Thursday, October 11, 2007

Coulter vs. Deutsch: Donny wins

Adweek got Donny Deutsch on the phone about what I guess was Monday's interview with Ann Coulter on Deutsch's show. The one in which she says that everyone should be Christian, explaining, ""We [Christians] just want Jews to be perfected." Donny, who I don't usually defend, keeps his cool admirably, especially given that he's Jewish, in my mind winning the argument simply by not showing any sign that what he really might have wanted to do is strangle her. He actually gives her an extra minute or two to attempt to explain herself after a commercial break, but, as you'll see if you view the clip here, that's a task even she isn't up to. As for Donny, he told Adweek, "I was offended. And then, and this was interesting, she started to back off and seemed a little upset ... I think she got frightened that maybe she had crossed a line, that this was maybe a faux pas of great proportions." As for Coulter I'm sure she just views it as another marketing stunt.

18 comments:

Tim Nudd said...

Cathy, didn't you go to high school with Coulter?

Catharine P. Taylor said...

In the spirit of full disclosure, yes I did. Anyone who wants to see the high-school fencing team picture, which I once posted on another blog long, long ago, please vote here with your keyboard.

Alan Wolk said...

What was she like in high school? Any inkling that she'd wind up like this?

Politics aside, she seems like a profoundly unhappy woman.

Catharine P. Taylor said...

The weird thing is I didn't know her in high school--we were in different grades--but as conservative as people in New Canaan (CT) can be, I still find it astonishing that she came out the way she did. As I've said before elsewhere I think the townsfolk are increasingly embarassed by her.

Anonymous said...

as an immigrant, it frankly creeps me out and embarrasses me that i live in a culture that supports this deranged witch. she actually has supporters. she's a symptom of a deeper sickness in the country.

Ugly.

Anonymous said...

Jews convert Christians who convert Animists who are also converted by Islamists and Christians and try to convert the others while they're converting each other. Isn't that what religions do or used to do until the Deutsch show. And all the groups want to convert secularists who would (Hitchens's book) like the pack of them to go away and renounce their faiths.
Only Shintoists are happy to leave everyone else alone since WWII. Nihonism. The Tea Ceremony. The Emperor. Nice religion if you live in Kyoto.
To say that you want to convert people from one religion to yours is not to hate them, but to love them. However bonkers the religion may be.

Anonymous said...

MosesMaimonides, to go along with your train of though: the woman was being an ineffective witness. In fact, just know she was being offensive as usual.

Anonymous said...

An attack on efficacy is the intellectually honest one.
Various other conversion techniques ranged from occasional auto da fes to knocking on a stranger's door and handing him a pamphlet.
Islam was very successful converting whole countries by threatening to slaughter them. But that was 1300 years ago; today they merely blow up a random railroad train or airplane. Not nearly as effective.
The Jews resistance to conversion to Christianity and Islam and Secularism, to me, is quite remarkable. Now with Coulter on their case, their resistance should harden even if Deutsch's show
gets more veiwers on this blog than on the airwaves.

Alan Wolk said...

Moishe/Maimonide: A learned rav such as yourself should know that Jews do not try and convert Christians (or anyone else for that matter.)
In fact, conversion is actively discouraged, as are converts. You have to have a really good reason to convert.

We're more like Shintos than you think ;)

Anonymous said...

TOAD:
Conversion is an objective of Judaism, but the reformers have led us astray. But mahy more women convert to Judaism than men because of the Mishnah which decreed that Judaism passes from the mother's side whereas before King David, Solomon, Moses could have shiksa wives and bar mitvahed sons.
The real danger is expressed in the final four lines of a poem by Yehuda Amichai:
And what about God? Once we sang
"There is no God like ours."
Now we sing "There is no God of Ours."
But we sing. We still sing.

Anonymous said...

oy vey!

how can a discussion about the cancerous effect of right wing insanity on our formerly wonderful country morp into a yeshiva debate?

think i'm gonna plotz!

Anonymous said...

Interesting.
What makes an insanity right wing?
What makes an insanity left wing?
Let's look at the insanity of socialism:
so Germany from 1933-1945 was right wing socialism, meaning nationalistic socialism as opposed to the Soviet Union 1919-1989 which was left wing socialism, meaning internationalistic socialism.
Or is there only right wing insanity?

Anonymous said...

here's what makes an insanity right wing. when it's caused by a right wing minority as has happened in this country (the USA) over the past ten years. when it ignores reality. when it departs from the founding principles of the nation.

insanity doesn't have political allegiance. it's simply abandoning reason in favor of an ideology. and we all know how that turns out.

Anonymous said...

Right wing insanity: seeing the twin trade towers collapse and 1/5 of the Pentagon destroyed--and launching a war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Left wing insanity: seeing the two embassies in Africa obliterated along with the people inside them and watching the US Cole being attacked and 34 sailors dying, and doing nothing.
Not bad descriptions of ignoring realities.Short of definition, but it will have to do.

Anonymous said...

right wing insanity: three planes hijacked by mostly saudi arabians and some egyptians and jordanians fly into US landmarks killing thousands. right wing reaction: invade iraq.

left wing insanity: having a majority in congress and not taking advantage of having the biggest blundering idiots in us history as your opposition. and instead acting like neutered kittens when the majority of voters clearly want and need a strong opposition party.

Anonymous said...

So right wing insanity is any action you describe as actions done by a minority ignoring reality
whereas left wing sanity is ignoring right wing insanity.
Pretty funny.

Anonymous said...

no rebbe. don't go getting all philosophical on me now. we all know what i'm talking about. it's not a mystery.

i'm just talking about the urgent and depressing situation in the country that was 100% created by right wing extremists who turned out to be not very competent extremists. double whammy.

Anonymous said...

AS THE TALMUD PUT IT,
"A rabbi whose congregation does not want to drive him out of town isn't a rabbi; and a rabbu they do drive out of isn't a man."
Funny I saw Ann Coulter the other night with her boyfriend Andrew Stein (nee Finkelstein) at a restaurant up here in the pre-Catskills, Carnegie Hill. They seemed like a nice couple; neither seemed to be converting the other.