Belmont Club

By Richard Fernandez

Bio

Get Updates From Richard Fernandez

C what U Done?

March 6, 2012 - 2:51 pm - by Richard Fernandez

The reason it’s ok for Bill Maher to call Sarah Palin the “c” word is because he’s “fearless” in speaking the “truth.” As the Dallas Voice put it, “Last night, at the Winspear Opera House, Maher spoke the truth for a nearly two-hour set, and, in my mind, established himself as the pre-eminent political commentator of a generation. ”

It’s that fearlessness — he acknowledged that some people would probably be uncomfortable with some of his remarks about religion, not to mention calling Sarah Palin a “cunt” (“there’s just no other word for her”) — that makes Maher the most dangerous person in comedy. He’s painfully well-informed, which means he takes no bullshit from anyone.

And as for calling members of the Tea Party “teabaggers” on national TV, not only is that hilarious, it’s a legitimate comedic attitude called “edginess” which most of the readers of this site are too dumb and unsophisticated to appreciate.

Advertisement

Bill Maher is funny, witty, full of edgy political/religious commentary, and reflects social inequalities in a way that you wait till you are not around anyone before breaking down. The show was so good that I felt obligated to debrief about everything that was said. I missed things because I was laughing so hard. Favorite moment: “I will stop calling them TEA BAGGERS when they stop calling it Obamacare.”

Ha ha ha ha. Well, Bill Maher put a million dollars into President Obama’s super-PAC and Sarah Palin asks: “are you going to return it?

Pres. Obama says he called Sandra Fluke because of his daughters. For the sake of everyone’s daughter, why doesn’t his super PAC return the $1 million he got from a rabid misogynist?

Why aren’t all of the champions of chivalry who rushed to Fluke’s defense asking that the president do the same? But hell no, says Maher. Maher says the reason he can call Sarah Palin a “bad name” but Limbaugh can’t is because “Rush, I don’t have sponsors. I’m on HBO.”

Ha ha ha ha ha.

Translation: I can s**t in your face because I have the power to do it. The pow-ah, the pow-ah to do it. Maher is on TV and can call anybody anything he wants and nobody is going to call him on it. Evah. Did you get that, Rush? Never mind, Rush. You will.

Whether or not Rush evah figures it out, a lot of people will get the point just fine. This is not about edginess, funniness. It’s not even about Fluke or Palin or contraception. This is about pow-ah. Maher is simply a leftist court jester flaunting his cruelty, drunk with immunity.

He is also a symbol of the asymmetry of the political battlefield.  Leftists can do things By Any Means Necessary. Conservatives must be held to a standard that Leftists espouse only for the express purpose of holding their opponents to it.

George Orwell once described totalitarianism as “a boot in your face forever.” But an equally good definition would be Bill Maher’s sneering face on every video billboard, poster, TV show and full page ad — forever. Ha ha ha ha.

Some of Bill Maher’s friends are quite looking forward to that day, which they imagine is closer than you think.


How to Publish on Amazon’s Kindle for $2.99
The Three Conjectures at Amazon Kindle for $1.99
Storming the Castle at Amazon Kindle for $3.99
No Way In at Amazon Kindle $3.99, print $9.99

Tip Jar or Subscribe for $5

PJ Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:

1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.

2. Stay on topic.

3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.

4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.

5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.

These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that PJ Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. Please note that comments are reviewed by the editorial staff and may not be posted immediately. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pjmedia.com.

142 Comments, 142 Threads

  1. 1. the permanent newbie

    Sad but true, Mr. Fernandez, and very, very well put. Not only will I never pay a dime for HBO, but if I were to watch any of their products, it would only be on free copies borrowed from the public library, never paid for by me.

    If only there were something more to do. G-d, I miss Andrew Breitbart…

  2. 2. lynndh

    Prick.

  3. 3. Tuduri

    Maher may not have ‘sponsors’ but HBO does have paying viewers. If enought of these viewers end their HBO subscription as a result of Maher’s comments and attitude, maybe he’ll get the message.

    Speaking of “teabaggers”, I could never understand why democrats thought this was so funny. I mean, to even be acquainted with the term, which I was not in the beginning, must mean that they have some experience with it. Maybe it’s my psychiatrist brother rubbing off on me, but I always thought that calling people “teabaggers” was their projecting their own behavior on to others. I think that Freud would say that their subconcious desires are manifesting themselves in their name calling.

  4. 4. stephen b

    Maher “reflects social inequalities” alright, just like Wretchard says: he’s on top with his buddies, and you other losers are on the bottom, with boot prints.

  5. 5. Black Bart

    Maher is one of those idiots that truly believes in his own intelligence, sorta like Biden. For a guy that hates religion he sure is sanctimonious.

  6. 6. Gringo

    Tudori:
    Speaking of “teabaggers”, I could never understand why democrats thought this was so funny. I mean, to even be acquainted with the term, which I was not in the beginning, must mean that they have some experience with it.

    An acquaintance of the Democratic persuasion asked me, “You’re not one of those teabaggers, are you?” My reply: “I don’t go around licking testicles. Do you?” After that, he referred to the Tea Party, not to teabaggers.

  7. 7. Bonzo

    Harry Nilsson, Remember:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dpxg27Kz6g0&feature=related

    Remember; just remember. I’d say be Breitbart but that’s too tacky.

  8. 8. Buzzsawmonkey

    So, if use of a certain “c-word” for women is “fearless speaking of truth,” I guess it’s OK to observe that Sandra Fluke is looking for the government to subsidize her c*nt-reception…

  9. 9. Real conservative

    You’re comparing a comedian making fun of a public figure to a “serious” radio talk show host insulting a woman for no reason. To make it worse, Limbaugh didn’t even have a clue as to what she actually said and apparently most of you don’t either.

  10. 10. grassfarmer

    Maher is one of the biggest cowards in TV and the MSM. I would like nothing better than to see Todd Palin use him as bait for shark fishing.

  11. 11. LeighB

    Hey HBO. I dropped your channels because of Maher. Too much hate speech and not enough comedy.

  12. 12. Joe Citizen

    What the hell does anyone care what the LGBT Dallas Voice has to say about anything human related? Approx. 60 seconds at that site was 59 seconds too long. Calling them perverts would be a step up from what they are – subhuman pathogens. Maher should be proud to have a subhuman fan club. The true curse of this despicable excuse for a human is having a brain that obsesses in the arena of hate and lies. He has to live in that rotting carcass forever.

  13. 13. Uncle Jefe

    #9 “Real Conservative”…peddle your drivel elsewhere.
    Maher is just as much a “serious” talk show host as Limbaugh, considering how unfunny he is.

  14. 14. JED

    “The reason it’s ok for Bill Maher to call Sarah Palin the “c” word is because he’s “fearless” in speaking out the “truth”.” Turn the phrasing and he becomes ‘fearful as he twists the truth. Maher is driven by a need for no limits.
    Dante had a limitation for these characters, where they keep liars, panderers, flatterers and seducers: in a septic pool of human excretia:
    Maleboge Bolgia 2: Flatterers also exploited other people, this time using language. They are steeped in human excrement, which represents the words they produced.

  15. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.

    So tell me is the foul, four letter word Maher used in his quote necessary? That would mean that if I said in a quote that Maher was a )(&(^*^*)&*%*%)(&^&$& that would be appropriate. After all I have as much experience in foreign policy, politics and government as Maher. I too have degree in history and a minor in english and latin. I actually have managed to raise 6 children who have become responsible adults. Something Maher couldn’t do even with a platoon of Code Pink minders. Besides I’m just speaking truth to power, just like Maher. I can’t help it he’s a d-bag.

    Besides anyone who has to use words like that to make their point has already stepped to the head of the LOSER line. He’s an arrogant, obnoxious, pre-pubescent, whiner with delusions of relevancy. If I know he’s on a show I simply don’t watch it. Usually ever.

  16. 16. Mr ED

    There is only one way to hit them where it really hurts and will do any good at all – Avoid them like the plague. If CNN/MSNBC/ABC/CBS/NBC are showing in a place where you cannot avoid it, complain and threaten to take your business elsewhere unless they give you a choice, or else. Do not be nice about it and do not be understanding. Give them an ultimatum and do it often. Drop HBO. Drop Showtime. (I just did) Drop any newspaper/periodical that is Liberal and let them whither on the dinosaur media vine. Do not watch the broadcast Libscum and do not put one penny in their pockets, including the bastion of stupidity and Liberal babble, Hollywood. Make them pay a price and a heavy one. The filthy Liberal machine needs to be starved and brought to its demise. This is the real war. Get involved.

  17. 17. cellec

    He is also a symbol of the asymmetry of the political battlefield

    I couldn’t have said it better. He’s a dedicated Liberal, so he’s free to be as viscious, sneering and cruel as he cares to be. Why any conservative would go on his one-sided show is beyond me. Your playing to an audience of pavlov dogs, trained to shout you down.

  18. 18. 49erDweet

    9. Real conservative
    Nor do most of us care, either. Thankfully, we have you around to worry about it.

  19. 19. Tex Taylor

    Bill Maher is so fringe, so marginal, so untalented, and so vile, that I don’t know why work ourselves up over this ugly, butt faced, colorless, gutless punk. Think Keith Olbermann – the only thing keeping Maher standing is us.

    In reality, Bill Maher is the male version of Janeane Garofalo, and if we would simply ignore this cowardly piece of filth, he’d slither away to the rest of the snakes. There is nothing or edifying about his little man. Let him die an ignominious death. Let him say the crap he does. Scream it a little louder, Maher.

    HBO is in such dire straights, they are offering it to me for free at present, and I won’t accept it on account of people like Maher. Maher will go the way of Olbermann and Gore if we would let him.

    Joe Citizen is right. Nobody of any worth or you would want to associate gives a damn about the Dallas Voice. If you’ve got to mention them in conversation, let it be to laugh at them.

