Success? Leadership? Personal reflection?

by: Eric B.

Mon Apr 23, 2007 at 16:08:01 PM EDT

I kind of respect him more.  It shows he's not stupid enough to believe all this global warming nonsense that he's trying to get us to believe.  Okay, fine ... he may be a hypocrite, at least he's not a moron.  I mean, of all the psychotic, insane things liberals ... the druidical religion of liberalism has foisted on us, there is no, there is none more preposterous than the anti-human global warming.  Their solution is to, oh, just stop consuming energy, reduce energy consumption.  That is a plan for mass starvation.  They are anti-human.  We need energy to live.  To say, "Cut back on energy" is like saying, "Cut back on oxygen."  How do they think these houses are built?  Forget, you know, keeping it fueled or their stupid solar panels ... how do they think the glass gets there?  How do they think the glass is manufactured?  Energy is production.  I mean, we're asking for the entire industrial world to shut down.

As of this morning, I questioned the wisdom of attacking Ann Coulter's invitation to speak at Cleary University.  If nothing else, it's something she might actually bring up during the speech as an example of "liberals trying to shut her up."

Then, I read the president's open letter to the Livingston County community.

Since that time, a wonderful array of 10 diverse speakers shared insightful stories of success, leadership, and personal reflection. Their invitation to speak did not include an endorsement of any of their messages, but rather recognition that a community is strengthened by encouraging diversity of thought and conversation.

Below the fold, you'll find a couple of other choice examples of Coulter's style of success, leadership, and personal reflection...

When contemplating college liberals, you really regret once again that John Walker is not getting the death penalty. We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors.

From speech at the University of Florida, Oct. 20, 2005:

They're [Democrats] always accusing us of repressing their speech. I say let's do it. Let's repress them. Frankly, I'm not a big fan of the First Amendment.

CPAC, Feb. 10, 2006:

I think our motto should be, post-9-11, "Raghead talks tough, raghead faces consequences."

The president acknowledged that Coulter somethings uses harsh language, and he calls this regrettable.  If this is regrettable to him, then the question is why Cleary University didn't find someone with the same message who might not cause the college to later regret somewhat their invitation.  It's not like they haven't been provided with a list of alternatives.

The real flip side to this is that I was only vaguely aware of Cleary University before this entire thing broke.  On the other hand, I know full well who Ann Coulter is and have a well developed opinion of her.  She is a self-avowed bomb-thrower, someone who's built a career off stoking partisanship and racial fear-mongering, and of polarizing people rather than promoting ideas or forwarding an ideology.

It's okay for Cleary University to say that they don't endorse her specific ideas.  Colleges and universities should seek out diversity (as long as it's based on something other than prejudice, or gut feeling), but there's a difference between endorsing an opinion and a tacit endorsement of how that opinion is presented.  Coulter makes no attempt to hide her public record.  She uses it to market herself, in fact.  Cleary University could have picked someone who shared Coulter's ideas, but chose a more tactful, respectful way to present them.  Instead, for whatever reason, they went with the divisive bomb thrower.  For that, it's fair to suggest that although they don't agree with everything she says, they don't see anything particularly wrong in the way she says it.  So, while the entire affair says nothing to me about Ann Coulter, it does help me form my lasting impressions about Cleary University.