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Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Moore v. O'Reilly

I'm sure you've heard about the big showdown between Michael Moore and Bill O'Reilly on O'Reilly's show on Fox. It was a pretty lame debate - neither of them are the brightest bulbs. (Although I'm sure I could do no better.) The biggest peeve I had was with Moore's characterization of a "lie." O'Reilly did not do a good job of refuting this point. Moore seems to believe that any statement made that is shown to be untrue is a lie. Therefore, when President Bush said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, it was a lie - regardless of the best information at the time. That. of course, is a foolish definition. A lie is a statement meant to deceive. Enough of that.

The Corner has some posts on the Moore/O'Reilly debate. Here are two examples.

#1: "'Since my son has actually seen significant combat in Fallujah and ar Ramadi, I have had to contemplate the unthinkable: what if he is killed? It is a horrible thought but one that cannot be avoided. This brings me to Moore's stupid question: 'Would you sacrifice your child for Fallujah?' The answer of course is, 'Hell no!' My first thought is to quote Patton, 'The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his.' This is, of course, the main point, isn't it? "

I'd forgotten that Patton quote. It's a great quote and a perfect rejoinder for people like Moore. Next, is a partial transcript from a show with Ron Reagan and John Podhoretz - talk about David and Goliath! (Only this time, 'David' was not defending God's name and Goliath pummels him.)

Ron Reagan: But we didn't kill them. George W. Bush's war killed these ten thousand people. And if I'm a religious person, now I've just done something that results in the deaths of ten thousand innocent people, I'm going to be real apologetic about that.

John Podhoretz: Lincoln was a religious man and I'm unaware--I am unaware of, unless you are equating Christianity with ...

Ron Reagan: We're not talking about Abraham Lincoln.

John Podhoretz: No, unless you are equating Christianity with pacifism, which you obviously are, then... ...no Christian leader is permitted ever to go to war.

'Nuff said.

posted by Gary at 15:28 | [Permalink] (0) comments

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