  20. 20. Buzzsawmonkey

    Those of you old enough to remember when there were joke & novelty shops will recognize that Bill Maher’s face bears a truly stunning resemblance to the little rubber “ventriloquist practice heads” that such shops used to sell.

  21. 21. Walt

    A LOSER’S FATE

    I met a man who said to hang
    A murderer was not
    A thing a civil man would do
    Because ‘twould mean the pot
    Would then be just the same as those
    Foul kettles that we hate
    And then he smiled and walked away
    To meet his loser’s fate
    A woman said to kill a child
    Was worse than she could stand
    Just thinking of it made her cry
    But on the other hand
    She felt it was a woman’s right
    Despite her firm held views
    To kill her child because she had
    A woman’s right to choose
    These people think they’re being fair
    To not combat or fight
    The leftist culture when it dares
    To make a wrong a right
    They’re not inclined to take a stand
    No argument to state
    And so they smile and walk away
    To meet their loser’s fate

  22. 22. Niccolo

    A century ago, Maher would have been dismissed as a worthless boor and a foul-mouthed scoundrel.

    Two centuries ago, he would have been fighting a duel every other morning. For a little while, at least…

  23. 23. Dack Thrombosis

    “HBO is in such dire straights, they are offering it to me for free at present, and I won’t accept it on account of people like Maher. Maher will go the way of Olbermann and Gore if we would let him.”

    They’re not going away, though. And even if one of them does happen to step on their d**k, they promptly replace them with a similar mind.

    Now what?

  24. 24. Talnik

    Look: Maher’s a paid shill. He’s less funny than any other guy you’d meet so he’d be in another line of work if he didn’t spout what he does. But the libs were just starting to edge away but now that Palin went after him they’ll hold him dearer than before and he’ll probably get a bigger contract. HBO doesn’t care if you boycott them, they’ve got the international left to fund media like them, look at the New York Times for goodness sake.
    The more p.o.’d we get at him, the cruder, happier and more wealthy he’ll be.

  25. 25. Blast From the Past

    “Teabagging” was first used as a slur by three years ago by Anderson Cooper, who apparently knows whereof he speaks. The topic is not mentioned on his wiki page, big surprise.

    Fifty years ago a man speaking about a lady as Maher does would have resulted in someone getting up on the stage and laying into him with a horsewhip if not a bullwhip while the audience prevented any intervention by the police. Subsequently no jury would have convicted. Seventy five years ago many conservatives had strong opinions about Eleanor Roosevelt but no one would have dared voice them in the manner that Maher has used against Sarah Palin.

    What the Left has done is declared war. They have deliberately poisoned the field of public discourse so that there can’t be civil negotiation or compromise. They have burned the boats that could take their subjects back to America.

  26. 26. Josh

    Twenty years ago, Maher was a third-rate stand-up guy, and was picked up by early cable stations as cheap filler.

    Over the years he started to take himself seriously, and has degenerated right into a figurehead for exactly the PC movement he pretends to disparage. He’s neither particularly well informed nor clever, just increasingly snarky. In certain circles (of Dallas) that is indistinguishable from brave, intelligent, handsome, or any other virtuous attribute you care to name. They probably think he’s nine feet tall and the sun shines out of his ass.

    It galls me that he has a spare million to contribute to politics.

  27. 27. Bruce

    #16 Mr ED makes a great suggestion. If CNN/MSNBC/ABC/CBS/NBC is playing in a public place, announce loudly that being forced to watch that leftist hate speech will ruin your dinner/drink/whatever, and you will leave if they don’t change the channel to something more acceptable. If they don’t–and in most cases they won’t–immediately leave, telling them why you are leaving. You don’t have to be a jerk, but don’t do it quietly. Make sure other people hear you, and maybe you’ll inspire others.

    Be Breitbart

  28. 28. don

    Maher is the intellectual champion for the shit-for-brains crowd.

  29. 29. Nick Siener

    One universal law that one cannot escape from, I’ve seen it over and over, then again sometimes I don’t get to see it or know of it, but I am POSITIVE it befalls those who deserve it: What goes around, comes around….kinda like those chickens some pastor talked about….then, if WE live right, we will hear the clukin!

  30. 30. EBL

    I used to be a fan of Maher back in the day. I liked the old libertarian Maher. But the truth is he is lazy and pandering to the lefty crowd. He is not that funny any more. He is not witty. It is ironic it was conservatives (like Rush Limbaugh) that defended him when he got booted from ABC. Just another example of no good turn goes unpunished.

    And Sarah Palin. Seriously, what is with the delusional hatred of Sarah Palin? She is more moderate than most Republicans on social issues. She supports general fiscal conservatism. What particular policy or position does she take that warrants this sort of hatred? What is so threatening and horrible about Sarah Palin? They do not merely disagree with her–they want to completely destroy her. The pathological rage of the Left to Sarah Palin is disturbing.

  31. 31. jd

    @ #9 Real conservative

    Actually, a Real Conservative will exhibit a consistancy of Principles. It is a Leftist that likes to Parse the situation so they can say the principle is somehow different when it, in fact, is not different at all.

    And Rush did not make his comments for no good reason, he did so because this woman was advocating the degradation of Religious Liberty for her own selfish purposes in a Forum set up by democrats specifically for her to do so.

    But sinc you are a Leftist who doesn’t understand conservativs at all, your inability to even phrase an argument in the format of a Real Conservative, but in the format of a Genuine Leftist – I’m not surprised.

    P.S. 8 months from now we’ll see how many of his advertisers will have learned the lessons of Snapple and Pocohontis.

  32. 32. That guy

    Since when was comrade maher considered a comedian?

  33. 33. ella8

    Bill Maher is not the only person who has called conservative women scrotum suckers (teabaggers). Obama and Schumer and many other politicians and journalists have called women scrotum suckers too. Also I wonder how many closeted conservatives have coworkers who refer to their kind as scrotum suckers. Wouldn’t that be sexual harassment?

  34. 34. SpeakEasy

    Rush should not have apologized, women who sleep around are sluts. So are men who sleep around, for those who want to try and peg me as sexist. Maher is a moron and not worthy of the attention he is receiving. Don’t just cancel HBO, cancel your cable, all of it, until he gets sacked. If enough people do that it will not take long. And it would be a good opportunity to catch up on reading. As a bonus the cable companies will have to lay some people off and Obama’s numbers will suffer. It is what the left would do so no crocodile tears please.

  35. 35. ella8

    I am cancelling my cable tomorrow. All of it. I have had it with the vileness of the left. In the past I have at least kept basic cable, but even ABC and NBC are sleazy and biased these days. The only thing I will miss is Fox news. I am just going to keep netflix for the kids and be selective about what they watch.

  36. 36. Moniker

    30 EBL “The pathological rage of the Left to Sarah Palin is disturbing.”

    Feminists actually feel inferior to women who live normal lives, and that feeling of inferiority is transmuted into rage at those examples of normal femininity who in various ways seem to, or do refute or negate the various agendas of the feminists. That is why they never, ever complain if Sarah Palin or any other conservative female is verbally abused, insulted, or denigrated. In fact, they positively encourage such treatment, such as by applauding the likes of the “comic” discussed here.

    They feel inferior, because they are not normal, in the mathematical sense of the word. Sexual misfits want to be called normal, and hope to become normal by convincing everyone else that they, too, are either overt or covert sexual deviants. Pushing these ideas onto younger and younger children is one of the strategies they hope will accomplish this.

    There was a story recently about a 5 year old British boy who insists that he’s a girl and has been diagnosed by the NHS as gender disordered. The thought occurred to me that perhaps, in older days, such boys were the sources of those oft-mentioned eunuchs. The practice of castration seems to be experiencing a renaissance. Maybe we’ll again have choruses of castrati to listen to.

  37. 37. Hawk

    Bill Maher stopped being a comedian a long time ago.
    He is a political pundit like Rush and all of the other talking heads on the cable networks and talk radio. The fact that he can weave his words into a series of one liners doesn’t change its message.

    Bill Maher and other “comics” like Jon Stewart can no longer hide behind the “it was a joke” rhetoric anymore, and people who still give them a free pass because they’re “comedians telling jokes” are embarrassing themselves with this stupid excuse.

  38. 38. Cowboy

    I don’t know which one is more pathetic, Bill Maher or his sycophantic reviewer. Maher must be laughing all the way to the bank after one of these two hour “truth” sessions. It is quite hard to do good comedy with broad appeal. To be a Cosby, Hope, or even Carson is quite hard to do. Few even try anymore. It’s far easier to play to a niche and milk it. This is the aim of the Brandon Tartikoff Strategy, named after a powerful former NBC executive who adopted it to great success once upon a time. All the entertainment industries have adopted it, Hollywood, TV, music, books. Divide and conquer, target a demographic and play to its beliefs and desires exclusively.

    Maher is so far gone down this road that if you’re not among his targeted audience you’re not even going to recognize what he’s doing as comedy. He appears simply mean, banal, hackish, and very small. That’s exactly what he is, too. The greatest qualities in art, and in us, are those things that speak across the ages, that put is touch with the human condition. Maher’s so far gone he can’t see that anymore. The Slough of Despond’s done ate him up.

  39. 39. David W

    I have never had cable. I have so far refused to because I would be paying for channels I feel are offensive. When I was visiting my parents they had Direct TV. As I was flipping through channels I came across the “Gay Channel”. Needless to say I won’t subscribe to Direct TV, or Dish Network, or even Verizon FIOS (though I’ve been tempted – get thee behind me Satan). If every conservative would cancel their “cable” with an “I will resubscribe as soon as you get rid of MTV, VH1, LOGO, etc.” The only reason those channels are on is because of the money spent to see Dirty Jobs or Myth Busters or Modern Marvels.

