Stand up is the least respected of all the performing arts. As if being a stand-up comic weren’t hard enough; the years of being judged by every person who owns a liquor license and a microphone, driving six hours to a non-existent gig, begging moronic agents and managers who are looking for a “new, original and exciting” talent, to come out to see your show only to be asked why you aren’t more “Seinfeld-ish.” On top of that it takes years to develop an act and find your voice on stage. There are child actors, child musicians, tiny dancers and even I would guess a few very young working writers but no child comics. Why? Because stand-up comedy is the only experientially based art form. Kids can tell “jokes” but they can’t do stand-up. Stand-up comedy, really good stand-up comedy has evolved from joke telling into a personal narrative dialogue with the audience.

Still, every now and then some elitist hack with a degree from the right college and the proper connections gets a job at a failing weekly magazine and decides to take a shot at you and your profession, feeling they are qualified to judge this art form because they know how to laugh and talk. This is rarely if ever done with other art forms. Seriously folks, when is the last time you saw an article about actors who can’t act, dancers who can’t dance, painters who can’t paint or pointless “performance artists.” Yet, about every six months some “critic” declares a number of famous comics “not funny.”   

Ms. Sarah Ball of the soon defunct Newsweek is the latest to declare some great comics “not funny.” In her article, which I found on Newsweek.com she lists 12 acts and gives snarky put downs of their talents. I found it interesting that Ms. Ball’s list is mostly west coast, politically conservative/moderate comics. Apparently if you are from New York and ultra liberal Ms. Ball finds you hilarious!

Topping her list is every elitist favorite comedy punching bag Larry the Cable Guy. Larry’s sin seems to be his is a little too lowbrow for Ms. Ball whom I am sure worships at the altar of urinator Larry David, and  christophobe Sarah Silverman. There are a couple of folks working at the top of the intellectual chart. When talking about Dane Cook (I admit, not my favorite) she heaps praise on Louis C.K. (a guy I happen to also enjoy) who also tends towards the scatological for his humor.

Here is another thing that annoys me worst than Barney Frank, several times Ms. Ball demeans comics for being less than original and yet in her writing she uses a number of “stock” lines, clichés and banal comments. She also works for a magazine which recently selected a cover picture of Sarah Palin that was borrowed from a shoot for another magazine and used without contextual reference.

Ms. Ball also apparently hasn’t seen some of the comics she lists in some time. For Emo Phillips she uses an outdated photo, (again Newsweek using a photo out of context!) and critiques the vocal and delivery style he was using in the 90’s. Artists grow and change Ms. Ball; you might want to catch Bob Goldthwaite sometime this century too!  Her total critique of Jeff Dunham is that he is a ventriloquist, a comedy form she declared “went out of vogue in the Eisenhower era.” So did unbiased journalism and accurate reporting, Ms. Ball, but I’ll save that for another blog. Ventriloquism is experiencing a great revival outside elitist circles with Ronn Lucas and Terry Fator being two of the top draws in Las Vegas. While Jay Johnson, Jeff Dunham and Dan Horn wow audiences across the country. It might do Ms. Ball good to get out of Manhattan once in awhile and see what us rubes are doing out here in Flyoverland.

There are a lot of comics who I don’t find funny but I realize that my taste in comedy is skewered by my values, faith, politics and a number of other factors. I would never declare Bill Maher “not funny.” Thought I find his drug addled ramblings repulsive at times I realize that a number of equally intelligent folks find him hysterical. I might say I find his humor “baffling” or call him an “alleged” comedian but to declare him “not funny” isn’t fair to Bill or his fans.

People like different things, that’s why they put numbers on horses at the track. I would expect an open and fair minded progressive person like Ms. Ball to be a little more…what’s that word? Tolerant!

In a shocking move, Bill Maher has done a near 180 on his vaccine position. This comes hot on the heels of his recent angry rant about getting flack over his opinions, controversial to some, incoherently false to others, regarding vaccinations.

“Like I pointed out on my show, I’ve read Microbe Hunters when I was eight. But then I realized — I had read practically nothing about it since then. I’d mostly been listening to a bunch of alternative medicine people, and none of them even liked Microbe Hunters.” began Maher, during a recent fictional lunch discussion with me.

Maher, being very smart, and not one to be suckered like the countless masses of people who do not watch his show, realized it was too late and he himself had, himself, gotten himself infected with the big Pharma’s latest disease – anti-vaccinationism.

“It came as a total shock to me one night”, Maher continued, “not like the kind of shock of like, that first coffee enema to remove the festering toxins, but, you know electric acupuncture? Like twice that. I was thinking about some of the things I said a while ago”, said Maher, citing some various, recent, beatings showered upon him on the internet, and his own show. “And I hadn’t really thought about all the things, I had actually said, were all out there – on the internet – and people just kept linking me back to my own stuff over and over and over. At the same time, I keep getting these emails, lots of them, about the “millions and millions” of lives saved by vaccines. And that’s when it hit me.”

Maher is not afraid to take anti-authority stances. He is known for being willing to deny the whole of western medicine as a scare tactic. With his new revelation idea conspiracytheory in the works, he was going to have to go once step further. He was going to need to take an anti-authority stance — with the anti-authorities.

“These weren’t your run of the mill ‘Ph.D.’ doctors we’re talking about”, Maher explains. “They were directly opposite of that, if not more so. I had just assumed because they were opposite, they were equal. But it went much further than that.”

Maher had found that night, with his own mind, the root of the entire system. “It was those millions and millions”, Maher continued, mimicking Carl Sagan’s memorable “billions and billions” quote. “Who had the most to benefit from all those people living long lives? It was obvious : Big Pharma itself”.

“I’m just asking questions here”, Maher warned. “But it looks like the medical community is secretly using dirty tricks, like these anti-vaccine cranks, to finally do away with their biggest, most arrogant mistake. Vaccines. By getting rid of all these diseases, western medicine is robbing itself of untold profits. They regret cranking out healthy kids, many with near disease free childhoods. The hospital industry has been hankering to undo the money lost ever since the CDC was formed, to rid the United States of malaria.”

