Non-Breaking News - Robertson, O'Reilly Say Something Stupid
Amid the apparent continued crumbling of our great society, two small incidents yesterday proved that there is still plenty of "finger in the eye politics" ahead. After Tuesday's rejection of the Dover, PA School Board over their stance on Intelligent Design, right-wing nut Pat Robertson joined the fray with another of his supposedly apocryphal announcements. He warned citizens of the city that God might take a dim view of their lack of support for the fuzzy logic of Intelligent Design."I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God - you just rejected Him from your city," Robertson said. "And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there," he said.
Now we were raised Methodist, admittedly a pretty laid back religion in suburban USA, but we're not sure this qualifies under the "love they neighbor" provisions of the Bible. We're also pretty sure that Momma taught us that God was everywhere, presumably including the city limits of Dover. So where does Pat get this stuff?
Our first impulse is to stick a dirty sock in his mouth and whack him up side the head with a 2X4, but we'll resist that. Instead, we'll turn the other cheek and call for some more levelheaded proponent of His (God's, not Pat's) work to step forward and talk some sense into that thick skull of his. Hell, sign him up for remedial versions of those Bible study courses he's so fond of hawking on the 700 Club if you have to, but make him sensible...PLEASE!
The other reason that we decided to forego the 2x4 route is that we are firm believers that people should be allowed to speak their mind despite how wrong-headed we may think they are. And that step back from the precipice of stupidity brings us to the second little incident that has us a bit agitated today.
Anti-Lefty Loonie Bill O'reilly struck again yesterday by not only supporting Pat's pronouncements, but going him one better and calling for terrorists to blow up San Francisco's Coit Tower. Why? Because the citizenry had voted for a ban on handguns and Army recruiting in its schools.
We're led to understand, mostly by him, that Mr. O'Reilly is a fierce defender of the US Constitution, nowhere in which does it say that bombings of public buildings are appropriate punishments for exercising the right to vote against his wishes.
"You want to be your own country? Go right ahead," O'Reilly said on his radio show yesterday, conveniently forgetting his own sovereign aspirations for a nation of Intelligent Design advocates. "And if al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead."
Now granted, we don't personally believe that the local gun ban will work or that the Army should be any more or less allowed to recruit in public schools than say, oil or chemical companies, but we think it is quite fitting that it come to a vote if that's what the citizens want.
Blowing up Coit Tower if you disagree with Ragin' Bill? Not so much.
To give Mr. No-Spin the benefit of the doubt, he did claim he said it only in jest. "Well, apparently Tim Wirth (United Nations Foundation President Timothy Wirth who had asked for an apology) has never listened to talk radio. So I will speak very slowly to him. It was a jest, sir. We exaggerate on the radio. Wise up."
Bill, we're sure you are joking, just like every other time you've lambasted a "guest" on your show. We're sure you're joking just like Ann Coulter when she calls anyone who has the tiniest disagreement with her a terrorist or traitor. We're sure you're joking just like Pat Robertson is when he suggests that his loving and benevolent God would leave the citizens of Dover in the lurch in times of crisis.
But Bill, here's the thing. We may heartily defend your right to spout this drivel, but we're under no obligation to think it's funny or believe it's a joke, because Bill, that's not what you are all about. You're really about hate, intolerance and the abridgement of the freedoms you claim our boys and girls in Iraq are fighting for. And that's not funny, it's very, very sad.
Now you and the chick in the shower with a loofah...THAT'S funny!
Truth Told by Omnipotent Poobah, Friday, November 11, 2005
