To properly enjoy a Bill O’Reilly column, you have to imagine it being read in the voice of a cranky old man chastising neighborhood hooligans.
My money says Tina Fey doesn’t know anything about the roots of terrorism or how to prevent the next terror attack. The woman can sneer all day long, but I’ll put her on my TV program in a heartbeat if she wants to prove me wrong.
Neil Young can write all the mediocre music he wants about how evil the Bush administration is, but while he is rockin’ in the free world, I know it wouldn’t be free if Young were in charge.
My pal Jon Stewart and his legion of writers think they’re ultra cool and hip because they embrace every left wing cause that comes down the pike. Yeah, you won an Emmy, Stewart, but the fix was in. The choir to whom you preach dominates the award voting. You Daily Show guys can be funny but how many Americans want you people standing between them and Iran?
Subtext: Where’s my Emmy? I’m the one who’s out here every day standing between you ungrateful little wretches and Iran, and you can’t even give me one little Emmy in return?
But there’s more!
So I say this, Bill Maher. You’re a witty guy, but out of your league on complicated matters like national security. When you can tell me what Ansar al-Islam was doing in Northern Iraq, then I might watch your HBO show.
When George Clooney can explain exactly how the Pakistani secret police broke a captured al-Qaeda big shot who subsequently gave up the London terrorists arrested for planning an attack on American airliners, then I’ll rent “Syriana.”
When the pouty Dixie Chicks, who are having big trouble selling concert tickets this summer, can tell me the origin of the Islamic Brotherhood, then I might go to one of their shows.
But I’m not holding my breath on any of these challenges. As the saying goes: Opinions are like lips, everybody has them. But some opinions, like some lips, are razor thin, and there ain’t enough collagen in the world to help these misguided showbiz people.
Actually, the phrase is “opinions are like assholes.” But I see no need to take that image any further…
… update from a reader:
There’s something really, really funny in the final quote of your post today about O’Reilly.
“When the pouty Dixie Chicks, who are having big trouble selling concert tickets this summer, can tell me the origin of the Islamic Brotherhood, then I might go to one of their shows.”
Here’s the thing: There is no such thing as the “Islamic Brotherhood.”
I assume he was refering to the Muslim Brotherhood, an important Egyptian-based terrorist movement founded in 1928.
A trivial mistake? Not if your column is predicated on the idea that critics you don’t like should shut up because they’re not nuanced enough.