“A flu shot is the worst thing you can do!” Maher exclaims angrily. “A flu shot just compromises your immune system! I said those things, on TV. How many people were tricked because I myself was tricked. I checked the evidence, it’s overwhelming how much there is, for vaccines. And now they just want to use these Wakefield charlatans to scare people off vaccines, to line their pockets again. It never ends, does it?”

When asked about his new position, Maher was cautionary about how solidly he stood. “You never really can be sure”, he explained. “My change isn’t a near 180. It’s more like a near 540. And I’m ready to do another anytime, when it comes to medicine.”

Religulous: The Baby and the Bathwater

Is Bill Maher too smart for God?  Or not smart enough?  Listen and find out!

Duration: 1 hr 17 min

Bill Maher, host of the HBO talk show Real Time With Bill Maher, often asks his guests: “How can someone as smart as yourself actually believe in this religious stuff?”  It’s fair question, one that a great many people ask themselves every day, and forms the premise of Maher’s recent comedy/documentary Religulous.

To many, religion seems quaint, anachronistic, even childish in today’s modern and post-modern world.  To others, it is downright dangerous—particularly when religious fundamentalism begins to infect our modern-day political, academic, and scientific systems.  Or worse, when it gains access to advanced technologies and devastating weaponry.

But there is something crucial missing from Bill Maher’s criticism of religion, which would prompt us to ask him, “How can someone as smart as yourself not realize that there is so much more to religion than just fairy tales?  If we take a truly intelligent look at religion, wouldn’t we find something we can salvage from these great and enduring traditions?”

Here’s the irony: by virtue of their critiques against religious fundamentalism, Maher and other rational atheists are demonstrating capacities that can actually be more spiritual than the people and beliefs they are criticizing, in the sense that their rational world-views are more developed than the mythic world-views held by the fundamentalists.  And it is true that we need to keep a cautious eye on these mythic, absolutistic, “us vs. them” expressions of religion, which have indeed been (and continue to be) some of the greatest sources of pain and suffering in history—and to this end, Religulous and other contemporary atheists are playing an important role in the overall cultural conversation.

But when we face religious fundamentalism with scientific fundamentalism and dismiss religion altogether, we are also dismissing history’s greatest source of liberation, compassion, and transcendence—the powerfully transformative practices and interpretations of spiritual reality that form the esoteric core of all the world’s religious traditions, east and west.

Listen as Ken and David discuss what Bill Maher (and the rest of the “New Atheist” crowd) are missing in this otherwise provocative and entertaining film.

Listen now.

Maher has fallen prey to the alternative medicine’s package of propaganda, misinformation, and subtle distortions. Because he is a popular media personality, his views are influential. Fellow skeptic Michael Shermer wrote an open letter published in the New York Times urging Maher to reconsider his anti-vaccination views.

Maher has responded here called A conversation worth having. In it, Maher attempts to justify his position in much the same way that creationists tackle the science of evolution: by evasion, logical fallacies, placing blame, and basically refusing to do the work necessary to understand the science but more than willing to improperly criticize that which he does not understand. So what can we make of Maher’s response?

To our rescue comes another smackdown by Neurologica’s Steve Novella. Why should he bother? As Steve explains, Maher is contributing to the public misunderstanding of science in perhaps the most important area – medicine. That is very serious, and he needs to start taking it seriously. That’s very good advice for all of us: we need to take scientific misunderstanding seriously.

I think Orac has captured this feeling perfectly when embedding the “Every time I think I’m out, they pull me back in!” clip on his blog. I really thought that now that Real Time with Bill Maher has wrapped up its season, I wouldn’t have to talk about Bill Maher’s insane pseudo-scientific ramblings for awhile. I mean I felt like I’d said pretty much everything I had to say already in the span of three articles (here, here, and here). Obviously I thought I was through after the second of those articles as I prematurely titled it “Final thoughts on the Bill Maher controversy.”

But alas, after much criticism from the scientific and skeptical communities, as well as an open letter politely explaining the science of vaccines written by Michael Shermer, Bill continues his campaign of ignorance as many of us feared.

Now I fortunately don’t have to spend much time on this one because just about everyone in the medical, general scientific, and skeptical blogging communities have responded to Maher’s latest bullshit, including of course Orac over at Respectful Insolence as well as a point-by-point take-down by Steve Novella. Also commenting on the story and linking to Orac & Novella’s blogs are President of the James Randi Educational Foundation Phil Plait; PZ Myers; and my fellow Gotham Skeptic, Page.

Of course, the anti-vaccine loons at Age of Autism love Bill Maher now. He’s their new hero. Congrats Bill. Hope you like your new friends, because you’ve burned all your bridges with the rational community as you’ve revealed yourself to be no more rational than Ben Stein, Jenny McCarthy, and Tom Cruise. Hope it was worth it.

Please join me in contacting Sam Harris’ Reason Project and insisting they remove Maher from their advisory board. As long as he represents them, The Reason Project will get no support from me.

Bill Maher is great! A must read for anyone considering a vaccination in the near future. Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

“If they went to the CDC Web site and saw what’s in the vaccine — the formaldehyde, the insect repellent, the mercury — shouldn’t they at least get to have the information for themselves?”

re: the mercury, I found this on CDC’s website…CDC Telebriefing May 21, 2009 http://www.cdc.gov/media/transcripts/2009/t090521.htm

“Operator: The next question comes from Richard Martin with the St. Petersburg Times.

“Richard Martin: Thanks for taking my call, doctor…[can you speak on] the dangers and the ingredients such as mercury, other risks and the strains and vaccine not matching the strains that are circulating?

“Anne Schuchat: … have been questions about their ingredients, you mentioned thimerosal. Thumerosal is made with multiple-dose vials in order to keep them from being contaminated with bacteria…. There have been quite a few studies now that suggest no increased risk of long-term problems associated with thimerosal, and we believe this is a safe ingredient of vaccines. “

Here is what the FDA has to say about Thimerosal: http://www.fda.gov/biologicsbloodvaccines/safetyavailability/vaccinesafety/ucm096228#tox

And here’s what Wikipedia says: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiomersal

Best to educate yourself when possibly injecting mystery substances into your bloodstream. I wouldn’t take the government’s word for it.

