Ann Barnhardt, Culture Hero

By Roger Kimball

Even if you don’t do anything else today, please take a moment to look at the two videos that Ann Barnhardt, an intrepid Colorado resident, made a couple of days ago responding to Senator Lindsey Graham’s spineless attack on Terry Jones, the Florida minister who presided over a “trial” and burning of a Koran late last month. I link to them at the end of this post.

A recap: When publicized and condemned by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and officials in Pakistan last week, Jones’s bonfire provided the occasion for the deadly riots in Afghanistan that (so far) have left a dozen people dead, including UN and NATO personnel. The instant response from the liberal establishment was condemnation — not of the rioters who were, as is their wont, murdering for Allah, but of Terry Jones. As I noted in this space Monday, Islamophiliacs from Time’s Joe Klein to Senators Harry Reid and Lindsey Graham blamed Jones for the rampage. Even General David Petraeus condemned the Koran burning as “hateful, intolerant, extremely disrespectful.” On Face the Nation, Lindsey Graham said:

I wish we could find some way to hold people accountable. Free speech is a great idea, but we’re in a war. During World War II you had limits on what you could do if it inspired the enemy. Any time we can push back  here in American against actions like this that put our troops at risk, we ought to do it.

Sobering, isn’t it, to realize how quickly folks entrusted with upholding the Constitution are willing to dispense with its protections? I was moderately tart about these latest exhibitions of what I called “preemptive capitulation.” But my response was a veritable valentine compared with Ms. Barnhardt’s eloquent demolition. There are some theatrics in her presentation. She repeatedly calls Graham a “jackass” — a “stupid, stupid jackass” on one occasion.  In part two, she reads various passages from the Koran — those memorable bijoux that advocate the murder of Jews, infidels, and apostates, the rape of women prisoners, pedophilia, and beating of insufficiently  submissive wives, etc.  — and then rips out the offending pages and burns them in a glass fire-bowl. Crowning detail: she has bookmarked the passages with rashers of uncooked bacon. (“Raw bacon,” she explains, “makes the best Koranic bookmark.”)

Ms. Barnhardt describes the reading and burning of the Koran as “the main event.” It is a riveting performance, her declamation and analysis of all those goads to violence and mayhem, followed by the incineration, one leaf after the next, of the dozen or so pages she chose: “Evil, evil garbage, in it goes and up in flames!”

But perhaps even more impressive is Ms. Barnhardt’s  excoriation of Lindsey Graham and his contemptible suggestion that the free speech of American citizens should be curtailed in the face of Islamic intimidation.

Read it again: “I wish we could find some way to hold people accountable,” said this U.S. senator. “Free speech is a great idea, but we’re in a war. During World War II you had limits on what you could do if it inspired the enemy. Any time we can push back here in American against actions like this that put our troops at risk, we ought to do it.”

Ms. Barnhardt picks this apart phrase by disgraceful phrase.  “Hold people accountable”? Accountable for what? she asks.

For exercising their Constitutionally protected and divinely ordained right to freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and freedom of religion? Hey Jackass, have you not read the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States?

What Lindsey Graham wants to do, she continues, is to “elevate the totalitarian political system masquerading as a religion called Islam to a status which

supersedes and overrides the First Amendment to the Constitution  and thus places it in a position of specially protected   legal superiority wherein criticism of Islam or failure to show proper and sufficient deference and honor for Islamic texts is a crime.  Hey Lindsey, you Jackass, you know what that’s called? It’s called Sharia. What the hell is wrong with you?”

Delicious, no? Ms. Barnhardt then announces that she will burn a Koran in a few minutes and invites Little Lindsey  to have her arrested and dragged before before Congress and held to account. “Do it. Nothing would make me happier. I would relish the opportunity to explain to you how exactly it is that we do things in the United States of America. If you want to pick a fight, Sir, you go right ahead, but understand that if you pick a fight with me the only way it ends is with you sobbing in the men’s room.”

Why can’t we have senators like this?

Ms. Barnhardt then moves on to Little Lindsey’s declaration that “Free speech is a great idea but we’re in a war.”

Point One: free speech is not just a great idea, it is “bedrock principle of Western civilization and the United States.”

Point Two: “Individuals are free sovereign agents. Individuals are not property or drones of the state. The government doesn’t tell the people what to think and say. The people tell the government what to think and say through the mechanisms” of  representative government.

