Courtesy of Newshounds:
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.
Did O'Reilly just compare his bravery in writing about war to the soldiers actually fighting the war?
Kind of makes Mikey's point for him, doesn't he?
Shit, Gryphen, the cat fights are breaking out all over! I think Americans have had it with the self-righteous bullying, religion or not. They were polite, but now they’re mad, a line was crossed.
ReplyDeleteSince when is Cuba the US? BOR calling it a "Secular holiday" what a fukin asshole!
Delete@4:47 maybe because it is a recognized federal holiday?
DeleteAnd that's where the third branch of government, the Judicial Branch, blew it. They should have blocked the legislative branch from transforming a religious holiday into a government holiday. It gives the appearance of government sanctioned support of Christians over all others and gives Christians the fodder to claim we have a Christian country with a Christian government. From there came the slippery slope: money with mention of God, as though, just because every religion has a god, it's all inclusive. Then, prayers at official government meetings, and .... The list goes on.
Delete"Did O'Reilly just compare his bravery in writing about war to the soldiers actually fighting the war?"
ReplyDeleteYes.
"Did O'Reilly just compare his bravery in writing about war to the soldiers actually fighting the war?
ReplyDeleteKind of makes Mikey's point for him, doesn't he? "
YES and YES
The right wing media and their friends the GOP really do follow the path of stupid e.g.
The Duck statement was a good and Christian statement
Martin Bashir should be fired for what he said
Justine Sacco should not have been fired for what she said
Their dipsh!t world
Good for Weinstein! Someone publically, on the BOR show, called the asshole out. Love it, love it! Bill O is a BULLY and not as knowledgeable as he thinks he is.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone read Mikey's bio? Go Mikey!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/about/michael-l-mikey-weinstein/
Mikey Weinstein and the MRFF do some great work. Unfortunately, it seems that each year brings greater challenges as the evangelical control of the military spreads.
ReplyDeleteWeinstein is tough, as he needs to be to do what he does despite the violence he is threatened with, and O'Reilly is a little toad compared to him.
As far as I can see, Bill O has alzheimers/tourettes. He says things loud, repeats them over and over, and has no good arguments or points to make. He just screams over and over, "don't you be mean to me, don't say I'm wrong" like he is saying something smart.
ReplyDeleteHe is so over, and I'm not sure why Fox keeps him around.
Fox needs to go gentle with Billy or he will implode as he did while working on Inside Edition.
DeleteWatch: http://youtu.be/O_HyZ5aW76c
Thanks for the link! I watched, and it was totally worth it!
DeleteDamn Billo gets a Medal of Honor for his fan fiction writing about wars, I guess "War on Christmas" is like a soldier fighting a war, eh?. This clown better stay in his warm comfy studio and "pen" more Killing books. "Oorah Billy, semper fi!"
ReplyDeleteI have supported MRFF for some time for what I consider a very valid reason. WAR IS HELL, and those fighting it should not ever be fighting it for any reason but defense of (for wont of a better word) homeland.
ReplyDeleteNo More, No Less!
Religion should not enter into it.
I just said that about liberal bloggers. Though self-righteous manipulators and hypocrites also come to mind.
ReplyDeleteWow, you're an ass.
DeleteWhat you say, Troll@5:10 PM means nothing. You are a lonely pathetic blowhard. Manipulate that.
DeleteHi, Sarah, you hypocritical POS. Shut up and crawl back in your cave, you old bat.
DeleteShut up $arah.Go eat a sammich please.
DeleteGeez, go look up the definition of "manipulate", you illiterate moron.
Delete"Cut him off, he’s a jerk."
ReplyDeleteI think that's what A&E said about the elder Duck Dork.....
What was Fox just saying about freedom of speech, Billo?
i was wondering about that, too. why can't he face a different opinion without censoring his "adversary"?
DeleteAnon at 8:08PM, because he is a coward. End of story.
DeleteHe covered 4 wars with a pen? Did Bill really say that out loud?
ReplyDeleteI know! Bilarious!
DeleteWell, Bill DID get one thing right, which deflates his point completley:
ReplyDelete"Christmas is a secular holiday". Guess pushing those pens across paper so bravely while covering four wars does take a toll on the warrior. Perhaps Billo has a wicked case of "Legal Pad PTSD".
Of course, Mr Weinstein is completely right on this one.
Billo the Clown was being clownish... again. I pity anyone who takes him seriously (most of the Fox audience I suppose).
ReplyDelete'I covered 4 wars with a pen.'
ReplyDeleteRepeat: 'I covered 4 wars with a pen.'
Classic!
Thanks for reporting on this, G!
Shame that Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, and Bill Maher are on vacation and Bill's bravery may not get the national attention it deserves.
I don't think O'Reilly has read the 'fine print' on the meaning of 'federal holiday.' It doesn't mean what he pretends it to mean.
ReplyDeletehttp://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_and_how_did_Christmas_become_an_official_government_holiday
http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/Federal_Holidays.pdf
Good job. Weinstein told the truth and O'Reilly, Mr. Free Speech I'm sure, cut him off. Come to think of it, aren't' alt he right wing nuts on Fox just like that? Loudmouthed bullies like Palin, Coulter, Hannity, O' Reilly, etc??? They are all ignorant bullies!
ReplyDeleteYes, he tried to equate writing about war to fighting in one. Here's the difference, in one's person's brass tacks.