I don’t watch Bill Maher on TV; I don’t follow his tweets, and I don’t much care for his brand of humor. I don’t pay a whole of attention to him. But last month, driving aimlessly around Wellfleet, I tuned the radio to one of those breathy readers on NPR having a chat with a physician about some dust-up Maher’d created about the swine flu (and, no, I am not going to use the clarifying “H1N1” in parenthesis) vaccine. Apparently he’s of the body-heal-thyself school or perhaps the tiny-transmitter-in-the-injection school when it comes to preventative medicine, I don’t know, but he’s been counseling folks to skip the swine flu jab.

Even though I don’t pay no never-mind to Bill Maher, evidently many others do, so much so that Maher has chosen to explain his views on medical care in his Huffington Post blog. If you are capable of overlooking his numerous faulty pronoun references and other grammatical homicides, then you can focus your attention on the shambles that are his logic and argument. Fair warning: it’ll be tough to force yourself not to count the number of times he misuses gerunds, but give it a try. Here’s a typical excerpt; the emphasis is added:

“Scott Pelley on 60 Minutes asking the Secretary of Health and Human Services what she thought about the fact that ‘Bill Maher told his viewers anyone who gets a flu shot is an idiot.’

“Well, not quite. It was twittered, which I guess doesn’t make a huge difference, but as 60 Minutes is the last bastion of TV journalism, accuracy is appreciated. And I see that counts for Twitter, too — my bad — so yes, some people are not idiotic to get a flu shot. They’re idiotic if they don’t investigate the pros and cons of getting a flu shot. But, come on — it was a twitter from a comedian, not a treatise in the New England Journal of Medicine, that’s not what I do.

“I’m just trying to represent an under-reported medical point of view in this country, I’m not telling a specific pregnant lady what to do.”

So, within the space between two paragraphs, two sentences if you want precision, Maher morphs from a comedian to a medical reporter. What a Renaissance man!

His blog continues, “Is it worth it to get vaccines for every bug that goes around? Injecting something into my bloodstream? I’d like to reserve that for emergencies. This is the flu, and there’s always a flu. I’ve said it before, America is a panicky country. It’s like we look for things to panic about. The reports from Australia, where they’re over their flu season, is that its [sic!] not a terribly virulent flu. The worldwide numbers support that. But you’d never get that impression from the media in this country.”

It’s hard to know where to begin with a paragraph so rife with errors. First of all, a smart guy like Bill Maher who we know is well-informed because, as he says, he “read Microbe Hunters when I was eight, I have a basic idea how vaccines work,” is surely aware that the vast majority of bugs that go around do not, in fact, have vaccines that prevent them. Norovirus, anyone? Rhinovirus? Vaccines tend to get developed for lethal or life-limiting diseases, or those illnesses that can exacerbate existing conditions or open a door of vulnerability to more lethal strains of microbes. The flu fits into at least two of those categories.

Then Maher goes on to attack what I assume is a favorite topic, the common sense of average Americans: “I’ve said it before, America is a panicky country.” And the evidence he cites in support of this claim? Why, the swine flu is not “terribly virulent….But you’d never get that impression from the media in this country.” So, this time without even the caesura of a paragraph divide to separate his contradictory assertions, Americans are working themselves into a frenzy because the media (in bed with Big Pharma, of course) is whipping up unnecessary fears.

How about we try another explanation. I’ve not noticed any panic where I live, and I live in a college-university town, the kind of ground zero for human-to-human transmission of disease, where all manner of germy things are spread by all manner of careless adolescents. What I have heard, and read, are mainly questions from mothers of school-aged kids or mothers-to-be asking when the vaccine will be available. Maher ought not to confuse the slight disappointment in the tones of these mothers, who after all were assured earlier this year that plenty of vaccine would be available come fall, with panic.

Besides, if America were truly a “panicky country” shrinks from coast to coast would have waiting lines out the door and around the corner. We’ve got plenty to panic about; Maher’s myopic focus on bugs just eliminates his ability to see the big picture.

Pessoal, vi uma parte de um documentário bem legal. Meio que abalou minhas bases. Chama-se Religolous. Basicamente, é um comediante  chamado Bill Maher que viajou o planeta em busca de respostas para várias questões religiosas para a seguinte pergunta: religião é necessária para o homem?

cartaz do filme

Aqui está o trailler do documentário:

Ele, obviamente, é uma pessoa no mínimo, anti-religião, e convicta, no meu ponto de vista. Mas, ele se declara libertário e é, no meu ponto de vista novamente, um crítico ferrenho do atual american way of life applied to the world (acabei de inventar o termo, mas tem a ver com o modus operandi contemporânea dos EUA tanto para dentro, quanto para fora). No fim do filme, ele faz algumas considerações:

1. primeiramente ele pede para os racionais e anti religião para “saírem do armário” e terem voz e dizerem o que realmente pensam sobre as religiões.
2. pede para que todos os religiosos, inclusive os moderados, para que “olhem no espelho” e se auto critiquem ao analisar o relacionamento entre religião e os conflitos atuais.
3. faz uma comparação: você seria adepto à um clube que promove todos os tipos de preconceito: misogenia, racismo, homofobia, etc.; promove violência em nome de seus deuses, ignorância e intolerância? Você, no mínimo, saíria desse clube em protesto. Caso não, seria como uma mulher de malandro: conivente.
4. por fim, ele afirma que não são profecias divinas que trarão o fim do mundo, mas sim a religião.

