Bill O'Reilly is an Ass Clown

Mr. Bill O'Reilly is now officially on my list. I've never been a big fan, but now he's gone and voiced an opinion that makes it somewhat personal.

A couple days ago, yet another rally was held to "kick military recruiters out of UCSC." This was done on the grounds that the military, which maintains policies like "don't ask, don't tell," is a discriminatory organization that is violating UC Santa Cruz' antidiscriminatory clauses. The rally was, at least in the eyes of the protesters, a success. They managed to forcefully run the recruiters off of campus.

Yesterday, Bill O'Reilly's show ran a segment on the protest. The main issue being
discussed was the 80 million dollars provided by the Solomon Act, a provision that grants the UCs federal funding under the condition that military recruiters are allowed on campus.

There were two guests on the show. The first was some rich republican asshole who'd written a letter to Rumsfeld suggesting he withhold the money. The second was a UCSC senior who works as editor for a major campus newspaper.

Basically, the segment ended with O'Reilly interupting the student, pointing his big meaty finger at the screen scoldingly, and announcing that he hoped Santa Cruz loses it's 80 million dollars in funding.

Oh Billy. This is what happens when political extremists meet. The people in the middle are overlooked. I'm sure Mr. O'Reilly is of the opinion that everyone at this school is a left-wing commie who wants to see the president burn at the steak and believes the military is inherently evil. Therefore, we all deserve to lose that 80 mil. Well, Bill, while you won't see me praising Bush, or shouting "Semper Fidelis" and doing pushups, I wasn't at that stupid rally and I don't agree with what those jackasses were preaching or doing. We're not being forced to join, and obviously their presence is not a breach of policy since we rely on 80 million dollars worth of federal funding granted to us assuming we let them have access to students. Most importantly, I believe that people at this school are generally smart enough to understand the nature of the military, and decide for themselves whether they want to join or not. We don't need our right to make that choice hindered by a bunch of hippies who think that deoderant and humanity are sins.

For the record, I have no problem with the idea of protesting. They can picket and shout all they want. However, when you block enterances and forcefully eject people who have the right to be here, I start having issues. Hey, how about I start a rally to block people's access to your rally? Maybe I'll hook a fart machine to a giant amp and blast it over your incessent chanting the next time you guys get together. That way, nobody will be able to hear your opinion, just like you make sure nobody can talk to a recruiter. If you think it's your right, then it must be mine.

Speaking of fart machines, back to good ol' Bill O'Reilly. Mr. O'Reilly should quit lumping large groups of people (in this case the whole Santa Cruz student body) into one category and judging them accordingly. I know it's a lot to ask of Mr. O'Reilly, after all, his show revolves around that entire principle, which can basically be summed up as:

Republicans= GOOD. Democrats= BAD.

Now, I know a lot of people at this school are guilty of doing the same thing, though they usually swap the positions of the words "good" and "bad." However, I'm not one of them, nor are plenty of other fellow students I know. So screw you, Bill O'Reilly. You have even less credibility now then I granted you before.