Friday, June 17, 2011

Maher, Maher, Pants On Faher

Well actually, on CNN. As one of our readers pointed out, we watch CNN so you don't have to. We discussed the Republican New Hampshire debate on this site, and since CNN sponsored the debate, they naturally felt they had to get some classy intellectual to do the same thing. They chose Bill Maher.

As always, Maher was calm and deliberative, handling Anderson Cooper's questions with aplomb and solid intellectual rigor. Cooper asked Maher which of the Republicans at the debate he would vote for if he had to choose one of them. He chose Ron Paul (nope, I'm not going to say anything). Republicans are "selling their souls to the corporate interests who back them and who have just horrible, society-killing ideas about America." Paul, you see, is not part of that hideous group--a cut above (or something). Is it possible I actually meant rigor mortis?

Some time back, Maher had referred to the GOP slate as being so bad that he had seen "more appealing lineups on an episode of Law and Order, Special Victims Unit." Cooper asked if Maher had changed his mind at all after the debate. Said Maher: "No. Of course it got even worse." He then went on to describe Republicanism as a religion (and we know how the great one feels about religion) that has baseless dogma such as "reducing taxes will somehow magically increase revenue." That's the first half of the Laffer postulate. Maher forgot the part about cutting spending at the same time taxes are cut.

Maher then added "you have seven people up there who believe that "somehow by keeping the profit motive in the health care system that's going to solve the problem. So, you know, it's very hard for someone to watch that debate who is not in that bubble, and I am not in that bubble." I guess they don't have bubbles in la-la land.

When Cooper asked what Maher meant by "society-killing," he singled out Tim Pawlenty, then wandered a bit. "Well, like Tim Pawlenty and every one of them competing for this idea of continually reducing taxes when we are--on the one hand they are screaming about how we're in debt and on the other hand the answer is to somehow decrease revenues. You know, they all act like God created the world in January of 2009, and then Barack Obama completely screwed it up." Huh?

I know a mere peasant like me shouldn't question the great intellectual, but he seems to have confused "revenue" with "taxes." Reducing taxes and reducing government spending = increased revenues. And it's not a theory, nor a religion, it's simple fact. I'm not sure what he actually meant, but if he meant Bush, W decreased taxes but did nothing to reduce spending, thus sending Laffer off the curve.

And then came the piece de resistance or coup de grace, or something French. Cooper asked Maher if Anthony Weiner should resign after the ongoing revelations of his sexting and lying. That did it. Abandoning his usual calm tone, Maher got a bit exercised. "At this point, yes. Not because I think he did anything so incredibly awful. I mean Dick Cheney used to go out and shoot birds by the hundreds that were like in a cage. To me that's a lot more psychotic than anything Anthony Weiner ever did. But the point is this is America. We have to live in reality." Again--huh?

Well, if all else fails, bring up Dick Cheney and demonstrate your expertise in matters of hunting. Even Cooper was taken a little aback by that one, and responded with "Dick Cheney wasn't shooting birds in a cage. He was hunting." Maher then launched into a deep discussion of the subject he obviously knows so much about: "He was not hunting, Anderson. There's a difference between hunting which, I'm not a big fan of either, and when you go out into this controlled situation where they--I forget what they do to the birds but they do something where they can't fly. It's the equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel [another form of hunting, I guess]. And yes, look it up. That's what they did. He shot and killed an incredible number of birds for absolutely no reason than a blood lust."

At least Maher didn't channel Rosie O'Donnell after she made a totally crazy statement about fire never melting steel by saying "you could Google it." Blood lust? Crippled birds? And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my final "huh?"

42 comments:

Tennessee Jed said...

Actually, Hawk - this is an incredibly instructive piece about the liberal mindset and how they think. Of course, it also showcases Bill Maher's lack of intellectual heft quite nicely.

The thing is, liberals truly believe the faults of capitalism are the biggest flaws in society, and profit is the root of all evil. There is just enough truth in those statements to entice people who are unwilling to think the complexities of life through. Even if one comes to a determination that supply side economics is not perfect, it is clear Maher doesn't even want to consider it. Thus in oversimplified terms, the right is greedy and uncaring. With fat cat wall street types helping them along, it is easy to see why this shallow thinking appeals to those who don't have much, or think they have a social conscience (such as Hollywood land.)

It is also easy for our side to see government as even more of a danger than corporate America. This sets up something of an Orwell vs. Aldus Huxley debate for those that are unwilling to think past the shallows.

Tehachapi Tom said...

Thanks again Hawk.
You saved my TV. I'm sure if I had been watching this clown my TV would have taken at least one round of 40S&W.
Ecclesiastes 10:2 explains the left leaner.

Libertarian Advocate said...

I suppose I shouldn't be but I remain befuddled how vapid people like Maher, Behar, O'Donnell, etc,... can remain employed at all. But I guess the networks that employ them know their audience well enough.