Vejam:

Baita tapa na cara. Eu, como católico semi-praticante ou quase-”morno” na gíria interna da religião, fiquei balançado… só com ese finzinho do filme. Me perguntei bastante hoje sobre isso. E cheguei nas conclusões:

1. por incrível que não pareça, sou brasileiro. Acomodado. Entretanto sei das atrocidades que minha religião já fez. Já foi omissa (fala Pio XII), massacrou indígenas (tanto culturamente, socialmente e fisicamente), é contra a camisinha, rígida e ignorante em alguns aspectos. Mas, algumas correntes e momentos históricos são importantes como na luta contra a ditadura, a Teoria da Libertação, o trabalho de algumas pastorais, o trabalho do papa João Paulo II. Lembrando que nada disso redime o que já ocorreu, inclusive os vários pedidos de desculpas.
2. Olha, eu já li um pouco bastante sobre religiões porque sempre me fez falta em ter quem acreditar. Não gosto da mistura de ignorância com religião, abitolamento… não deve-se confundir. Religião é base para a vida, para religar-se com um mundo superior, e suas diretrizes devem servir para o bom convívio, a paz e um mundo melhor. E não tudo isso que já sabemos.
3. E por fim, não acho inteligente relegar todo o legado que as religiões nos deram para a merda. Como tudo no universo e usando um chavão, tudo tem seus prós e contras. Não acredito que a ignorância a ponto de se achar que toda religião e todo relacionamento com ela leva à ignorância é generalizar demais. Veja o nosso país: (lá vai mais um clichê) veja a miscigenação religiosa… existe uma certa tolerância saudável na terra brasilis para todas. Nunca nos importamos muito com a religião do nossos governantes, apesar de sermos um país tradicionalmente católico.
4. Agora, por fim mesmo, deveria haver uma conferência ou enocntro mundial para a discussão de termos religiosos com a política. Pois aonde há a mistura dos dois, nucna sai boa coisa.

Agora deixo para vocês a auto crítica e a análise. E, caso queiram, utilizem o blog como quiser para discutirmos religião da melhor forma possível e mostrar que isso é humanamente realizável.

Eu sugiro para ler:

O livro das religiões, livro velho, mas excelente. E um outro sobre uma competição de religiões num reino distante para eleição da nova religião oficial do mesmo reino… poxa… sou louco para saber que livro é esse!

Bons uivos! Aleluia!

So now it has come to the fact that the government wants to tax a woman’s menstrual cycle.

With the health care bill on the table one of the ways it will be paid for is by taxing medical devices. Tampons for women are considered a medical device. That is how the government is planning to collect taxes with this program. One thought that women could get cranky during this time now they have to pay for it.

Another medical device is the toothbrush. So if one can imagine every time a parent tells their child to brush their teeth would the parent say not to hard because of the high taxes on each bristle.

Now remember Barack Hussein Obama promised not to raise taxes on those making less then $250,000. Is this not taxing everybody no matter how much one has to earn.  Well maybe Nancy Pelosi will raise the tax so high on these items that only the rich can afford to buy them. Besides as old as Pelosi is she does not need Tampons or a toothbrush. She probably drops he dentures off at her local dentist office to be cleaned.

Now this is not the only medical devices would be affected this includes CAT SCANS, X-ray, bedpans, even the surgical gloves used in the medical profession. How does tampons equate in the same field? So women should go and protest this tax because on the simple fact that Harry Reid is expecting a monthly income from a huge portion of the female population.   

So Americans if one really looks close at this bill it is about taxing America into bankruptcy. That in itself is proof that Obama and his cronies in office are out to destroy this country.

So what happens now? Does America sit back and get raked through the coals of socialism or does it stand up and start throwing out those that were hired to protect citizens against despots. It seems now that the dictators are running the government and want a monthly tax.

Another way of looking at this is what if these power mad politicians pass all of these tax increases knowing they will get booted out of office.  That is what they may be doing to leave a legacy of destruction not only for today but for future generations. These people do not care for their own children or grandchildren.

This is probably the deeper possibility that no one wants to realize. It will be impossible to role back the government handout and it will be the curse for many generations. To give one an idea of how to get rid of an older generation with the swine flu vaccinations if one is over 65 the government has said no need for the shot.

Howdy Lou,

We sure hope you’re feeling better these days, now that you’ve gone and changed your personal circumstances in order to better serve The American People.

Firstly, I wanna stress how much me and Todd share your concerns over anyone inside our borders whose tan isn’t the result of the RNC’s grooming.  But out of respect for our men and women in uniform serving overseas – I feel the need to ask you one straightforward question, Lou: is quitting really the right thing to do?

Your reasons seem a bit vague and without a lotta merit.  And if there’s one thing I understand more than foreign policy or teen pregnancy, it’s being vague and lacking merit.

Also, Lou, quitting seems kinda weak.  Kinda socialist, even.

Did Presidents Bush and Cheney quit their offensive in Iraq when it was obvious to anyone not watching Fox News that their reasons for that war were complete manure?

Did the great hunters of the great state of Alaska quit hunting wolves from the air just because it turned out the wily critters could run for miles and miles out of sheer terror?

Did I quit the Alaskan Governorship simply because I knew I could avoid a whole lotta legal troubles, as well as make millions every year by giving talking points in the private–  Lou, out of the respect for our fighting men and women who so bravely fight overseas in their uniforms, I just want you to be sure that quitting what you’re known for is what’s really for the best.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m giving another big-money, press-free lecture on the woes of rape-kits in Topeka.

Best of Luck,

Sarah Palin

I don’t have HBO, but my love for Bill Maher has grown exponentially in the past 2+ years with the advent of podcasts.  His HBO show, New Rules, gets released for free in audio version about a few days after it airs (iTunes link).  He’s right alongside Keith Olbermann & Rachel Maddow (both from MSNBC), George Hrab’s Geologic Podcast (not about geology), and Kevin Smith & Scott Mosier’s SModcast in my “must listen once they get downloaded” queue.

OK, enough podcast talk… I also love what Bill Maher did last year with his comedy / documentary Religulous.  It was more comedy than an actual documentary for me, and it was quite entertaining from a non-believers point of view.  While I don’t think it’ll change (m)any minds, I still enjoyed it quite well.

