Since political alliances affect one's view of this book, perhaps I should state that one of my friends once described me as a "conservative anarchist", and all my other friends thought that was very apt.
I applaud Maguire for his desire to denounce ad hominem attacks in place of substantive arguments and mindless partisanship instead of real consideration of the issues. One of the few criticisms that I have for the book is that he didn't adhere more firmly to that worthy goal and occasionally drifted into sounding partisan. At the end of the book he mentions that we should also avoid Coulter's equivalents on the left. Would he had thought of that at the beginning: he sometimes overtly or covertly makes it clear that he objects not only to Coulter's tactics, but her political allegiances, which muddies his point. If I seem a bit stringent, it is because I support his call for careful, reasoned discourse. I have ignored Al Franken ever since reading
Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot
. The "idiot" part of the book was interesting, the "fat" part was embarrassing to read.
One might object that Maguire is making ad hominem attacks at times, but I accept it in this case since he is generally mirroring Coulter. One hopes that the person who thought Coulter was funny when making vicious, irrelevant personal remarks will see the matter differently when she is subjected to similar statements.
[Added later: Maguire made a point of mentioning that Coulter has been engaged several times, although never married. I recently saw a video of someone else asking Coulter if that didn't violate "the sanctity of marraige." It was a weak point to begin with, and I hope that this silliness will not continue. I don't find it any more apropos to the issue than questions about gay marriage.]
For most of the book, Maguire carefully documents Coulter's errors, meanness, and hypocrisy. It's a pretty damning expose.
I do have a few cavils. The alternate title to one of the chapters; "Under a series of men is not the only place she lies", isn't the most tasteful bit, and does make me wonder if Maguire, et al., are consistent in their standards when they more or less suggest that Coulter is a tramp. If he wants to make an issue of Coulter's apparent hypocrisy about sex, I applaud him. On the other hand, if he is going to make MORAL judgements about her sex life, I have to ask if he, and the people he quotes, apply the same standards to everyone. The sexual hypocrisy of conservatives like Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggert are well know. It seems to me that liberals, on the hand, often have a sudden attack of puritanism when it comes to their opponents, condemning conduct that they consider acceptable in their friends. It is fine to attack hypocrisy, it is fine to attack stupidity, but double standards are not acceptable.
A small correction, since this seems to be a point of confusion. One will find scientists saying the evolution is a fact. The Neo-Darwinian Synthesis (NDS), AKA modern Darwinism, is ONE theory of evolution, and not even the first, although the current favorite. For most intents and purposes, NDS, Darwinism and evolution are used interchangeably, but they are in fact different. Some scientists will argue that evolution is proven, and that it is the mechanism, as provided in the NDS, that is theoretical.
I have read very little of Coulter, finding her work viciously absurd and absurdly vicious; one consequence of reading this is that I have paid more attention to her writings and videos. The more I see, the more I think that Maguire is dead on.
I have been recommending this to almost everyone I know, and having read the library's copy intend to buy my own. I shall hope that this is a step towards making reasoned discourse fashionable.
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