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The Official "Real-Time with Bill Maher" Thread

BobsRevenge

I do not avoid women, GAF, but I do deny them my essence.
That was the worst episode I've seen so far of Real Time. It wasn't even Bill's fault unless you want to blame him for not stopping them from arguing. It was unwatchable. The gay republican at the start of the show was good though. More guests like that, less celebrity chefs.

Anthony Bourdain was good. When he was on he didn't seem to venture too far out of his knowledge-base, but had some good insights related to his experiences.
 
hopefully Kennedy is never invited back. She obviously had no interest in arguing the actual topics of the day and just wanted to spew BS about feminism when it was completely off-topic. Looked like Bill was tired of her shit by the end of the episode too.
 
hopefully Kennedy is never invited back. She obviously had no interest in arguing the actual topics of the day and just wanted to spew BS about feminism when it was completely off-topic. Looked like Bill was tired of her shit by the end of the episode too.

What feminism arguments? She just said "sexist" at completely random moments.
 

Dabanton

Member
I'll echo the general mood Rorbacher and Kennedy were absolutely insufferable. Bashir was very good the moments were he could actually interject and make a point.

Bill looked pissed off. Though it did end on a high note.
 

SolKane

Member
But never one to sink into the gutter and skip a chance to go lower, the 12-term congressman today responded to national criticism of his performance with Maher by blaming the presence of a female co-panelist: Kennedy, the energetic Libertarian from Reason TV.

"Kennedy's aggressive and rude interruptions threw me off . . . ," Rohrabacher--who has been involved in national politics for four decades--wrote in a Twitter message today.

blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2012/01/dana_rohrabacher_blames_female.php
 

SolKane

Member
"Atheism is a religion" omg these people

edit: he crushed it in new rules, as he always does. saving grace for this show is that even if the panel is shit maher always delivers
 

Agnostic

but believes in Chael
It was Ozzy who snorted the ants. They both got it wrong.

/nerd rant


edit: LOL at new rules LOLOLOLOL
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
Most of the focus seemed to be on that Kennedy chick, but the douchebag congressman was much worse. Kennedy was annoying and kept interrupting sure, but Rorbashcacherwhatver was doing that AND being wrong! (while simultaneously being smug)

He kept trying to say that Obama has been gutting the military, even though that wasn't even close to being true, and that you can't believe the DHS saying there's a net LOSS of illegal immigrants for the past few years because there are Mexican kids in public schools. WTF?
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
Rick Lazio was useless on the panel. Seemed way too moderate for a Republican, and stayed quiet throughout the show.

On the plus side, New Rules was fucking amazing.

And Maher makes a good point, if Atheism is also a religion, then atheists should get all the tax exempt priveleges that churches get too.
 

sruckus

Member
Great episode. I wish more republicans were like Lazio. I have extreme complaints about the bias during the interview segment about Apple and Foxconn. He mentions Bill Gates, but leaves out the fact that MICROSOFT freaking uses them too. Why Apple is singled out I don't know. Well, actually I do know...they are the biggest company I suppose so I guess it's just part of the job, but still. I don't know what the solution is but I do know it's just not as simple as using the 100 billion and moving jobs to the US.
 
Atheism obviously isn't like a religion in the sense that institutionalizing "non-belief" is like herding cats. Institutions fail, ideas unfold.

But an "atheist thinker" is just as vulnerable to dogmatism as any religious fundamentalist. They're only human. And if human dogmatism is the real enemy, a strict focus on religion begs the question.

The scientific method has proved to be an excellent immune system against dogmatism. But I think it acts pretty poorly as a symbol when Maher and others wave heuristics like a flag against all "dangerous, silly thinkers". It seems like a provincial overreaction to extreme provincialism. (ie Harris and Maher's blind spot to the etiology of Islamic terrorism.)

Science can reflect the non-duality of being & becoming in nature, but the map ain't the territory. Is mystery material? Material mysterious? I think agnostics have different answers than atheists, and if anybody should be waving a flag its a practice of more observing and less knowing. It seems to cause the least fuss.
 
I'm afraid to ask, but what exactly are you implying here?

yeah i should of unpacked that a bit, lol.

I'm referring to an understanding that often replaces "they hate us for our freedom" with "they hate us because they have primitive faith". With much religiosity, this decouples from the interdependent reality and interpolates a self-aggrandizing fiction. Again, I wouldn't argue that atheism is a religion. But that atheist thinkers are prone to religious thinking. Which is not entirely "their fault" of course, we've all evolved into excellent magical thinkers.
 

sruckus

Member
Just finished watching Real Time from yesterday I love Neil Tyson, so when he's on it's always a good episode. I also love Bob Lutz, but obviously don't agree with his views.
 
Is what Bill said about all the swing states preferring Romney or Santorum over Obama true?

I'm not sure. I've been saying for months now that Romney is a legitimate threat. You have to understand that he won his governor position in Massachusetts as a Republican. He's almost as big of a moderate as Obama is.
 
Just finished watching Real Time from yesterday I love Neil Tyson, so when he's on it's always a good episode. I also love Bob Lutz, but obviously don't agree with his views.
Bob Lutz is such a putz. "My place in the keys was supposed to be flooded 3 years ago." . . . Who said that? The flooding projections are based on time scales of 100s of years.
 
My guess is that a lot of people asked declined to be on camera either because they dislike Bill Maher or dislike Alexandra Pelosi (because of her mom) or possibly both.