  40. #19 Mr. Ed et al: don’t get their films from the library. Get a bittorrent client. Pay only for films made by good guys. There won’t be many. A little expropriation as payback.

  41. 41. R Daneel

    Blast From the Past @ 25:

    “Fifty years ago a man speaking about a lady as Maher does would have resulted in someone getting up on the stage and laying into him with a horsewhip if not a bullwhip while the audience prevented any intervention by the police. Subsequently no jury would have convicted.

    Precisely. There are still places like that. Keep heart. Someone who would speak about any woman as he did of Palin would be told, in no uncertain terms, to cease. If he did not then he would have appropriate justice administered until he:
    1. Learned his lesson and amended his behavior.
    2. Fled to preserve his life.
    3. Had a bad end.

    No one would be arrested. No one would defend him. No one would help him.

    Welcome to Redneck America. It is a nicer place here.

    Someone on the net said that the problem was that the Left did not consider the rest of us, IOW the not them, human. That is true. But the truth it is they who are not human. So, we can react in appropriate ways or give up and die.

    Me, I am going to stock up on the essentials. Precious metals. Food. Land. Prepare to fight the moral fight. Tolerate no sub-humans and their ways. Help them amend their behavior per the prescription above.

  42. 42. sule

    Maher first came to my attention with his gushing admiration for the 9/11 suicide pilots bravery; crashing passenger jets into buildings was a real leg tingler for him…

    “Truth?” Out of his vile mouth? No, “trash.”

  43. 43. Keaton

    I would love to see Mahar get into an elevator, and Todd Palin walks in behind him, waits till the door closes, and pushes emergency stop! See Bill cry. See Bill say sorry! See Bill defecate his pants.

  44. 44. Blast From the Past

    Glad to see that the Moby troll call for violence got deleted. We have to be careful. The radicals, who really are paranoid conspiracy theorists, will try to infiltrate and set us up in order to discredit and shut down this forum. Know the nature of those who see you as a threat. If someone chooses to go silent and devote all their time to assembling a more secure nest for their family we should not despise them for that. Each must make their own choices.

    What may prove useful is if someone retains a log of such provocations along with IP records. The totalitarians have arrogantly created the legal tools to exploit such records, believing their own crimes are untouchable. These things should be reported to Law Enforcement for the record. In the future there may be an accounting with an American “Truth and Justice Commission” tracing these links. We may need those records when rocks are lifted.

    For the record please note the difference between my recollection of civic virtue and the deleted threat of violence.

  45. 45. Tcobb

    Bill Mayer is just a symptom, as I think Wretchard was saying. Yes, he’s a filthy bastard, but buzzards only appear when the carrion is present and there is nothing to run them off. The worst impulses of men come out when they are presented with a living fantasy where you can supposedly do good by practicing actual evil. Kill and oppress the (Jews, Rednecks, put any label in here) in the name of God/Enlightened Thought/the Greater Good for that shall make you virtuous. Just ask your fellow a**holes if you have any doubts. If they tell you you’re a good boy they can’t be wrong, can they?

    Its the fantasy that is the problem. The morally weak and the predators shall always be with us. But most of them only come out in the dark when the fantasy blocks the light.

  46. 46. JMH

    Maher is one of those idiots that truly believes in his own intelligence, sorta like Biden. For a guy that hates religion he sure is sanctimonious.

    Maher doesn’t hate religion. He just hates other people’s religion. His own – Lefty-Governo-Nomenklaturaism – he loves it long time, Baby. After Wahabiists, Lefty’s are the most intolerant, evangelical relgious bigots on Earth.

    BTW, speaking of asymmetry, #9 go back to your controllers and tell ‘em it didn’t work. Tell ‘em Breitbart was here. Better go run and hide.

    Oh, and on the subject of Limbaugh’s sponsers, seems like the sponsers who dropped Limbaugh are being dropped by their shareholders.

  47. 47. wretchard

    It never seemed becoming to a man to make gratuitous fun of a woman. If Limbaugh apologized, whatever his inner reasons, there is in it an acknowledgment of how things should be. As long as we haven’t lost sight of where that ideal is, all is not lost. And give him this: in form at least, Rush eventually knew where it lay.

    But Maher’s delight … well degradation is a different place; where meanness and cruelty themselves are the ideal. In that place no birds sing. The truly obscene is always attended by sadness; a shadow flitting among many shadows. Trouble has that feeling, and those who have known it sense when it is near.

    The reason that a breakdown in civility of political discourse disturbs us is that we feel the nearness of that chaos, the presence of the edge. Professor Jacobson remarked yesterday that one ought not evince “a similar reaction” to the total political warfare of the Left, though he could not in the end say why.

    But I will hazard a continuation of Professor Jacobson’s thought. He knows it is dangerous. Our revulsion at a gibbering man is natures way of warning us how near we are to someone who, despite the suit, has lost it. Of course one may go and cross over to the other side of the looking glass. Things are different there and it is much harder to get back.

  48. 48. Steve D

    I’ve been torn for a while now about HBO. I love many of their dramatic series. Game of Thrones etc.. But I hate being hooked by that into supporting a prick like Mr.BM. This pretty much kicks me over the edge I think. I guess I can always just pirate what I want off the web.

  49. 49. Real conservative

    So if any of y’all happened to have a daughter who was a democrat and some fat nut job on a radio show called her slut based on a strawman argument , y’all would not care? And the difference is that Maher markets himself as a comedian, Rushie doesn’t.

  50. 50. Blogstrop

    I’d say you’re no real conservative, and that you have no standards, really. You’re just doing what is referred to above, trying to hold someone to a standard you don’t hold to yourself. The confected outrage is rather two-dimensional. The student has questionable standards, and those who are using her for political purposes are certainly not on the high ground.

  51. 51. wretchard

    Maybe we’re all comedians now. Let’s just say Bill Maher’s sense of humor has become universal. Since nothing he says is offensive, maybe we should just forget the whole question of giving offense. That’s so yesterday.

    This business about saying, “oh wait, I’m covered by special rules, nothing I do is foul” makes things kind of complicated. Ultimately we either all play by the same set of rules or we play by the same set of rules. The question is: whose rules do you want to play by? Choose one.

  52. 52. tRex

    Aw, shucks, #49. Thought you’d went away.
    “…fat nut job on a radio show…” How does your juvenile ad hominem crack advance your argument?
    “….slut based on a strawman argument…” You must not have listened to the broadcast. Rush stated, and I agree, that a woman demanding money so she could have sex, which is what Fluke wants, deserves the name.

    Go away. You’re an infantile bore.

  53. 53. Real conservative

    Nice dodge blobstop. So if someone called your daughter a slut you wouldnt care? Cool to know.

  54. 54. Blogstrop

    If someone calls my daughter a slut and the statistics back it up, I’d have trouble denying it. There used to be comeback along the lines of “she’s not a prostitute, just an enthusiastic amateur”. In my household, my wife and I will be the first to pass judgement on sexual misbehaviour if it occurs, and harsh words might be justified by certain circumstances. Happily I can report to you that I have daughters who are very conservative in that and most areas, and who have given us zero cause for concern. I do despair of a lot of the behaviour I see reported, and have gone on record as being opposed to the too lax drinking hours that are legal here in Australia.
    My daughters do not drink alcohol, you’ll be pleased to know.

  55. 55. Tim

    Had a liberal blogger tell me she wished I would be kidnapped and have my head cut off over here(I work in Kuwait) for saying I was against tax increases of all types. The most shocking thing of that was that I was not shocked!!

  56. 56. Real conservative

    Rex, quote one thing Sandra fluke actually said.

  57. 57. E2

    As a fan of a lot of HBO’s programming, I’m not beating myself up too much about supporting the network that gives Maher a platform. For one thing, HBO is doing us a service. Douchebags like Maher are useful tools for understanding the opposition – he actually SAYS publicly the things that most on the left only discuss privately among their insulated cliques. Personally, I like it when an opponent shows his cards.

    Secondly, there are precious few American media or entertainment outlets that aren’t run by crazy left-wing Marxists. If I boycotted them all, I’d probably have to stop listening to music, watching my favorite tv shows, and going to the movies.

    Lastly, to paraphrase that quote again from the movie Defiance, when the Zombie Apocalypse comes, I’m sure Maher will be explaining to people that in his previous life, “I was a…comedian.” If he’s lucky, Sarah Palin might take pity on him and let him nibble on the deer she just shot and butchered. She seems like a forgiving kind of gal.

  58. 58. JMH

    Unfortunately the LotR was inaccurate. If you stay up all night arguing with a troll, he does not turn to stone in the morning.

    But it’s intereasting to see that the Left still has a Troll Control sending out the minions.

  59. 59. wretchard

    Real conservative, you submitted a fake email address. Now I’m not holding that against you, being a real conservative and all. But the problem is: how we can we be sure that you’re not a comedian? In which case you can legitimately play by Bill Maher rules.

    Could we all be civil to each other? Then we all know where we are. If Rush should apologize, then so should Maher. Otherwise its a Chinese fire drill. Then I could write to you with a fake email address too. And why should you object if I want to be a real conservative just like you?

    Don’t waste time on Real Conservative. He’s fake.

  60. 60. Real conservative

    Blogstrap – I hope you don’t have kids. The problem with your quip “if the statistics back it up” is how can you reliably know?

  61. 61. Highlander

    @49: “And the difference is that Maher markets himself as a comedian, Rushie doesn’t.”

    And that makes a difference in giving anyone a free pass to subject anyone else to such foul abuse? At least Rush was man enough to give a public apology. But as is often said, one of the nice things about being a Progressive is never having to say you’re sorry. Besides, as Rush has often said over the years, he is really an entertainer, just like Bill Maher. Personally. I think you’ve got your panties in a bunch because Rush did not use an “acceptable” invective against a “deserving” target.

