BILL MAHER AND OTHERS
A lot of people don’t like him. They just can’t stand the crude honesty and the directness of his humor. He is at times irritatingly on target. As a stand-up comedian he has paid his dues; there was a time when he was chastised severely and vanished from network television. Bill Maher had the audacity of go after the then newly elected Teflon President Bush. Nothing stuck to him and any critic was classified as “unpatriotic” and an enemy of the state.
As time has passed we see how right he was on now ex-President Bush. We can see why Bush 43 was considered intellectually challenged and mediocre as a head of state at best. Bill Maher has recaptured the imagination of many on the left and is now on the center of controversy again.
Like him or not, his shelf life has proven to outlast that of George W. and still Mr. Maher has been able to retain his dignity and his stance of no compromise as a political satirist and an atheist.
HERE ARE A FEW OF HIS QUOTES:
“We are a nation that is unenlightened because of religion. I do believe that. I think religion stops people from thinking. I think it justified crazies.”
“When we talk about values, I think of rationality in solving problems. That’s something I value. Fairness, kindness, generosity, tolerance. When they talk about values, they’re talking about things like going to church, voting for Bush, being loyal to Jesus, praying. These are not values.”
“Let's face it; God has a big ego problem. Why do we always have to worship him?”
“We need more people speaking out. This country is not overrun with rebels and free thinkers. It's overrun with sheep and conformists.”
“The cable TV sex channels don't expand our horizons, don't make us better people and don't come in clearly enough.”
“But isn't there something wrong when I'm the ONLY guy in the country that got fired for 9/11?”
“Whenever the people are for gay marriage or medical marijuana or assisted suicide, suddenly the "will of the people" goes out the window.
“Let's make a law that gay people can have birthdays, but straight people get more cake - you know, to send the right message to kids.”
“I think we all remember that those first months after the attack, this country really was a very different country. I think we were ready to do anything. I think we would have marched into hell behind this guy. . . . I think nobody in a position of leadership, not the Democrats, not the president, asked anyone in this country to rethink or redo anything. The most they asked us to do was to keep the economy going, to shop and go see shows again and travel.”
OTHERS:
Abraham Lincoln said:
“I believe it is an established maxim in morals that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false, is guilty of falsehood; and the accidental truth of the assertion, does not justify or excuse him. “
--August 11, 1846 Letter to Allen N. Ford
“The extreme right record of utter and total failure to stop the march to progress is the reason we should not have to bear their craziness anymore. The record is numbingly clear: They were wrong about Social Security. They were wrong on integrating the military forces under President Truman. They were wrong about McCarthyism in the early 1950’s. They were wrong about passing civil rights legislation in the 1960’s. They were wrong on Medicare. They were wrong about women rights. They were wrong about ‘trickle down economics.’ They were wrong about tax breaks for the rich. They were wrong about the war in Iraq. They were wrong about climate change. They were wrong about LGBT rights and they are wrong about healthcare reform.
Can you imagine our world if they had been successful in stopping any of the forces for change above? We would have a world with our seniors poor and unable to have healthcare. We would have African-Americans unable to vote. We would see women relegated to being housewives and not leading our nation. All homosexuals would still be in the closet with many having lobotomies, committing suicide and being arrested. The world has become and is still becoming a better place because of progressive legislation and ignoring the calls, shouts and anger to protect the narrow-minded status quo.
Fact is, they can’t have their country back. Their country is moving forward into a greatness with a richly diverse and exciting population.
Activist and author David Mixner on his blog.
Here’s a quote yesterday from Tea Bag Party founder Dale Roberts on the accusation that the Teabaggers are nothing more than a bunch of racists who spit on black congressmen and call civil rights heroes “niggers”:
“These people could be anybody. I wouldn’t put it past the Democrats to plant somebody there. They’re trying to label the tea party, but I’ve never seen any racial slurs.”
But then there’s this lovely, and really quite flattering, picture of Dale his very own self that circulated around the internet — including on this very blog just last month — that the Washington Independent has drawn our attention to.
