B.A.A.C., Part Three

The Q & A

We didn't pick our seats, the other Quidniki did, ignoring our desire to get way up high for a view of the obligatory shenanigans.  We had to crane our necks to see who was doing what and completely missed the fellow who was pounced on by security for "obscene and lewd gesticulations," as Quid 2 described it.  This was fairly late in the question and answer period. He had asked an extemely vulgar question into the mike.  We would like to inteject that we at  Quid Nimis are veterans of obscene phone calls and this was exactly that: the blurting of vulgarities at the (female) object of his hatred, the hasty 'hang up' in the form of running back up the aisle of the auditorium while gesticulating grandiosely (what ever happened to truth in advertising, we ask?)  He was hauled off so abruptly that his co-religionists, seizing their moment, departed en masse, chanting and keening and ululating after the security guards and their unzipped charge. Or maybe he wasn't unzipped.  It was hard to tell.  That is, it was difficult to know for sure; ain't nothing hard about this group. 
 
[Relevant aside: the David Horowitz emcees said that they were fascinated to find out what the ones arrested in that fracas had in their bags: air horns, lots of Marksalot black markers, cell phones, tattered, dog-eared copies of The Woody Guthrie Songbook, virginal, shrink-wrapped copies of the Webster Pocket Dictionary, Cliff Notes: Protesting For Dummies (Really!) and Claritin.  Items not in evidence: grooming supplies and any self-written material with three syllable words.]

The question and answer period was dominated by the Leftists who challenged Miss Coulter either by asking idiotic questions or by ranting.  The hosts had manned mikes so if someone didn't follow the rules, the mike got turned off.  The questions that elicited the most interesting answers were generally from Conservatives, but there was a (hostile) question about teaching that "fairy tale, Creationism, in our Science classes."  Ms. Coulter launched into a diatribe about the alledged unassailability of the theory of evolution, but ended up by saying that she didn't know what was going on in this state but that she didn't think that the story of Adam and Eve should be taught in Science textbooks.  She had an interesting but subtle point that we don't think she articulated very well, which is that there is a difference between teaching the theory of evolution, which to many Christians does not contradict the creation story, and Darwinism, which is an insidiously anti-religious viewpoint that pervades Leftist ideology.

Another memorable question came from a young woman who asked what the role of Conservative women was.  Ms. Coulter responded very warmly that beautiful, righteous young women like her (the questioner) inspired their men to do heroic deeds in defense of their country, that they are the great civilizers of men and that their role was the most important in shaping society.  This was a little startling because of the obvious affection in Ms. Coulter's voice.  The Leftist reaction was hard to judge: disdainful but very muted, we think.

Kfir of the Protest Warriors had his turn at the mike and got his opportunity to ask Ms. Coulter to autograph his copy of Time Magazine, the one in which Time incorrectly identified the PW spin-off group CommunistsforKerry as a group protesting Ann Coulter.  [Note to Time:  if you're in a huge protest march and you suddenly come across a group whose signs have correct spelling and seem to be much cleverer that the rest, those are the Conservatives making fun of the Leftists]

Somewhere in the midst of the Q & A, Ms.Coulter talked about her faith in response to a question about her style.  After that there was a spate of completely predictable questions about Jesus preaching love so wasn't she a hypocrite, yada yada. This series included one of the truly comical moments of the evening when Ms. Coulter couldn't understand a British fellow who asked her if she thought her speech "blessed people."  When she finally had him spell b-l-e-s-s-e-d she snapped back "No, but I don't intend it to"  and promptly pronounced that the strangest question she'd ever gotten.   What we were wondering was, since all of these people were in line for the mike before the subject of her faith came up, what were their original questions and how bad must those questions have been that they thought they would sound more intelligent playing "Jesus Said Gotcha" with Ann Coulter?  Anyway, throughout there was much (middle) finger pointing and bodily function stuff.  We were reminded of that Robert Fulghum book All I ever needed to Know I learned in Kindergarten and thought these folks are due for a refresher course or maybe some night school for their KGED.

There was in fact only one person who seemed truly scary, a man who purported to be an Arab Christian who was in "solidarity with his Muslim brothers." He and Ms. Coulter got into it a bit when she kept asking him if he thought 9/11 was a good thing.  He left in a huff and things became much quieter in our immediate vicinity.  It turns out, Quid 2 had been tiffing with him for quite a while, telling him to shut up and stuff. 

There she goes, pissing off the Islamo-Fascist.

Update on Wednesday, May 4, 2005 at 04:44PM by bbmoe

This is the Daily Texan article about the event.  Much better written than the David Horowitz article.  We reckon it benefitted from author actually being in attendance.  Our favorite bits, which we have digitally enhanced:

UT Police officers approached Raj to arrest him, resulting in a mass exodus of protesters chanting, [keening, and ululating,] "Let him go."
"The person had been disruptive the entire event," said Matt Hardigree, former Student Events Center president. "He took the opportunity to say something lewd and offensive and then made masturbatory gestures as he exited."

Masturbatory? and note: exited not excited.  And:

According to Jeffrey Stockerwell, a friend of Raj, officers violently seized Raj and illegally [and futilely] searched him [for something larger than a pencil] after his question.

This fellow was described as  "an English sophomore."  The protest is the story, to an even greater extent than on Quid Nimis.  And, of course TDT includes the obligatory price tag: $30 large (and worth every penny.)