    Nice try. Go away.

  62. 62. Real conservative

    I submit an address just to get published quickly.

  63. 63. Tcobb

    #49. Real conservative

    Let us break that down to the logical essence:

    If someone you like is called an insulting term by someone you don’t like based upon a strawman argument, an ordinary person is justified in feeling outrage.

    Exactly. That’s why so many people hate Mill Maher and Barrack Obama (although there are many, many other reasons as well). They indulge in the very same type of arguments. And what they bill themselves as has nothing to do with it. Hate and ugliness is hate and ugliness,and logic is logic. Arguments stand or fall on their own, not on the social position of those who make them.

  64. 64. Highlander

    W@59: Roger, Lead….

  65. 65. Tamquam

    This came to my attention today, sent from Century 21 Central to all brokers and subsequently to the agents:

    Dear CENTURY 21® Broker,

    I’d like to make you aware of a media issue that has drawn a
    significant amount of attention to the brand over the past 72
    hours. Radio personality Rush Limbaugh made controversial remarks
    on February 29 that have caused Representative Jackie Speier, (D -
    12th District, CA) to call for a boycott of all companies that
    sponsored Limbaugh’s radio show. CENTURY 21® Real Estate was cited
    incorrectly, among a number of other companies, as a sponsor of
    the show.

    *Century 21 Real Estate LLC is not a sponsor or supporter of the
    Rush Limbaugh radio program, and we have taken every step possible
    to ensure our network ads will *not run within*, or adjacent to,
    this syndicated program in the future. We do not align advertising
    decisions with any particular political view as we value the
    diversity shared among our employees and customers alike.*

    We have taken proactive steps to end the rumors sparked by the
    inaccurate statement made by Representative Speier. CENTURY 21
    headquarters immediately reached to Rep. Speier’s office to set
    the record straight that CENTURY 21 Real Estate is not a sponsor
    of the Rush Limbaugh Show. We learned that the Congresswoman’s
    remarks were inclusive of all advertisers using the Clear Channel
    network to purchase radio advertising. We have been closely
    monitoring this story and all references made to CENTURY 21 Real
    Estate on the Internet and in social media channels. We continue
    to work diligently to have our brand removed from any published
    sponsor lists and correct these misrepresentations with the facts.

    Women are central to the very core of our business, a business
    that has been supporting female home-buyers and sellers for more
    than 40 years. Women play an important role in the real estate
    industry both from the agent side (57% are women*) to actual
    buyers (20% of recent home buyers were single females*). CENTURY
    21 Real Estate actively promotes, creates and fosters an
    environment of diversity throughout its organization and views
    this concept as a critical component to the ongoing success of our
    business.

    It is unfortunate that this misunderstanding has developed, but we
    are eager to help you respond to customer inquiries about it. As
    is the case with any media inquiries that come to you from your
    local news outlets, please refer them to our national public
    relations department matt.gentile@century21.com

    To which reply was made:

    Dear Matt;

    Although I was disappointed with Rush’s use of language, for which he has fulsomely apologized, incidently, I am even more disappointed that Century 21 should be so quick to fall into PC lockstep with what is clearly a political agitprop operation. I note with interest that no such horrified disclaimer was bruited about when Bill Maher called Sarah Palin even more shocking and scurrilous names. This faux outrage tempest in a tea pot is not about ‘violence against women’, that is only a pretext, as I am sure you are aware. I do not propose to enter into a debate on the proximate issues, but Matt, you’ve been had.

    We live in difficult times, Matt, when particular ideologies routinely avail themselves of the power of shrill accusation to attack the foes with whom they will not engage rationally in civil discourse, while requiring all and sundry to turn a blind eye to their own far more numerous and egregious offenses. Standing up and being counted when the propagandists are in full cry requires fortitude and courage. I am embarrassed to be a member of an organization which, at least in this instance, so singularly failed to distinguish itself. I hope that this will be a learning experience and that next time, as a next time there will surely be, Century 21 will not yield so willingly or in such a craven fashion.

    Given that so many of Mr. Limbaugh’s advertisers are doing the knee-jerk PC kow-tow I think this would be wonderful opportunity for Century 21 to buy effective advertising on the most widely listened to radio program in the nation at deeply discounted rates. I urge you to look into the matter and to take action in support of the stockholders and members of the Century 21 system.

    Cordially,

    TLR

  66. 66. Dave Surls

    “So if someone called your daughter a slut you wouldnt care?”

    If Sandra Fluke was my daughter, I’d care, because then I’d have a daughter who was a slut.

    She’s not a slut because of her personal sexual activities (although she might be that kind of a slut too), but because she’s prostituting herself in the service of advancing totalitarian, tyrannical socialism: the vilest ideology on planet earth.

    And, all so that rich college kids, attending a university that costs more than I make in a year, can get guys like me to pay for their birth control.

    She’s a million times lower than a street walker. And calling her a slut is an insult…to street walkers. At least they don’t take people’s money by force, and they offer some kind of service in return, if you voluntarily give them your money.

  67. 67. blogstrop

    Real Con, you’re just piling up the evidence that you’re just a vexatious interloper who can’t abide a successful conservative blog. I’ve added a bit to my previous answer, and in response to your latest jibe, I know what standards of behaviour everyone in my household has – you imply duplicity on their part or sheer dumb stupidity on mine. The ugly truth for fakes like you is that there are people left in this world who are honest and scrupulous about how they conduct themselves.
    As to asking if we know what Sandra said, its all here, in clear video courtesy C-SPAN.
    My assessment is that she’s a clever little legal student who’s quite adept in the debating skills required by her future profession, at least in the absence of a cross-examination or a next speaker for the other debating team. She quite clearly identifies with the case studies she puts, however most of them are exceptional, despite her pleas to the contrary.
    There was probably a misapprehension as to her identification with rather than endorsement of a rate of intercourse that would beggar belief about even one who might be described (comedically, you understand) as an enthusiastic amateur. No such misapprehension or misunderstanding pertains in the crudity reported in this post. It was truly gratuitous and in the face of everone – pretty much like you until Wretchard bans you, which is all you deserve.

  68. 68. blert

    It did take me strange that the term ‘teabagger’ should leap straight from the gay world of BDSM – -and PRISON TATS — and Anderson Cooper into mainstream political conversation.

    For ANYONE hip: teabagger is a Prison Sex term used to denote the most submissive of the ‘fish.’ ( As in fresh fish/ newly caught )

    It is NOT a hetero term of sex craft at all.

    ——-

    It takes a VERY weird bent of mind to re-craft a classic American political iconography ( rebellion ) into BDSM scorn for the ultra-submissive male. ( its ultimate inverse )

    Cooper is telling us more that we really care to know — about himself — and where his head is at — and has been.

  69. 69. Skeptic

    Suppose your own daughter told you:

    – Dad, I need money.
    – Why?
    – I am having so much casual sex I can’t afford contraception.

    Now, would you think anything else about her except that she is a slut? Wouldn’t ou be mortified? Of course you would.

    Limbaugh is attacked not for lying, but for telling an obvious, but unpleasant, truth.

    After witnessing a graduation in a co-ed college, Dorothy Parker said, famously, “if all those sweet young things were to be laid end to end, I wouldn’t be the least surprised.” Apparently, now they are.
    That’s all there is to this.

  70. 70. Tee

    Commentariat. Opinion Cartel. Natterbots. Blatheratti. At some point, the word “informed” was substituted for “educated”, meaning it’s not enough to do your own reading and research; you have to have your news filtered, interpreted, processed for consumption and reinforced to prevent independent, and possibly incorrect, thinking. Maher and Limbaugh are the logical extensions of this and I can’t stand either for that reason, so they’re easy to ignore.

    Enough said, but I’d hate to miss the opportunity to use the word verisimilitudinous, so, yeah: both are entertainers, both appeal to people with a certain idea of entertainment that I don’t get, and the narratives are verisimilitudinous = “the truth according to me” = we’re good, they’re evil – and they believe it all. Both are poster boys for what amounts to a rampant disease infecting political discourse these days: crass denigration, as edgy as a bag of donuts, since many of us grew out of that by third grade. And if they are caught in something, it’s but he did it too!

    Rush’s apology…wasn’t much, but I do think he understands what an apology is. Maher probably doesn’t, and deserves the equivalent of writing lines on a chalkboard, on camera. I don’t know how to go about doing that, but would be willing to chip in for any costs.

  71. 71. Victor

    Wretchard is the only blog on PJM these days that is not just a megaphone for AIPAC

    –how did that happen?–it is going to limit the PJM audience dramatically-which is a pity–money I suppose–whatever

    W is correct- ridicule/humor is used by the left to to re-frame the Conservative view.

    How do you combat it?

    You say –that is very clever and funny to some, but the reality is that we are talking about the culture of death versus the culture of life

    –How do you find the culture of death so funny? tell me more about that

    –tell me more about your personal experience with death.

    When I was a practicing MD I dealt with death many times–it is no joke.

    Bill Maher will die–we all will die-yet the Bill Mayers of this world pretend it is not going to happen

    -they whistle past the grave yards.

    When you really know you are going to die-then you decide how you want to live

    -even Albert Camus understood that.

  72. 72. E2

    @68 blert –

    Not sure about the prison connotation, but when I was in college and the military, teabagging was a prank. For some reason I’ll never understand, guys thought it was funny to drop their junk on the forehead of the first person that passed out at a keg party.

    In these crazy days, I’m trying to keep my sense of humor in tact, so given that,
    maybe instead of getting all pissed off about the term, the Tea Party should embrace “teabagger” as being code for “merry prankster?” Conservatives need to stop being so effing polite and “above it all.” By using my definition of teabagger, the Tea Party could simply tell the left to go pound sand, as in “yeah, we ARE teabaggers, and you guys on the left are the drunk morons at the party that are gonna end up with our nuts on your forehead at the end of the night!” It’s so absurd, it just might work!

  73. 73. Highlander

    E2@72:

    Jeez, I’d forgotten about that stuff in the barracks way back in the day! Well, we have established that Bill Maher doesn’t care much for “c*nts”…maybe he and his lefty friends can enlighten us all on the “mushroom stamp”. I’m sure that he has had a few of them over the years….

  74. 74. stevesmith

    As far as Bill Maher is concerned – try muting the sound when he is on TV being “funny”. You will see that old Bill looks real “funny”. So “funny” that you wouldn’t want your daughter to be left alone with him.

    68. blert

    Agree with your eyebrow-raising about Anderson Cooper. Again, mute the sound on dear Anderson and what do you see?

  75. 75. Mad Woman

    But he did it too! is the precursor move leading up to the they’re all the same argument, which they are, which leaves this 40%-er Moderate disgusted at observing the corruption that has seeped into the body politic being reduced to nothing more than ideological ping pong.

    Politics aside, there’s another angle to the Rush kerfluffle that is ugly and that is the tenuous nature of the full spectrum of relationships between men and “womyn,” which is foundational to notions of family, religion, and culture and which leads to yet another round of ideological ping pong as causational insight. Mike Tyson’s attack on Palin is illustrative. Makes Rush and Maher look like pikers.

    The polling seems to suggest that the electorate is focused on the economy. I would not be surprised if that changed to a focus on religion and reproductive rights. It’s called getting out the vote.

  76. 76. MMD

    What is sad to me is the simple fact that, one day, Mr Maher will hear some simple words and will be the worst words he’ll ever hear; Jesus will look at him and simply say, depart from Me, I never knew you! I DO NOT for any stretch of the imagination wish an eternity in hell on my worst enemies. But, this they choose, simple as that. The day will come as is said when every knee will bow and every tongue confess Jesus is Lord. That day will come! Yes, the world is about to change but will change in a way not many are expecting nor are ready for.

  77. 77. Dworkin Barimen

    I really enjoy seeing the Mobies and concern trolls unsuspectingly wander into BC with their orders in hand, then get chewed up and spit out, ass hanging in shreds while they slink back to MMFA, Obama For America (mmm mmm mmmmm!), Credo or wherever they were dispatched from.

    But the self-described “moderates” who come here and tut-tut us because they are too pure and above the fray of the animated contest of freedom mostly make me want to puke.

    72 & 73

    You guys have the right idea! Other than the general crudeness of the term, I never saw the actual derogatory nature that the leftists implied, given that the teabagger was the one humiliating the teabaggee. So wear the badge with pride and administer some teabaggin’ to your favorite leftist. :)

    (oh, and Be Breitbart)

  78. 78. JMH

    BTW, someone should note that BC’s very own Mr. Shadow (that would be L3, head of the “shadowy” outfit Campaign for Primary Accountability) bagged a scalp on Super Tuesday. Yzma, I mean, Jean Schmidt, OH-02, lost to her primary challenger, who had been backed by L3′s group. Congrats due to The Shadow.

    In other Ohio news, Dennish Kucinich lost his primary bid, and the Dem who beat him will be going up against Joe the Plumber in the General.

  79. 79. longjack

    Here’s a transcript of what Sandra Fluke said.

    I’ll snip out a few paragraphs:

    Without insurance coverage, contraception can cost a woman over $3,000 during law school. For a lot of students who, like me, are on public interest scholarships, that’s practically an entire summer’s salary. Forty percent of female students at Georgetown Law report struggling financially as a result of this policy. One told us of how embarrassed and powerless she felt when she was standing at the pharmacy counter, learning for the first time that contraception wasn’t covered, and had to walk away because she couldn’t afford it. Women like her have no choice but to go without contraception. Just last week, a married female student told me she had to stop using contraception because she couldn’t afford it any longer.

    I take from this that Sandra Fluke is dealing with the use of contraceptives to avoid pregnancy. She essentially says that a little further along:

    These denials of contraceptive coverage impact real people. In the worst cases, women who need this medication for other medical reasons suffer dire consequences. A friend of mine, for example, has polycystic ovarian syndrome and has to take prescription birth control to stop cysts from growing on her ovaries. Her prescription is technically covered by Georgetown insurance because it’s not intended to prevent pregnancy.

    Not only does she show she believes that women are entitled to contraceptives to avoid pregnancy, she also indicates that contraceptives are available under her insurance plan for medical reasons.

    Earlier in the transcript she had said:

    Simultaneously, the recently announced adjustment addresses any potential conflict with the religious identity of Catholic and Jesuit institutions.

    What is this recently announced adjustment of which she speaks?

    Yesterday the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) required all new health insurance plans to cover birth control for women, annual well-woman exams, breastfeeding tools, and a range of other services without co-pays, co-insurance or a deductible as a part of the Affordable Care Act.   (via ColorLines)

    I’d say Sandra Fluke is talking directly about the need for women to engage in recreational sex and the recent adjustment allowing the recreational not to become procreational by accident for free via a governmental decree is a good thing, religious principles be damned.

    Also, when I read that a women had to walk away from a drug store because she couldn’t afford the pills I wondered what the difficulty would have been from walking away from the sexual opportunity if she couldn’t afford the pregnancy. I don’t think that costs anything and only requires waiting a few days.

  80. 80. oMan

    Longneck/79: thanks for giving us some text to go with all the context. That “testimony” sounds like the usual well-spun stuff from the usual sources. Nobody talks like that. Nobody even writes like that. It takes a room full of political operatives to come up with so many lies, evasions, half-truths and synthetic emotional hooks and poses. Which Ms. Fluke dutifully spoke for her backers.

    Rush’s mistake was talking to the hand. Fluke is just a useful idiot, a messenger girl. I do wish he had Fisked her assertions line by line. Starting with the math. Apparently she was a little high on the claimed costs for this stuff: about 10x high, in fact. And she made me laugh with her clumsy shell game: one whole summer’s earnings as a “public interest” intern would barely equal THREE whole YEARS of contraception? And of course it is her choice to pursue such a low-paying summer job; but it is our obligation to subsidize that choice on top of her other, basic choice: to be so sexually active that everybody else must pay for her pleasure. I also note that her “testimony” fails the first test of Evidence: it is replete with hearsay. If she has “friends” suffering embarrassment or illness because of Georgetown’s policy, it is they who must testify, not she. She is merely a retailer of gossip and badly-crafted “talking points.”

    She does not impress me as an advocate, even for herself. I fear for her clients. Since I suspect she will build a career in “public interest,” it is the public for which I fear.

  81. 81. Frank & Ernest

    Far too many peephole overlook Mr. Maher’s most obvious shortcoming: his height. He suffers from LMS, that is, Little Man Syndrome. It is incurable and, ultimately, terminal.

    Be patient. His demise approaches slowly but very painfully.

  82. 82. no mo uro

    Cowboy #38

    ” All the entertainment industries have adopted it, Hollywood, TV, music, books. Divide and conquer, target a demographic and play to its beliefs and desires exclusively. “

    Amongst all of disco’s awful legacies, this may be the worst. This concept really got going with the all disco, all the time formats in radio in the 1970′s. Way before the internet and noncontiguous information streams there was the atomization and compartmentalization of music entertainment, beginning with disco-only radio. Prior to that time most successful popular radio in the cities and suburbs had multiple formats and a wide spectrum of tunes and styles on playlists. After about 1978 or so, not so much.

    The Rural Purge in television, roughly concurrent, was another example of what you describe.

  83. 83. KathyC

    When Rush first mentioned the Sandra Fluke testimony on his show I wondered why no one questioned the $3000 for birth control (I”m assuming she meant the Pill). Most college campuses have Planned Parenthood offices on or nearby. In the case of Georgetown, probably nearby, not on campus. These offices provide a range of well woman and contraceptive services usually on a sliding scale of fees. When I was being married in 1981, our college had a clinic right on campus that I went to. Knowing what I now know about Planned Parenthood, I would not go to one of their clinics but I was young and ignorant. Obviously Ms Fluke and her fellow classmates are probably not troubled by moral or ideological scruples about supporting PP. I assume no one putting her up to speak mentioned or fact checked the cost and availability of contraceptives elsewhere because that wasn’t the point of her testimony, it was to force the issue of religiious institutions to do something against their beliefs. Ms Fluke and her friends’ “contraceptive woes” were simply tools in that end.

  84. 84. carla

    Maher established his reputation as a prick with his mewling statements shortly after 9/11. Nothing much has changed.

  85. 85. KWB

    Maher and his like can only be stopped once the money supply is cut off. The sad fact in America today is that millions of Americans have no problem paying to listen to someone like Maher say the things he does as long as they are not directed at them or their friend or family.

  86. 86. Don51

    Such power only works as long as one side plays it.

    Guernica, Warsaw, Rotterdam, Coventry play well when you’re the one dishing it out. It’s another thing when the opposition starts playing the same game as with Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden. When the other side not only starts playing the same game but without any self restraint, it’s time to either reevaluate your strategy or head for the bunkers.

    This is just the hint of spring of a very nasty year.

  87. 87. Annoy Mouse

    HBO has had some good content… thinking of the Sopranos and the series Rome that I thought was excellent. I have not and will not listen to Maher ever since he went around the bend over some accusations during the Bush presidency. There is enough audience for this mans psychotic principle just on statistics alone but I think at least half of his viewers are there just to see the train wreck.

  88. 88. JDMilw

    BM is on my list of people I want to run into at the bar. I feel confident I’d would be able to provoke him into taking the first swing. After that…..well let’s just say I fight real dirty…courtesy of the USMC.

    And it’s quite telling that Real Con should mention the straw men while contructing one of his own.

  89. 89. dlsada

    Smug, shallow, misogynistic and short. So-called “women’s rights” advocates not only tolerate this type language used against conservative women, they revel in it. If you haven’t seen the slurs against Michelle Malkin, check them out. Truly sick stuff and not a peep from NOW.

  90. 90. In the wrong century

    Bill Maher makes me wish for the days when a father would horse whip a man who spoke badly of his daughter.

  91. 91. Justin Case

    Let’s break it down:

    From the transcript noted in #79

    “…contraception can cost a woman over $3,000 during law school.”

    Very well, if she insists on buying the condoms for the boys who are too cheap, she could buy in bulk through the internet.

    Perhaps she likes a good brand. I’m not going to bother linking, use a search engine if my numbers are worth quibbling over.

    Therefore:

    100 for $22.99, which means she could buy 136 bulk packages for roughly $3,000.

    136 x 100 = 13,600 condoms. Which divided by 365 works out to 37 condoms a day.

    Now – I really can’t speak for Ms. Fluke’s personal life – but she is by no means a private person and appears to be quite intent on carving out a public niche for herself due to this imbroglio. So ‘comedians’ and ‘fat nut jobs’ can have at her equally as far as I’m concerned.

    37 times a day, which leave so little time for studying – much less appearances before Congress. I congratulate her endurance and resourcefulness.

    Plausibility is stretched if we imagine she is in a monogamous relationship. Now, maybe some of the other male commenters on the BC may bristle at the suggestion they simply can’t perform three times every two hours or so. (Kudos to you) – but I would simply find myself exhausted in no time.

    Which means she would need more than one partner. Quite a lot. Probably a high turnover as she wears them out one by one.

    Please go to dictionary.com and find a noun which describes what such a person is.

    #83 has an excellent point, perhaps the Planned Parenthood clinic started locking the doors when they saw her coming?

    Apologies to Wretchard for this post.

  92. 92. Mad Woman

    Fourteen is setting the bar too high for this subject, whatever it is.

    As others have noted (to a variety of cool receptions), battle lines are being drawn in opportunistic alignments. Left vs Right is one “frame.” Insider (Washington in specific, government in general) and outsider is another, the salient c-word being corruption. Politics is done in a loud and generally sneering voice, by definition, which gets old fast and bodes poorly for thoughtful conflict resolution using legislation to implement rational policy.

    What are you going to do in an environment where “Womyn’s” Rights is like yelling Fire in a crowded theatre? Not much. Being a political junkie is one thing. Being batsh^t crazy is something else.

  93. 93. Cousin Dave

    “Maher is so far gone down this road that if you’re not among his targeted audience you’re not even going to recognize what he’s doing as comedy. ”

    It’s the sense of “humor” of the narcissist. Leftism is essentially the politics of narcissism, and the audience for it consists largely of narcissists and other cluster B personality disorders. What narcissists find to be funny is cruelty towards people that they consider inferior to them. Ordinary humor — stuff that’s actually, you know, funny — they simply don’t get. If Pow-ah isn’t being asserted, then they don’t see the point.

  94. 94. Michael

    Wow, not even the rabid liberals will touch this one. LOL

    I suppose this is something they laugh at in the privacy of their own social circle, in the dark.

  95. 95. Kermudjin

    Smug and vulgar, such a charming combination :) And Ed Schultz, Jon Stewart, and Keith Olbermann are cut of similar cloth as Bill Maher. As far as not being able to think of a better word to describe Sarah Palin, it is sad his vocabulary is so limited.

    For those who dismiss Maher as a nobody, let me suggest this. He is a symbol of how the mainstream media is demonstrably biased. When they feign outrage over Limbaugh, let us point out some of the statements made by folks like Maher (now a major Obama donor) and their lack of commentary on them. Let us use these incidents to document media bias. The news media are not credible stewards of truth, they are not objective, and we have the proof. They protect liberals as a mother protects her child. Newt Gingrich is a master at confronting the media; he doesn’t whine about being treated unfairly, he gets up in their grill about it. More of us should do that.

  96. 96. Aardvark

    25. Blast From the Past: “What the Left has done is declared war. They have deliberately poisoned the field of public discourse so that there can’t be civil negotiation or compromise. They have burned the boats that could take their subjects back to America.”

    John Brown, of Harper’s Ferry fame, is the subject of much attention lately, most recently in Tony Horwitz’s “Midnight Rising.”

    The abomination of slavery is obviously different from the current situation of attempted political domination by one political party over another, involving the gradual compromising of personal liberties by a government. Yet the Brown analogy resonates with a lot of people.

    Basically, one side in the current confrontations is saying that not just one category of people but all people are incapable of taking care of themselves, need paternalistic/maternalistic care, and should have to pay for the government to provide that care. In effect, one category of indentured, indebted laborers should work to provide leisure for a new class of overseers, and for the group that provides the political base of the new class of overseers.

    Again, the analogy is not precise. But the current polarization is real.

    The irony is that the left probably sees itself as heirs of the abolitionists, hence their need to identify the right as racists.

  97. 97. JGreer

    I think Richard (and many commenters) draws the wrong conclusion on this one.

    The reason Bill Maher can get away with crude behavior is because his constituency (customers? sponsors?) condone it. The reason Rush and other conservatives cannot is because theirs do not. Therefore its not the Left holding Rush accountable. Its his own people. We hold our own membership to a higher standard.

    This suits me just fine and I think it is ultimately an enormous benefit to the conservative cause.

  98. 98. SukieTawdry

    Seriously, is there anything less “edgy” than “teabaggers” or calling Sarah Palin a “c”? I mean, could you be more lame, Bill, less hip? When your best laugh line is “I’ll stop calling them teabaggers when they stop calling it Obamacare,” comically you’ve pretty much reached rock bottom, I don’t care if you are your generation’s “pre-eminent political commentator.” Much more of this and I’m gonna start feeling sorry for the guy. The only one more pathetic in the room was the poor schlub who “felt obligated to debrief about everything that was said.” That Maher’s audience is every bit as uncool and dull of mind and wit as he is comes as no surprise. Reciprocal self-validation. Pathetic, really.

  99. 99. King Hootchie

    First of all, it’s not acceptable for a man to hit a woman. That’s why conservatives are held to a higher standard when criticizing the Left. The fact that Maher can get away with ‘hitting’ women is that liberals (men and women) are society’s ‘woman’ and as such, can strike anyone they wish.

    See, real men aren’t liberal since they’re not confused about their sexual identity. No earrings, ponytails, or purses for them. You’ll notice too that conservatives do a lot less PMS-ing or acting in other ‘bitchy’ ways. My Dad was never bitchy but his belt came off quickly when he wanted your attention.

  100. 100. Tamquam

    Justin Case 91. “136 x 100 = 13,600 condoms. Which divided by 365 works out to 37 condoms a day.”

    No, it is spread out, so to speak, over three years. Still, 12+ times a day is quite a lot. Must have her books tacked to the ceiling.

  101. 101. Catullus

    I wrote these lines about Victius, a guy like Bill Maher, back in my day in ancient Rome:

    In te, si in quemquam, dici pote, putide Victi,
    id quod verbosis dicitur et fatuis.

    You’re it if anybody when they say putrid, Victius,
    always full of shit and running off at the mouth.

  102. 102. Don Rodrigo

    A comment on the real typical cost of birth-control prescriptions: Spread out the more likely full commercial cost of $1500-2000 (and NOT the mythical $3000-plus) over three years, and, in Georgetown and DC, it amounts to giving up one grande latte and one tall draft a week. Since G’Town law students indulge in both on a very frequent basis, that is no sacrifice. And yes there are clinics dotting accessible parts of NW DC for G’Town students “deprived” of contraceptives by their school where, once they graduate, they have a potential to make an income in at least the top 10% nationally.

  103. 103. Don Rodrigo

    If Maher is so “well informed,” why did he not know that Obama himself has endorsed the term “Obamacare?”

  104. 104. rileymon

    She sort of reminds me of a school trip to Howes Cavern!So big and clammy!

    Maher a little Dweeb ,,, that got his butt beat every day in school by a big Italion girl!

  105. 105. JamesG

    I don’t know about cable companies but, as a DirecTV customer I know that dropping HBO is an easy-as-pie clickable event via the internet. During the Soprano years I would order HBO at the start of the season and drop it immediately afterwards.

    If a few thousand dropped HBO perhaps management would take the hint and fire this unfunny anti-science thug. Why anti-science? Because he’s an anti-vaccine quack.

  106. Maher is a mean little man who tries to be funny at other people’s expense. I tried watching his show a few times and found it childish. Good Riddance to him.

  107. 107. Obi-jonKenobi

    There’s a BIG difference between Limpbaugh and Maher.

    Limpbaugh is a propagandist pure and simple. He pushes an agenda with hype, half-truths, and hyperbole. His method is to excite an emotional reaction – anger, hate – and direct it towards a political goal. He’s occasionally funny but mostly works in full outrage mode using flame-throwing rhetoric. He calls himself an entertainer so that he can’t be held accountable for the accuracy of his facts (Fox News used this same defense in the famous court case where they were sued by one of their own reporters who they tried to get to change the facts about a Monsanto story). His ratings partly derive from his outrageous style. He uses anything he can to disparage his target no matter how inaccurate or deceitful.

    Maher is a comedian who works primarily with political material. While he clearly doesn’t like the Republicans he’ll also direct his jabs at anyone – including Democrats – responsible for outrageous or dishonest actions. He’s more of a libertarian in my opinion. He is also accurate. The material he uses is truthful even if the opinion he expresses is offensive to some. He especially beats up on people guilt of extreme levels of disinformation, divisiveness and hypocrisy. Palin is a special target because she dishes out lots of ugly rhetoric but then plays the victim when it’s turned back at her. She’s also consistently inaccurate (see the “bridge to nowhere” story and her lobbying efforts for earmarks).

