No one can accuse me of being too liberal or too conservative anymore.

After reading Joe Maguire’s book ‘Brainless,’ a counter-argument for Ann Coulter’s own book ‘Godless,’ I’ve concluded both authors are, in fact, idiots.

There we go. Equality for both sides! Everyone’s happy now.

Now I don’t mean ‘idiot,’ in the American Heritage sense of a foolish or stupid person. I truly think Coulter is a master with words, using them for maximum potency, and Maguire is a grand arguer and researcher, especially in his book and of Coulter’s work.

However, it’s quite clear Maguire’s book was meant to be ‘The Battle of Who is the Superior Genius,’ and I kind of feel like Coulter won by not responding to Maguire’s requests to interview her. Smart move, Ann.

Maguire fails to mention, as I’m sure he’s aware, political commentary in the media is (gasp) very black or white, or in this case, blue or red. Most Americans are moderate, not extreme in their political views, and people like Ann Coulter make a living by making shocking statements for entertainment’s sake.

Now I’m not saying Maguire doesn’t have the right to get his panties in a twist and write a book arguing why she is wrong. All I’m saying is he should take people like Ann Coulter with a grain of salt.

I mean, Coulter referred to four Sept. 11 widows as ‘harpies’ and said she’s ‘never seen people enjoying their husband’s deaths so much.’ Ouch. Where are your good Christian values, Ann? I don’t care how much these women exploited themselves; they lost their husbands in the worst terrorist attack on American soil. Have some compassion.

Maguire calls Coulter everything under the sun, from racist and sexist to a closet slut, liar and hypocrite.

Despite my whining and complaining, Maguire was rather entertaining with his arguments against everything Coulter says and writes. I even laughed out loud at parts where Maguire seemingly pinned Coulter into a corner of hypocrisy.

However, Maguire’s hypocrisy emerges when he spends most of the book explaining how Coulter uses words to cut down people instead of arguing against their ideas.

Maguire, in an attempt to make a point, does the same thing in sections where he brings up whether Coulter is physically ‘Hot or Not.’ He uses other people’s comments about Coulter’s physical beauty to say she’s unattractive.

Then there is the section of the book where he mentions the Ann Coulter Barbie-like doll being sold on TalkingPresidents.com. He said it has ‘legs so skinny they make Lindsay Lohan look like a pre-Jenny Craig Kirstie Alley.’ That doesn’t sounds like he’s arguing over ideas, but cutting her down on a personal level. Bad form, Maguire.

All in all, Maguire makes a few points through the haze of blind hatred for Ann Coulter. These political back-and-forth arguments become boring after, say, 50 pages. I would recommend this book if you’re traveling to Boston for the weekend, but I wouldn’t pick it over finishing statistics homework.

Published on October 9, 2006 at 12:00 pm