And here we thought SunTV would be

a pipeline for Stevie's PMO aka the Politburo, feeding English-speaking Canada non-stop ReformaTory propaganda.

Who knew that it would become the CONmedy Channel, with enough Poe's Law ambiguity to Confuse its intended audience? John Doyle describes an ersatz mash-up of Red Green and Stephen Colbert.

In its short but feisty life, Sun News Network has emerged as the finest of comedy sources. I’ve said that before. But now it’s even funnier.

I thought few instances of rip-roaring satire in the history of Canadian comedy could match the time Sun News host Ezra Levant marked Earth Day by assaulting a potted plant with a chainsaw. Levant, wearing a lumberjack shirt and a hard hat, began by making a lengthy speech at a pulpit. [...]

Then an assistant fired up the chainsaw and, after some small difficulty getting a grip on the instrument, Levant committed an assault on the unfortunate plant.

Sheer genius. Earth Day, Soviet communism and a chainsaw wielded by a guy not too familiar with the instrument.

And of course, there's Krista Erickson's totally hysterical impersonation of a journalist, replete with moves evoking Ann Coulter on crystal meth.

Meanwhile, the *real* Coulter's career as the official stand-up comic of Right-Wing Batshit Crazies has taken a queer turn.

"Hold on to your cowboy hats kids because there is a big surprise coming up on The A-List Dallas — an appearance from none other than Ms. Ann Coulter. While Ms. Coulter’s political viewpoints are a frequent source of debate, she has always been somewhat supportive of the gay community."

How can someone always be somewhat something? And Coulter supportive of the gays? Like when she endorsed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell? Or when she spoke in support of reparative therapy?

From here.

Grand merci to Jymm at Let Freedom Rain.

Free Speech has Nothing - Nothing! - to do with it.

Our gutless band of tighty-righties seems to think the cancelation of Ann Coulter’s stand-up gig at the University of Ottawa last March had something to do with Free Speech. It does not. It has to do with the Conservative Student Club's incompetence in organizing a bit of neo-con agitprop promoted by Ezra Levant and supported by the usual suspects.

The University of Ottawa had nothing to gain and a great deal to lose by being seen to agree with the malevolent fabrications - and hateful claims, as defined in Canada - of a provocatrice/performance/con artist marketed under the guise of a legitimate speaker for conservatism.

Ann Coulter remains available to speak (not free, though I doubt that she commands the same 6-figure fees that Sarah Palin does) and, as individuals, people (even those associated with the University of Ottawa) remain free to hear her - if you belong to the right groups. But there are no circumstances in which the University of Ottawa in an official capacity could have anything whatsoever to do with Ann Coulter or the hate speech she expresses, or the views she promotes.

Un grand merci to Jay Currie who provided the template for this post.

Self-professed 'right-wing Judy Garland' ?!? (updated)

Gay. Back in the day, when the air was clean and sex was dirty, the word 'gay' only meant cheery, perky, happy. Now some of the unstraight guys in the US Republican party are trying to redefine 'fun'.

"The gay left has done their best to take all the fun out of politics, with their endless list of boycotts and protests. Homocon is going to be our annual effort to counter the 'no fun police' on the left," said Christopher Barron, Chairman of the Board of GOProud, in a statement. "I can't think of any conservative more fun to headline our inaugural party then (sic) the self-professed 'right-wing Judy Garland' - Ann Coulter."

From here. Leaving aside the fact that those unfun boycotts and protests produced some significant advancements for lesbians and gay men - WTF?

Self-professed, eh? C'mon, you didn't really expect Coulter to refer to herself as the Republican Renée Richards?

So, what's next? Which other loathsome fundie, zealot or political figure will be recast in the name of 'fun'? How about Karl Rove: the 'right-wing Truman Capote'? Condaleezza Rice as the 'rightwing Whoopie Goldberg'?

Update: More here on Christoper Barron's perspectives regarding hate crimes. He appears to be a registered lobbyist - which explains why he thinks he's above using unfun boycotts and protests as political tactics.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Un grand merci to LuLu, now at TGB, who flagged this special WTF? moment.

Not yet done with the Coultrix circus act.

Today's blogpost from CC Ah, I have so missed the Denyseitude. with its splendid link to the self-avowed sexual proclivities of a US rightwing anti-abortion zealot, reminded me of an observation that a friend shared when she reviewed the photos Dr Roy posted after Coulter's stand-up performance at the UWO.

Funny to see those frat boys in those pics with Coulter. It's like she's in a long frame and they're in a wide frame view - except it's the same frame. Oh, what a small mind I have! She's a lévrier afghan and they're pugs.

In the canine world, cross-breeding events are of course quite common. Inter-species, not so much - unlike the sexual practices of certain rightwing males.

Hate Speech: The Beat Goes On (with update).

CC has a number of good points in his post The unbearable vacuity of Ann Coulter.

As for the cancellation of Coulter's lecture at the U of O, I call bullshit. There was actually no physical threat, only heated, emotional outbursts from a crowd that had been whipped up to a frenzy by the inflamed publicity her entourage had stoked.

Coulter should have thanked the students protesting outside Marion Hall. Their performance has raised Coulter's profile in the US. Media networks that had stopped inviting her to their talk shows are likely swamping her agent with booking requests.

Yesterday I mentioned that Coulter's popularity at rightwing events had been eclipsed by Palin and Bachman.

