O'Leilly spews more crap about not-so silent nights

Bill O'Reilly made an appearance on Letterman last night in which he repeated a covenient falsehood to perpetuate his war against those who don't think public school is an appropriate venue for religious training. During his post-holiday diatribe about the non-existent war on Christmas, O'Reilly called the folks at Ridgewell [sic] Elementary School in Wisconsin "pinheads" because they supposedly altered the words to Silent Night. O'Reilly's refusal to drop the inanity prompted Letterman to comment that he had a feeling that 60% of what O'Reilly says is crap.

OK. Ridgewood Elementary School in Dodgeville, Wisconsin. Song, "Silent Night." "Silent Night," you know? Knocked out the words and told the little kids to sing, "Cold in the night. No one in sight. Winter winds whine and bite. How I wish I was happy and warm. Safe with my family out of the storm." They replaced the words to "Silent Night" with that. Now, with all due respect, I think even think the baby Jesus would say, "Give me a break." You know? You want another one? [Media Matters]

Billy-boy and his Christotheocratic friends at the Liberty Counsel firmly believe that [Christian] religious training should be a core component to a public school education, as noted by O'Reilly's multiple [innaccurate] comments about lyric revisions over the past month and the Liberty Counsel's condemnation of the "secularized rendition" of the song. The group also noted that since Christmas is a state and federal holiday, religious aspects to the celebration of the holiday should be mandated in public schools.

For those of you who may not understand why some parents (and students) might object to singing completely innocuous songs in music class or the school choir's winter recital, I remind you of the lyrics of the song Silent Night [emphasis added]

Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin, mother and child
Holy infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace

Silent night, holy night
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heav'nly hosts sing Alleluia
Christ the savior is born
Christ the savior is born

Silent night, holy night
Son of G-d, love's pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus Lord, at thy birth
Jesus Lord, at thy birth

Tags:1st Amendment; Religion; Christmas; Bill "It's not a lie, it's what I want to be true" O'Reilly

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