    So, we’re comparing apples and oranges with Limpbaugh and Maher.

    The same is true of their respective targets. There’s a big difference between Fluke who, while you may not like her agenda, presented her arguments respectfully and Palin who constantly strikes out at her perceived enemies often using violent images and rhetoric (“lock and load”, picturing Democratic opponents with gun sights, etc). In no way is Fluke a “slut” for championing insurance coverage of contraceptives such as the pill which are also used for purposes other than prevention of pregnancy and who’s expense at $1000/yr. is a burden for students. Can’t say if Palin should be called the “C” word but she has never shied away from being aggressively partisan and needlessly abrasive. She’s EARNED the contempt many hold of her, Fluke has not.

  108. 108. Moniker

    Deleted.

  109. 109. Heckel

    Double standards are simply one more weapon the Left uses in their war on Liberty. There is no other way of putting it.

  110. 110. jmeek_mn

    Bill Maher is a s**t stain.

  111. 111. Justin Case

    #100 – thanks for the catch. Though twelve times a day would still be quite amazing.

  112. 112. longjack

    obi-@107

    for championing insurance coverage of contraceptives such as the pill which are also used for purposes other than prevention of pregnancy and who’s expense at $1000/yr.

    O boy, Obi, you’re misinformed. RTFT. (Read The Friggin’ Transcript [in post 79])

    She’s dunning for free pregnancy prevention. She already knows contraceptives for medical purposes are covered under her insurance.

    That pregnancy prevention she wants amounts to $1000 a year, she says.

    Consider what you need pregnancy prevention for, then do the math (offered, for your convenience, in posts above) and get back to me about the image she represents.

    Something like This, perhaps?

  113. 113. JMH

    #107 – BTW, gas prices.

  114. 114. Cousin Dave

    “The reason Bill Maher can get away with crude behavior is because his constituency (customers? sponsors?) condone it. The reason Rush and other conservatives cannot is because theirs do not. ”

    Very true. However, it also puts conservatives/libertarians in a catch-22. If we use bad words, we get called on it, as probably we should. However, if we don’t, we’re dead white guys, out-of-it old fuddy-duddies whose opinions can be and will be ignored.

    Unfortunately, Maher and his ilk are cultural heroin to much of the younger generation, a perfectly designed drug. They’re hip, cool, swagger, fashion — all of the things that we’re not and can’t be. And when the younger people get their first hit, very few of them can stop themselves from going back for more. And once they’re addicted, very few will ever be sober again. I’ve been dismayed to see the number of young women, including several self-labeled libertarians and conservatives, who have gone all in for government-mandated free birth control. And when I ask them what the difference is between this entitlement and others that they have decried, the only answer they have is the narcissist’s all-purpose excuse: “It’s different when *I* do it!”

    I look at Great Britian today and I compare it to the Thatcher era. The more I do so, I perceive Thatcher less as a historic turnaround, and more as a brave but doomed last-gasp attempt to stop the inevitable.

  115. 115. Benton H Marder

    Bill Maher is simply not ‘satisfaktionsfaehig’. No naming of friends, no pistols for two and coffee for one, nothing but a dogwhipping and a swim in a backhouse pond.
    I feel sorry for Sandra Fluke. She’s an attractive woman. But, what decent man would marry her, want her to be the mother of his children. She just doesn’t have her head screwed on properly—lousy up-bringing and character formation and education. Too bad, really. A miserable future for her.

  116. 116. F_Lambda

    Sadly without Andrew Breitbart we must now do more things ourselves..In that spirit allow me ( a devoted reader but rare poster) to venture slightly OT..
    I was only able to spare enough time to watch of about half of Ms. Fluke’s diatribe on cspan, but it’s a tune I’ve heard many times before.. let’s avoid the smokescreen of sex and hit the real issue.
    As a counterpoint to her drivel I offer my own “testimony” to “leader” Pelosi

    Skipping the perfunctory greetings and phony credentialization..

    I was shocked to find that my friend, as an employee of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals -PETA, was unable to afford red meat. Being a man, my friend requires a ready source of high quality protein for his health and general well being. PETA believes animals should not be food and does not provide access to red meat for its employees.

    Just as my friend has faced financial, emotional and medical burdens as a result of this policy, employees at Vegan affiliated institutions across the country have suffered similar burdens. That his employer refused his reasonable request that they provide him with sufficient quantities to maintain his health proves PETA and its Vegan allies are against male health and are in fact anti-Man.

    Since my friend shared this with me I’ve been approached almost daily by men with similar stories of denial of red meat coverage. Grown men left standing at the meat counter, embarrassed and powerless upon learning red meat is not covered- and then having to turn and walk away because they couldn’t afford it.

    Some might respond that red meat is accessible in lots of other ways, (dramatic wave of hand) unfortunately that’s just not true. Catering trucks and neighborhood BBQs provide a vital nutritional service but as the Denver Beef Institute has definitively documented…these outlets are unable to meet the crushing demand for these services.

    With these hard economic times, food trucks are disappearing and men are forced to go without the Red Meat they need. How can Congress and this administration continue to press policies that not only discourage Red Meat consumption but actively shut down food trucks?
    Do they wish men to ply the dark alleys for roadkill?
    These denials of Red Meat coverage impact real people.

    When you let PETA administrators or other Vegan employers rather than men and their butchers dictate whose dietary needs are legitimate and whose are not- a man’s heath takes a back seat to a bureaucracy focused on policing his body

    From my arbitrary yet convenient sample of denied men: In 65% of cases men were interrogated by insurance companies and staff about why they needed red meat and whether they were lying about their needs. For my friend and 20% of the men in his situation he never got the insurance company to cover his red meat. This despite verification of his needs by his dietician. His claim was denied repeatedly on the assumption that he really only wanted red meat because it tastes good.

    You can ask “What did he expect when he went to work for PETA?” He can only answer that he expected men to be treated equally. To not have their employer create untenable burdens that impede their career success…His is not a war against Vegans or PETA it is a struggle for access to the protein he needs.

    Sorry for the long post but why can’t some smart conservative run something along these lines up the media flagpole so we can all sit back and watch the drama…

  117. 117. STR

    Find out who his show’s sponsors are and start a massive call in to those advertisers informing them that we are boycotting their companies. That is what we Houston tea partiers are doing to the 5 main sponsors of Rush Limbaugh’s radio show after his faux pas. These self-same “self-righteous” sponsors (Carbonite, Quicken Loans, and ProFlowers) are pulling out of sponsoring Rush but are still sponsoring liberal radio talk show hosts who have used similar language to defame Bachmann and Laura Ingram. Groundswell time, people.

  118. 118. dlsada

    If she’s smart enough to attend Georgetown Law, she should know how to save some coin by throwing in a few “Lewinsky’s” from time to time.

  119. 119. Mad Fiddler

    A few links to Sandra Fluke’s “testimony” before Nancy Pelosi’s committee:

    leftleaningliberallady.blogspot.com

    democraticunderground.com

    The paragraph below excerpted from the website of Law Students for Reproductive Justice, of which Ms. Fluke is a past president. The embedded link – i.e., the last word of the paragraph below – automatically downloads a .pdf transcript with the LSRJ logo. (This link takes you to the main LSRJ page.)

    “Written Testimony of Sandra Fluke, Past President of Georgetown LSRJ

    The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing on February 16, 2012, in which Georgetown LSRJ chapter leader Sandra Fluke was to give her testimony regarding contraceptive coverage. Ms. Fluke was ultimately not approved to testify on behalf of millions of women who believe in the importance of access to contraceptives. She and Committee members Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), and Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) spoke with reporters outside the hearing room after leaving in protest. You can now read Ms. Fluke’s full testimony here.

    Posted on Feb 16, 2012 – 11:01 AM”

    my.auburnjournal.com

    There are of course links from conservative sites. I just thought it would be good to show that both sides are on this rare occasion, citing the original source. Scary, ain’t it?

  120. 120. gokart-mozart

    obi @107: ” Palin is a special target because she dishes out lots of ugly rhetoric but then plays the victim when it’s turned back at her”

    Really?

    Please cite one…single…example of Sarah Palin dishing out ugly rhetoric. Never mind lots. One will do fine.

  121. 121. rhhardin

    I take the other side, namely that none of it is offensive.

    Man up, girls. People call you names sometimes.

    The taking of offense should be defanged along those lines, which has the advantage of being true, undermining the very superficial rule, and being respectful of women in a much deeper way.

    Best use of the c-word in literature Barthelme from Snow White. Get in touch with the reason we have the word.

  122. 122. Obi-jonKenobi

    Limpbaugh apologized? I don’t think so.

    Here’s excerpts of some of his rant over a three-day period:

    February 29th
    1) “testifies she’s having so much sex she can’t afford her own birth control pills and she agrees that Obama should provide them, or the Pope”
    2) “they’re having so much sex they can’t afford the birth control pills!”
    3) “essentially says that she must be paid to have sex, what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex.”
    4) “Sandra Fluke. So much sex going on, they can’t afford birth control pills.”

