Letters to the Editor
-
The Problem with the Democrats
is that they have such gonzo, egotistical and timid personalities who supposedly back them. Joan? Who cares what this overfed, sometimes funny, sometimes just bizarre guy says? Did he promise to put you on TV?
-
Maher is an entertainer
Nothing more, nothing less. Any shred of political insight and intellect he may have had was dashed when he insisted to Harold Ford Jr. that Bob Corker's attack ad was racist, even after Ford told him that he never thought that it was.
-
Alex and Mikhail:
I don't think you quite understood what I was saying. There is a big divide between what is PERCEIVED as the reality of childhood--yes, particularly held by the white middle-and-upper-class--and the REALITY that so many children live in, which is largely ignored by the white mid-and-upper-class, even as they often turn their own kids into overprotected hothouse flowers. My beef is that Maher, instead of blasting at the cutesy-poo Rodgers-and-Hammerstein-y falsity of what is SOLD as children's reality, blasts at children themselves. There is nothing to be gained by skewering children in general, and comparing disabled kids to dogs. They haven't done anything to hurt Mr. Maher. If he can't stand the sight of kids, and if he thinks he's the only one who deserved decent care when he was too young to care for himself, then HE'S the damned sensitive little flower who needs to grow up and realize that children are part of society (and will be running the country some day!)and deserve to be treated as decently as I'm sure Mr. Maher, or you, or I, would like to be treated. Neither abused nor kept under glass. Maybe (here it comes) you will yourselves have kids one day--even disabled kids--and will understand...
As far as Ivins and Stewart not being as ballsy as Maher--Judas Priest, man! Have you never witnessed these two rip some self-satisfied creep a new one??!! Like Jonathan Swift, they pull(ed) no punches and take/took no prisoners. The difference between them and BM (my God, those really ARE his initials! Never realized till now!)is that they, like Swift, only take/took on THOSE WHO ARE/WERE IN A POSITION TO FIGHT BACK! The corrupt rich and powerful. Those who take advantage of weaker members of society. That is the mark of a true satirist, not indiscriminately spewing venom. If he wants to take on the nauseatingly phony kid-culture, the cynical companies that sell it and the dipwad parents who buy it, fine. But leave the kids out of it. (If decency isn't enough of a reason to show some compassion, well, consider that if neglected/overprotected kids grow up to be--not clearsighted, but just plain MEAN--as Maher can be--well, they'll find a way to take all his money and dump him in some crappy nursing home.
And there won't even be any nice family of his own to fight it, or even to clean up BM's BMs.
Thanks for your support, Karen! Keep spreading the word on compassion.
Sal
-
Needed for America
In a nation beset by screaming factions and public figures petrified with fear over the possibility of offending anything at all, Bill Maher does something impressive; he manages to offend just about anyone. And by doing so, he very thankfully manages to get the point across that this nation needs to lighten the fuck up.
Do Americans really want to live in a world where public discourse is totally void of references to sex, drugs, or the usage of profanity?
-S
-
Real Talk with Bill Maher
Thanks for the Bill Maher interview. I don’t have HBO, so if was great to hear from him. There’s one thing he said that I’d like to take issue with, though: he referred to Bush as a recovering alcoholic. From what I understand of the matter, a recovering alcoholic must have at least a passing relationship with humility. No, such a person must not be the bowing and scraping type, just be able to admit when he or she has been in the wrong. Bush has a hard time doing that. He’s made a catastrophic blunder with Iraq, and almost everyone, that is except his hardcore base, knows it. We'll probably hear him admit how mistaken he was when he's long out of office, when his library's been erected.
-
Mary J who?
You know, 4 talk show appearances, lots of extra segments on the entertainment 'news' shows out of the blue, and 3 new magazine 'interviews' that I'm aware of. It's called promotion. It's not spontaneous or found. It's target marketing. Which is a big part of why and who wins these awards. Same with Bill M. What's he shilling that we suddenly need to be reminded that he hasn't said anything new in the last 50 months? A book? A TV 'special'? It must be something.
-
Submerged
To 'No Name Given': for Pete's sake, please look up the meaning of the word 'submerge'.
-
Jesus Christ, "SR"!
His television show, "Real Time with Bill Maker" (which has been running on HBO for 3.5 years) starts a new "season" today. Its only mentioned about 3 times in the lead paragraphs and twice more in the interview. Its called reading comprehension - try it sometime before you ask stupid questions (twice)!
-
Maher's "Real Deal"
Well, goodbye John McCain.
Bill has a new man crush. John Edwards is the "real deal" now.
The same John Edwards who championed the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq to establish his tough-guy patriot credentials, only to "regret" his Bush-enabling vote at a time when failing to do so would have ended his bid for the White House.
This is what passes for accountability in the Age of Bush.
How dispiriting it is to see progressives lining up behind this fraud, eager to overlook his role in the ongoing criminal affair that is the American occupation of Iraq.
Pass.
Maher's grating narcissism - laughing at his own jokes with that "Look, Ma, I made boom-boom!" expression - bears a striking resemblance to the smarm exuded by America's Sociopath-In-Chief. Bill and George have a lot more in common than either would be ever be willing to admit.
-
This piece really helps explain why so many people are tired of Salon.
While priding itself on its independent journalism, and certainly still providing a good deal of it via Tim Grieve and many others, I think Salon seems to be focused more and more on writers & commentators themselves and less about the subject ostensibly at hand.
For example...The Edward McClellan piece this past Monday: primarily not about Obama but about the writer's evolving view of Obama. Camille Paglia's column: lip-service to issues but primarily about herself. Debra Dickerson's writings: ditto.
And now this very revealing exchange in which Ms. Walsh makes it clear, by the in-group style of her questions (rather than a more detached, traditional journalist's approach), that she thinks of herself as an ally and compatriot of Mr. Maher. I don't have a strong opinion about Maher either way, as I've never watched his show; he does strike me as being more about entertainment value and snark than about substance and actually well-considered contrarian opinions. And there's really nothing fundamentally wrong with the cordial, conversational style of interview where appropriate. But the clubby tone of this piece is disturbing. It suggests strongly that Walsh herself has stars in her eyes for mainstream media pros like Maher.