It was a good panel this week, and I am looking forward to next week.
 
Yeah, this was no real surprise there---GA may well be ahead of them on several metrics, but we're(and have been) close on things like education. Places like there, reservations in general, Appalachia, etc do not get anywhere near the play they should in terms of serious trouble spots in the country. Hell, we can't even face up to the Detroit issue!

Looking forward to the inner city one to come though, this has generally been a pretty worthwhile segment this season.
 
They're beaten over the head about it frm childhood. Given the circumstances what opportunity do they have to see the other side of things? Good education opens your mind to alternatives. Those people that were interviewed never had a chance to succeed.
 
The worst part of this show was Bill's tone deaf defense of Limbaugh. Free speech? Give me fucking break. I didn't know it entitled you to a radio show.
 

XMonkey

lacks enthusiasm.
New Rules was so good.

The worst part of this show was Bill's tone deaf defense of Limbaugh. Free speech? Give me fucking break. I didn't know it entitled you to a radio show.

I don't know if he was completely defending him, just responding to those who think Limbaugh should be taken off the air for his comments? He did rail against the public pressuring sponsors to drop the show, though. Which was kind of stupid.
 
As someone who has actually been to the South I can vouch that many parts really are like that.

The worst part of this show was Bill's tone deaf defense of Limbaugh. Free speech? Give me fucking break. I didn't know it entitled you to a radio show.

The problem is the fact that people get so up in arms because he said something bad about women. That because of the fact that he offended people he should be off air.

I also find it funny that this is what makes people question free speech and not the fact that he draws out Nazi-like propaganda (sorry Goodwin but this is very relevant) every day (though I still would say that he should be put off air).
 
He did rail against the public pressuring sponsors to drop the show, though. Which was kind of stupid.

That's the part that really pissed me off. Earth to Maher: pressuring sponsors isn't an affront to free speech. I can't even see how that could make sense to anyone.
 

demon

I don't mean to alarm you but you have dogs on your face
That's the part that really pissed me off. Earth to Maher: pressuring sponsors isn't an affront to free speech. I can't even see how that could make sense to anyone.

The funny thing is he was on the Marc Maron podcast around a week ago and he defended the network (whatever it was, ABC? NBC?) that cancelled Politically Incorrect for doing so because of sponsor pull-out.
 

Fusebox

Banned
The worst part of this show was Bill's tone deaf defense of Limbaugh.

Hey he mentioned you in that piece.

He's a stupid fat fuck who’s not funny and it annoys me that, it annoys me that people who cannot keep two disparate thoughts in their own mind lump me in together with him and say I'm defending him. I'm not defending him, I'm defending living in a country where people don't have to be afraid that they might go out of the bounds for one minute.
 
Hey he mentioned you in that piece.

Sorry but Bill is just wrong. Saying people shouldn't go after Rush's sponsors is defending him, no matter how much he tries to claim it isn't. And 'going out of bounds for one minute' is a laughable description of what Rush did. It was a sustained three day assault on Fluke, and that's without even getting into his decades long history of racist and sexist bullshit.
 
Whenever Maher has been personally touched by an issue, you're sure to find him on some weird side of it. Pressuring advertisers to pullout got his old show cancelled therefore pressuring advertisers is bad. Religulous was frequently torrented therefore SOPA is not bad.
 
The interviews from Mississippi sickened me.

yup. too many people in the red states honestly don't like Obama because of the right wing anti-truth bubble they live in that tells them he is a muslim and socialist and they still don't think he's american. no one can convince them otherwise because anyone who tries is liberal.
 

rdrr gnr

Member
I've had a busy few days -- so I know I'm late for this -- but I have to comment upon how pleased I was with the latest episode. I found that Catherine Crier (having never heard of her before) made some particularly insightful remarks regarding the use of language and context (misogyny and comedic exceptions). I don't know what her political affiliation is officially, but from what I could surmise, she appeared to be moderate to right-leaning -- with some traditionally 'liberal' philosophies. Even so, I interpreted her remarks as well-grounded and well in-tune with reality.

The most interesting part of the Mississippi clip was Maher's preface: an urban-focused follow-up. There are plenty of comedians and commentators that highlight the ignorance of Republican-minded people with levity and insight; however, I've found most reciprocators from the conservative end tend to embarrass themselves more than their intended subjects e.g., Breitbart. It will be interesting to note what type of fallacious reasoning and bias uneducated liberals will employ. I've said it before in this thread: I think of notion of transitioning from relative poverty to relative wealth is an incredibly potent one. I genuinely believe those people think that if they get the right "job-creating" "private sector" president in office, that they themselves will be able to magically share in the wealth -- it's saddening and destructive. Plato's prescience is ever-unsettling.

The panel previous to this one was standard fare. Global-warming denialism is embarrassing at this point and NdGT let that tangerine of a man rabble on too long. His position on electric cars was refreshing, as well as his Berkeley anecdote, but that's about it. I'm sure if the show had dragged on any longer, I would have perceived him less and less favorably.

The worst part of this show was Bill's tone deaf defense of Limbaugh. Free speech? Give me fucking break. I didn't know it entitled you to a radio show.
That's the part that really pissed me off. Earth to Maher: pressuring sponsors isn't an affront to free speech. I can't even see how that could make sense to anyone.
I don't find anything you are saying as intelligent -- quite possibly the opposite, in fact -- but I'll defend your right to say it.
 
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