Tuesday night by a vote of 4-2, the San Francisco Board of Ed banned Junior ROTC training in seven city high schools, throwing 1,600 students out of those clubs. This is a direct insult to the U.S. military and violates the civil rights, I believe, of the ROTC students. The federal government should immediately suspend all federal aid to San Francisco schools.
There's no reason to ban JROTC. Nobody's required to join it. And if a student with parental approval wants to investigate a career in the military, every American school should encourage that.
Obviously, the military is protecting us from terrorists, North Korea and other dangerous people. But those who believe in San Francisco values don't see it that way. They think the military is bad, the don't ask, don't tell policy evil.
Where is the ACLU on this? If a gay club was banned by the Board of Ed, wouldn't the ACLU be there in a heartbeat? You bet they would.
But San Francisco values only go one way and are largely undemocratic.
In Massachusetts, for example, the legislature refuses to let the citizens vote on gay marriage, even though 170,000 folks signed a petition asking to do that. Nope, no vote. You don't vote on civil rights, say the SP corps. Only marriage is not a civil right. If it were, polygamists could marry, triads could marry, you could marry your mom.
As "Talking Points" has said before, if one alternative lifestyle is allowed a license to wed, all must be under equal protection.
There is no constitutional guarantee to marry, or to drive a car, or procure a liquor license for that matter. The states make those decisions based upon what's best for the public good. In every single up-down vote on the subject, traditional marriage between a man and a woman wins.
But San Francisco values do not honor the voting process. If they believe something is right, they'll try to impose it.
Now we asked Nancy Pelosi what she thought of the ROTC ban. She's hiding under her desk. And San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said he was glad the school board waited until after the national election because, "cheap-shot artists like O'Reilly and FOX would have exploited the vote."
Not exploiting, just reporting, Mr. Mayor. And you're welcome here any time to explain the situation. But of course, Newsom's not going to appear because San Francisco values don't encourage debate. The whole idea is to sneak things through, go around the folks.
In a democracy, there's not a lot of value to that approach. But in San Francisco and Massachusetts, it is how they do business.
And that's the Memo.
Most Ridiculous Item of the Day
An update on our "don't buy, don't advertise" list. As you know, the culture war in America is being played out in the press, with many newspapers consistently attacking traditional Americans and conservatives in underhanded ways.
Recently, we had run-ins with the Syracuse Post-Standard and the Dayton Daily News and advised folks against supporting those papers. In the recent newspaper audit those two outlets continue to lose circulation, and we hope they wise up.
New to the "don't buy, don't advertise" list is G.Q. Magazine, which used to be top notch, but the new editor is marketing the magazine largely to far-left Americans and feels the need to smear me and FOX News Channel.
It is pathetic, unprofessional and Conde Nast should be ashamed, because it's ridiculous, as well. Don't advertise, don't buy.
—You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" and "Most Ridiculous Item" weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the FOX News Channel and any time on foxnews.com/oreilly. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com
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