BevfromNYC said...

LiberalAdvocate - They remain because they are just as much a part of the media machine that fuels the 24/7 news cycle as they so disdains.

Do you think that if Maher didn't throw his verbal firebombs that make it to YouTube, anyone would care a whit what he thinks? He stopped trying to be clever when he was kicked off of Comedy Central. It's the same for the ladies of "The View". No one watches them until they throw their verbal hand grenades at Middle American values. Though O'Donnell proved to be too incendiary for even "The View".

T-Rav said...

If there's a silver lining to all this, I guess it would be that it was on CNN with its dozens of viewers.

Bill Maher is one of those people I have nothing good to say about. And it's not even his rabid politics, per se--I never could overlook the fact that he went to a Halloween party dressed as The Crocodile Hunter with a bloody barb attached to the chest just weeks after Steve Irwin's tragic death. I have no respect for people like that.

DCAlleyKat said...

'We have to live in reality'...No, Bill. You may have to live in reality, I don't. To be specific I don't have to live in your 'reality' which is another issue of liberalism, it seeks to force others to live in the reality of anothers choosing, and those that refuse become your intellectual rubbish.

Freedom! (shouted)

rlaWTX said...

< head shaking >
and yet people still take him seriously... < sigh >

T-Rav said...

Yeah, DC! That's telling him! Use the MythBusters Rule: "I reject your reality and substitute my own."

Joel Farnham said...

LawHawk,

This isn't very surprising about Maher. He has no concept of how most of us live. His society is hanging around insincere, brown-nosing, self-serving, egotists with one eye on the mirror and the other on the quick buck. The rest are underlings or the public. According to Maher his society is America. The rest of us don't count on important issues.

He doesn't know how wealth is created. He has money managers and financial planners to handle his money. If he could understand what a balance sheet and what a profit and loss statement was, he would not ever sneer at profits and the profit motive.

He assumes the health care system was always there and that it was created by altruistic monks to heal sick people. It never occurs to him, that the people who created our healthcare system were not out to heal the sick or make it the greatest in the world. They created the healthcare system because they knew how to make sick people well and found it was profitable. They made it the greatest in the world because they had stiff competition.

wahsatchmo said...

I'm pretty sure I've heard of this hunting preserve to which Bill Maher was referring. It's open exclusively to Republicans and their friends, and they hire minorities to crouch in cages and throw birds at the hunters' guns. The winner of the shoot gets the largest donation from corporate America for that campaign year, as well as the right to have the right wing controlled media destroy one innocent liberal's career (it happened to Anthony Weiner this year).

Dick Cheney got a bit over excited one year and mistook an attorney friend for a minority. Though he was disqualified that year, he was given the consolation prize of being able to pull the lever on the Republican thought-control machine, which is why Bristol Palin did so well on Dancing With the Stars a little while back.

This has been a presentation of Bill Maher's gonorrhea-addled brain.

AndrewPrice said...

Maher's a loser. I've washed my hands of this guy a decade ago and have never looked back since.

StanH said...

For years Maher went on how he was a Libertarian, and during the healthcare debate Andrew Breitbart hit him with a wonderful zinger, to paraphrase, “so I guess it’s safe to say that you are no longer a libertarian?” …while Maher goes on in his support of socialized medicine, he had a wonderful confused look on his face. Maher is a leftist low life of the first magnitude, and as we turn this country back to it’s conservative founding, he’s one to relegate to the ash heap of failed, sour comics.

Unknown said...

Tennessee: Good point. Even the Laffer curve has its complexities (including the fact that there is a point of diminishing returns in reducing taxes--they can't be reduced to zero if we want a functioning government). And you're also correct that they quote just enough of any conservative thought to attack it by ignoring the whole thought, taking portions out of context, and if necessary, simply misquoting it. Maher, of course, is just a damn fool who can't remember at the end of a sentence what he was saying at the beginning.

Unknown said...

Tehachapi Tom: I put the guns away whenever I'm going to watch one of these clowns. But I still manage to send the cats and the dog into hiding when I start yelling and throwing things. At least now my neighbors are too far away to hear me.

And quit quoting the Bible when it talks about left-handed people. I'm a left-handed people. Or wasn't it left-handedness you were talking about? LOL

Unknown said...

Libertarian Advocate: I'm often equally mystified by how they survive and thrive. Maher hasn't been funny in twenty-five years, he's a truly nasty piece of work, and he can't even sustain a logical argument. And then there's the lying part.

As for the networks, I would agree, with the proviso that the personalities are the best for the audience they wish to pander to. That demographic is not even close to being the actual majority. For all its flaws, the emergence of Fox News from nowhere to commanding leader in the field says which audience is actually larger.

Unknown said...

Bev: Well said. Couldn't agree more.

Unknown said...

