Do we really want to know what Bill O'Reilly fantasizes about?

David Neiwert of Orcinus debunks the suggestion there are roving gangs of lesbian rapists carrying pink pistols.

An extensive Internet search seeking to verify O'Reilly's assertion in the introduction to Wheeler's interview that a lesbian gang called Dykes Taking Over is "terrorizing people" in Philadelphia turned up only one possible source. WCAU-TV, a local NBC affiliate in that city, reported in 2004 that a small group of 8th-grade girls at a West Philadelphia middle school were allegedly "bullying, groping and harassing" other girls in gym class with "gay remarks." The report made no mention of the 8th-graders using pink pistols or other weapons.

Similarly, O'Reilly's introductory mention of a Tennessee lesbian gang called Gays Taking Over that is "involved in raping young girls" appears to have been based solely on a highly dubious Feb. 28 television report from WPTY-TV, an ABC affiliate in Memphis, Tenn. Featuring dramatic "reenactments" of high school bathroom rape scenes shot in grainy black-and-white footage, the lengthy segment's vaguely salacious claims about local high school girls being raped and "sodomized" with "sex toys bought on the Internet" was based almost entirely on the lurid musings of a single Shelby County gang officer.

Titled "Violent Femmes," the sweeps-week segment was so thinly sourced and grotesquely sensationalized that it's difficult to believe that any professional journalist found it to be credible. And it wasn't. Under intense pressure from local gay and lesbian activists, the affiliate's station manager finally admitted that WPTY-TV's reporters had neither independently verified the gang officer's overheated claims nor obtained any documentary evidence such as arrest records or written police reports to substantiate their tale. As the station grudgingly conceded, "Our investigation did not turn up widespread violence in schools due to this."

On Countdown, Keith Olbermann couldn't stop laughing....

Break it to him gently, guys.

Update: Crooks and Liars has Keith Olbermann.

Mary Cheney and the pregnancy that destroys societies.

Dirk Gently at lists reasons we are paying attention to Mary Cheney's pregnancy:
"The first, of course, is that the evil and totally disreputable hypocrite Dick Cheney sits in the seat of the second most powerful position in the world thanks in no small part to rabid homophobia. Yes, heartless Dickie and his Lesbian-Storytelling wife rode a wave of anti-gay ballot initiatives and redneckrophila close enough to the White House that he and his pet chimp were able to sneak inside."

Dirk continues in another post:
"The second reason that I'm invading Mary and Heather's privacy by commenting on their pregnancy is that the Nazis beat me to it. They don't call themselves Nazis, of course. But they apparently want to breed a Master Race and expunge the nation of anyone who does not meet their views of civil, moral and familial purity."