by Donny Deutsch. As Deutsch gave Ann Coulter the opportunity to describe her ideal America, she made the statement that her preferred image of America (and heaven) would be like the Republican National Convention in New York..."happy, joyful Republicans in the greatest city in the world".

Pressed to explain her idyllic world, she suggests that all Americans should be Christians...and that Jews simply need to be "perfected". Sensing Deutsch's surprise at what he obviously hears as a narrow and judgmental view, she argues that her visits to Christian megachurches leads her to conclude that they are in fact very accepting and diverse. I suspect Coulter was actually being candid and offering a glimpse of her true feelings rather than attempting to launch into a provocative screed.

I also accept her sincerity regarding her experiences at megachurches. Clearly one would expect the kinship of their Christianity to supersede their differences. It is the essence of their beliefs and it is what has defined them and made them a formidable political force. Frankly, their Christian beliefs serve to overshadow all other aspects of their lives..which helps explain their presumed need to convert all others to Christianity...a purpose I contend is an attempt to remove the dissonance which exists from the knowledge that others do not share their beliefs.

With this understanding, it isn't difficult to conclude that Coulter's remarks were the expression of an earnest, though ill-informed view...one that fails to see the arrogance that accompanies a statement that all Americans should be Christians. I have no doubt it simply reflects her core beliefs and demonstrates the danger of the angst which results from this pervasive need for uniformity. In other words, acceptance stops at the waters edge (Christianity) which compels Christians to pursue the conversion of others.

While those efforts are undertaken with sincerity, they also communicate an air of righteous disregard. I believe this explains Coulter's apparent surprise at Deutsch's recoiling. I think one can see that she quickly perceives her own blind spot...which leads her to attempt to pull back and explain her statement following the commercial break.

As she tries to elaborate, she suggests that Jews, per the constructs of Christian beliefs, need to be "perfected". She continues by telling Deutsch that the notion of "perfecting" isn't offered pejoratively...it is simply the means to explain the process and the journey by which any individual would arrive at Christianity. As she describes it, Christians have not only joined Jews in embracing the Old Testament; they simply have taken the additional step of accepting the New Testament...meaning they believe that Christ was the son of God sent to die for all of our sins.

Strange as this may seem, I found the interview to be one of the rare moments where we see the real Ann Coulter exposed. While I find her comments abrasive and insensitive, it isn't because I believe her to be anti-Semitic. She is simply the product of Christian ideology which would arguably treat all non-Christians similarly. I don't condone the mind set, but I think Coulter simply stated the obvious...that being that Christians, not unlike those who embrace Catholic doctrine, believe their faith is the only path to salvation and see nothing wrong with stating as much. In my opinion, that is why religion is so dangerous.

While many may see Coulter's remarks as the hoped for opportunity to bring her down, the significance of her remarks is beyond her as an individual. Bizarre as this may sound, I thank Coulter for speaking her truth...because it exposes a much more disquieting truth. In fact, it provides a brief glimpse of the core problem facing this country and the world...a growing degree of theological intransigence which has become the justification for an escalating clash of religions...religions which have conversion and compliance as their fundamental objectives.

Coulter's rhetoric and her rogue identity are ultimately little more than the epitome of a blind allegiance to a narrow ideology. Coulter invoked a Seinfeld episode to support her argument, so I think it only fair to close with one of my own. Ann Coulter and many others, who have forfeited their autonomy to a rigid set of religious precepts, are, in the end, no longer "masters of their own domain".

I created the graphic below to demonstrate the propensity of individuals to overlay humanity with any number of religious constructs in the belief that one is superior to the other. I cant imagine an all knowing god condoning our efforts to assert that one sect has eminence over all of the others. I see man's efforts to do so as an extreme depiction of our ever expanding arrogance. I struggle to see what would be so wrong with simply honoring the sanctity of humanity.

October 11th is National Coming Out Day. The act of coming out and allowing others to see you as the person you are...a person like all others with hopes and dreams...does more to advance gay rights than anything else you could possibly do. Each of us has the right to pursue our hopes and dreams. Yes, it can be frightening, but millions of Americans have done it and are now living happy and authentic lives. Do yourself a favor...you don't need anyone's permission to be who you are.

Not all children are created equal...at least that seems to be the message from the President and those who support his veto of legislation which sought to expand the States Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP)...legislation which is favored by a wide majority of the voting public and which passed both the House and the Senate by margins just short of the numbers necessary to override the President's veto.

In response to the President's recent radio address...in which he highlighted the veto of the S-CHIP legislation...Graeme Frost, a twelve year old boy, delivered a plea for George Bush to reconsider his opposition to the expanded coverage. In short order, the GOP throat dogs literally converged upon Graeme and his family.

Leading the right wing lynch party of unhinged and uber enforcers in the attacks on the twelve year old boy and his family is none other that Michelle "The Mouthpiece of Malice" Malkin. Malkin's assault contains the regular ration of bloviated blogging...lecturing her legions as to the lessons learned from the last episode of Hillary's efforts to impose socialized medicine. She posits her mission is one which results from duty...a duty which she must accept in light of the liberal leaning media's unwillingness to get to the "bottom" of the Frost family details...details she unabashedly chases with reckless abandon. She frames the fracas as follows.

From Michelle Malkin:

When a family and Democrat political leaders drag a child down to Washington at 6 in the morning to read a script written by Senate Democrat staffers on a crusade to overturn a presidential veto, someone might have questions about the family’s claims. The newspapers don’t want to do their jobs. The vacuum is being filled.

If you don’t want questions, don’t foist these children onto the public stage.

Fight your battles like adults and stop hiding behind youngsters dragging around red wagons filled with your talking points.

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Not content to argue the merits of the legislation, Malkin decided it was her duty to "examine" the financial status of the Frost family since she's convinced the mainstream media aren't "doing their jobs". Her "journalistic" duties included a drive-by of the Frost family residence and a stop off at the commercial building owned by Mr. Frost.

Malkin is seemingly operating under the misguided assumption that her job is akin to the donning of latex gloves and ordering the "patient" to bend over. Given the fact that her own head routinely resides in a dark and dank domicile, it should come as no surprise that she would believes it is her prerogative to insert it where it most certainly doesn't belong.

Given the above excerpt, it would seem that Malkin also suffers from a selective memory and has conveniently chosen to forget the vainglorious promenading of snowflake babies which took place when the President signed the veto of legislation which would have expanded government funding for stem cell research...a veto which sought to prevent the destruction of embryos...the same embryos which are frequently destroyed in the invitro fertilization process that created these snowflake babies...a procedure which is only available to the privileged or those who possess first rate health insurance policies.

Apparently the Bush administration and its minions believe they are entitled to determine which children are worthy of being paraded in front of the camera for partisan political purposes and which ones are to be savaged by those who oppose the expansion of health care coverage. The Frost family apparently failed to read the relevant sections of the Malkin marquee which disqualified them from entry into the ever increasingly constricted tent of compassionate conservatism.

I guess we shouldn't be surprised to find out that the Bush administration condones the use of mercenaries given their prevalence in the war in Iraq. Notwithstanding, while it may be premature for us to condemn the actions of Blackwater with regards to their alleged transgressions for which we at home lack first hand evidence; it isn't too early for American's to condemn the vile and vicious acts of the mercenaries who have chosen to visibly and indiscriminately savage a twelve year old boy and his family here in the homeland.