Letters to the Editor
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Religion is not a bureaucracy, it's a community
Bill Maher feels the way he does about religion because he's not really a joiner. He needs to be the center of attention. So he could only be a preacher, never a parishoner. His ego is way too big to submerge himself into any community. He always has to be the one who stands out.
Even in the VIP room, you can see this. He keeps to himself. He doesn't submerge himself in other people even when he's doing his job of being famous.
The people attracted to organized religion like to submerge themselves into a community. It's just the way they are. It doesn't mean they are better or worse than people like Bill Maher.
Organized religion is not for everyone. It's not really for me, either, because I'm kinda like Bill Maher -- I'm a thorny intellectual who isn't into group hugs, whether they be science-based or religion-based group hugs.
But at least I don't knock them down. I know why I don't join, and it's not because I think any less of the people who do join.
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Podcast Audio Incredibly Poor
The MP3 is impossible to listen to. The volume level of Walsh's voice is substantially louder than Maher's, and to hear his answers I have to turn it up to the point where it seems as if she is yelling her questions.
The Conversations podcasts are an excellent idea, and I hope you do more of them. It's much easier for me to listen to one here at work in place of my normal music rather than read a multi-page article (and not get any work done in the process of reading). But please, at least make some attempts to make the audio easier to listen to.
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Thanks, Karen!
I'm a fan of your letters and the perceptiveness you bring to the issues at hand. The image of the crowds cheering on Goliath as he creams David did remind me of a certain modern scenario--American Idol!
Yours,
Sally
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Bill Maher is crazy
But, I found myself nodding to nearly everything he said in this interview. The man is highly observant and knows how to make a point.
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To Sally Sharp-Paulsen
"if it was a kid-worshipping culture, we wouldn't have so many children living in poverty, without health care; there wouldn't be a crumbling pubic school system, etc"
I can easily resolve that for you. What Maher meant to say was that we live in a Disneyfied middle-to-upper-class WHITE kid-worshipping culture. Does that make it clearer for you? Can you really deny this, when every freaking prime-time special goes along the lines of "Can going outside expose your kids to child molesters?" or "Are your kids breathing the same oxygen particles as sexual predators?" It's pathetic, and he was right on for attacking it.
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To Emma Grace
I've actually given this issue a lot of thought. Calling her Clinton risks confusion with the more famous Clinton, her husband the former president. But even more interesting, on her campaign website (hillaryclinton.com) she's branded as Hillary pretty much every place -- Hillary on Iran, Team Hillary, Hillary's up and so on. She herself seems to be embracing the informality, so I'm a little less rigid about trying to get rid of the "Hillarys" in our copy than I once was. That said, I try to scrub the condescending "Condis" everywhere I find them. Thanks for writing!
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Maher always shines on Larry King
I prefer watching him there than on his show.
Lazy old Larry gives him the whole hour; doesn't get in his way and Maher just rolls like a river and it's always compelling and watchable. He can make all his points without the pesky panel, those silly comedy routines and the disjointed satellite interviews.
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Thanks for replying
Thank you, Joan Walsh, for replying to my letter!
It is indeed interesting that Hillary Clinton has embraced being called almost exclusively by her first name. Could this be planned and orchestrated, to distinguish herself as approachable? She lets us call her by her first name! She must be friendly and likeable! I should vote for her!
I have some objections, though, to the idea that it is good to call her "Hillary" as a way to distinguish her from her husband. This would be only be an issue if she were called "Clinton." If she were referred to as "Mrs. Clinton" or "Senator Clinton" the distinction would be obvious, since the former president is neither a U.S. Senator nor a woman! Indeed, even if she were referred to only as "Clinton" in an article, similar to "Edwards" or "Obama," I think the distinction would still be clear, since Bill Clinton is not running for president and virtually all articles about Hillary Clinton today do refer to her prediential candidacy. There are many people in the world with the last name Smith, but when an article is written about one of them, within the context of that article we manage to distinguish that person from the rest of the Smiths in the world without referring to the person exclusively by his or her first name.
It shows a lot of interest in Salon's readership to respond to an individual's letter. Thanks!
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gosh, another libertarian heard from ... and more dem bashing ... how refreshing (not) ...
Is Salon intentionally courting the libertarian crowd or just/still running away from that nasty "lefty" label?
Libertarians remind me of if-I-ran-the-world I-got-mine potheads ... Their "ideas" are very attractive until the smoke clears and the real world with all its have-not's and needs-help's intrude on the libertarian self-sufficient utopian fantasy.
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You don't have to always agree with Maher to like him
Although he's funny, and I enjoy his viewpoint while not necessarily always agreeing with it, the greatest thing about Bill is the dialogue. Nowhere else will you find a better forum for truly honest, uncensored political discussion then on Real Time With Bill Maher. This kind of dialogue is so refreshing to hear these days, when most "News" and "viewpoints" are prescreened and sanitized into soundbites and partisen hackery. If you haven't seen it, find a friend with HBO and watch it. You'll become addicted.
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Mary J Blige
No one hears about her until the week before the Grammy's. It's called paid placement. So why are we hearing about Bill Maher now? What's he selling?
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Bill Maher
"What are we fighting for over there? Why are we fighting to keep Iraq together?"
Bill Maher accepts at face value the official line that the US is trying to unify Iraq. What if the opposite is the case? What if the Bush administration wants Iraq in a state of civil war, the better to control the oil resources and also to reduce the military threat to Israel. If that is the case, then the war in Iraq has been a huge success. It has had the further benefit of enriching the military industrial oligarchy while "starving the beast" of money for health and education.