Who doesn't love "train wrecks?"

“People love train wrecks. People want us to do more of it because it’s good for the ratings,” said host Barbara Walters during an Oct. 18 segment of "The View" (1997-Present).

The comment was in response to the Oct. 14 fireworks where co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar walked off the stage following conservative Fox host Bill O’Reilly’s comment that “Muslims killed us on 9/11.”

The brief controversial segment made entertainment headlines and like most other infamous “train wrecks” of the past, it was widely viewed on www.youtube.com.

I admit it. I am a sucker for a good “train wreck.” The View’s O’Reilly controversy is one of a series of past verbal smack downs I have enjoyed watching.

No sooner after viewing that segment on YouTube I searched for the Fox host confronting Democratic congressman Barney Frank on the financial crisis on "The O’Reilly Factor" (1996-2017).

I did not have to search very long for it.

As the saying goes, “Controversy sells” whether O’Reilly is right or not. From a personal standpoint, I don’t agree with him, despite his on-air apology, if he offended anyone to the audience, Walters, and hosts Sherri Shepherd and Elizabeth Hasselbeck seconds after Goldberg and Behar walked off. O’Reilly clarified that when he said “Muslims attacked us on 9/11” he didn’t imply “all” Muslims.

Regardless, I still take a majority of what O’Reilly and other right-wing conservative pundits say today that include Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh with a light grain of salt.

“He (Bill O’Reilly) loves this,” Walters said. “He loves to pull your chain. He loves to get you angry. This is just what he wanted.”

Sure, sometimes these conservative commentators are correct. I do, however, find that some of what they say is too far over the top and uncalled for.

I may not care the least for the job President Obama is doing so far for the country, but I am not going to call his policies “Jackassian” as Rush Limbaugh has said in recent weeks on his radio show. He is still our president.

First Lady Michelle Obama is a beautiful woman with a lot of class. To this day I still don’t understand why conservative talk show host Tammy Bruce said in reference to her during a March 23, 2009, radio segment that “We got trash in the White House.”

Just because Bill O’Reilly says 70 percent of Americans don’t want the mosque built near Ground Zero does not mean all Americans say, “Muslims attacked us on 9/11” and condemn an entire religion. We were attacked by extremists and those are the ones America has to continue to watch out for.

Mad magazine may have been parodying the recent box office flop "The A-Team" (2010) on their website at www.dccomics.com/mad/ when they used O’Reilly’s likeness as Hannibal, Sean Hannity as Face, and Glenn Beck as Mr. T calling them “The A-Hole Team” with the comment at the bottom of the poster saying “They love it when a rant comes together.” As a result of O'Reilly's comment, I am beginning to wonder if some of these conservative pundits really are “The A-Hole Team.”

I am starting to think some of them are just as bad, if not worse, as a majority of today’s liberal Hollywood elite who instead of doing what they are paid to do and entertain audiences, they put their foot in their mouths once too often and offer personal opinions on serious matters when half the time, they may not even know what they are talking about. They just antagonize opposing guests and callers to get them upset and get audiences wanting more.

What’s even sadder is some followers stupidly believe them instead of taking what they say and do for what it is, entertainment. Bill O’Reilly is as much an entertainer as the ladies of The View.

I don’t agree with what Goldberg and Behar did in storming off the stage. If I had been in their place and was that infuriated, I would have stuck around and debated O’Reilly further (both did come back on stage a few minutes later). I do, however, respect their justifications on why they left. They are as much as entitled to their opinion and do what they want as Bill O’Reilly.

What’s unfortunate is, as Walters said on the Oct. 18 segment, we do live in a country right now “that’s full of rage” and that’s from both sides of the political spectrum.

We don’t know how to have serious discussions with one another “without fury, without rage, without screaming, without obscenities, without walking off.”

The fact is if none of this went on with no hope of seeing any fireworks on live television or the radio, no one would watch and listen.

On-air “train wrecks” always generate ratings and for less than 15 minutes, the O’Reilly/Behar-Goldberg walk-off was a much talked about Internet sensation.

©10/23/10

“The Most Interesting Man In the World” -- for president!

Whereas the focus right now is on the anticipated Nov. 2 congressional mid-term elections, where a number of Tea Partyers, independents, conservatives and right-wing radio talk show hosts predict -- as Darth Vader says in "Star Wars" (1977), “This will be a day long remembered,” when most of the Democratic party are voted out of office, my thoughts are not on a possible Republican victory.

I am more interested in who the top GOP contenders might be in 2012 against President Obama. A recent Gallup poll taken Sept. 25-26 suggests the top three contenders are former Mass. Governor Mitt Romney with 19 percent, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin at 16 percent, and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee at 12 percent. One other person I think should also be added to the list of possible candidates. I predict this individual might even beat out all the contenders for the No. 1 spot.

I am not putting myself in the running. Like conservative talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, who are often urged by faithful listeners to run for president, I offer the same advice: I don't want the job. Though I wouldn’t mind all the presidential perks I would get after serving four years in office.

The person I want to run doesn’t seem to have an actual name. I had to type in such things as “Dos Equis Infomercial” on the Internet to find out who this mysterious actor is in much the same way I would find out who the actresses are who play Flo on those Progressive ads or the scolding mother on those AT&T rollover minutes commercials.

Of course, it’s not actor Jonathan Goldsmith, who has been seen on those clever humorous Dos Equis ads boasting that heavy beard and deep thick accent who I want to see run for president. The larger-than-life character Goldsmith plays in those popular infomercials known as “The Most Interesting Man in the World” is whom I want on that short list.

Go to Google.com and type in “The Most Interesting Man in the World” and you will find that the system returns 214,000,000 results. I found a website called themostinterestingmanintheworld.net, where you can watch and read all the latest ads and memorable lines which are uttered by frontline actor/narrator Will Lyman.

When asked by an entertainment reporter on a YouTube segment in 2009 how he felt to be “the king of informercials,” Goldsmith, who made television appearances on such shows as "Dallas", "T.J. Hooker", "Knots Landing", "Murder She Wrote", "The A-Team" and "Highway to Heaven" said, “It feels wonderful.”

“I have been an actor for many years, and I’ve never had the accolades this wonderful campaign has brought to me, so I feel very blessed,” said Goldsmith “Very lucky. You know I am not 33 anymore.”

Kids apparently even want to be “The Most Interesting Man” when they grow up, Goldsmith told the reporter.

“I was sitting in a little restaurant the other day and a fellow came over and he said, ‘You’re the guy’ and I said ‘yes’ and said he asked his 7-year-old son yesterday “what do you want to do when you grow up?” Goldsmith said. “He (the 7-year-old) said ‘I want to be The Most Interesting Man in the World.’ Made me feel good.”

Watching those Dos Equis commercials, I can’t help but ask, “Who wouldn’t want to be the most interesting man in the world?” A woman?

Quite frankly, I’d have no problems asking such a person for directions, knowing that I’d never get lost and would arrive five minutes early. With all this recent talk going on about how UFOs have been tampering with the nation’s nuclear missile guidance systems and conspiracy theorists continue to ask if we are really alone in the universe, it’s nice to know that somewhere out there, extraterrestrials have asked “The Most Interesting Man” “to probe them.”

As fed up as I am getting with both the Republican and Democratic parties, perhaps “The Most Interesting Man” should run as an independent. I have always believed there now needs to be a third party as the two current ones in power are not doing the country much good.

Even “The Most Interesting Man” doesn’t seem to think much of the two-party system.

“The after party is the one you want to attend,” he says.

This country seriously needs a president where Americans hang on to his every word -- “Even the prepositions.” Our next president should be a man “who lives vicariously through himself” and whose reputation expands “faster than the universe.”

Perhaps “The Most Interesting Man” could make America great again where other countries around the world list him as their emergency contact number. We need a leader where other countries will see as “a lover, not a fighter” but also a fighter so our adversaries won’t get any ideas.

As a means of defending our country, the Most Interesting Man says, “the right look should suffice” before leaving viewers with a no-nonsense stare.

If “the Most Interesting Man” were to run for president and actually win, I believe he might even be able to capture Osama bin Laden himself, disarming the Al-Qaeda leader with his looks “or his hands. Either way.”

Given I am on the subject of repeating various Dos Equis one-liners, allow me to come up with one further comment using Will Lyman’s voice. Perhaps this can be used as The Most Interesting Man’s presidential campaign slogan.

“If asked by reporters why he’s failed to improve the nation’s unemployment as president, you will never hear him say, 'I blame Bush.'"

Like the Most Interesting Man who doesn’t always drink beer, I too never touch the stuff but when I do, it’s usually margaritas or Eggnog and Bourbon during the Christmas and New Years’ holidays.

Stay thirsty, my fellow Americans.

©10/6/10