Well, I'd hoped to make my next LJ entry something a little brighter, but the fact is that when you're really, really busy, only the most salient points stick in your head. And those things are often bad. And so I present to you the winner of the Douchebag of the Day award for Febrary 1st, 2005: Bill O'Reilly.

The context in the article is pretty accurate, although I should add, for the sake of saying so, that I didn't intend to see the panel, anyway -- the Hamilton College Choir is deep into rehearsals for Gilbert-and-Sullivan's The Gondoliers, and I've got precious little time to spare. And besides, we have conservative speakers who are just as controversial as O'Reilly made this guy out to be, and there was barely anything in the way of protest. Fucking double-standards.

And of course, O'Reilly himself doesn't know jack shit about the school, or the people who work and study here -- all he's interested in is furthering his own crackpot agenda. The hack badmouthed both the school and the people I interact with every day, then went on to generalize the "problem" of campus Liberalism to all Liberal Arts schools (well, it's not a problem, but NO SHIT -- look at what they're called, dumbass! [NOTE: statement directed at O'Reilly, not other readers]). Just in case I'd forgotten, I was reminded, with a slap in the face, why I am really, really disgusted by partisan political pundits (alliteration unintended) like O'Reilly.

So rest assured, Bill O'Reilly (along with the moron who decided to protest "terrorism" by threatening some terrorism of his own) has been added to my "People-I'd-give-a-black-eye-or-worse-if-I-wasn't-a-man-of-principles" list.