I share Virginia’s frustration with the attention paid by the New York Times book review to dunces like *inesh *’Souza (and I share her outrage over the kinds of books they don’t review — though, I may be biased by the examples she cites).
Judging your opponents by their most ostentatious fools is a mistake and leads to intellectual laziness and overconfidence (see: Michael Moore, MoveOr.org, the GOP, and the 2006 election).
That said, however, I don’t think conservatives or liberals should waste their breath or knuckle strength responding to **’s Coulteresque ravings. He and his publishers apparently thought they could make money just by saying something stupid enough to get people talking. The best solution to this sort of thing is to ignore it — let it hit their bottom line and their credibility. Talking about it only encourages more of it.
And, with that, I’ll start taking my own advice. Fin.
Woot woot!
I am sick and tired of the pulp-punditry industry on both sides. The pundit writes about 220 pages of vituperative crap, and people buy the crap out of loyalty to the pundit, rather than what is actually said. (Although the process is worsened by endorsements from the pundits’ friends, who value the net worth of their friend the worthless author more than they value the credibility of the movement.) Maybe the conservatives’ firing squad treatment of D’Souza’s crap means that that industry is finally dying.
Relevant political treatises, like your book, Bartlett’s, and others, get drowned out in the sea of TREASON and LYING LIARS. Better late than never, I guess.