Friday, November 11, 2005

Bill O'Reilly: Al-Qaeda Should Blow Up San Francisco for Defying the U.S. Military

Professional instigator/insufferable jackass Bill O'Reilly is making headlines for recent comments he made attacking San Francisco's referendum decision to ban military recruiters from public high school and college campuses (link courtesy of boingboing):

"Hey, you know, if you want to ban military recruiting, fine, but I'm not going to give you another nickel of federal money. You know, if I'm the president of the United States, I walk right into Union Square, I set up my little presidential podium, and I say, 'Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you're not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead. And if al-Qaida 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."

What planet is this guy on? O'Reilly's comments are laughable for a lot of reasons but consider the following scenarios:

1. The ballot measure disallows military recruiting on public high school and college campuses only. Military recruiters are still welcome on the private property of whomsoever wishes to invite them. For example, they're still permitted to ply their trade at any SF property Bill O'Reilly may own (if this is so important to him) or at FOX News' SF bureau headquarters. You know, if they actually cared enough about the issue to do something in response.

2. Here's the really hilarious part: if San Franciscans followed O'Reilly's advice and attempted secession, odds are they'd be attacked by the U.S. government sooner than Al-Qaeda! Don't believe me? Ask the South how its attempt to escape the clutches of the federal hegemon worked out. The ridiculous irony is that Al-Qaeda's incentive to blow up the Coit Tower decreases if the building resides outside U.S. territory. But let San Francisco (or any other municipality) declare its independence from federal control (despite no longer costing the treasury a nickel) and guess who gets deployed to quash the "resistance" and "insurgency" in San Francisco? The very military whose recruiting tactics triggered the confrontation in the first place!

O'Reilly's not smart enough to see the humor or irony in his preposterous statements. But thank goodness FOX keeps that windbag around to keep the rest of us entertained...

No comments: