We Are a Very Violent Society...

To watch "The Memo" click here.

Hi, I'm Bill O'Reilly.  Thank you for watching us tonight.

For my money, America is the freest place on earth.  But we are also a very violent society.  And that is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points" memo.

In just a few moments, we'll have a report on the two men that were brutally killed by an angry mob in Chicago after their van hit three women on a front porch.  I was stunned when I first heard about the story.  But I shouldn't have been.

I broadcast live from the L.A. riots, and what I saw there taught me that some Americans can very easily get out of control.  And when that happens, nobody is safe.  The rioters in L.A. hurt innocent people and broke all the rules of civilization.

Now it has happened again in Chicago.

The no-spin truth is that America has historically solved its conflicts by violence, the Revolutionary War, the expansion west, the Civil War, the World Wars, and on and on.

We are an aggressive nation that prides itself on successful confrontation.  You have to have ambition, determination, and moxie to succeed in this country.  In other words, you have to fight for what you want.

Now, all that's fine unless the aggression gets out of control.  While the overwhelming majority of Americans are peaceful, law-abiding people, our society does tolerate violent behavior.  Yes, we do put some criminals in prison where there is even more violence.

Now, some analysts blame guns, some blame fractured families, some blame the huge gulf between the rich and the poor.  But again, the truth is that we encourage aggression on all fronts.  The nation's favorite spectator sport is football.  Violent movies and TV programs make millions.  And dealing with road rage has become a daily event for many of us.

Add to that the fact that we're now at war, that we are threatened in our own land, and we have a psychological tinderbox, a potential human wildfire epidemic.

The two middle-aged men that were killed by the mob in Chicago were just working-class guys.  They made a mistake with a van.  They weren't heinous criminals or predators.  They were just Americans.  Yet a group of their countrymen beat them to death with bricks in their own neighborhood.

The men that committed those murders must be held accountable.  They must go to prison.  But what about the other people in the neighborhood?  Are they angry with these men?  Are they going to speak out against that kind of behavior?

Be interesting to see what happens on the street and what happens in the criminal justice system.

And that's "The Memo."

The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

Time now for the "Most Ridiculous Item of the Day."

AOL Time Warner is having a lot of trouble, as you may know.  And now, some people in Texas are furious at that company.  Earlier this month, heavy rains flooded some south Texas towns, causing millions of dollars worth of damage and a lot of heartache.  So, how did the Time Warner cable people respond to that flooding.  Well, they're charging the victims of it $300 for any cable box that was damaged by water.

Very nice and very ridiculous.

— You can watch Bill O'Reilly's Talking Points and "Most Ridiculous Item" weeknights at 8 & 11p.m. ET on the Fox News Channel. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com