Prior to his present job as a US Senator, Bill O'Reilly's nemesis, Al Franken, used to say that O'Reilly pulled facts from his ass. This astute observation is born out by the plethora of lies and misinformation spewed regularly on The Factor. But being that the divinely inspired Bill is a former history major who has written books about the deaths of famous people (What's next, "Killing Dr. Tiller") you'd think that O'Reilly would have a better grasp of history than the pseudo historian David Barton whose bizarro US History books are straight out of Comedy Central. But Marist College grad O'Reilly is taking his newest obsession from Barton's in his bizarro world assertion that - wait for it - Jesus played a pivotal role in the forming of the republic - and this should be taught in public schools. Some years back, O'Reilly asserted that Jesus guided evolution. Looks like he's still pulling facts from his nasty, bodily orifice and I don't mean his mouth!

Last Friday, Bill did yet another one of his trademark whines about how this country is going down the tubes because of secularism which, among other horrible outcomes, leads to OMG "fewer judgments" which, of course, is the basis for O'Reilly's lucrative métier. But during his screed, Bill interjected some serious bullshit that just might be at the top of his ever growing pile of bold, fresh anal excrement. Bill explained that the Founders declared that "no religion would be imposed on any American" because the colonial settlers came here to escape religious persecution. So far so good. But then he started the crazy talk with his totally bogus assertion that "it was quite clear that the founders based the justice system in the New World on Judeo-Christian tenets." Wrong - Our justice system is firmly rooted in English Common Law. As proof of this baseless and bizarre claim, he cited a statue of Moses, holding the 10 Commandments, at the Supreme Court. Not wrong but not the entire story.

What Bill either doesn't know or won't admit is that there are also statues of "Confucius, and Solon and other symbolic figures representing functions of the court. One wonders if he is aware that Mohammed and Hammurabi are also pictured on a frieze on the wall of the Supreme Court. Bill twisted the truth when, after whining that secularists would object to the Commandments on government walls, he claimed that Islam doesn't recognize the 10 Commandments. While Islam doesn't recognize the biblical commandments, there are moral proscriptions in the Quran. O'Reilly whined that students are not taught about Jesus and added that he wrote his Jesus book "for the kids." He recommended that students be taught about Jesus because Jesus was a philosopher rather than a religious figure (a point of contention between O'Reilly and Foxpriest Fr. Jonathan Morris).

Bill's Talking Points were followed by an interview with a liberal radio talk show host about how public school teachers are "frightened" to teach about Jesus. (What, no history professors were available?) Still, Richard Fowler was well able to rebut O'Reilly's contention that the public schools need more Jesus. When Fowler said that if the schools teach about Jesus, Confucius and Buddha will need to be included, Bill dismissed this because of the small percent of Buddhists and Muslims and because those figures weren't involved in the founding - like Jesus! He continued to blither about how "American exceptionalism" is based on Christian tenets of helping others. Then, this gem - "if you really want to understand your country Allah and Buddha aren't going to do you any good and I'm a history guy." That O'Reilly is clearly NOT a "history guy" was shown by this gem: "You cannot teach American history without understanding what Moses did and what Jesus did." He suggested that schools are banning the name of Jesus and claimed that the Founders (and he has their letters) discussed Judeo-Christian philosophy. And so it went...

This week, O'Reilly, according to Fox Nation, "schooled" Matt Lauer about the need for Jesus in the classroom. Lauer was appropriately appalled by O'Reilly's bloviation which included the comment that Jesus "forged" the Constitution which doesn't even mention him. While the Founders did espouse a certain type of Christianity, it did not provide a basis for our legal system, much as O'Reilly wishes it to be so - and that's why it isn't and shouldn't be taught in the public school system.

Here's John Adams schooling Bill O'Reilly: "Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had any interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the inspiration of heaven."

(More Founders quotes, about Christianity, that O'Reilly will never mention are found here.)