Monday, August 16, 2004

Bashing Bill O'Reilly
... even more.

A while back I watched that Outfoxed documentary. It was alright ... Not the best thing ever in the world, but whatever.

There was a clip in it of Jeremy Glick (the son of a man killed on 9/11) "debating" Bill O'Reilly on "The Factor." I think Glick handed O'Reilly his ass. Here's the clip from Outfoxed:

You can also watch the whole O'Reilly segment without commentary here.

After this interview aired, there was a bunch of controversy. Lots of people were pissed because they thought this kid should be unquestioning and out for vengeance instead of pointing out the facts that he did. (Retarded).

There were other people, though, who were pissed off for a whole different reason. The reason being that O'Reilly kicked the kid off his show, then proceeded to bash him for days, even months, afterwards, falsley restating his position. Just read this open letter sent to Bill O'Reilly asking for an apology, it basically outlines everything.

My problem with that open letter, and this whole argument, is that everyone is quick to contradict O'Reilly when he says "you're equating the US with the terrorists" or some such statement like that. You know ... I DO think the US is just as bad as any terrorist or terrorist nation. Don't take my word for it, just read the definition of terrorism outlined in the US Code.

Sec. 2331. - Definitions

As used in this chapter -

(1) the term ''international terrorism'' means activities that -
(A) involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State;

(B) appear to be intended -
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;

(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or

(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C) occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which their perpetrators operate or seek asylum;
(2) the term ''national of the United States'' has the meaning given such term in section 101(a)(22) of the Immigration and Nationality Act;

(3) the term ''person'' means any individual or entity capable of holding a legal or beneficial interest in property;

(4) the term ''act of war'' means any act occurring in the course of -
(A) declared war;

(B) armed conflict, whether or not war has been declared, between two or more nations; or

(C) armed conflict between military forces of any origin; and
(5) the term ''domestic terrorism'' means activities that -
(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;

(B) appear to be intended -

(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;

(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or

(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States

Now, considering we have absolutely NO valid legal explanation for invading Iraq ... and, as it turns out, never did ... I'd call 'invasion' an act of international terrorism ... Don't you think? I mean, Yes, Saddam gassed the Kurds, but that can hardly be used as reason enough for war because (1) It happened over 15 years ago and (2) he used chemicals, and the missiles to deliver them, given to him by the US. He actually did a lot of messed up stuff to a lot of people with the tacit approval of the US (read this and this). You can go a lot further than Iraq and look at cases like Nicaragua or Sudan (for just 2 examples, there are many more) where the US has used tactics that fit the above definition ... you can even go further than that and look at other countries the US actively supports, Colombia and Turkey for starters, that have committed, or still commit, acts against their own people that can easily be classified as terrorism. If you want to go even further and look at the human rights records of US allies, it just gets worse.

Noam Chomsky talks about this stuff all the time. Listen to this, he explains everything I just said about a million times better than I ever could.

Since George W and others like him love to toss around words like "morals," and "faith," I'd like someone to take all of their moral Christian rhetoric and turn it around on them. Maybe someone should bring up John 8:7 "He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone." Oh, I just did bring it up. Rad.

There is such a thing as the religious left, George, though I'm not part of it. It's comprised of people who've actually read the bible. Asshole.

With that last statement, I present this page of scripture, culled from many different religions. It's basically a list of passages promoting pacifism and the basic "love your enemy" message of just about every religion on the planet ... yep, even Islam. "If a person responds to evil in anger or self-defense, he becomes attached to the evil and it can dominate him." Word.

*edit*
It was brought to my attention by an astute commentor that the link in that last paragraph was to a website hosted by some ... uh ... unique individuals. So here is a new link about war and religions. My point still stands that most of the religions of the world promote non-violence and a "love thy enemy" approach to the world, I'd just rather make my point by linking to a group that actually supports tolerance. If you want comedy, just read this from the Unification.net website. "Jesus visited Rev. Moon as a 15 year old boy on a Korean mountain side on Easter Day 1935, and asked him to complete the unfinished work of restoration of humanity back to God and complete this cosmic battle against the forces of darkness and establish the eternal reign of goodness on the Earth and in Heaven." Hilarious.

... and thanks to Mr. John Gorenfeld for bringing the Unification Church to my attention. This seriously made my day. Just look through the links on this results page when you Google "Unification Church." I can't believe this is even real. You gotta love a religious nut.
*edit*

Now go take on the day.