One of the joys of maintaining a cable-free lifestyle is that I’m never even tempted to tune in such boors as Bill O’Reilly. We got a couple of e-mails overnight attacking the Gt. Barrington selectmen that lead us to go a-Googling to see what was the matter.
Seems O’Reilly cooked up a scheme to use Great Barrington as part of an attack on Al Gore on the eve of Gore being named Man of the Year by Time magazine.
OOPS! Turns out that was an ill-founded rumor, as Vladimir Putin got the nod. Pop quiz: who was it last year? What d’ya mean, YOU don’t remember?!
Found a story right away that answered our question. Here’s an excerpt from a website called News Hounds - We watch FOX so you don’t have to:
Jesse Waters, BOR’s trusted ambush journalist, traveled to Great Barrington to confront the town selectman asking them if their decision was ” a ruse” to attack Christmas chiding them also for calling them ” holiday lights”. The selectman were angry and explained they didn’t think it was necessary to put up excessive lighting this year.
Waters, looking so proud of himself, called them ” environmental alarmists”. O’Reilly said “a cow belching”, was worse than the lights and described the town as “James Taylor territory”, “touchy feely” and “wind chimes central.” Then he proclaimed they “wouldn’t say Christmas, Wouldn’t say it!” Suggesting that the decision wasn’t environmental at all but an attack on Christmas.
Here’s the whole story: Bill O’Reilly Makes Al Gore the Global Warming Grinch.
O’Reilly’s audience responds to Gt. Barrington attack
Here are the e-mails we received in response to the broadcast:
This is to the city selectmen. I was hoping to spend 3 days in your city with my family after Christmas for shopping and showing them a place where our freedom began. Then I saw you stupid selctmen on TV and their stupid response about Christmas lights and saving the planet. LOL That is moronic but also the fact that you don’t celebrate Christmas in Great Barrington is disturbing and you have no Christmas lights only “holiday lights” how pitiful is that.
Well we are not overly religious but we are Christains and feel better in a city where religion is respected so we will say good bye to great Barrington and find somewhere else to have a nice, safe, fun, time. - John Dawson
After watching your “Selectmen Meeting” clip on FOX News, I had to comment. The men on that board were ridiculous and unbelievably annoying with their STUPID comments about not allowing “holiday lights.” Heaven forbid that they use the word “Christmas!” I’m curious, what holiday is it on December 25th? They were smug and rude. They need to grow up and be REAL men. What an embarrassment to your town!!!! - Sheree Larsen
Anybody else care to join the fray? You’re welcome to write a comment.
Tags: 12 Comments
12 responses so far ↓
What else would you expect from the communistic, socialistic state of Massachusetts?
It is a disgrace that those who are not of the Christian faith felt compelled to destroy it. For years, it has been the individuals of non-Catholic denomination who reap the monetary benefits from the so called “holiday season”. I hope the people of Gt. Barrington, who want to celebrate the birth of Christ, do so without fear of persecution from old, withered, useless, anti-Semitic, decrepit old men who obviously have a secret agenda on their hands.
If I lived in GT. Barrington I would lead the biggest revolution against these frauds that you would ever see. Grow some spine people and respect your holiday. Put up as many lights as you want and tell the ever pompous elite New York transplant selectmen to go make themselves useful and jump in front of a truck.
The Great Barrington Selectmen are ridiculous for supressing our freedom of expression. I am embarassed at my town’s selectmen for coming to this ruling against the consent of the townspeople. I beleive that if you want to decorate for the holidays, then you should have the freedom to express that, not be told by the ignorant selectmen that you cannot do it. Furthermore, claiming that the lights are being taken down due to “global warming” is even more embarassing. There is no proof (chemically) that carbon emissions can depleat ozone molecules, regardless of what propaganda films the selectmen believe. There is a petition signed by over 19,000 certified American scientists claiming that no evidence of ozone depletion by our emissions has been discovered, that is because it is chemically impossible. But even if they do think cutting energy will help “global warming,” two strips of light will generate less CO2 than 1 person exhaling for the duration of 3 days. I am going to protest this unjust ruling, we deserve freedom of expression!
One Selectman responded to Jesse Water’s question concerning his feelings about the lights by saying “they’re my feelings” and “they’re private and none of your business.” In my opinion, this Selectman should not be serving the public in any capacity. A man who does not have the moral fiber and courage to express why he supports a particular policy, should not be in a position to influence policy to begin with. A public servant with this attitude is no servant of the public at all, in my opinion. He would never feel obligated to explain his actions to the public, since anything he did based on private feelings would, in his opinion, certainly be none of anyone’s business, including the public’s.
