Friday, April 24, 2009

Bill Maher's Angry Tea Party Rant

Here's Mary Kate Cary on Bill Maher's essay at today's Los Angeles Times:

Bill Maher, following behind Janeane Garofalo and Robert Shrum earlier this week, continues the left's angry diatribe against the tea party protests in today's L.A. Times. His column is one big, ugly, name-calling screed, moving past the tax day protests to call all Republicans "a socially awkward group of mostly white people who speak a language only they understand.
Ms. Cary quotes Maher at length (he claims Tea Partyers are attacking the "black guy" in the White House), then adds:

Somebody's got to stand up to this kind of attitude, so here it goes. Maher's belittling tone, pervasive sarcasm, and nasty one-liners are just plain mean. The "black guy" line is offensive on a number of levels. Bill Maher has shown himself to be arrogant, snide, and completely outside of the mainstream. As I asked earlier this week, why is the left so angry? What's going on here?

What Maher doesn't seem to get is that while most Americans—including many Republicans and conservatives—personally like President Obama and wish him well, there are plenty of people with legitimate concerns about some of his policies. I find it deeply disturbing that reasonable people who stand up and say they're worried about the amount of taxing and spending are being called racists. There is a battle of ideas going on in America right now—from tax policy to torture memos—and it doesn't have anything to do with the color of anyone's skin.
Exactly.

12 comments:

rbosque said...

Good post Doc. Bill is going to need a heart monitor after he sees the crowds on July 4 th !

Tim said...

Now Bill, I like. Normally. When he's on, he always nails the Republican pantywaists to the wall.

I haven't heard the latest, but will check it out. His show is awesome, because he usually has one right-wing tool on the show.

Tim said...

OK, I just read Bill's piece.

Sheer and utter BRILLIANCE!

What, exactly, is not to like again? That it's effing funny?!

AmPowerBlog said...

"I find it deeply disturbing that reasonable people who stand up and say they're worried about the amount of taxing and spending are being called racists."

I seriously think you're an awful man, Tim. No offense. Just by the views you hold and the pure hypocrisy you evince.

Tim said...

Most of the views I hold, Donald, you once held.

Self-loathing, much?

BTW, Bill Maher is a comedian. A real one Donald. Not like Rush Limbaugh, who your fellow apologists for hate call him. And, like a good American capitalist, he makes a good living at it. But you and your mullahs hate him because he makes jokes about you and your dwindling party. Interesting.

Look, we all know that the right is totally and utterly bereft of humor, but please, gut check. The Right is so bereft of any ideas that they wander in the wilderness, and take scattershot pot shots everywhere. It's sad, it's pathetic. I hope, for your party's sake, and your own sanity, that you recover. Because you suffer from a type of derangement you accuse us happy-go-lucky liberals of every day.

I accept your loathing Donald. That's fine. But can you please just stop calling yourself a Christian? The one thing Jesus was full of was love, and compassion and non-judgment. These are not things you possess, unless it is to do with your family, and your fellow travelers. Sorry, it doesn't work that way. You are full of loathing for those like myself her merely disagree about how the business of America is run. It's sad. Not surprising though.

I am truly thankful that most Americans do not share your hatred. You epitomize pretty much what Maher was joking about. It's a significant part of the population, I will give you that. But far from a majority.

The first commenter to your link for the column that disparaged Bill had the following to say. I show it because a lot of your readers might not see this:

"Last time I checked he is a comedian. I don't agree with him all the time but he's spot-on on this one.

"Why is the left so angry?" I think you got that backwards; it's the right that is going apoplectic on anything Obama does. Have you seen Fox Noise lately? It's 24/7 Obama-bashing non-stop. And Meghan McCain is your example of a conservative standing up to right-extremism? LOL. Last time I checked she is not a republican elected official; once one of those actually criticizes Limbaugh without apologizing 15 minutes later, then I will be impressed."

Donald, see a doctor. Take a drink, do something to chill. You are working yourself into a frenzy. In spite of it all, I don't think you are an awful man.

I think you are woefully confused though.

Dave said...

Bill Maher is a bitter, self-loathing, freedom-hating, America-despising, enemy-coddling, anti-Christian bigot of the first order.

That makes him a run o' the mill lib, only, just like Herr Keithie Olbermann and Rachel "Rug Muncher" Maddow, he has his own TV show that nobody who matters actually watches.

-Dave

Tim said...

Dave: You forgot "funny as hell."

Kiril The Mad Macedonian said...

Wassup, Doc?

Glad to find you in my backyard, and to add you to my Blogroll of OC Blogs! ;-D

To the matter at hand:

Great post!

I don't blog politics at my place, but I do blog about life in the OC, from time to time, and so when I went to the Santa Ana Tea Party I took pictures, and I took notes, then wrote a story. ;-D

Locally, the OC Weekly, the Liberal compatriot of the similarly inclined LA Weekly, had sort of a split personality on the subject of the Tea Partys, if the 2articles I read on the Navel Gazing Blog are any judge. ;-D

Spencer Kornhaber attended the event, with a cameraman, and did a decent job.

Matt Coker wasted valuable space by giving a platform to someone Bill Maher would agree with.

Poor, Misguided, Tim writes: "Look, we all know that the Right is totally and utterly bereft of humor."

He must not get out much, watch, listen, or read what I, and others on the Right do, and he most certainly does not know me. ;-D

I am well known for my peculiar sense of humor, in my writing, and my poetry.

It has nothing absolutely, what so ever, to do with my once being a registered Democrat for 25 years.

Trust me.

I had the sense of humor long before I was old enough to vote, and I developed my talent for poetry with the help of a Socialist, in 2002, while I was already well on my way toward becoming a Conservative, finally, after 12 years of listening to El Rushbo every day. ;-D

Anyway, like you, I had to respond to what others were opining. ;-D

Good thing I didn't see the Bill Maher stuff earlier, or I would have been sorely tempted to go on a serious rant of my own. ;-D

Instead I just asked a simple question:

Does Gazing at Your Navel for too Long Lead to Blindness? ;-D

Tim said...

"Does Gazing at Your Navel for too Long Lead to Blindness? ;-D"

I think you are best equipped to tell us that, Kiril.

And thanks for letting us know that you are in fact a person of humor. Some people are so bereft of humor, I think they should apply to get special parking.

Another tip: Once with the ;-D is fine, but 8 is too much. We <3 them, but...

Dave said...

Tim,

Maher was actually funny, once upon a time.

Then again, so was Al Franken.

Have no idea what happened to either of them.

-Dave

Tim said...

Dave: Maybe you haven't seen Religulous? Pretty damned funny.

And sad.

I will be the first person to admit that Maher is hit and miss. He can come across as a bit angry, cynical, bitter and misogynistic, but when he's on, he's f*cking funny and spot on the mark.

That would explain why there isn't a single right wing comedian that is remotely funny. I mean, seriously, who you got? Larry the Cable Guy?

Tim said...

And in case you missed the genius of...

Bill Maher's New Rules, etc.