The whole "grieving relative" game...
... a new politically invulnerable class. Arguing with someone in mourning just isn't done — unless, of course, you are Ann Coulter and you have a new book to sell.
She managed to offend everyone from Hillary Clinton to Bill O'Reilly by suggesting that some of the activist widows of the Sept. 11 victims were enjoying their husbands' deaths. That's over the top even for Coulter. But she has identified a real problem: how do you conduct a political argument with grieving relatives?
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----- well, you can't really. But while they deserve our sympathy -- Tierney is partially correct in the paragraph below -- fear and grief and all that jazz gives you LESS perspective than the average unwounded slob... But he's DEAD WRONG on the first part...
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....Grieving relatives certainly have a right to be heard, and their stories need to be considered by legislators and judges. But having tragedy strike your family does not make you an expert on public policy. Instead, it warps your perspective. You become the most narrow special-interest group, obsessed with redressing a personal loss no matter what the cost to society.
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---NO, their stories do NOT and SHOULD NOT be considered by legislators and judges -- well, maybe legislators -- they're such sheep why not make them follow something besides money -- but judges?
The judiciary was established as an independent governmental wing as a way to counter the emotional kiss-ass of the Executive and Legislative vote-seeking branches -- a place where reasoned intellect and NOT emotional garbage are the motivating forces behind decisions.
The law that allows grieving parents, sisters, brothers and etc to spill their crying guts before a sentencing jury is just a Soap Opera version of lynch law.
IT'S WRONG, DEAD WRONG.
A miscreant has the right to be tried by a jury of his or her peers -- but when weepy old granma gets on the stand, it effectively turns HER into the peer and the convicted felon into dog-doo.
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--- We've become a nation run by Soap Opera-Video Game Philosophy -- and the Republicans are right up there with the Democrats as perps of this mockery of our Constitution.
And when Ann Coulter points a finger at Liberals for USING grieving people for political ends but somehow manages to fail to see such nauseating spectacles as MonkeyBoy Bush putting his arm around a non-fallen NYPD firefighter to raise his floundering ratings, and Bill Bennett, a degenerate gambler, attacking gay men and women who want to marry each other because it could lead to polygamy and worse, it just reinforces that Black-White Good-Evil stupid simple sappy mentality that has become political discourse in this country.
posted by Saintperle at
12:06 PM
