I thought it was a great episode, start to finish, one of the best ever.
And of COURSE they book guests to help them sell books! They don't mention every guest's "new book!" to just to put a feather in the guest's cap. The guest's entire reason for appearing is to promote his new book/movie/whatever.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tiltstermc
Ann Coulter...professional troll
Heh, my girlfriend is a staunch conservative, we disagree on almost everything political. She once expressed frustration with me, that I would often disagree with her just to start a fight. IOW, she thought I was trolling her. I had to assure her that was not the case.
I think Ann Coulter believes everything that she says. I don't think she's going "out there" to troll you. People have different thoughts when it comes to politics, it doesn't make them trolls.
(The rest of this post is the story of why my gf thought I was trolling her. It has nothing to do with this tv show, you can safely skip it.)
I NEVER bring up politics with my gf, because like most people, she can't discuss it with someone from "the other side" without getting upset. Whenever she brings up a political topic, I just smile and nod and let the pitch go by without engaging her.
But the Baltimore riots REALLY had her riled. She works in law enforcement, so she's particularly sensitive when someone killed by police makes national headlines. I'm with Maher on the whole "do the cops need to look/act like soldiers?" thing, but I dare not say so out loud, unless I want to needlessly piss off my gf.
While scrolling through her Facebook, which of course was dominated by this story, she made a remark about the morons who were burning down their own neighborhood. I took the pitch looking. Oh-and-one, the count.
She went on to sympathize with the business owners who had done nothing wrong, but saw their stores looted and burned. On the outside corner, called strike two.
Well ahead in the count and emboldened by my passivity, she sent a meatball right down the middle. Since she clearly was not going to stop until I joined in, join in I did:
"Actually, I read an interesting article this morning, saying that violent protests WORK. The writer said non-violent protests only work when people outside of the struggle will stand with those who are inside of it, like Dr King's famous marches, which led to real change. But in a case like this, non-violent protests have *not* led to meaningful change. Unarmed blacks are still being killed by police at a staggering rate, a rate that would be entirely unacceptable to America if 1/10th as many unarmed whites were being killed by black police officers.
"The writer went on to say that the Watts riots, the Detroit riots, the Rodney King riots, the Ferguson MO riots, they ALL led to meaningful change."
(girlfriend is looking at me like I just confessed a murder.)
"Now, I'm not saying I *agree* with that; I'm not sure that I do. I'd have to give it a lot more thought. I mention it because it was an interesting position I had not considered; it's a ballsy thing to print; and because it's such a tough call to decide how I feel about it."
(girlfriend questions aloud whether she can be involved with anyone who thinks such things; realizes she is way too upset to make such a decision right now and will allow herself time to cool down before addressing that question; comes back the next day with, "I hate when you troll me like that. You always do that." I have to explain that it's possible for people to think the opposite of you. We've been hanging on by a thread ever since.)