Sunday, November 13, 2005
San Francisco as its Own Country?
By Shaun Nichols, staff writer
Well, if you read the newspaper, watch the news, or were one of the many people handed a newspaper and then interviewed on the news, you know about Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly’s comments about our fair city.
The professional talking head concluded that if San Francisco wants to pass a largely symbolic law that opposes military recruitment on school campuses, then the city should form its own country and the rest of the U.S. should consent to let Al-Qaeda bomb Coit Tower.
Now, I know, the immediate reaction is to call for O’Reilly to be dragged into the middle of the Embarcadero and publicly lobotomized in hopes that it would lead to an improvement in the drivel coming forth from his mouth, but let’s just hold back the knee-jerk reactions and violent urges for a second.
Let’s give Bill O’Reilly the bleeding-heart benefit of the doubt. He’d do the same for us, right? Err…anyways…
Let’s give O’Reilly a chance to explain himself. I’m willing to bet he won’t prove to be the horse’s ass that he’s made of himself with his half-baked comments earlier this week.
Let’s assume that he’s not really as hateful as to suggest that a city which contributes tens of millions in federal income taxes does not deserve the same sort of treatment from the federal government as everywhere else simply because they democratically decide to issue a declaration against recruiting 14 year-olds to go to war.
Let’s assume that he’s not so blatant of a partisan hack that he’d really condone killing thousands of innocent Americans because they reside within a city that is critical of government policy. Let’s assume that he’s not so wrapped up in his own delusions of grandeur that he’d really disregard the more than two-dozen Bay Area soldiers that have given their lives in Iraq.
Let’s put aside the natural conclusion that O’Reilly holds partisan politics so high above the welfare of the country as to condone blowing up a monument to firefighters killed on duty.
Let’s just assume that he’s stupid.
Let’s conclude for now that he’s just unbelievably ignorant. We should just figure that he’s so focused on upping his ratings and scoring with his female staffers that he doesn’t quite realize just how blatantly outrageously offensive and disgusting his comments were.
Let’s go with Chris Daly’s assertion and figure that O’Reilly was whacked out on hillbilly heroine like fellow right-wing tough-talker Rush Limbaugh and really had no idea what he was saying.
The man deserves a chance to explain himself as a publicity-driven drivel machine with few solid morals and even less consciousness as to the impact of his words, and not as the hateful, unpatriotic, vengeful prick that he’s currently being portrayed as.
It’s the least we can do before we’re disowned and added to the Axis of Evil, right?
Well, if you read the newspaper, watch the news, or were one of the many people handed a newspaper and then interviewed on the news, you know about Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly’s comments about our fair city.
The professional talking head concluded that if San Francisco wants to pass a largely symbolic law that opposes military recruitment on school campuses, then the city should form its own country and the rest of the U.S. should consent to let Al-Qaeda bomb Coit Tower.
Now, I know, the immediate reaction is to call for O’Reilly to be dragged into the middle of the Embarcadero and publicly lobotomized in hopes that it would lead to an improvement in the drivel coming forth from his mouth, but let’s just hold back the knee-jerk reactions and violent urges for a second.
Let’s give Bill O’Reilly the bleeding-heart benefit of the doubt. He’d do the same for us, right? Err…anyways…
Let’s give O’Reilly a chance to explain himself. I’m willing to bet he won’t prove to be the horse’s ass that he’s made of himself with his half-baked comments earlier this week.
Let’s assume that he’s not really as hateful as to suggest that a city which contributes tens of millions in federal income taxes does not deserve the same sort of treatment from the federal government as everywhere else simply because they democratically decide to issue a declaration against recruiting 14 year-olds to go to war.
Let’s assume that he’s not so blatant of a partisan hack that he’d really condone killing thousands of innocent Americans because they reside within a city that is critical of government policy. Let’s assume that he’s not so wrapped up in his own delusions of grandeur that he’d really disregard the more than two-dozen Bay Area soldiers that have given their lives in Iraq.
Let’s put aside the natural conclusion that O’Reilly holds partisan politics so high above the welfare of the country as to condone blowing up a monument to firefighters killed on duty.
Let’s just assume that he’s stupid.
Let’s conclude for now that he’s just unbelievably ignorant. We should just figure that he’s so focused on upping his ratings and scoring with his female staffers that he doesn’t quite realize just how blatantly outrageously offensive and disgusting his comments were.
Let’s go with Chris Daly’s assertion and figure that O’Reilly was whacked out on hillbilly heroine like fellow right-wing tough-talker Rush Limbaugh and really had no idea what he was saying.
The man deserves a chance to explain himself as a publicity-driven drivel machine with few solid morals and even less consciousness as to the impact of his words, and not as the hateful, unpatriotic, vengeful prick that he’s currently being portrayed as.
It’s the least we can do before we’re disowned and added to the Axis of Evil, right?
# posted by Phil Deez @ 9:01 PM 