When Bill gets time off from his show, sometimes he hits the road.  When I found out about his Eugene date, I already had tickets to go see Cincinnati band Over the Rhine up at Portland’s Doug Fir Lounge.  I was torn.  I mean, I’ve seen Over the Rhine fifty times (no lie), but I really love them.  Well, my wife had a Eugene art community show conflict the same night as OTR; so I sold our tickets and opted for Maher instead (sorry, Karin & Linford, we’ll catch you next year).

There was no opener, and Bill Maher hit the stage right around 8:15 and did a solid hour and a half of his crude but poignant comedy.  He touched on many topics and comedic bits from New Rules… the economy, politics, religion, and food culture in America.

Some of my favorite bits were on religion, specifically the Mormontology bit, the Muslim Dior fashion show, and the Pope’s Facebook relationship status (“it’s complicated”).

Some of my favorite lines:

“Crocs – for people who find flip flops a little too dressy.”

“Those liberals, always wanting to get across the river in one piece.” (sarcastic re: the politics of spend, i.e.- wanting to build crazy things like infrastructure)

“The Republicans have looked to the future for their political leadership and found… radio.”

“Ronald McDonald has killed a lot more people than Osama Bin Laden.”

I don’t agree with all of Bill’s stances, specifically some of his thoughts on medicine.  I don’t think he’s being all too scientific in his vocal stance against vaccines, for example.  However, he really didn’t bring those topics up last night.

Overall, I think Bill Maher’s stand-up is a lot like George Carlin – many of the same topics – crude, cutting, and powerful humor.

The Appropriate Linkage:

• Bill Maher’s Official Site
• HBO’s New Rules
  
• Bill Maher on MySpace
• Bill Maher on Facebook
  
•  The Hult Center

~Dan – np: A Perfect Circle – Mer De Noms

The movie that inspired the name of this very website. Some might say its an outright rip off even. Never mind. Bill Maher, the American talk show host and comedian, wrote and starred in this comedy/documentary which probes organised religion and associated beliefs, in a satirical manner of course. Memorable parts of the film include an interview with Pastor John Wescott whose aim is to ‘help people overcome’ homosexuality, interview with Jose Miranda who has his cult following as he claims to be the second coming of the Jesus, and also when Bill visits the ‘Holy Land Experience’, a Christian theme park in Orlando, Florida.

Maher, an outspoken atheist himself, doesn’t give religion any slack in this film. Perfect.

If you have trouble finding it, here’s a hint, ’surf the channel’.

The real test of friendship is: Can you literally do nothing with the other person? Can you enjoy together those moments of life that are utterly simple? They are the moments that people look back on at the end of life and number as their most sacred experiences.

~ Eugene Kennedy

We went to the usual spot, the Athenian Restaurant on Coliseum, because he likes to flirt with the waitress. It’s sort of embarrassing. But I was spared that particular show on this sunny but brisk Veterans Day morning; much to his dismay, she wasn’t scheduled to come in until noon.

His name is Joe. I met him back during my days as a southern gospel music director at a local AM station. A long-haul semi-truck driver who liked to swing by when he was home and chat up the announcers, he once played a part in organizing an event in our parking lot featuring the local truck stop’s chapel-on-wheels, the kind Bill Maher visits toward the beginning of Religulous. He’s a lot like those guys – outspoken about his Christian faith and willing to lay hands upon and send prayers heavenward on behalf on anyone in need of a spiritual touch.

When we changed formats, dumping the four-part harmony of the Cathedrals in favor of the more saccharine and advertiser-friendly Matt Redman, he cut his unkempt hair off, ditched the cowboy hat, grew a goatee, and hung around. And even after I dumped most of what I thought was faith at the time and moved on to other notions of God that conflicted with his own, he didn’t abandon me.

He helps me change my brakes when they start squealing. Recently, looking for more of a challenge, we went all out and tore my 2001 Pontiac Montana apart and changed the head gaskets. I mostly fetched sockets, paced around the garage, smoked lots of cigarettes, and lost shit. But he is a patient soul and never once during the two week ordeal complained that I was getting on his nerves, although I’m sure I did. He just kept humming along to the oldies he piped in on XM and ratcheting away. He’s retired now so we get together more and eat out a lot.

He’s also a veteran. I knew this, of course. I’ve spent many mornings sitting at his side at the VA hospital, driving him home after some invasive procedure. I’ve heard bits and pieces of stories and seen a picture or two from his days in the service, but I never held a cohesive, panoramic image of his years in the military in my head. Until this morning. Over omelets, biscuits and gravy, cup after cup of coffee, and eggs sunny side up – just the way he likes them – he told me everything. Well, as much as a former spy can reveal . . .

At the ripe old age of 19, on the advice of a recruiter who promised him the moon, Joe left a job manufacturing rear axles for trucks at International Harvester and enlisted in the USAF. He had been told there were opportunities to work on jet engines, but when, in 1959, he reported for basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, they told him he had two options: slinging hash or spying. Although he was (and still is) a fine cook, he chose instead to become a Morse Intercept Operator with the United States Air Force Security Service. After further training in Morse code at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Mississippi, he hopped a plane headed to Karamürsel Air Station in Turkey, where, as a member of TUSLOG Detachment 3, he eavesdropped on the Russians and heard firsthand the reports of the downing of Gary Powers’ U-2 aircraft. He also developed a love for bowling, playing in base and local tournaments and amassing numerous trophies. He once rolled fourteen strikes in a row, spanning two games, and recorded a personal best score of 299, one pin shy of perfect. He had only planned on staying in the military long enough to complete a tour and then return home, but he soon found himself hooked, enjoying the opportunity to travel and see parts of the world he’d only read about.

After eighteen months in Turkey, he was transferred to the 6987^th Security Squadron at the Shu Lin Kou Air Station in Taipei, Taiwan, where he first heard of the assassination of President John Kennedy from a G.I. who operated the local American radio station and had been monitoring news reports for rebroadcast. Joe claims he knows who shot Kennedy, but he won’t tell me. Says he’d have to kill me. I can live with that. One of his more interesting duties during this stint of his service was monitoring the monthly flights of C-47 Gooney Bird aircraft, under the command of Chaing Kai-shek and the Kuomintang, over communist China. These flights were a violation of controlled air space, something done “just to piss off the Commies,” and the chatter provided loads of entertainment.

