Take Note; I Likely Will Never Do This Again

I feel so incredibly dirty doing so, but I feel the need to speak in Ms. Coulter's defence for at least part of this Media Matters article: Coulter claimed to be "anti-murder" and "anti-false accusation"  Namely, the "anti-murder" bit.

For starters, I don't think you'll find any socially well-adjusted human being who will declare themselves pro-murder.  Even ones who believe that sections of the population need to eliminated (ok, so very loose definition of socially well-adjusted) will likely describe their desire to eliminate these people as not murder, but use some of rationalisation to conclude that their killings are justified.  One only needs to read a discussion on the web about the recent killings of two registered sex offenders in the United States to see concrete evidence of this.  (The Globe & Mail seems to have removed the comment threads on some of the past articles, or else I'd pull out quotes.)

The problem is that the definition of what murder is is somewhat nebulous when used in discussion:  is abortion murder?  Is euthanasia murder?  Is vigilantism murder?  Is capital punishment murder?  Are military actions against largely civilian targets murder?  (It's essentially the same argument that comes up in the "Thou shalt not kill" vs. "Thou shalt not murder" debates about the 6th commandment: what precisely constitutes murder?)

By the definition Ms. Coulter is using, she likely is being consistent — at least four of the 6 quotes could conceivably be argued for as being in the interests of national or military security, and therefore not necessarily murder.  And that is where the problem lies: Media Matters states that, by their definition of murder, Ms. Coulter isn't being consistent, when it is quite likely that their definition doesn't match Ms. Coulter's.  It is really all just a matter of semantics.  (I am unsure what the defence of the other two quotes could be though; perhaps that they were meant as hyperbole or jest.)

Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I need to shower; I feel so unclean.