Spot on

Ann Coulter, like Molly Ivins, is often funny though always savagely vicious to those with whom she disagrees. Neither one ever writes a column that doesn't make me roll my eyes, and I wouldn't want my kids to spend time with either of them lest my kids become like them, but each occasionally makes me snort in my coffee. On very rare occasions, however, one or the other of them will make a point with which I actually agree. I think I've expressed admiration for Molly once on this blog (actually, looking that up I'm forcibly reminded of why Michelle Malkin is another person I don't encourage my children to read), and I've quoted a couple of Coulter's funnier zingers; but I do believe that this is the first time I find myself linking to Ann and saying, "Hey, setting aside the inflammatory phrasing, she's absolutely right about her main point here."

Ann doesn't make it easy to permalink; so (a) I don't know how long that link will hold up, and (b) I'm going to quote more extensively than usual in order to try to keep the comment comprehensible when the link inevitably dies.

However the Duke lacrosse rape case turns out, one lesson that absolutely will not be learned is this: You can severely reduce your chances of having a false accusation of rape leveled against you if you don't hire strange women to come to your house and take their clothes off for money.

Also, you can severely reduce your chances of being raped if you do not go to strange men's houses and take your clothes off for money. (Does anyone else detect a common thread here?)

And if you are a girl in Aruba or New York City, among the best ways to avoid being the victim of a horrible crime is to not get drunk in public or go off in a car with men you just met. While we're on the subject of things every 5-year-old should know, I also recommend against dousing yourself in gasoline and striking a match.

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It shouldn't be necessary to point out that girls shouldn't be bar-hopping alone or taking their clothes off in front of strangers, and that young men shouldn't be hiring strippers. But we live in a world of Bill Clinton, Paris Hilton, Howard Stern, Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman," Democratic fund-raisers at the Playboy Mansion and tax deductions for entertaining clients at strip clubs. [And I would imagine that Molly could give you a matching list of Republican immorality as well, like the brilliant political cartoon from years back in which four women labelled respectively "The First Mrs. Ronald Reagan," "The First Mrs. [other Republican bigshot of the time, can't remember whom]," etc., are all standing under a big banner proclaiming "Republican Family Values." -- Peril]

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In no area except morality would a sane person believe he can't criticize something stupid because he's done it. How about: If you've ever forgotten to fill up your car and run out of gas, you must forevermore defend a person's right to ignore the gas gauge. Or if you've ever forgotten to wear a coat in cold weather and caught a cold, henceforth you are obliged to encourage others not to dress appropriately in the winter.

This deep-seated societal fear of being accused of "hypocrisy" applies only to behavior touching on morals.

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I disagree with only one point in the above: I would question the sanity of anybody who believes that nonsense when it comes to morality, too.

Hypocricy is not saying that something is immoral even though you've done it yourself. Hypocricy is saying something is immoral and claiming you don't do it yourself, when in fact you secretly do. This would seem obvious, but Americans are master at missing the obvious, whenever missing the obvious makes it easier for them to excuse their own self-indulgent behavior.

At any rate, as I've tried over and over to make clear to the kids, doing something stupid doesn't make you deserve to be falsely accused -- but life is not about what you deserve, and doing something stupid quite possibly can get you slandered. Doing something stupid doesn't make you deserve to get raped -- but a stupid, slutty, sloppy-drunk, coked-up girl is a heckuva lot more likely to get raped than an intelligent, chaste, sober, drug-free girl, especially when there are lots of horny, amoral, sloppy-drunk male undergraduates in the vicinity. (You can get as upset with me as you want to get for my "judgmentalism" or whatever judgmentally condemnatory epither comes readily to your hand, but it won't change the fact that what I have just said is true, or the fact that if my daughter understands it and you don't bother to make sure your daughter does, you're a heckuva lot more likely than I am to get a devastating phone call late at night sometime during our respective daughters' first couple of years in college.)

And being stupid doesn't make you deserve to die. But it can sho 'nuff getcha killed.

So get a clue and don't be stupid, eh?