With more advanced methods of communications available and becoming frequently utilized by countries the U.S. military were monitoring during the Cold War, Joe acquired further training credentials as a Non Morse Intercept Operator at Goodfellow AFB in San Angelo, Texas, and in October of 1964, deployed as part of the 6913^th R.S.M. stationed in Bremerhaven, Germany. He continued to achieve success in myriad bowling competitions, played flag football, and served as assistant coach for the softball team, traveling all over Europe for tournaments. It was while in Germany that the travel bug hit hard. He and his friends took boat excursions up and down the Rhine River, stopping to look at castles along the way. He visited Copenhagen and Hamburg and started a love affair with German ale. Then, in March of 1967, after a number of older cars has been driven to death, restored in his spare time, and then sold, Joe forked over $3500 for a 1967 Mercedes Benz 200D, and the fun really started. He traveled to Amsterdam during tulip season, taking a few thousand photos he later developed into slides, ran at windmills with an aplomb rivaling that of Don Quixote, attended wine festivals, and ate Wimpy-style hamburgers, washing them down with cases of beer. By the time he left Germany, late in 1967, for his next assignment with the 6931^st Security Group operating out of the Iraklion Air Station on the island of Crete, his Mercedes had rolled over 25,000 miles worth of European roadways. It was while in Crete that he fell hard for tsipouro, a Greek cousin of Turkish raki, and an especially strong drink served best with freshly-shelled almonds dipped in honey.

As 1969 wound down, he found himself back at Goodfellow as an instructor. But he missed being overseas, so after another training stint, this time at Fort Mead where he specialized in decoding burst transmissions, he made his way to “where the heel meets the boot,” Brindisi, Italy, and the San Vito dei Normanni Air Station, where he tinkered in the “elephant cage,” the AN/FLR-9 antenna array that took Cold War eavesdropping to an entirely new, 360-degree level of sophistication. Despite all the geekiness such tinkering entailed, he found time to blend with the locals, enjoying the occasional afternoon siesta and more than one man’s share of Italian night life.

Joe eventually returned stateside in December of 1974 and spent the rest of his military career as an instructor, both at Goodfellow and at the Naval Technical Training Center Corry Station near Pensacola, Florida, where he fed his new love for NASCAR racing by spending his spare time at the Five Flags Speedway. Joe retired in 1979 having achieved the rank of E-6 Technical Sergeant.

You may be wondering how Joe managed to miss a tour in Vietnam. He tells me he tried. He begged them to just let him fly over so he could earn the points necessary for promotion. But it was a no-go; the equipment he worked with was never used in Vietnam. Too cumbersome. And his training never made a combat deployment practical. So he traveled. Soaked up the societies in which he found himself. He never had any illicit romantic entanglements. Never got in a fight. Despite all the alcohol he consumed during his free time, while on duty he was the model of contentment, consistency and performance. He listened, and listened well.

As did I while he shared his story of military service. A tale of interesting work and wild recreation and mysterious locales I will never see firsthand. But I share his memories as he shares them with me.

In a recent post, I bemoaned the fact that so much of what social media offers is generally lacking in substance. How what happens on Facebook or Twitter just doesn’t compare to the connection felt between honest-to-God, face-to-face friends. My friendship with Joe is of the sort that has raised the bar of comparison. In him I have found a friend with whom I can simply do nothing. We can sit and talk for hours and accomplish absolutely nothing, a nothing which is everything. And, on this Veterans Day, I am grateful for all that he means to me . . .

Yo, Swine Flu?!

Yeah, I’m talk’n to you, Miss Piggy.  What’s with all this posturing you’re doin’?  You got a whole buncha’ people all jittery and sh*t.  You even got CNN, Fox *News, and those newbies at MSNBC all talk’n about you like you’re some kinda badass.

You wanna see a badass?  Then point your bleed’n, puffy eyes at me, tough guy.  I whacked 25 million people in less time than it took the House of Representatives to pass a Health-Care bill.  I had folks crapping in their pants on six continents.

Yet you got these 24-hours news channels all giddy about you, using 50-cent words like “pandemic.”  I got your pandemic, Swine-Boy, right the freak here!

And what’s with these technical numbers and letters you’re using as some kinda scary code?  H1N1?  Are you freak’n kidding me?  You know what “coded” terms I used?  “D.O.A.” and “R.I.P.”

So I’m calling you out, Swine Flu.  No freaking around.  Behind the backstops today at 3 o’clock.  Let’s finally see what you’re really made of, nancy pants.

You can even bring your homo buddies, Avian Flu, SARS, and Monkey Pox.  I’ll beat all of your hyped-up asses!

Be There,

Spanish Influenza

RITUAL SHOLAT

Sholat lima waktu adalah adopsi dari ritual Sabeanisme (Shabi’in) pra- Islam:
Kaum Sabean memiliki LIMA waktu solat mirip dgn kelima solat Muslim. Ada yg mengatakan mereka memiliki 7 solat, lima yg mirip dgn waktu solat Muslim [yi, isa, subuh, lohor, azan, magrib; yg ke-6 adalah tengah malam, dan ke-7 adalah sebelum siang tengah hari]. Adalah praktek utk berdoa bagi orang mati tanpa berlutut atau membungkukkan lutut.
Mereka juga berpuasa selama satu bulan atau 30 hari; mereka mulai puasa mereka pada saat sebelum malam berakhir dan melanjutkannya sampai matahari terbenam. Ada aliran2 yg berpuasa selama bulan Ramadan, menghadap Ka’bah saat berdoa, memuja Mekah, dan berhijrah/naik haji ke Mekah. Mereka menganggap mayat, darah dan daging babi sbg najis. Mereka melarang perkawinan dgn alasan sama Muslim melarang perkawinan. (Muhammad Shukri al-Alusi, Bulugh al-’Arab fi Ahwal al-’Arab, pp. 121-122)

