Obama's Name

Ann Coulter has been referring to Obama as "B. Hussein Obama."

You know, there are days when I think of myself as a conservative, at least a liberatian one. But people like Ann Coulter make me wonder whether I really want to be part of the group.

Ann Coulter and Generalizations

I've never known what to make of Ann Coulter. She's clearly very intelligent. But she also seems to be just having fun sometimes rather than making arguments she actually believes in. In her latest article, she says:

If only we could get Muslims to boycott all airlines, we could dispense with airport security altogether.

and:

You want to really hurt a U.S. air carrier's business? Have Muslims announce that it's their favorite airline.

The first one implies that only Muslims are terrorists; the second that all Muslims are terrorists. Of course, she can't be serious, can she? After a while, it becomes very hard to tell.

Anyway, the point of this post was to complain about the absurdity of making these kinds of generalizations about particular groups. It should go without saying that it's important to focus on individuals rather than group stereotypes. But apparently it still needs to be said.