There is much buzz this weekend about comments that conservative author/columnist Ann Coulter made at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, a speech which I missed due to a book signing at the same event.

Ann used the term “raghead” when describing what our homeland security policies should be: “I think our motto should be post-9-11, ‘raghead talks tough, raghead faces consequences.’”

Ann says many deliberately provocative things. This one was spectacularly ill-chosen and ill-timed. I want the young conservatives who attended CPAC–particularly young conservative Muslims–to know that not everyone uses that kind of epithet.

I don’t. Not in public. Not at home. I have no ill will towards peaceful people who happen to cover their heads for their faith.

My problem, as I’ve made clear on this blog, is with radical Islamists at home and abroad who threaten our existence. I don’t care what they wear on their heads. I care what’s in their heads and what’s strapped around their chests and and what’s hidden in the soles of their shoes and what’s being cooked up in their labs and nuclear reactors. I have a lot of blunt names for these jihadists who have killed our sailors and soldiers, butchered and beheaded innocent civilians from around the world, flown planes into buildings and incinerated babies, children, and pregnant women in the name of religion.

“Ragheads” is not the word that immediately comes to my mind. Evildoers. Bloody murderers. Bastards. Yes. “Ragheads?” No.

The Left side of the blogosphere is working itself up into a lather, calling on conservatives to condemn Ann’s remarks. But as I have noted many times, the Right is far more self-critical than the sanctimonious liberals who never say a peep about the routine hatred and poisonous ethnic/racial/religious identity politics exhibited by their own. We don’t need your prodding. Some of the conservative bloggers weighing in:

Rick Moran
Jeff Harrell
Sean Hackbarth
James Joyner
Sister Toldjah
Jonah Goldberg
Kathryn Lopez
Joe Gandelman round-up
Tim Chapman/Capitol Report
AJ Strata

Meamwhile, here’s the ultimate in liberal chutzpah: Steve Gilliard, the unhinged nutball who photoshopped Lt. Gov. Michael Steele as a Sambo, posting a report from an undercover liberal who attended CPAC condemning Ann. Gilliard’s title: “All hate, all the time.”

Ann’s comment gives cover to smug liberals in denial about their own pervasive bigotry (I’ll show you 100 liberal hate mails and blog posts referring to me as a “gook” or a “chink” or a “filipina whore” for every 1 “raghead” controversy on the right.) Worse, the remarks reduce fundamental debates about national security profiling to epithet-marred, one-line jokes.

And worst of all, they distract from the far more important global battle being waged by enemies who will exploit comments like Ann’s to call for greater “tolerance”–and move us toward dhimmitude.

Let’s keep our eyes on the ball.

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A few readers are comparing Ann’s “raghead” comment to the Jyllands-Posten’s publication of the 12 Mohammed cartoons. That’s absolutely the wrong analogy. The Jyllands-Posten’s purpose was to make a profound statement about the chilling effect of Islamism on Danish artists. Ann’s purpose, clearly, was to do nothing more than get a cheap laugh.