Point three: Intellectual snobbery. Ms. Barnhardt discerns it in Little Lindsey’s remarks. Terry Jones is a redneck Southern preacher with a drawl and a handlebar mustache to match. No fancy Ivy league education. Ergo, he’s not eligible for the same sort of Constitutional  protection that, for example, Little Lindsey and his peers enjoy. “Listen, Jackass, it doesn’t work that way.  The First Amendment applies to all American citizens equally. It does not operate on a sliding scale based upon how expensive an education one received, what one’s income is, or whether or not one is invited to tony soirées in Georgetown.”

Ms. Barnhardt then takes up and demolishes Little Lindsey’s invocation of World War II as a precedent for clamping down on free speech. “Lindsey, you Jackass, the only prohibitions on speech during World War II and all other wars pertained to speech which would give aid and comfort to the enemy, not speech which demoralized, discouraged, or degraded the enemy.” She then enumerates various examples from those World War II posters depicting the Nazis and Japanese as deranged animals to cartoons that “ruthlessly mocked and degraded”  Germans, Italians, and the Japanese. “The informal prohibition during the war was on speech that was defeatist or conciliatory towards  the enemy, which is exactly what you are engaging in, you stupid, stupid, Jackass.”

And so it goes. Little Lindsey wants to “push back” against people like Terry Jones who burn the Koran or otherwise criticize Islam because, he says, it  “puts the troops at risk.” “Push back?” Ms. Barnhardt asks. “Since the free speech in question is by a loyal, law-abiding American citizen  against the sworn enemy of the United States and its Constitution — which is Islam — and you Senator Graham are talking about ‘pushing back’ using the force of the government of the United States, it sure sounds to me like you have decided that the United States  government is allied with Islam against the people of the Untied States who do not show sufficient deference and respect for Islam.”

Oh, and as for putting our troops at risk, “the only thing that is putting our troops at risk at are the suicidal, defeatist rules of engagement which prevent our brave soldiers from actually fighting and defeating the enemy. You hang our boys out on the lines of battle and then refuse to give them ammunition, refuse to allow  to engage the enemy without permission from a flipping attorney, and refuse to allow them to engage ‘civilians’ while fighting a force that is 100 percent comprised of civilians. How dare you accuse us of putting our troops at risk.”

There’s more. Watch both videos.  They are inspirational. Ann Barnhardt opens with the observation that she is “apparently one of the very, very last people left in Western Civilization who possesses any quantity of brains and balls simultaneously.” She is probably right. Thank God for her.

iOTW Interview

iOTW is thrilled to be given the opportunity to talk with Ann Barnhardt, the firebrand who takes on Lindsey Graham’s dhimmitude and the entire state of radical Islam in this youtube video that hit the intratubes Sunday. Part 2 (where she reads passages from the Koran before burning that page) can be seen here.

iOTW – Not much time passed between Graham’s statement on the Sunday morning show and the upload of your video. Did you just spring up off the couch and pretty much create this video unscripted?

Ann - I got home from Mass at about 1:30 Sunday afternoon.  Sunday was Laetare Sunday, which marks the midway point of Lent.  The priest at the parish I attend said repeatedly in his homily that it was a day to relax and enjoy oneself.  So I decided to have a fancy sit-down meal.  I went to a good Italian place and between my caprese salad and cheese ravioli with a side of meatballs (natch) I pulled out my iPhone for a little light reading.  I saw Graham on HotAir.com and knew instantly what I had to do.  After lunch, I grabbed the bacon, the glass fire bowl, a fire extinguisher (safety first), and two paperback copies of the Koran for easy burning.  I wrote the “Part 1” script in about 45 minutes, took another 30 minutes to choose my passages to “bacon bookmark”, and recorded the clip in one take – but did have to pause when the fire alarm went off.  Hate when that happens.

iOTW – Your communication skills are pretty impressive, do you have a background that would have prepared you for this, or are you just a natural?

Ann – I have always been a good public speaker and writer.   I do apply my talent by teaching seminars for cattlemen as part of one of my businesses, and have a DVD version of my seminar as well.  I deliver one of the best five-hour economics lectures on the planet.  Not that that is saying much, I know.

iOTW - Have you been a political activist in the past and were there particular issues, apart from Islam, that you focused on?

Ann – I am not a political activist.  I am the owner of three small businesses who looked around two and a half years ago and said, “Oh, HELL no.”  Politicians make me ill.  I can never and will never be a politician.  For the last two to three years I have been focusing heavily on explaining and exposing Marxism, Islam and the fraud that is Obama.  But that is triple-redundant, isn’t it?

iOTW - What is your take on what is known as the Ground Zero Mosque?