The idea that Christmas lights will have such a large negative impact to the environment is ludicrous. The Selectmen came across as obnoxious and idiotic. Whether or not they actually are secularists attempting to impede the open, public, joyous celebration of Christmas, they have cast themselves in that role by their actions and statements. They are attempting to help in the secularization of Christmas by their actions, such as calling the lights “Holiday Lights” and refusing to call them what they are in actual fact–Christmas lights.
The Christmas holiday is one of the most important days on the Christian calendar, because it commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ. Many of us are sick and tired of the continuing attempt to ignore, neutralize and expunge the real meaning of Christmas, while trying to twist and transform it into a mere, meaningless, unoffensive, secular “holiday”. Christmas is full of the story and message of Jesus Christ. Freedom of speech protects the right to speak and proclaim that message–a message which offends some who would be more comfortable if He could be eliminated from the holiday. One way to silence the Christmas message is to refuse to call it Christmas (it contains the name of Christ) and to secularize, neutralize and change it to something else.
This isn’t only about Great Barrington, Mass., this is about what is happening all across our country. Part of the reason there is a debate about Christmas in this country is, in my opinion that many politicians are too cowardly to honestly admit their true feelings, and so they hide behind a facade of political correctness, pseudo environmental concern, and “tolerance”. While they pretend to value all faiths and ethnicities equally, their true prejudices show by the way they treat Christians and so willingly insult them in ways they would not dare if they were members of any other religion. As a Christian, I am insulted, and I’m tired of it.
The only thing worse than O’reilly’s piece is seeing that people bought it. My full opinion on the matter is on my blog.
“Seems O’Reilly cooked up a scheme to use Great Barrington as part of an attack on Al Gore on the eve of Gore being named Man of the Year by Time magazine.”
Didn’t Putin get ‘Man of the Year”? If you’re going to slam Bill O’Reilly, get your facts straight. Maybe facts don’t matter to you morons.
I think it’s kind of sad that any “Christian” would believe that the meaning of Christmas has anything to do with lights. A member of another religion, unfamiliar with anything but the publicly visible traditions, could be forgiven, but when it’s one of the most holy days in your faith…
My challenge for O’Reilly and his supporters–find one verse in the Bible where Jesus instructs his followers to put up snowflake lights. Otherwise, the conservative elite coming in and attacking the decisions of our elected leaders in an attempt to force their views down our throats is disgusting.
O’Reilly (as in “oh , really?”) and his goon squad got almost nothing right in their story. The selectmen were debating turning the lights off at 10pm rather than 12am. A difference of 2 hours! And the streets roll up pretty early in a small New England town. The fact that the Chamber of Commerce, who purchased the lights for the town, called them “holiday lights” is a meaningless footnote– At least to those of us who truly celebrate Christmas.
I find it quite humorous that you’ve invited comments and most of them have come from your own residences affirming what O’Reilly reported. Oh and yes, this is what O’Reilly reported not ‘made up’. Wake up you people. Wether its 10:00 or 12:00 it is still an attempt to control by those who do not have the right to tell a free society how to live. Merry Christmas!!!!
“I find it quite humorous that you’ve invited comments and most of them have come from your own residences affirming what O’Reilly reported. Oh and yes, this is what O’Reilly reported not ‘made up’. Wake up you people. Wether its 10:00 or 12:00 it is still an attempt to control by those who do not have the right to tell a free society how to live. Merry Christmas!!!!”
Can you read? Only one of the pro-O’Reilly’ comments is definitely from a Great Barrington resident.
And in a town like Great Barrington, with many Jewish residents, why would the town call the lights Christmas lights and alienate its residents? That would be idiotic. Holiday lights aren’t an affront to anyone, they are non religious because Great Barrington, like most towns, doesn’t have a “town religion.” Our residents vary in their religious preferences quite a bit, and some of us are rather fond of that.
Thank God that I do not live in your city nor even near it…for you probably will require that the lights on the American flag be turned off at night as well………….Lee Clapp
I am appalled at some of the comments made by the “Christians” who are disgusted by the Selectpersons’ decision:
“go make themselves useful and jump in front of a truck.”
“Maybe facts don’t matter to you morons.”
I think this reveals the real problem with society in general, which is that it is composed of narcissistic individuals blind to the needs of others who consume without regard for environment or neighbors. Electricity (and water, gas, platics, etc.) should not be wasted simply because it is generated from our precious natural resources that represent all of what sustains us! We have certainly learned to take such things for granted.
I would also like to point out that global warming has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with the ozone layer, so before you buy a new SUV, head over to Wikipedia so that you see why coal-generated electricity is in fact one of the major contributors to this frightening phenomenon.