Perhatikan, hampir semua ritual yang dijalankan oleh kaum Sabean sama dan diadopsi oleh Islam! Bahkan, Allah memerintahkan muslim meniru mereka. Hai orang-orang yang beriman, diwajibkan atas kamu berpuasa sebagaimana diwajibkan atas orang-orang sebelum kamu agar kamu bertakwa (surat al-Baqarah 2:183)

IBADAH HAJI

Sesungguhnya Safa dan Marwah adalah sebahagian dari syi`ar Allah.Maka barang siapa yang beribadah haji ke Baitullah atau ber-`umrah, maka tidak ada dosa baginya mengerjakan sai antara keduanya. Dan barang siapa yang mengerjakan suatu kebajikan dengan kerelaan hati, maka sesungguhnya Allah Maha Mensyukuri kebaikan lagi Maha Mengetahui (Surah al-Baqarah 2:158)

Lihat komentar mufasir Quran Yusuf Ali tentang apa Safa dan Marwa itu:

“The virtue of patient perseverance in faith leads to the mention of two symbolic monuments of that virtue. These are two little hills of Safa and Marwa, now absorbed in the city of Mecca and close to the well of Zam-zam. Here, according to tradition, the lady Hajar, the mother of the infant Isma’il, prayed for water in the parched desert, and in her eager quest round these hills, she found her prayer answered and saw the Zam-zam spring. Unfortunately, the Pagan Arabs had placed a male and female idol here, and their gross superstitious rites caused offense to the early Muslims. They felt some hesitation in going round these places during the Pilgrimage. As a matter of fact they should have known that the Ka’ba (the House of God) had
been itself defiled with idols, and was sanctified again by the purity of Muhammad’s life and teaching. The lesson is that the most sacred things may be turned to the basest uses; that we are not therefore necessarily to ban a thing misused; that if our intentions and life are pure, God will recognize them even if the world cast stones at us because of some evil associations which they join with what we do, or with the people we associate with, or with the places which claim our reverence.” (Ali, The Holy Qur’an: Translation and Commentary [Lahore, 1934 and 1937], p. 62, fn. 160)

Jadi, Safa dan Marwa dalam surat al-Baqarah tersebut adalah tempat dimana berhala-berhala ditempatkan dan ritual Arab purba biasa dilaksanakan!

catatan:  tidak bermaksud menjelekan agama tertentu, hanya sebagai bahan pemikiran.

Saturday the Congress passed a law that if one does not buy health insurance then it will be jail time and a two trillion dollar price tag.

The title to this bill shows how much of a deception it is “To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes.” This bill is not affordable and those in Congress are relying on the fact that Americans will buy the lies being spread by Pelosi and Obama. Many Americans are saying no to the bill yet those in Congress are telling citizens they are stupid. These leaders today represent American dictatorship just like Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro.

The passing of this law as a crime to not own health insurance is a blatant recourse to the ideals of Josef Stalin. If one does not do what the state demands then it is off to a prison camp. So while murders and rapists go free those who do not want a health care bill to pay will get it free in prison.

The way the bill works is very simple if one does not want to have health insurance especially the younger people who usually do not have well paying jobs will have to pay 2ö percent of their annual gross income. Then if one keeps this up they are subject to a $25,000 fine and one year in jail. If a person is found to be willfully not buying insurance they can be fined $250,000 and jailed up to five years in prison.

This legislation requires that one accept what the Health and Human Services Secretary deems as a qualified plan that one must buy. In other words a dictator will tell you how to spend your hard earned money. In other words the freedom of choice has gone from the United States if this passes. That is correct one will be told how to spend their money and what they will own.

As it is now the government requires that people to pay into the failed Social Security System and pay taxes that support a failed welfare system.

So hard working and productive Americans must pay a fine and/or go to jail. No matter how one looks at this it a socialistic program of spreading the wealth in America. People will quit working if they cannot have a reason to achieve any success if it is taken away before one starts down the road of hard work.

Here is a link to the bill before amendments a clue to reading this bill stand up have a drink heavy with caffeine so on does not fall asleep trying to understand it. The bill is now over 2300 pages with amendments and that has to be a nightmare.

Remember also that if one opposes this bill they are considered a racist. Yet this bill attacks the very core of American values that is written by rich socialists like Pelosi.

Recent am urmarit, si inca de doua ori, documentarul lui Bill Maher, Religulous. Maher porneste de la perspectiva unui agnostic (spre deosebire de un ateu, care spune “Dumnezeu nu exista”, un agnostic pretinde ca e mai intelept si raspunde “Nu stiu daca exista”) cautand sa demonstreze ca religia a adus mai mult daune si violenta in lume decat se pretinde, ca aparenta masca a pacifismului e de fapt o fatarnicie perversa. E un documentar care fie te ofenseaza, fie iti starneste hohote de ras sau cum spunea criticul Linda Cook, uneori si una si alta.

Ce mi-a placut

1. Recunosc e un documentar indraznet si comic. Nu am mai auzit de Bill Maher pana acum asa ca am citit si eu ceva despre el. Pregateste-te pentru intrebari provocatoare, situatii absurde si oameni comici, juxtapozitii (in special cu acele clipuri inserate) si prostie din plin.

2. Pe undeva ma regasesc in trecutul lui… am simtit si eu plictiseala unei dimineti de duminica la serviciul religios, intrebari de copil gen “Da’ de ce eu sunt diferit de altii?” si “De ce sunt atatea religii” sau pacturi la masa tratativelor cu Dumnezeu, “Daca imi faci si imi dregi…atunci eu…”. Mda…oricine a fost crescut de parinti religiosi a detonat dece-urile sub cupola craniului sau…Am ras de mai multe ori de ridicolul unor situatii si de prostia unora din invitati.

