Tag: Books

The New York Times has a review of “Now It’s My Turn,” by the vice president’s daughter, Mary Cheney:

Her book is neither a manifesto of personal liberation nor an analysis of the gay marriage wars, but a buttoned-up account of a life spent barnstorming for Republicans.

Apparently, Mary is not into gay pride:

[She] describes hissing a furious expletive at the TV when Senator John Kerry referred to her as a “lesbian” in the third 2004 presidential debate (she prefers referring at arm’s length to “my sexual orientation,” as if it were an intransigent military position, perhaps, or a pesky shadow she just can’t shake). She was angry, among other reasons, she writes, because “he had used the word ‘lesbian,’ instead of the more common and politically neutral term ‘gay.’ ”

When exactly did the word “lesbian” become a scathing insult, alongside that other once-glorious, classically derived seven-letter L-word: liberal?

She’s the type of gal who’d rather go along to get along:

Cheney acknowledges that the president’s position on gay marriage gives her “a knot in the pit of my stomach,” so what in the name of Rita Mae Brown stopped her from confronting him? Timidity? Deference? Or her avowed desire to “maintain a low profile” (which raises the question: why write this book at all)? Certainly it is not her God-given responsibility, as a Republican operative who happens to be gay, to be an advocate for gay and lesbian issues. But — with apologies to Dan Quayle and the United Negro College Fund — what a waste.

A waste of good trees, too. The book sold fewer than 6,000 copies in its first month, despite a publicty barrage highlighted by a tour of the talk shows by Cheney herself.

Some people are born to greatness while others achieve greatness. And then there are people like Mary Cheney who pass up a chance at greatness because of self-esteem issues emanating from internalized homophobia.

It appears certain now that Ann Coulter has widely and regularly plagiarized the writing of others, including work published both in the liberal media and by rightwing organizations:

[A] 25-word passage from a [chapter in Coulter’s current bestseller “Godless”] titled “The Holiest Sacrament: Abortion” appears to have been lifted nearly word for word from Planned Parenthood literature published at least 18 months before Coulter’s 281-page book was released.

A separate, 24-word string from the chapter “The Creation Myth” appeared about a year earlier in the San Francisco Chronicle with just one word change – “stacked” was changed to “piled.”

Another 33-word passage that appears five pages into “Godless” allegedly comes from a 1999 article in the Portland (Maine) Press Herald.

Plus:

[A] 2003 column that included “six passages, ranging from 10 to 48 words each, that appeared 15 years earlier in the same order in an L.A. Times article.”

And:

“Her June 29, 2005, column, ‘Thou Shalt Not Commit Religion,’ incorporates 10 facts on National Endowment for the Arts-funded work that originally appeared in the same order in a 1991 Heritage Foundation report, ‘The National Endowment for the Arts: Misusing Taxpayers’ Money.’ But again, the Heritage Foundation isn’t credited.”

So has black-hearted Annie ever lashed out at her fellow cribbers-in-crime. You bet she has! In a May 15, 2003, column, titled “The Old Gray Liar,” about the the Jayson Blair plagiarism scandal at the New York Times, Coulter wrote:

The New York Times is to be commended for ferreting out Jayson Blair, the reporter recently discovered making up facts, plagiarizing other news organizations, and lying about nonexistent trips and interviews. A newspaper that employs Maureen Dowd can’t have had an easy time settling on Blair as the scapegoat. Blair’s record of inaccuracies, lies and distortions made him a candidate for either immediate dismissal or his own regular column on the op-ed page.

A sentence or two later, Coulter proves how wrong she can be. Writing just two weeks after President Bush landed on the Abe Lincoln and declared “mission accomplished in Iraq,” she said:

They ought to claim all those front-page articles predicting a “quagmire” in Iraq were also written by Blair.

Bonfire of the inanities: Vamos a Cuba and its English-language counterpart, Visit to Cuba, have been ripped from the shelves of 33 Miami-Dade County schools following a bitter and seemingly endless and really stupid debate. Oh, and the other 24 books in the same series, which deal with different countries, have also been slated for the bonfire.

As a reasonable person, you are probably asking why a seemingly inocuous book aimed at teaching kindergartners to read would engender the kind of rhetorical firestorm that has engulfed Miami lo, these past several months. Because it said things like, “Cuba is an island with many beaches. Cuba also has tall mountains.” Instead, opponents of the books maintain they should have said, “Cuba is an island with many beachs and a despotic, tyrannical madman running a repressive military dictatorship. Cuba also has tall mountains and a despotic, tyrannical madman running a repressive military dictatorship.”

Screw the First Amendment that guarantees that whether a book is accurate or not, it still should be allowed to be on library shelves. (Even James Frey’s fake autobio, A Million Little Pieces, should be available for fools to buy and read.) Screw the fact that these books are not intended to be as comprehensive as the CIA Worldbook, providing 5-year-olds with a comprehensive perspective on a nation’s socio-poltical-economic profile.

In the end, frustrated school board members who opposed removing the books voted for the ban just to get it off the docket and into the hands of the ACLU, which has promised a vigorous — and expensive — lawsuit over this clear violation of the Constitution.

Miami is a city with many beaches and a despotic, tyrannical citizenry running a repressive society where dissent and alternate opinions are not tolerated.