O'Reilly writes off Coit Tower
Bill O'Reilly is threatening to resign himself to the mass murder of his fellow citizens...
On November 8th, Bill O'Reilly, criticizing the passage of a ballot measure by San Francisco voters that encourages schools and colleges to prohibit on-campus military recruiting, said: "And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead."
Yawn. Surely an innovative and dynamic nation like America can create a better class of demagogue. Ezra Pound would puke.
Since national defense is brought up as an archetypal example of a non-excludable good in elementary economics classes, I conclude that O'Reilly has never taken such a class, a hypothesis of considerable explanatory value.
Posted by: theogon | November 10, 2005 at 05:12 PM
Maybe Bill still feels guilty about avoiding service during Vietnam - He tried to explain that away by saying it was LBJ's war, and just wasn't being handled right.
Not being schooled in this area, I cannot say, but it does seem like he sometimes displaces rage.
Posted by: Gotham Image | November 10, 2005 at 06:07 PM
"Usura...."
Out here in California, we're more afraid of terrorists from Idaho come down to show us a lesson about what they think is "democracy", namely that if you don't like our ideas, you shoot us.
In the last few years, it has been American-born-and-breaded terrorists who have been the subject of the most arrests and investigations.
The only thing that can stop that is awareness and arrests.
Posted by: Joel Sax | November 10, 2005 at 06:52 PM
I sure San Francisco can survive just fine without the help of Bill O'Reilly.
Posted by: Ron Zeno | November 10, 2005 at 07:05 PM
As someone who spends 50 hours a week within a few blocks of Coit Tower, lemme just say O'Reilly's an idiot.
He obviously meant to say "Transamerica Pyramid."
Posted by: Chris Clarke | November 10, 2005 at 07:26 PM
Chris, maybe he just hates the WPA murals.
Posted by: janet | November 10, 2005 at 07:47 PM
Coit[us] tower is our city's #1 phallic symbol. And there are a couple of good Mediterranean restaurants a few blocks downhill towards North Beach.
So I suspect it occupies a central place in O'Reilly's fevered thoughts.
Posted by: theo | November 10, 2005 at 09:09 PM
The amazing O'Reilly never disappoints. He even managed to make M. Chirc seem sympthetic by blaming him for the one thing he is innocent of, the Iraq war.
Posted by: Gotham Image | November 10, 2005 at 10:43 PM
Maybe we should return the favor: Bill O'Reilly doesn't get to come to SF either. He doesn't get to have the best friggin' hamburger in the world at Bill's Place (sorry all you Moe's freaks); crepes and cider at Ti Couz in the Mission; and Pasta Strudel and Mushroom Risotto at Albona's near the Wharf; Golden Gate Park; street party madness at the Castro on Halloween; great Opera, symphony, early music, SOMA music; some of the best theatre outside of New York; Bolinas (shhh), Mount Tam, the Headlands with their old barracks and gun batteries, and Tennessee Valley, on the other side of the bridge; the Marina and Fort Mason; and, fuck everything, after (x) decades, I love the straight-up tourist sites of the Golden Gate Bridge and Ghirardelli Square.
Bill's Loss.
>He tried to explain that away by saying it was LBJ's war, and just wasn't being handled right.
Funny, if you substitute the name "GWB" for "LBJ"...
Posted by: 1984 Was Not a Shopping List | November 10, 2005 at 11:07 PM
>Coit[us] tower is our city's #1 phallic symbol. And there are a couple of good Mediterranean restaurants a few blocks downhill towards North Beach.
Dug seeing Little Italy's Caffe Trieste and that white North Beach church (of St. Peter & Paul?) in Just Like Heaven.
Great standup comedy in SF too.
Posted by: 1984 Was Not a Shopping List | November 11, 2005 at 02:55 AM
O'Reilly's a screamer, not a thinker. Like Al Franken, he does his side a great disservice whenever he speaks.
Posted by: The Phantom | November 11, 2005 at 01:03 PM
Coit Tower was built as a memorial to SF's firefighters. O'Reilly is now objectively anti-firefighter. Good move.
Posted by: Alex Merz | November 11, 2005 at 01:44 PM
As someone in the Chron pointed out this morning, almost everyone in or near Coit Tower at just about any bombable moment is a tourist from Jesusland.
Posted by: Ron Sullivan | November 11, 2005 at 05:15 PM
"Ezra Pound would puke" Killed Me. As in Dead. Evil used to be at least smart. No More. Only dominant,,,
Posted by: bbbustard | November 11, 2005 at 05:40 PM
Bill knows that after a good hosing down by Coit Tower, you need a hard loofah-ing.
Posted by: pebird | November 12, 2005 at 02:38 PM
We were waiting for that :D
(Everyone here seems to know all this already, but in case you don't, Coit Tower was built to resemble the nozzle of a firehose)
Posted by: 1984 Was Not a Shopping List | November 12, 2005 at 03:46 PM