And then we gathered around, not the roaring fire, but the little computer, to watch Rumble2012, Bill O'Reilly from Fox "News" and Jon Stewart debating, livestreamed for $5. Stewart was delicious, brilliant, to the point and moving (literally, sometimes, with his funny platform that went up and down) and yet hilarious, making one sensible, hard-hitting point after another. O'Reilly was condescending with his stupid placards, and had hardly a rejoinder. It was barely a debate. But it wasn't unpleasant, like some of the others recently, because both men have a sense of humour, and because it gave Jon a chance to say some vital things. Especially his bit about Bullshit Mountain, where O'Reilly and the Republican party live and work and have constructed their own reality that has nothing to do with real life.
Here are some quotes posted on the Twitterverse:
"You can't privatize your profits and socialize your losses" - Jon Stewart on corporate welfare
“Jon Stewart, about Romney's plan to cut funding to PBS: "Give me my money back-- the $800 billion for the Iraq war-- and children's television is on the house.”
"Bill O'Reilly: 'we shouldn't have gone into Iraq.' Stewart" 'somebody live-tweet that!!!' Done!
"I don't want government gone, I want it better: more efficient, more accountable." - Jon Stewart
"Why are we holding two presidents to different standards? This is not ancient history. This is just 8 years ago." - Jon Stewart to O'Reilly's complaints that we are still blaming Bush for the deficit
And then there was the debate on health care, in which O'Reilly went on and on about how government can't handle such a thing - and brought up the horrors of England and Canada as an example. "You can't get an operation in Canada!" he shouted. Come and visit my mother, you idiot, I wanted to say. Free market all the way, with the Fox people and their party way up high on Bullshit Mountain.
And then there's my Jon. As a woman said on Twitter, "Jon Stewart is a genius. That is all."
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