T-Rav: I've been around too long to be shocked by much, but not too long to be disgusted. When I saw the picture of Maher in the Irwin mock costume, I nearly threw up. But he can still find "horror" in shooting birds in a barrel (or whatever). There's something seriously mis-wired in the man's brain.

Unknown said...

DCAlleyKat: If Maher's world is reality, gimme the bubble.

Unknown said...

rlaWTX: Yep--the same crowd that thinks that 9-11 was an insider Jewish conspiracy and that the CIA introduced hard drugs into the ghettos.

Unknown said...

Joel: I think the only thing that distinguishes Maher from the rest of the loony left is his deep nastiness. He seems to be simply consumed with hate that goes beyond mere liberal disdain.

Unknown said...

wahsatchmo: Damn--where did you get your copy of the Killer Conservative handbook? We've been trying to keep it secret from the public, and now you've blown our cover. Do you have a site called wahsatchmoleaks.com?

Unknown said...

Andrew: Thee and me both. I watched maybe two of his HBO shows after they kicked him off commercial TV, and his guests seem to be as intelligent as he is. The two guests I remember were Flava Flav and Dweezil Zappa. Now there you have a good summary of the level of thinking that goes on on that show. Waste of time and energy.

Unknown said...

Stan: I guess the way I look at it is that there are leftist comedians and there are leftist snakes. Maher is the latter. I disagree with about 99% of what Jon Stewart has to say, but his jabs at conservatives have an edge rather than mere venom. And he's often funny, if wrong-headed. Maher hisses and strikes out blindly, trying to sink his fangs into decent people who disagree with him. Fortunately, except for his loyal band of snake-wranglers, he rarely gets his fangs into anyone important.

rlaWTX said...

wahsatchmo: AWESOME!!!!!

Unknown said...

rlaWTX: Don't encourage wahsatchmo, please. If this keeps up, all our secrets will be out and the liberals will beat us over the head with them. Shhhh.

The Management (Not BevfromNYC) said...

Memo to All:

We, the Management, do hereby disavow any knowledge of any location of which the commenter who goes by the name Wahsatchmo has referred. We do not know who owns it or operates it and have never been invited.

The Management

wahsatchmo said...

YOU CAN'T STOP THE TRUTH, MAN!!! THE TRUTH WANTS TO BE FREE!!!

Unknown said...

Executive Board: There you go again, forgetting to memo me about the meeting. Or are you "forgetting?!"

It's bad enough that Andrew makes deals with the Boiler Room Elves behind my back, but now I'm missing meetings of the management. Hmph!

Unknown said...

wahsatchmo: We know where your family lives. Would you prefer to alter your position or have us visit them?

wahsatchmo said...

Did I say "free"? I meant "withheld". The truth wants to be withheld, where it can be snuggled and kept warm and safe and away from cold, groping liberal hands.

Please return my dog at your earliest convenience.

Unknown said...

wahsatchmo: Now that's how politics works. I threaten, you cave, and I give you your dog back. Everybody's happy. What could be better?

Joel Farnham said...

Double check your dog wasatchmo. They had my cat. When they returned it....well it was different. I don't know how to explain it. Just different.

Unknown said...

Joel: You're imagining things. Oh, and we meant to mention that you should ignore the clicking and slight whining sound you hear coming from inside your cat. It probably just picked up a bug.

Joel Farnham said...

LawHawk,

The whir clicks I have gotten used to. It is the jumping into the bathtub while it is full that bugs me. Strangely enough, when it comes out it is dry. It's fur isn't wet at all.

Unknown said...

Joel: And you think that isn't normal?

BevfromNYC said...

Memorandum
To: LawHawk
From: The Management

Please cease and desist directly engaging with the "Executive Board". It is not in your "best interest" to do so. If you have concerns, please direct them to "The Management" and, if necessary, we will bring them to the attention of the "Executive Board".

Sincerely,
The Management

Joel Farnham said...

LawHawk,

Have you received some of those "special twitter" pictures that feature Executive Board members, yet? I told her to send them to you.

Unknown said...

Bev:

Ah, once again management has made the mistake of thinking this is a democracy. It is a blogocracy, and as joint chief blogocrat, I have the power to cut off all your profit-sharing and other grand perks. If we ever have a profit, you'll be in deep trouble. And there'll be no more ice cream on Thursdays, either. So there!

Unknown said...

Joel: Thank you for reminding me.

Bev: I want memos, not copies of the staff sitting on the photocopier. Twitter or otherwise, what are we, Democrats?

BevfromNYC said...

LawHawk - First of all, someone claiming to be "The Management" hacked my account and posted that last "memo". I cannot claim with any certitude that it was actually from "The Management". However, from my experience, I would not want to directly engage the "Executive Board". Just sayin'...

BevfromNYC said...

Oh, and secondly, Ice Cream Thursday is very important to the "Executive Board"...

Unknown said...

Bev: It's mocha almond fudge with choice of syrup next week.

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