7:45 p.m.

• Have I mentioned how much I hate yardwork? I spent the better part of the afternoon pulling weeds and shit from the side of my yard, and uprooted two bush/tree thingys which sucked. Oh well, at least manual labor makes me feel like a man, until I get some dirt in my shoe and I cry.

• So this was on Drudge today: “Tina Brown set to unleash 'most controversial book on Princess Diana ever'…” Wha-?

The most savage attack on Diana EVER

 

When Tina Brown wrote her devastating critique of the marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diana in the American society magazine Vanity Fair in October 1985, it caused a furore on both sides of the Atlantic.

WHO GIVES A SHIT?! Christ, how long has she been dead?

• Jackie Robinson would be so proud of this being published exactly one week after JACKIE ROBINSON DAY.

For the first time, the faces of students at the Turner County High School prom were both white and black.

 

Each year, in spite of integration, the school's white students had raised money for their own unofficial prom and black students did the same to throw their own separate party, an annual ritual that divided the southern Georgia peanut-farming county anew each spring.

Actually, I’m wondering if this is the same school that got national headlines a few years back for this segregated prom? During that time Bill O’Reilly was going batshit about it and brought on Neal Boortz, who took an opposing view, on to his show. If memory serves, Boortz’s viewpoint was something to the effect of “it’s a private matter; what can the government school do.” Ah, here we go. Looks like the Bill/Neal conversation dealt with a different school. Wow, was this a funny moment of television.

BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Unresolved Problems" segment tonight, as we told you at the top of the broadcast, a neo-Nazi group skewed our poll [on billoreilly.com] on the white prom that was held by students of Taylor County High School in Georgia. Obviously, this issue is explosive and has racial connotations all over the place. Now I've been very critical of Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue for not taking aggressive action to condemn the all-white prom. Last night, the governor's spokesperson Kim King spun it this way.

 

O'REILLY: Why doesn't he go to that event? Why doesn't he get out of the little mansion, into his limo, drive down to that event, stand there with those students and say this is the right way to conduct yourself?

 

KIM KING, PRESS SECRETARY FOR GOVERNOR SONNY PERDUE: Well, I think what he's going to do instead is just to share his comments, and that's what I'm trying to do, is that -- he applauds the students who are going to have the integrated prom, and he...

 

O'REILLY: Well, let him get down there and applaud them.

 

KING: ... is going to encourage these students who attended the exclusive prom to attend that one. The students who are hosting the integrated prom offer a great example.

 

O'REILLY: Well, joining us now from Atlanta is Neal Boortz, who hosts a nationally syndicated radio program and who was critical of me today. So, Neal, I'm against the prom, and I'm for Georgia's elected officials speaking out against it -- leadership -- and you're on...

 

NEAL BOORTZ, RADIO TALK-SHOW HOST: No, no.

 

O'REILLY: You're on my case? What's that all about?

 

BOORTZ: No, you're not. You're not for Georgia letting -- you want Sonny Perdue to be on your timetable. I want to apologize to you for the people of Georgia because our governor did not make himself available to you whenever you deem that to be necessary.

 

O'REILLY: Oh, stop it. He had five days to make a comment. He could have talked to the Associated Press.

 

BOORTZ: Bill.

 

O'REILLY: He could have talked to you. He talks to nobody. He's hiding under his desk.

 

BOORTZ: It's a private party.

 

O'REILLY: He's hiding under his desk.

 

BOORTZ:; It's a private...

 

O'REILLY: Oh.

 

BOORTZ: I don't -- you're spreading so much misinformation about this. I don't know whether you're doing it out of malice or out of ignorance. It's a private party, Bill. It wasn't a high school function, OK?

 

O'REILLY: Sorry, Neal. You are distorting and spinning. It was an -- organized within the high school, OK? Everyone admits that. Everyone admits it.

 

BOORTZ: Listen...

 

O'REILLY: It was organized within the high school...

 

BOORTZ: ... it was organized...

 

O'REILLY: ... and the only reason they took it out of the school is because they had a federal civil rights situation to deal with if they put it in the school. It was organized...

 

BOORTZ: Bill...

 

O'REILLY: ... within that high school. Everyone admits that.

 

BOORTZ: Bill, there are 8,300 people that live in Taylor County, Georgia. The reason they go to Americus or to Columbus for these parties is because there's not one single facility in that city or in Butler, Georgia, where they can hold it. This party was no more organized in that school than was, "Hey, let's get together at the Dairy Queen this afternoon."

 

O'REILLY: All right. Who organized the party then?

 

BOORTZ: The students did...

 

O'REILLY: Oh, the...

 

BOORTZ: ... in and out of school.

 

O'REILLY: Wait a minute. This -- where did they organize it?

 

BOORTZ: Listen -- well, as I said, Bill -- now listen to me. If the students get together and they say "let's meet at the Dairy Queen this afternoon" and they meet at the Dairy Queen and then somebody punches somebody out there, is that a fight that is...

 

O'REILLY: This is -- look...

 

BOORTZ: ... sanctioned by the school because they agreed to meet there after school?