ReplyDeleteHe's approximately my husband's age. My husband was arguably more intelligent than Bill, Mensa-wise, but thanks to his voluntary service as an infantry officer in Vietnam, 199th Infantry Brigade, 75th Airborne Regiment, M Company, he's been rated mentally incompetent by the VA since 2005. (Agent Orange was sprayed by our military to defoliate the dense jungle and eliminate cover for Viet Cong, but the dioxin in it poisoned our military and most of the nation of South Vietnam, probably forever. It causes irreversible damage to DNA, resulting in cancer, birth defects, brittle diabetes, dementia, and the list goes on. If you have a strong stomach, google Vietnam Agent Orange birth defects.)
Thanks, scientists who created this wonderful weapon. Only one scientist is on record as questioning the use of this ineradicable poison, and he gave his approval when assured it would be used only against "the enemy."
O'Reilly is clueless about the vicissitudes of war and its aftermath. As far as we know, both of his children were thankfully born healthy. Children of many Vietnam vets, including my husband, were born with deadly birth defects such as transposition of the great vessels, patent ductus arteriosus, tetralogy of Fallot, and spina bifida.
And chicken-hawk O'Reilly didn't serve, so he's still healthy enough to serve up meaningless faux-patriotic rhetoric on Fox and to denigrate men and women who did serve. To his (questionable) credit, I don't think he has the sense to know he's demeaning those who put their lives on the line.
I thank your husband for his service and I am so very sorry for all that you and your family have gone through. I cannot imagine how difficult that must be. Peace.
DeleteWow, I don't think I've ever seen O'Lielly panic like that! Weinstein called him on the carpet and he folded like a house of cards, literally throwing out ink like an octopus in defense mode as he ran away and called for the guy's voice to be cut off like an utter coward.
ReplyDeleteThat was incredible!
O'Reilly makes an excellent point for repealing CHRISTmas as a holiday.
ReplyDeleteExcept for when he slipped up and admitted it is a SECULAR holiday.
Which means that IF the display in Guantanamo had been SANTA and his reindeer instead of JESUS in a creche there would not have been a problem.
Bill is a HERO for covering four wars with a pen (and from a distance)
...while those COWARDS actually IN the military (Bill O'Reilly's term) were fighting and dying in combat.
Bill O'Reilly "covered four wars with a pen"???? Were they the past four years of Fox-imaginary-war-on-Christmas? Or did that number include any food fight wars in the Fox New Room cafeteria? What does he deserve for that? The Medal of Honor?
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
Ya know what you are, Mr. Fancy Pants Librul Alaska blogger? You're nothing but an impugner, that's what you are. You are an impugner and a maligner!
ReplyDeleteYou can impugn and malign great Amercian heroes such as that Bill "Baba" O'Reilly as much as you want, buddy boy, but there is a reason that the awesome National Conservative Journalist And Journalist-Like War Correspondents and War Pundints Memorial near rural Groom, Texas used Mr. O'Reilly's extremely large noggin as the model for the towering tribute - originally a fiberglass Big Boy sign - to the men (and some of the women) who go to war with nothing but a pen. And possibly a flashlight. Plus something to write on, like a notebook or stack of note cards. And sunscreen, if it's a sunny war-zone.
So next time you're visiting the memorial, the decent thing to do would be to leave a sincere apology to "Baba" O'Reilly for all the impugning and much of the maligning you've done. Then visit the gift shop at the largest cross in the known universe and buy some southwestern jackalope postcards, which never go out of style.. Or drive over to Amarillo and see the Cadillac Ranch, which is always fun, also, too.
TEX-ASS . Please leave the United States, as you "threaten" every few years. Then we can invade your country and steal your oil.
DeleteBy the way butt O'Reilly never was in a war zone, unless you consider "Inside Edition" or "Fax News" a war zone.
My immediate response to this exchange was that feeling where you throw up a little in your throat. This conversation is wrong on so many levels.
ReplyDelete1) O'Reilly is yelling at the wrong person. Mikey was presenting himself as a voice for some soldiers who obviously thought they had none. They were harmed by an official action of their superiors. They asked him to communicate that for them. He did. Those superiors reviewed the circumstances, and agreed that they had done the wrong thing and fixed it.
2) O'Reilly obviously has no idea how the military really works. Remember the saying: "If the army wanted you to have an opinion, they would have issued you one"
3) OReilly's response is to attack the messenger. And to inflate his overdeveloped 'moral outrage'.
4) O'Reilly's further response is to call those people in uniform "Cowards". My daughter has a friend that is stationed at GITMO. That guy is no effen coward, and he did not 'cover four wars with a pen'. That thoroughly repugnant statement should be repeated until every man and woman that ever wore a uniform knows where it came from.
We have raised an entire generation that has never known peace. And it is because of 'bloviators' like the one here, and I am not referring to Mikey. O'Reilly and his ilk have re-defined 'patriot' to mean 'right-wing christian war-mongering loudmouth'.
Makes me kind of sick.
Thanks for posting this, Gryphen. I don't comment that much, but I do read your stuff regularly.
Right on, Fishingmomma
ReplyDeleteI have to wonder if O'Reilly would pull this stunt if his opponent wasn't named Weinstein. I wouldn't be surprised if O'Reilly set the whole thing up just so he could pull his little tantrum and boot the guy.
ReplyDeleteAs a former soldier, I was highly offended with that dumb ass pen remark. The nerve of that guy!!! He actually said that out loud to a real military person. What an ass!!!
ReplyDeleteMichael L. Weinstein, the founder of FFRF is a thug and a pedophile pervert. I discovered that he was the owner of a Facebook page that promotes teen porn. When I posted it all over his FFRF facebook page, he immediately REMOVED, or HID his name from the teen porn page and then started to threaten me with a slander suit. He's the very example of the word CREEP. He's evil and pathetic.
ReplyDelete