| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| O'Reilly Pays Legal Bill for Fallen Marine's Father |
| 2010-03-31 |
| No. 1 cable news host Bill O'Reilly said Tuesday that he will personally write a check to cover $16,500 in legal costs for the father of a fallen U.S. Marine who sued the members of a church who picketed his son's funeral. |
| Posted by:Nimble Spemble |
| #17 Frank G. I will contribute when I can add value. Wonderful insights from (mostly) intelligent people. I don'tknow why the ignotant jerks sneak in but, Freedom of speech is one of the major tensants that sets us apart. |
| Posted by: Flaper Scourge of the Algonquins4926 2010-03-31 23:53 |
| #16 to Keeney and "Flaper" - both of you seem new (to me) here, and I'd like to say "thank you" to you for your service and welcome! Stick around and contribute |
| Posted by: Frank G 2010-03-31 21:58 |
| #15 Viet Nam vet to Keeney, Thank You. Phelps and his like are beyound words. I'm surprised the boys and girls on bikes were able to controll their emotions. I'm not sure I would have had that control. Even baboons would not inrude at a time like this. |
| Posted by: Flaper Scourge of the Algonquins4926 2010-03-31 20:56 |
| #14 The courts have an opportunity to clarify the situation by noting that while this is indeed protected speech *content*, that it fails on protected speech *context*. By comparison, imagine there is a serious traffic accident, in which a surgeon is rendering life-saving aid to a victim. A man approaches the scene, and starts screaming at the doctor that "Dick Cheney is a fascist!" In that case, the speech is political, but so far out of context that its sole purpose is to harass and possibly cause severe injury or death. The argument against this approach, that it creates "free speech zones", is not true, because in fact it creates "anti-free speech zones", very limited areas where speech is restricted, for tangible reasons. Hospital "quiet zones" are a good example of this, and do not prevent freedom of speech. Likewise, funerals, even of celebrities, are personal, not political events, where intrusive speech has no legitimate purpose other than to harass and cause emotional injury. There are a large number of restrictions on speech, while at the same time "free speech" is preserved. So it is not a great leap to imagine that the SCOTUS may find that funerals, like many other events, are protected venues. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-03-31 14:22 |
| #13 Kind of insulting to baboons tho.... :) |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2010-03-31 12:44 |
| #12 AC's comment is rated best of the month. |
| Posted by: Willy 2010-03-31 12:35 |
| #11 Imagine the celebration when Westboro's alpha baboon, Fred Phelps, dies and goes to hell where he belongs. We may not have to wait long either. Phelps is 80 and studies show that hate-spewing monkey assholes have a consistently shorter life expectancy than human beings. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2010-03-31 12:04 |
| #10 Not crazy about O'Reilly, but good for him for doing this. These Westboro inbred troglodytes gotta be fought. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2010-03-31 11:25 |
| #9 Keeney, Thank you for your service. It is deeply appreciated by those you have defended. Thank God for people like you. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-03-31 11:13 |
| #8 UPDATE: Just as soon as I hit the submit key, heard on Fox that the Supreme Court will take up the appeal on this. |
| Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie 2010-03-31 10:27 |
| #7 Whatever his motivation is, good on O'Reilly for doing this. |
| Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie 2010-03-31 10:25 |
| #6 Keeney, I hope you are doing O.K. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-03-31 09:51 |
| #5 Good for O'Reilly. Westboro Baptist cult are dangerous, despictable, a$$holes. I view them as terrorists. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-03-31 09:49 |
| #4 The vermin who handed down this decision should be disbarred and severly horse whipped. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-03-31 09:47 |
| #3 O'Reilly needs to do this to pretend he's for the folks and bring back those like me who are tired of his go soft on Burqa Hussein Obama attitude. |
| Posted by: HammerHead 2010-03-31 09:34 |
| #2 It's been over 3 years since my last tour in Iraq, so my aggressive side has quieted. Still, I would find it extremely difficult to watch any group protest at a serviceman's (or woman's) funeral without going ballistic. Thank God for people like this Marine's father, who had the courage to take up his fight in a court of law rather than the street, and Thank God for men like Mr. O'Reilly, who help good people in our country hold on to the few shreds of moral fiber and dignity we have left. |
| Posted by: Keeney 2010-03-31 09:34 |
| #1 Good on him. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2010-03-31 09:26 |