Le Cirque de Coulter has left the city and its main event, a skankily-dressed, scrawny faux-blonde is laughing all the way to the bank.

Check out balbulican's blogpost. It has the money shot.

More here, including a choice quote from Coulter: "I think I’ll give my speech tomorrow night in a burka. That will protect me." Sorry, Ann. A popular stand-up comic who performs at Juste pour rire - Lise Dion - already works that corner.

Why does Coulter dress like a skank?

It's okay to look like a skank if the other part of your act is to trumpet your fundamentalist rightwing Christian creds, declaring that Jews need to be perfected.

That's how a performance artist like Ann Coulter can afford an apartment in Manhattan and a house in Palm Beach. Though she's probably not getting the big munnee - $250K per public appearance that Sarah Palin demands.

She could crank up her wardrobe by selecting this brassiere style, popular in Joe McCarthy's time.

Why is Coulter doing a lecture tour in Canada, anyway? Has her stand-up routine become passé in the US? Are Teabaggers Tea Party Patriots not offering her gigs?

It's ironic the US neocon palate for vile trash talk that Coulter cultivated has shifted even further right and left her in the dust, opting for the batshit crazy ranting of someone like Representative Michelle Bachman instead.

Oh, and go read what Dr Dawg says about Coulter and her supporters' success in spinning a mild letter from a university official into yet another purported censorship VS free speech confrontation. Is it kosher to mention Ezra Levant's involvement in this attention-mongering circus?

ADDED by fh: Cancelled skank.

Kathy Shaidle is a Prevaricator.

But then you already knew that, right?

Two headlines - the first from CNSNews.com and the second from Shaidle.

Obama’s Science Czar Said a Born Baby ‘Will Ultimately Develop Into a Human Being’

FOX: Science “Czar” believes babies “will ultimately develop into human beings” only after birth.

Then she provides her NewsRealblog readers with the 'money' quote.

"The fetus, given the opportunity to develop properly before birth, and given the essential early socializing experiences and sufficient nourishing food during the crucial early years after birth, will ultimately develop into a human being."

In Holdren’s defense, such views were not entirely out of the mainstream in the 1970s, when leftist pro-abortion activists routinely described fetuses as mere “blobs of tissue,” and technology such as the prenatal ultrasound had yet to be developed.

Wrong, Kathy. According to the History of Ultrasound, a team of specialists presented and published their first obstetric scans at an internationally attended Ultrasonics Symposium in the US in 1962. Gynecologists in Canada have used echography as a diagnostic tool for high-risk pregnancies since the 1970s. Doesn't it make you wonder what else she gets wrong, or baldly lies about to put her point across?

Also, the "view" that Shaidle cites, is selective and deliberately misleading when detached from its context. Here is the full quote, from CNSNews:

"To a biologist the question of when life begins for a human child is almost meaningless, since life is continuous and has been since it first began on Earth several billion years ago," wrote the Ehrlichs and Holdren. "The precursors of the egg and sperm cells that create the next generation have been present in the parents from the time they were embryos themselves. To most biologists, an embryo (unborn child during the first two or three months of development) or a fetus is no more a complete human being than a blueprint is a building. The fetus, given the opportunity to develop properly before birth, and given the essential early socializing experiences and sufficient nourishing food during the crucial early years after birth, will ultimately develop into a human being. Where any of these essential elements is lacking, the resultant individual will be deficient in some respect."

Shaidle claims that Holdren has a "history" of promoting the kind of radical environmentalism that privileges the planet over people and has done little since his appointment to distance himself from past controversial statements.

Putting aside the fact that Shaidle twisted information to support her attack on Holdren, isn't the rest of her opinion piece a classic example of the narcissistic views that childless, dessicated, rightwing harridans like Shaidle and Ann Coulter - individuals who truly don't give a damn what happens to humanity and to the planet in 10, 30 or 50 years from now - regularly spew?

La Sainte Catherine!

I am being unfaithful to my francophone roots (which reminds me, à propos de rien, that I need to make an appointment to get my hair cut next week).

Yesterday November 25th, was La Sainte Catherine (the canonized person not the notorious Montréal street) which is somehow associated to unattached aka single women. Is it a celebration of the fact that unmarried women are happier, less stressed and more likely to live longer? Sadly no.

There are two sainted Catherines - Catherine of Alexandria and Catherine of Sienna, both canonized virgins.

Alright. I just read the Wikipedia entry about Catherine of Sienna and while the bit about her

"Mystical Marriage" with Jesus in which she had a vision that Christ presented her with a wedding ring made from his shriveled foreskin

is intriguing to say the least, somehow I don't think she'd be the one the good nuns would want celebrated on November 25th.

Here we go. This must be the one. Catherine of Alexandria was a martyr.

Historians such as Harold Thayler Davis believe that Catherine ('the pure one') may not have existed and that she was more an ideal exemplary figure than a historical one. She did certainly form an exemplary counterpart to the pagan philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria in the medieval mindset; and it has been suggested that she was invented specifically for that purpose. Like Hypatia, she is said to have been highly learned (in philosophy and theology), very beautiful, sexually pure, and to have been brutally murdered for publicly stating her beliefs.

Speaking of iconic unmarried females, we find out from mattt at bastard.logic that Ann Coulter's jaw has been wired shut. Oddly enough, even bloggers on the right seem downright unsympathetic.