 

O'REILLY: Here's what - look -- Neal, look, if you want do live in the Land of Oz, you feel free to do that. This was billed as a prom for the Taylor High School. It was organized within the school. They took it out of the school because it's against the law to do that on school property. They're having an integrated prom within the school, OK, and you ought to be...

 

BOORTZ: Bill, how many...

 

O'REILLY: ... at that prom and so should the governor to congratulate those kids. But, look, let's move along here.

 

BOORTZ: How many high schools...

 

O'REILLY: You can't possibly, Neal -- because I know you. You can't possibly think an all-white alternative prom is a good thing. You can't possibly think that.

 

BOORTZ: It -- it wasn't a prom. It was private party. And the black students at the school had their private party, too, which you seem to fail to mention every time you...

 

O'REILLY: No, they did not.

 

BOORTZ: ... bring this up.

 

O'REILLY: No, they did not. They did not have...

 

BOORTZ: I'm sorry.

 

O'REILLY: ... an organized function anywhere. That's another fallacious...

 

BOORTZ: Every bit as organized...

 

O'REILLY: ... statement. You know, I'm really surprised. You're usually a straight guy.

 

BOORTZ: Oh, listen...

 

O'REILLY: The blacks didn't have an all-black party, and you know it.

 

BOORTZ: There is only one place in this country where this whole story is at issue at all. It's not a controversy in Georgia. It's not a controversy anywhere but on your show, and one might suspect that you're running to this to give you some cover maybe for this alleged hubcap incident that happened at your fundraiser.

 

O'REILLY: Well, let's -- that -- you know, you're a vicious son of a bitch for saying that.

 

(LAUGHTER by Boortz)

 

O'REILLY: You are because you know that's a fallacious story, and I -- I'm going to bleep out my remark there, and I apologize for it.

 

BOORTZ: Why? I wouldn't bleep it out.

 

O'REILLY: You're a vicious guy. No, you're a vicious guy, you know. You know that's a fallacious story. You're throwing that out to be -- you know, to smear me because all I object to is this kind of exclusion in a high school, all right, and you will do anything to justify it because you don't like the story.

 

BOORTZ: You are -- you are looking to establish some sort of a credibility by going after a private party of the type that probably happened in the last couple of weeks in 8,000 high schools around this country.

 

O'REILLY: It's unbelievable.

 

BOORTZ: Why don't you...

 

O'REILLY: It's unbelievable that you're condoning this. It really is, you know.

 

BOORTZ: Why don't you go to every high school and look...

 

O'REILLY: I mean we're all Americans here...

 

BOORTZ: Oh, it's unbelievable.

 

O'REILLY: ... and we're not supposed to be exclusionary, particularly in the educational process, and you're condoning this. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.

 

BOORTZ: This was not part of the educational process, Bill. It was a private party.

 

O'REILLY: It was organized within the school. It's saying to...

 

BOORTZ: Listen...

 

O'REILLY: Look, it's saying to -- let me break this down so even you can understand it. It's saying to students in the Taylor school you are not good enough to come to our party because you are black. That's what it's saying.

 

BOORTZ: Let me ask you one more question before I get cut off here. Let's say that a guy asks a girl out for a date at school, will you go out with me Friday night. She says, yes, I will. And, on that date, there occurs maybe a date rape. Is the school responsible for that date rape, Bill, because it was organized and planned within the school?

 

O'REILLY: All right. Look...

 

BOORTZ: Give me a break and give these kids a break.

 

O'REILLY: Neal, I mean -- I hope you realize how foolish that comparison is. I mean here we have a situation where everybody in the school acknowledges it's not the right thing to do. It's the wrong thing to do. Yet the governor, the superintendent, the principal -- no one will stand up and say this is not what we're about in Georgia.

See, I don't believe that Georgians approve of this, and I -- the tortured logic to rationalize the fact that it took place offends me as an American. What don't you get about the United States, Neal? We're supposed to...

 

BOORTZ: What don't you get about...

 

O'REILLY: ... be encouraging people to be all together in the war on terror and everything else, and by you using...

 

BOORTZ: Fair question. What portion of...

 

O'REILLY: ... tortured logic to justify this -- it demeans you.

 

BOORTZ: What part of freedom of association escapes your great intellect, Bill?

 

O'REILLY: Yes. Freedom of association is fine outside of a school process. This was organized within the school for the sole purpose of excluding black students. It's a disgrace. But I'm going to give you the last word. Go ahead.

 

BOORTZ: Oh, no, Bill. That's OK. I just again want to apologize on behalf of the people of Georgia because our governor hasn't made himself available to you at your insistence and on your demand.

 

O'REILLY: All right. Neal Boortz. There you go.

In case you’re wondering what the “hubcap incident” was, here you go.

In April 2003, O'Reilly appeared at a fundraiser for Best Friends, a charity benefiting inner-city schoolchildren. O'Reilly was trying to fill time before an African-American singing group called the Best Men was set to perform, and quipped "Does anyone know where the Best Men are? I hope they're not in the parking lot stealing our hubcaps." Some in the audience felt that it was a racially charged comment. O'Reilly claims the remarks were a reference to a common prank in the 1950s, and the event's theme was reflective of that era.

Personally, I thought the "hubcap" remark was much ado about nothing. After all, it's the Mexicans who steal those things. Blacks will just steal a car's stereo.