Tell ol' Pharaoh, Let my people go

Ann Coulter: Jews Need 'Perfecting'

Perfecting jews can be a full time job...

NEW YORK Appearing on Donny Deutsch's CNBC show, "The Big Idea," on Monday night, columnist/author Ann Coulter suggested that the U.S. would be a better place if there weren't any Jewish people and that they needed to "perfect" themselves into -- Christians.It led Deutsch to suggest that surely she couldn't mean that, and when she insisted she did, he said this sounded "anti-Semitic."Asked by Deutsch whether she wanted to be like "the head of Iran" and "wipe Israel off the Earth," Coulter stated: "No, we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say. ... That's what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament."

DEUTSCH: Christian -- so we should be Christian? It would be better if we were all Christian?

COULTER: Yes.

DEUTSCH: We should all be Christian?

COULTER: Yes. Would you like to come to church with me, Donny?

To be honest, I'm not sure why this should be any surprise. Coulter is kind of the 'shock jock' of the conservative crowd, gaining attention with outrageous, cold-hearted and just plain asinine comments and assertions. Like her observation of 9-11 widows of "I've never seen people enjoying their husband's deaths so much", this can just stand as an example of how ridiculous the far right can be in terms of believing "we're right, everyone else is wrong, and we don't want to hear anything that might make us actually think".

What's scary are the "born again" conservative Christians who really do believe as she does. It's interesting how they don't see the parallel with this "everyone should only believe as we do" with the fanatical Muslims who think all infidels should be wiped out.

DEUTSCH: Why don't I put you with the head of Iran? I mean, come on. You can't believe that.

COULTER: The head of Iran is not a Christian.

DEUTSCH: No, but in fact, "Let's wipe Israel" --

COULTER: I don't know if you've been paying attention.

DEUTSCH: "Let's wipe Israel off the earth." I mean, what, no Jews?

COULTER: No, we think -- we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say.

"The head of Iran is not a Christian". Oooh, so that's what the difference is between what she's saying and the anti-Israel stance of the Iranian president. Gotcha, Ann.

And I thought this exchange was telling:

DEUTSCH: But -- so we would be better if we were - if people -- if there were no Jews, no Buddhists --

COULTER: Whenever I'm harangued by --

DEUTSCH: -- in this country? You can't believe that.

COULTER: -- you know, liberals on diversity --

DEUTSCH: Here you go again.

COULTER: No, it's true. I give all of these speeches at megachurches across America, and the one thing that's really striking about it is how utterly, completely diverse they are, and completely unself-consciously. You walk past a mixed-race couple in New York, and it's like they have a chip on their shoulder. They're just waiting for somebody to say something, as if anybody would. And --

DEUTSCH: I don't agree with that. I don't agree with that at all. Maybe you have the chip looking at them. I see a lot of interracial couples, and I don't see any more or less chips there either way. That's erroneous.

COULTER: No. In fact, there was an entire Seinfeld episode about Elaine and her boyfriend dating because they wanted to be a mixed-race couple, so you're lying.

DEUTSCH: Oh, because of some Seinfeld episode? OK

Is she kidding? Because she saw it on a Seinfeld episode it's proof positive that she's right? Do the footnotes of her books show sources of her facts things like "Episode 12 of All In the Family", "Season 3 of Survivor", and "a 1959 Tom & Jerry cartoon"? I have to admit, however, that would certainly help to explain a lot.

If Ann wants to believe that only those with her own beliefs and mindset are on the "fast track" (as she puts it) to heaven, then more power to her. Just chalk it up to closed-minded arrogance of the far-right religious zealots. But I think it only helps underscore the similarities between any religion that thinks only they are the "chosen" ones, whether it be born again Christians, the Taliban, or whoever. And it's only a short step away from that rigid point of view and the "righteous" action of thinking God would want them to force those views on "infidels" and "heretics" through indoctrination at gunpoint, torture and then death to those who don't convert. History is filled with the blood of millions upon millions who died at the hands of those who had "God" on their side.

So how can someone like Ann, being of a religion that says itself that it's not perfect, cast stones at another religion for not being perfect either?

[graphics by Dancin' Dave]