Bill O’Reilly has a new front in the War on Christmas: two nativity scenes in Guantanamo Bay. Unfortunately for O’Reilly, he was no match for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation's Mikey Weinstein, who successfully lobbied to have them removed. Let’s just say that the segment ended with O’Reilly cutting Weinstein's mike and proclaiming that his having covered “four wars with a pen” was comparable to military service.
O’Reilly was scornful from the beginning. Apparently, he took the loss of the nativity scenes personally, even though they were more than 1,400 miles away. He was also peeved that Weinstein would not reveal who had complained. O'Reilly seemed to feel he had some kind of divine right to the information, that the complainers owed it to him to come forward and that they must be cowards if they didn’t.
You could tell that O’Reilly was fighting to keep his temper because first he told the seemingly unflappable Weinstein to “Calm down, calm down.” But before long, it was O’Reilly who was yelling, “It’s a national holiday!”
Near the end, Weinstein asked if O’Reilly had ever served in the military. No, O’Reilly said, he had not. That’s when the fireworks started.
WEINSTEIN: When you’re in the military, it’s not like working at Fox or at Costco. It is an incredibly tribal, adversarial, communal and ritualistic place. There are Department of Defense directives, instructions and regulations in place that absolutely make this clear that this was wrong.
O’REILLY: It was a cowardly decision by the base commander… because this is a depiction of a secular holiday that was signed into law. That’s what it was. And if somebody’s offended by it, I want to know why. And your guys don’t have the courage to stand up and tell me. That’s the fact.
WEINSTEIN: Bill, please don’t call our members of the military cowards. The majority of them were Christians. Because if you want to start getting ad hominem, at least they joined the military and they’re prepared to fight. …They understand what their rights are. And your Christian personal rights will always be trumped by the civil rights of your fellow Americans.
O’REILLY: You know what? Mr. Weinstein, you just - and with all due respect to your parents – are just a bloviator. You don’t answer the questions and I’ll tell you what: I covered four wars with the pen! (He defiantly held up his pen)
WEINSTEIN: You’re an aggressive bully and an arrogant idiot!
O’REILLY: …Cut him off, he’s a jerk. I covered four wars with a pen, OK, Mr. Weinstein? So don’t impugn my courage ever again. You’re a weasel.
With all due respect, Bill, covering a war, or even four wars, is a far cry from fighting in it or serving in the military. And no matter how brave you may be, I think soldiers have a much bigger right to decide what’s appropriate for the military than you do. No matter what kind of pipeline you think you have to Father Christmas.
Of course he had to embellish his teaching bonifides by declaring that it was one of the toughest neighborhoods in America…BOCA RATON!!!
Sorry if I made any of you spew your beverage on the keyboard!!
Are you sure it wasn’t the tough streets of Beverly Hills Bill??
I’m laughing at you Bill!
Spending a week in Iraq in a secure base is not covering a war. Bill, you are not an Ernie Pyle.
How can a so-called Christian like Mike Gibroni think that O’Reilly’s arrogance, bragging about his success so often, and bashing others for not being as successful as he is are virtuous?
I wish O’Reilly would stop blaming “non-believers” for all the sins of “believers.” He then turns around and says that “we are all sinners.” Speak for yourself Jack-ass O’Reilly, I’ve never sexted, harassed, and talked dirty to someone who worked under me(while married I might add), and eventually had to pay her off so I could obtain the AUDIO of me committing those vulgar acts!
How can O’Reilly’s, and Faux News, audience still be this ignorant after all these years?
Did Mike Labrioni… Submit a post where he said people need to pray to him?
I mean, his post where he said he’ll laugh at Ellen’s children dying, then made a comment about black people being life failures because they “complain” sums up why there’s no talking to him quite well, but I’m a little concerned about the part where he thinks he’s God.
These cowardly chicken-hawks are ALL the same. Hide behind the valor and sacrifice of the military, as though THAT equates them to being in the same class.
Such a low life, insulting bloviator.
Thanks Mike!! Mike Labroni has just revealed why it is so important that we stand united in our fight against these far right waco’s. The really crazed stormtroopers always come out on this site when O’reilly or one of the other nightly Fox Oberfuhrer’s get’s stomped on LOL
Another point to make……Capitalism has created the highest standard of living ever known on earth. The evidence is incontrovertible. The contrast between West and East Berlin is the latest demonstration, like a laboratory experiment for all to see.
[“Theory and Practice,” Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal]
To get this country back at 3-5% growth rate and 5% unemployment rate, it is real simple. We need to:
1. Cut taxes, possibly move to a flat tax (18%) or a more simpler tax code
2. Reform and gut the IRS
3. Dump Sarbanes Oxley
4. Dump Dodd/Frank bill
5. Dump Obamacare (allow for more competition and pass a tort reform bill)
6. Reform health care
7. Reform social security (increase age in states and stop at age 72) and bolster social security (make sure it is not about to run out of money)
8. Undermine the EPA which is just killing jobs and economic activity
9. Undermine the Dept. of Energy and Interior (new leadership)
10. Drill off shore, open more lands for non-wasted use, become energy efficient
11. Pass the Keystone pipeline bill
Miscellaneous:
12. Build the wall along our Southern Border
13. Confront Iran and Russia over Iranian nuclear sites (take out Iran’s leadership)
14. Get almost all of our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan (help Afghanistan develop that tritium deposit and keep hundreds of drones flying over Afghanistan and Iraq too)
15. Get troops out of Germany and Italy and everywhere else they do not need them to be and have them live and train on American soil
16. Make South Korea to pay us to keep our troops there
17. Make Japan pay us to keep our troops there (or ask China to pay us to keep our troops there) ; Bolster position in Hawaii
18. Lower all federal wages across the board, cut benefits and pensions for all federal employees
A SOCIALIST CATHOLIC REPORTER, CHRIS MATHEWS, CHALLENGES OUR NEW POPE AND GETS HIS HEAD HANDED TO HIM ON A PLATTER. LONG READ—WELL WORTH YOUR TIME
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE A CATHOLIC TO APPRECIATE THIS INTERVIEW WITH THE NOW NEW POPE.
The following is a transcript of an interview between Chris Mathews of MSNBC and the then Cardinal Bergolio. It’s apparent why the interview was never broadcast. Mathews was spent at the end, clearly frustrated that his usual bullying tactics did not succeed. He had to have been greatly surprised by the Cardinal’s splendid grasp of the English language and his mastery of the timely rejoinder. This Pope is a breath of fresh air; a very enlightening, understanding of social justice, and clearly articulated.
CAMERA ON / BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
REPORTER: Welcome Cardinal.
When I saw that last night I immediately began to speculate which of his hacks he will trot out tonight to try and rehabilitate him and assure him he was right! That’s always standard procedure when he gets beat up!!
O’Reilly then asked a series of loaded questions, to which Weinstein redirected the discussion to what was at issue. In this case, O’Reilly was actually behaving more like Laura Ingraham, in that he was trying to set up a discussion to go in a specific direction. O’Reilly already knew his conclusion – that Weinstein was inflaming a minor discussion in order to get in the way of oppressed Christian servicemen who just wanted a nice Christmas display. But that’s not what happened, and O’Reilly’s lack of research notwithstanding, the situation was a lot more complicated. Frankly, if O’Reilly had spent less time bloviating himself and more time listening (and not cutting his guest’s microphone), he might have learned something – about tolerance and respect, two ideas one would think his devout faith should have taught him long ago.
And he pretty much got the same result a public accusation gets- They respond politically, but you can tell they’re pondering whether or not punching the guy right in the mouth the second the cameras are off would be worth it.