Whether for a ratings boost or because of moral outrage, I'll do Bill O'Reilly the favor and jump in with my opinion: Billy O'Reilly is a twat. In regards to Ms. Aniston: I've never been a huge fan but in this case, I'd like to defend her against this pontificating self-glorifying donkey.
In case anyone has missed this vital "outrage", a short recap: Jennifer Aniston is promoting her latest movie "The Switch", the plot, in broad strokes, is about a single lady looking for a sperm donor in order to get pregnant and raise the kid as a single mom. (Knowing Hollywood, there will surely be a happy end with a guy on the horizon but well, whatever. )
Mr. O'Reilly, with his faux moral outrage, has been criticizing Ms. Aniston on his show, "The O'Reilly Factor" (as seen on Fox News) for supporting the decline of humanity as we know it. According to Mr. O'Reilly, civilization will end if women get their way: having children without men. That more or less paraphrases Mr. O'Reilly's thoughts, as voiced on his show Tuesday, August 10th 2010.
I don't watch Fox News. Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" brought this merry joust to my attention. As Mr. Olbermann correctly pointed out, the world's population, according to the Census bureau, is currently over 6.8 billion people. Strike One.
Mr. O'Reilly further went on to suggest, that you need a man and a woman to raise a child. How many single moms are out there currently raising awesome kids? I have no idea but I'm one of them. Strike Two.
Keith Olbermann pointed out Mr. O'Reilly's own sad childhood at the hands of an abusive father. Olbermann references a biography Marvin Kitman wrote about O'Reilly: "If you read Marvin Kitman's biography of O'Reilly, it's pretty simple. Virtually every reference O'Reilly makes to his own father describes how the man hit, slapped, punched him. As Kitman put it simply, 'O'Reilly has a history of physical abuse from his father.' It is actually very sad." Yes, that is indeed sad and possibly the reason he is such a pompous irritating ****. Strike Three.
I'd like to state, for the record, that raising a kid on your own is one of the hardest life undertakings anyone will ever do, man or woman. And yes, ideally, it'd be great to have two people to referee the upbringing of children. So many situations require an umpire who will make the call on what to do with a recalcitrant teenager who stayed out too late or is being lazy at school.
Sadly, we don't always have the choice. We get dumped and there we are. If someone consciously chooses to do this on their own - all the power and good luck to them. Forget about the paint-by-numbers plot. It's a thriller all the way.
Good luck to anyone who does it. All I can say is: respect.