Just as a little detox distraction from Coulter
pollution, I wanted to comment a bit on Jerry's
marvelous Twain quote (and with some authority,
being from New Hampshire and all).

I was taken by the over-the-top hyperbole of
Twain's own rhetoric in caricaturing the
over-the-top hyperbolic fool he was describing
(and it's not only NH that makes 'em like that;
how about Texas, for starters?).  I'm sure that
Twain was fully aware of the pretentious excesses
of his own description.   So I think the quote
captures something that is always behind the
glint in Twain's satiric retina: a ready, even
eager, capacity for subtle self-mockery, albeit
coyly disguised, which I think is an essential
quality for any real humorist, or maybe for
anyone who isn't caught in the trap of his own
ego. So at the same time he's mocking the lawer
from NH, he's equally knocking the guy who is
describing the poor dolt.  Which takes the
sourness out of it, after all, and gets us all to
laugh in good humor about the description more
than the actual subject of it!

That's  my take on it, anyway, for what it's worth.

BTW, if Coulter had the slightest capacity for
self-awareness, let alone self-mockery, let alone
subtlety, she'd have checked herself in for rehab
a long time ago.

Benjamin N. Wise, Ph.D.
Keene State College