"Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?" -Henry II of England December 29, 1170
"..if the state of Kansas doesn't stop this man, then anybody who prevents that from happening has blood on their hands..." -- Bill O'Reilly - June 12, 2007
There's about 920 years between these quotes but they both end the same way: With a man dead in a church, the victim of "overzealous followers" who "misinterpreted" the above quotes and carried out a horrific act of violence.
Well Henry, absolute monarch that he was, still had the grace to be contrite enough about Beckett's murder to allow himself to be flogged at Beckett's grave. Not Our Friend Bill, no flagellation (even self) for him, instead, he wants us all to know that HE's the real victim in all this, a poor martyr being mercilessly attacked by-well Us here, among others. Really:
Here's the actual video itself:
Note the "taken hostage" delivery as he reads the first few sentences that were obviously written by Fox's Lawyers, and then listen to his smarm kick back in as he basically jumps right back into full Tiller vilification mode.
And awful as it is to hear, if you analyze the text line by line it becomes far worse:
The murder of doctor George tiller. That is -- subject of this evening's talking points memo. Anarchy and vigilantism. Will assure the collapse of any society. Once the rule of law breaks down a country it is finished --Thus, clear thinking American should condemn the murder of late term abortion Doctor Tiller.
Okay now he's got the CYA copy that his defenders will quote endlessly out of context out of the way; he can now land a few more jabs at Dr. Tiller:
Even though the man terminated thousands of pregnancies; what he did is legal under Kansas law.
Translation into FoxNews : " He needed killin'"
The accused killer 51 year old Scott -- May have had ties {note the weasel-wording-ed}to the Freemen organization. A far right group which rejects government authority. -- likely be charged with first degree murder he has a previous weapons charge conviction.
Translation: "see he was a nutball BEFORE he started watching MY show..."
And then hey lets drop of few more elbows on the good doctor's corpse shall we?
The 67 year old tiller had performed abortions for more than 35. Years. The Washington times estimates he destroyed about 60000. Fetuses 60000.
Oh they "estimated" that did they? Well by my math that would be 10 abortions a day, 200 days a year, for 30 years without a break. You'll excuse me if I call bullshit on that number. And frankly since O'Reilly, or at least one his producers should be capable of basic arithmetic and KNOWN this number was nearly impossible (and FWIW the only source in the Washington Times for this number was a bare assertion of it in this article which I initially mistook for an op-ed)
and then O'Reilly has more fun with numbers:
According to the AP tiller performed more than 250 late term abortions in 2003 alone. His income was estimated to be more than one million dollars a year. Right now 36 states restrict late term abortions and there are only 3 clinics that perform them in the entire country.
Let's have a little fun with numbers of our own: 3 clinics that perform these kind of abortions x250= 750 total late term abortions nationwide? out of either ~800,000 or 1.2 Million depending on if you believe the CDC or National Right to life Committee so that is either 0.1% or less of the total abortions performed or, even if the AP estimates are correct, the doctor's late -term abortions accounted for 0.033% of the abortions performed that year. Truly he was the country's greatest monster and deserving ofO'Reilly's constant campaign of vilification
and $1 Million a year?! For an OB-GYN?! ZOMG! it's so utterly unheard of! (Especially given their malpractice premiums)
Now let's skip ahead to the good Part, where, as usual O'Reilly makes it all about poor, persecuted, him:
. Now when I heard about Taylor's murder I knew pro abortion zealots and Fox News haters would attempt to blame cost for the crime and that is exactly what has happened.
Really? That's the first thing that popped in your head upon hearing the news that a man had been shot in Church-That an evil conspiracy of leftists were going to try to blame you for it? Not a second of sympathy for the dead man? Not a moment's reflection on whether you may have somehow gone to far an incited this?
I mean it's not as if you didn't give him the oh-so-catchy nickname "Tiller the Killer" and say things like:
"Tiller,destroys fetuses for just about any reason right up until the birth date for $5,000. He's guilty of "Nazi stuff,"
"this guy operating a death mill, which is exactly what it is"
"Tiller has blood on his hands",
But no, self-reflection, isn't his style, Self-pity apparently is, so O'Reilly spent the bulk of his comment cataloging the evil media critics who dared say a cross word about him, and why they are all evil and not to be trusted...Including our own Markos:
Writing in the New York Daily News reporter Helen Kennedy {who) was very very sympathetic to Tiller, called my reporting on him. Rants. -- Kennedy has lied about us before, so her spins comes as no surprise.
Arianna Huffington immediately let her fanatics lose. Mary Mapes, Dan Rather's former producer,who was fired from CBS over false story on President Bush, Wrote in the Huffington Post " I felt just sick when I saw the bulletin about the murder of doctor George -- I can already envision the back -- and rationalizing that will hear. From long time to -- critic Bill O'Reilly -- No backpedaling here madam unlike you I report honestly. Every single thing we said about -- was true and my analysis was based on those facts. "
No Mary, sorry, you gave him entirely too much credit for having human decency, or at least a capacity for self examination (or basic arithmetic as pointed out above)
Then of course Bill O'Reilly, the multi-million dollar pundit with a show on the biggest cable news channel on the planet, can't throw a proper pity party without again portraying himself as the poor bullied victim of mighty Media Mogul Kos:
The far left Lunacy continued --Daily Kos editor Markos " Who'll be the next target of O'Reilly and Beck' ire to get gunned down by domestic conservative terrorist?"
Seems a decent question given that he DOES have a Body count and all, but that apparently only because I'm a bigot like Kos, or a leftist, or something, because Kos runs ads for that liberal rag C-SPAN, or something:
As a Catholic league pointed out today that hateful Kos is bashing me. Right above an ad for an upcoming interview With Bill Ayers (being conducted by C-SPAN's Book TV you'll note)
Well at least we "far left Lunatics" are in good company, apparently the KC Star is now a bastion of the loony left:
. Finally far left Kansas City star columnist Mike Hendricks wrote ". The murder accomplices include everyone who was ever called -- late term abortion clinic a "murder mill" and whoever called Tiller "Tiller the Killer."
and then O'Reilly brings it on home, as only he can, in fit of righteous indignation:
"Now it is clear that the far left is Exploiting. Exploiting the death of the Doc.{ notice how he now becomes "the Doc" rather than "Tiller the Killer" for this bit?-ed} Those vicious individuals want to stifle any criticism of people like Tiller. That and hating Fox News is the real agenda here.
So there you have it, a rarely seen Triple Weasel: "It's not my fault, and anyway he needed killing, and besides I'M the real victim here, look at all the mean things people are saying about the mean things I said about the dead guy"