Keep It Pithy Part 17

(photo credit 10.12)

Add it all up and Oprah's climb to the top of the power mountain is simply stunning. No other word for it. So what does this say about America, Michael Moore?

What kind of power does Oprah wield? Well, Parade magazine reports that she makes $260 million a year. That's about one million bucks for every day she actually works. Wow.

Basically, earning that kind of money means that Oprah Winfrey can do or buy anything she wants on this earth as long as it's legal and for sale. Like Lola in d.a.m.n Yankees!, whatever Oprah wants, Oprah gets. Think about that. There are no material limits for Oprah, nothing she cannot afford. Are you still thinking? Does Oprah's situation sound good? Okay, here's the downside: Having that kind of money can literally drive a person crazy.

Here's why.... Remember those glittering Christmas mornings when you were a kid? Mine were thrilling, the highlights of my childhood. The antic.i.p.ation of getting fun stuff makes most kids happy for weeks. That's why Christmas is magic. Most children experience true joy during that season.

But it was the antic.i.p.ation, the rarity of the experience that conjured up the magic. If, like Oprah, you can have Christmas every day of the year, there isn't much antic.i.p.ation, is there? I mean, the thrill of obtaining something exceptional, or unexpected, or long awaited, just doesn't exist. With everything almost instantly available, everything becomes rather ordinary. For that reason, the ultrawealthy, if they are not ultracareful, can become bored, jaded, or, even worse, s.a.d.i.s.tic or self-destructive. The awful behavior of some celebrities and power brokers ill.u.s.trates that point beyond a reasonable doubt. Just ask Caligula.

Meanwhile, Oprah has probably made a major career mistake by leaving broadcast TV and going to cable. She's not doing all that well, even after the blanket of publicity surrounding the Lance Armstrong interview.

Time will tell.

The beat goes on.

After the tragic school ma.s.sacre in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, the gun control controversy seized the attention of the nation. Some people on both sides kept their cool, listened to each other, and tried to come up with rational answers.

One astonishing exception was the rash action taken by the Journal News, a paper in White Plains, New York. Using the Freedom of Information Act, reporters were able to collect tens of thousands of names of gun owners in three local counties-Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam-and publish them as a gun-owner database in map form online in December.

For about a month, newspaper executives explained that they felt they were doing the public a service. How's that again? Invasion of privacy? Giving potential gun thieves information they can use?

As one of the hundreds of people who called the newspaper to complain put it, "The implications are mind-boggling. It's as if gun owners are s.e.x offenders [and] to own a handgun risks exposure as if one is a s.e.x offender. It's crazy."

It was.

By mid-January someone came to his or her senses, and the map was deleted from the paper's website.

(photo credit 10.13)

A lighter note on the continuing gun debate occurred on December 5, 2012, when a celebrity guest found himself caught in a controversy of his own making and came on my program to explain himself. As you'll see, I was glad to help him out. I think you'll be amused.

During a Sunday night football game, NBC's BOB COSTAS condemned what he called the gun culture in America. Some folks got angry because they felt the sportscaster was attacking the Second Amendment. He came to visit....

O'REILLY: So first up, how do you feel about the right to bear arms?

COSTAS: Obviously, Americans have a right to bear arms. I'm not looking to repeal the Second Amendment. I haven't immersed myself in the issue throughout my life. I'm aware of it, as many Americans are. I didn't call for any specific prohibition on guns. I never used the words "gun control." I quoted from a column by Jason Whitlock, who was in Kansas City for a long time, now is on the Fox Sports website, in which he mentioned, I think credibly, a gun culture in this country. Now, it plays itself out in many ways, but it's a mentality about and toward guns that almost always leads to tragedy rather than safety.

O'REILLY: All right. And we'll get to that in a moment. But I think I want to clear this gun control thing up, because that's ... that's why you got in trouble, because some people felt-

COSTAS: Yes.

O'REILLY: And this is a very emotional issue-

COSTAS: Of course it is.

O'REILLY: And the second thing, Mr. Whitlock is really, really far out there.

COSTAS: Well, I-I am not agreeing with-

[After some cross talk, we got back on track.]

COSTAS: In any case, I was unaware of [Whitlock's remarks comparing the NRA and the Ku Klux Klan]. And obviously, I would disagree with that 100 percent.

O'REILLY: Not scolding you, just-

COSTAS: I get it.

O'REILLY: I'm not scolding, I was trying to-

COSTAS: That's a mild scolding compared to what I've-

O'REILLY: Yes, I mean-okay.

COSTAS: - received over the last seventy-two hours.

O'REILLY: As long as you call a Christmas tree a Christmas tree, you're okay here.

COSTAS: Yes. Merry Christmas to you, too, Bill.

O'REILLY: All right. There you go. So let's advance the story a little bit. Gun control in America is an emotional issue because it is clear that the Founding Fathers gave the right to bear arms for two reasons.... Number one, because they felt that the government might devolve into tyranny, and the second thing was they knew that they had to settle this giant country and there weren't going to be laws out in the West and people had to have guns to protect themselves from bears and-Native Americans that didn't like them-

COSTAS: Yes. Yes.

O'REILLY: - coming on their property. So there's a history here, all right? And most people don't even understand that history. So Americans grow up with the right to protect themselves-against the government and against bad people. Then you enter into the modern age, where you have a debate about, well, what's the government's responsibility here, because these are lethal weapons? And that's where you come in, right? So you're saying that you want a more stringent program by the authorities to make it harder to get guns-

COSTAS: It sounds like you're saying I'm saying that.

O'REILLY: You're not saying that?

COSTAS: If you were to ask me, I believe that there should be more comprehensive and effective controls on the sale of guns.

O'REILLY: But what does that mean?

COSTAS: Roughly 40 percent of the guns purchased in this country do not require a background check for purchase.