Ann – They can build a mosque at Ground Zero when we can build a Catholic Cathedral Basilica over the top of the Kaaba in Mecca.  You know what?  Check that.  They still couldn’t build a mosque at Ground Zero, because Ground Zero is the sacred burial space of 3000 people that THEY MURDERED.  No mosque at Ground Zero E.V.E.R.

iOTW – Islam uses the constitution to their advantage. How do we do battle with Islam without trampling the constitution?

Ann – Declare war against the Caliphate, just like we did against the Third Reich.  Same bloody thing.  And I’m not kidding.

iOTW- What do you think of General Petraeus and his assertion that inciting Islam puts our soldiers in harm’s way?

Ann – I have an offer for General Petraeus.  I’ll GIVE him one of my balls.  Then I’d still have two, and he would have one.  He is a politicking coward who cares only about his pension and cashing in on his rank after he retires.  The suicidal, defeatist Rules of Engagement he oversees are the unequivocal proof of that.  He should resign in disgrace – yesterday, and then present himself to each and every family of our war dead and BEG their forgiveness for failing in his duty as their son or daughter’s commanding officer.

iOTW – Have you received any threats?

Ann – Not yet.  But I don’t think the videos have reached outside of the Patriot Class yet.  I expect that to start later this week.

iOTW – Have you heard from Lindsey Graham’s office?

Ann – No.  They haven’t come out of the men’s room yet.

iOTW - You’re getting marriage proposals on iOTW. Do these guys have any hope?

Ann – Yes, but not with me.  But that is no loss for them.  I am a buzzsaw crossed with a blowtorch.  Do you really want to wake up next to THAT every morning?  I’m best at a distance.  A considerable distance.

iOTW -  In your video you pretty much dare Muslims to come and get you. Are you being a martyr, or do you pretty much have confidence that you can handle yourself?

Ann – Were the guys who volunteered to fight in all previous wars “martyrs”?  Did the boys who enlisted in ’41 have a death wish?  No.  There just comes a point where any person of integrity knows that they have to fight.  I love G.K. Chesterton’s quote, “A true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”  I love my country and my fellow man enough to be willing to lay down my life to defend them against evil.  And, yeah.  I can damn sure handle not only myself, but also an assault rifle, a big ass tactical shotgun, a sniper rifle, and a nine for those “intimate” encounters.

iOTW - What is your take on draw Muhammed day? Is this inciting, or is it testing whether Sharia is compliant with current American law or not?

Ann – Dude.  I just did “Draw Mohammed Day” on bootlegged Mexican racehorse steroids.  Hopefully this FORCES the Sharia issue in this country.  And no, Sharia is not only non-compliant with U.S. law, it is diametrically opposed to it and antithetical to EVERYTHING good this nation stands for.

iOTW - Can we coexist?

Ann – Absolutely not.  Questions?

iOTW - How devout are you in your faith?

Ann – Hmmm.  How does one answer that without falling into massive false pride?  I am a convert to Catholicism after years of study and logical, reasoned thought – which is NOT a sin, by the way, no matter what that nun with the six dollar crewcut told you.  Beyond that, it only took me a year to find the pre-Vatican II Tridentine Latin Mass.  If I had to guess where this bizarre strength and total lack of fear is coming from, I would have to guess that it is from my assisting (such as it is) at the sublime, holy Tridentine Mass.  Internally and in my relationship with Christ I am admittedly a near-total disaster.  I reckon He looks at me and just shakes His head.  Mea culpa.  Mea culpa.  Mea maxima culpa.

iOTW – What inconsistencies do you see with the left’s treatment of Islam and their treatment of Judeo/Christian faiths?

Ann – Hmmm.  Let’s see.  The left wants to surrender unconditionally to Islam, while doing everything it can to utterly destroy the Judeo/Christian milieu.  I think that just about sums it up.

iOTW – Would you be interested in being iOTW’s correspondant on Islam? We can pay you in bacon.

Ann - That is extremely kind, but I have three businesses to run.  Remember, I’m just Joe the Plumber except with cattle.  And I would actually need to be paid in silver coinage.

iOTW – What are your favorite blogs?

Ann - Lucianne, HotAir, American Thinker, Productive Class Revolt, The Conservative Treehouse,Brushfires of Freedom, RealCatholicTV (on YouTube), WDTPRS, and iOTW (except the dirty password-protected bits).

iOTW – What’s next for you?

Ann- Evening datapunch chores and a load of laundry. Beyond that is God’s will, and let it be done to me according to His Word. I only hope I don’t let Him down.

iOTW – Thank you, Ann. This has been a complete pleasure. We need millions more like you.