Ce obiectii am

1. Sincer nu ma pot astepta prea mult de la un actor de comedie, si tratez documentarul ca pe un stand up comedy. Pe de alta parte e de notorietate antipatia lui Maher pentru religie. Ce imi place la el e ca nu e ateu, Maher nu pretinde ca stie raspunsul, chiar admite existenta lui Dumnezeu. Religia lui e indoiala. Ii dau dreptate de multe ori in ce priveste atitudinea fata de ceea ce au facut oamenii din religie. Pe de alta parte se autodeclara un apostol al indoielii. Un lucru frapant in documentar pentru oricine gandeste este bizara contradictie. El pretinde ca e l nu are un raspuns, ca nu stie, insa e foarte sigur ca ceilalti sunt ridicoli in credinta lor. Ok atunci ce incerci sa demonstrezi…daca pretinzi ca nu stii raspunsul ca nu ai argumente nu e contradictie in termeni sa lovesti in ce pretinzi ca nu stii? De ce esti asa de sigur ca ceilalti gresesc daca tu insuti nu ai raspunsul?

2. La un moment dat performerul Jesus il intreaba: Ok Bill, sa presupunem ca tot ce spui tu e adevar. Dar daca te inseli? la care Bill ii raspunde..”Dar daca te inseli tu?”. Apoi il arata pe interlocutor nedumerit. Am o banuiala ca e un cadru taiat ceea ce e o nedreptate etica pentru ca actorul Jesus se referea la pariul lui Pascal: “Daca eu pretind ca Dumnezeu exista si e cel revelat in Biblia si la urma ma insel, nu am pierdut nimic, ba dimpotriva am trait o viata frumoasa si demna, insa daca tu il negi, il contesti sau ii ridiculizezi revelatia si la urma afli ca te inseli..te vei confrunta cu Judecata de Apoi”. Bill sterge replicile care nu-i convin si le inlocuieste cu mutre, cu figura prostita a interlocutorului.

3. Apoi la un moment dat Bill pretinde ca nu exista argumente ale istoricitatii lui Iisus. Numerosi scriitori greco-romani majoritatea pasivi sau anticrestini si evrei (dusmani ai crestinismului) nu doar ca il amintesc in scrierile lor, ci dau detalii in conformitate cu Evangheliile: Tacit, Suetonius (acestia doi sunt cei mai credibili istorici ai antichitatii), Pliniu cel Tanar, Flavius Josephus, Thallus, Lucian, Celsus…

4. Maher e scandalizat de faptul ca ceilalti 3 evanghelisti in afara de Luca nu amintesc de nasterea din fecioara a lui Iisus. Din cate imi dau eu seama evangheliile nu sunt discursuri papagalicesti, ci diferite unghiuri de vedere asupra Mantuitorului:  Matei il priveste ca un Imparat, Mesia si implinitor al vechilor profetii (aminteste de magii din rasarit ce ii aduc daruri ca pentru rege, aduce multe citate cu profetii din Scripturi), Marcu il prezinta ca un performer de miracole, stapan asupra naturii si neputintei umane, Luca il prezinta ca omul perfect (Iisus a fost si om, de aceea insista asupra nasterii lui, relateaza multe detalii despre trasaturile omenesti ale Mantuitorului), iar Ioan ca pe Fiul lui Dumnezeu in care sa credeti. Pai nu vad de ce as citi de patru ori despre relatarea nasterii Domnului. E adevarat sunt 4 relatari ale crucificarii si invierii insa acestea reprezinta esenta planului de mantuire.

5. Un cliseu tipic al agnosticilor, pe care l-am intalnit si in Zeitgeist si m-as fi mirat sa ii fi scapat lui Bill Maher e pretentia ca si alti intemeietori de religii s-au nascut din fecioara, au facut minuni, vindecari, au dat invataturi similare cu ale lui Iiasus au fost ucisi si au inviat. De exemplu Horus, Tammuz, Bachus. Nimic de zis, cazi socat in fata unor asemenea ‘dovezi’. Brian de Kretser a facut o lista cu 40 de similitudini intre Iisus si Horus (1). Apoi, a facut o alta lista cu 40 de asemanari intre Horus si Hitler. Aici e smecheria, de  Hitler (la fel ca Isus) a fost botezat ca si Horus, s-a nascut intr-o casa care era si brutarie (Horus s-a nascut in Annu, locul painii, Isus in Betleem, Beit-Lehem, casa painii) la 12 ani a intrat la liceu,  la 30 de ani a intrat in partidul Nazi, a avut 12 acoliti, a facut parte din triada Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler. A fost numit razbunatorul (prin tratatul de la Versailles), in repetate randuri a promis pacea, a fost un ‘pastor cel bun’ al poporului german. Hitler s-a sinucis in bunker, Isus si-a dat viata… Cu putina nerusinare as gasi 40 de asemanari si intre mine si Horus. Sau culmea obrazniciei, intre mine si Isus. La 30 de ani am inceput sa scriu acest blog, asa cum Iisus la 30 de ani a inceput lucrarea. Hai Bill, ca ne faci sa radem. Am un alt argument pentru a explica similitudinile. Daca lumea asta e proiectia unui conflict intre bine si rau, intre Dumnezeu si Satana, de ce nu ar avea interes acesta din urma sa falsifice si sa maimutareasca existenta si suferintele lui Iisus. Zeii sunt considerati de Biblie demoni. “Satana e maimuta lui Dumnezeu”, Martin Luther.

Autor: Ovidiu Farcas, Vatra Dornei

Referinte

Similitudini intre Iisus si Horus, intre Horus si Hitler

(1) http://www.adam.com.au/bstett/BJesusandHorus74.htm

This last Sunday night, Comic Strip Live! favorite Marina Franklin had the chance to open for New York Comedy Festival headliner Bill Maher in front of a sold-out crowd of over 2,500 at The Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center.

Franklin, chosen by Maher and festival organizers to feature for the Emmy award winning comedian and TV host, proved herself incredibly worthy of being on such an impressive stage and if the capacity crowd’s opinion counts, she made it abundantly clear that her day headlining in such a venue is getting increasingly near at hand.

Franklin can currently be seen as a corespondent on NBC’s The Jay Leno Show and nightly at The Comic Strip Live!