    March 1, 2012:
    5) “You’d call ‘em a slut, a prostitute”
    6) “she’s having so much sex”
    7) “are having so much sex that they’re going broke”
    8) “they want to have sex any time, as many times and as often as they want, with as many partners as they want”
    9) “the sexual habits of female law students at Georgetown”
    10) “are having so much sex that they’re going broke”
    11) “having so much sex that it’s hard to make ends meet”
    12) “four out of every ten co-eds are having so much sex that it’s hard to make ends meet”
    13) “Now, what does that make her? She wants us to buy her sex.”
    14) “to pay for these co-eds to have sex”
    15) “she and her co-ed classmates are having sex nearly three times a day for three years straight, apparently these deadbeat boyfriends or random hookups that these babes are encountering here, having sex with nearly three times a day”
    16) “Therefore we are paying her to have sex. Therefore we are paying her for having sex.”
    17) “Have you ever heard of not having sex so often?”
    18) “Ms. Fluke and the rest of you feminazis, here’s the deal: If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it. And I’ll tell you what it is. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.”
    19) “we want something in return, Ms. Fluke: And that would be the videos of all this sex posted online so we can see what we are getting for our money.”
    20) “’If we’re paying for this, it makes these women sluts, prostitutes.’ And what else could it be?”
    21) “essentially says that she must be paid to have sex. What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right?”
    22) “I’m having sex so damn much, I’m going broke.”
    23) “She’s having so much sex that she’s going broke! There’s no question about her virtue.”
    24) “having so much sex she’s going broke at Georgetown Law.”
    25) “Here’s a woman exercising no self-control. The fact that she wants to have repeated, never-ending, as often as she wants it sex—given.”
    26) “She’s having so much sex it’s amazing she can still walk, but she made it up there.”
    27) “Maybe they’re sex addicts.”
    28) “to pay for her to have sex all the time.”
    29) “she wants the rest of us to pay for her sex.”
    30) “She wants all the sex that she wants all the time paid for by the rest of us.”
    31) “Here this babe goes before Congress and wants thousands of dollars to pay for her sex.”
    32) “a woman who is happily presenting herself as an immoral, baseless, no-purpose-to-her-life woman.”
    33) “She wants all the sex in the world, whenever she wants it, all the time.”
    34) “If this woman wants to have sex ten times a day for three years, fine and dandy.”
    35) “to provide women from Georgetown Law unlimited, no-consequences sex.”
    36) “so she can have unlimited, no-consequences sex.”
    37) “You want to have all the sex you want all day long, no consequences, no responsibility for your behavior”
    38) “The woman wants unlimited, no-responsibility, no-consequences sex, and she wants it with contraceptives paid for by us.”

    March 2, 2012:
    39) “she’s having so much sex, she can’t afford her birth control pills anymore.”
    40) “she’s having so much sex, she can’t pay for it—and we should.”
    41) “She’s having so much sex, she can’t afford it.”
    42) “this, frankly hilarious claim that she’s having so much sex (and her buddies with her) that she can’t afford it.”
    43) “And not one person says, ‘Well, did you ever think about maybe backing off the amount of sex that you have?’”
    44) “Does she have more boyfriends? Ha! They’re lined up around the block.”
    45) “It was Sandra Fluke who said that she was having so much sex, she can’t afford it.”
    46) “By her own admission, in her own words, Sandra Fluke is having so much sex that she can’t afford it.”
    47) “they’re having a lot of sex for which they need a lot of contraception.”
    48) “Her sex life is active and she’s having sex so frequently that she can’t afford all the birth control pills that she needs.”
    49) “who admits to having so much sex that she can’t afford it anymore.”
    50) “she’s having so much sex, she can’t pay for it.”
    51) “As frequently as she has sex and to not be pregnant, she’s obviously succeeding in contraception.”
    52) “Ms. Fluke, asserts her right to free contraceptive, to handle her sex life—and it’s, by her own admission, quite active.”
    53) “Ms. Fluke, who bought your condoms in junior high? Who bought your condoms in the sixth grade, or your contraception?”

    Here’s pertinent excerpts from Limpbaugh’s “apology” (he also claims that Americans shouldn’t have to pay for such “social activities” as sex but fails to mention that most health care insurance covers Viagra which he himself uses.):

    “I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation. I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke.

    “My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.”

    Can anyone find a humorous comment in Limpbaugh’s screed against Fluke? Does anyone think Limpbaugh didn’t intend to mount a “personal attack” on Fluke?

    I didn’t think so.

  123. 123. Jones

    >Leftists can do things By Any Means Necessary. Conservatives must be held to a standard that Leftists espouse only for the express purpose of holding their opponents to it.

    BECAUSE WE’VE ALLOWED IT TO GO ON
    FIGHT BACK
    Bill Maher delenda est

  124. 124. David H. Partington

    Until today, I was not aware of Maher’s comment about Ms. Palin. As a liberal, I don’t care much for politics, but she certainly does not deserve the deliberate disrespect shown to her by Maher’s supposely cute characterization of her. No more Maher for me!

  125. 125. Tee

    116. F_Lambda

    Brazen omnivore, demanding that we provide you with what amounts to 3,370 McDonald’s hamburgers. Over three per day!

    (Nice job.)

  126. 126. Mad Woman

    Speaking of red meat:

    The religious right has had great success in casting issues of sexuality and health as “moral issues,” a conscious conflation of morality with religion. It’s time to hold those who perpetuate this confusion accountable for the imprecision of their ideas, and for what amounts to a demand that virtually anything goes, so long as someone “believes” it’s okay. If you’re going to throw the “m” word around — morality — you should have to make the case for how the action in question is harming society. The word of God is no longer enough.

    Belief Systems and Public Policy [Warning: Arianna Alert]

    While the introduction of humor is a welcome surprise to what degenerated into a dismal exchange, reproduction is a category unto itself, whether defined as a health issue, an economic issue or a religious issue. And it is an intimate component of the power balance between men and women, at the individual level and at the societal level. One hopes that the pressing problems of establishing economic viability and responding to global instability can be debated and resolved without demanding societal consensus on issues of personal sexual morality.

    That is your free serving of red meat for the day.

  127. 127. qrstuv

    Obi-jonKenobi , link to a transcript where Rush said all those things.

    It doesn’t count if the transcript is at your blog.

  128. 128. Dworkin Barimen

    122 @Obi-jonKenobi

    Working at MMFA does give you access to tons of cool resources and the time to compile lots of neat lists against your enemies. Assuming that you have posted accurate quotes (I know, charitable of me) then bravo, you actually did some real work for your crypto-Marxist masters. Meanwhile, the vast majority of us amateur commentariat have stupid shit like jobs and family to take care of, and thus can’t sit and dissect a 3-hour talk show for juicy soundbites every day.

    BTW, I’m a comedian, so it’s in the spirit of jest that I say heartily GFY and happily DIAF. Thanks!

  129. 129. beijingyank

    Maher is talentless. How this no talent makes fortunes is an anathema to the regular Joe.

    “Political commentator of our time” by using the “c” word? Is this guy scratching his back or getting a pay out? Maher sucks.

    He brings nothing to the table unless you appreciate being played by a member of an end of the world micro minority cult complete with Sasquatch shamans engaged in sexual mutilation rituals. He is a very evil asshole and brings nothing cultural, intellectual, or artistic to the audience. He is nothing but a talking head for a micro minority cult whose job is to dumb down the masses and create diversion to the fraud and deceit his group of vampire friends are engaged in.

  130. 130. Obi-jonKenobi

    @ Dworkin Barimen

    Man, Dwork, that’s some funny, funny material. I can see how you make a living with comedy.

    Seems, though, that you were so busy honing your rapier wit that you completely forgot to address the issue raised in my post; that Limpbaugh didn’t apologize – not even close.

    So, next time, more substance, less of that side-splitting comedy of yours.

    BTW, I don’t work at MMFA but admire what they do. Hey, you got to give these guys credit for spending all those hours actually recording what the reich-wing wackos say. My brain would either rot or explode. I can barely make it through two minutes of any of them.

  131. 131. Cowboy

    Rush did say all those things. He said a lot more, too. He attempted to “fisk” her testimony before Congress interspersed with his commentary on it. In keeping with his well-known style in which he takes an opponent’s position and pursues it logically into absurdity, he would take her presented claims one by one and do reductio ad absurdum. This is how he arrived at his slut allegation. If her birth control costs were average for a Georgetown woman then, as she claimed, it would cost $1000 per year. That, as Rush noted, is a lot of birth control. Ergo, she must be having a lot of sex. Ergo, she must be a slut. Additionally, if she wants someone else to pay for it then she’s asking, INESCAPABLY, to be paid to have sex. And what is the definition of a prostitute?

    This is something very different than what we have with the likes of Bill Maher. Maher calls Palin the c-word as an expression of his hatred for her person. What Limbaugh did was take Ms. Fluke’s advocacy before Congress and tease it out logically until he undermined it, her position, with absurdity.

    There is very little doubt that the object of Rush’s attack was to undermine her ridiculous claims such as she could see on women’s faces the pain they suffered for not having been given birth control. What is she then, he asked, a superwoman? So, in the same spirit that he called her a slut and a prostitute, he called her a superwoman.

    Get it, Obi-jonKenobi?

    He did offer a formal apology to Ms. Fluke for any personal offense, credibly declared that his intent was to illustrate through absurdity, and offered his regrets for things taken the wrong way.

    For what that’s worth. The apology was destined to fall on deaf ears, anyway. He might as well have pressed the point, and called Ms. Fluke what she personally is rather than where her testimony logically led. She’s a fraud and a huckster, a 30 year old professional student activist, invited to testify as a victim and as the voice of victims, and lied, boo-hooed, and carried on shamefully. Wanting us to go in debt broadly to pay for something she can already get for free anyway (as Rush pointed out, Georgetown is in DC which provides birth control for free to any woman who asks).

  132. 132. Cowboy

    One big, glaring aspect of this whole Fluke hullabaloo that grates is the reaction of the Congressmen who heard her testimony. She was up there before Congress, and my what a privilege! How many of us have been asked to advocate before Congress? But there she was, and the GOP knew exactly how she got that seat. She was a Democrat plant, a minion in their vast umbrella of activist organisations, NGO’s, 501k’s, foundations, etc., who could be depended upon to go up there and practice good ole progressive politics.

    And there she was spinning one preposterous lie after another, armed with inflated numbers from her careful studies, preening as a victim, expanding the sense of entitlement, and so on. And nobody there really cross examined her testimony, they just took it at face value.

    In business, or in private law, or, heck, when you go up to do a practice job interview before your dad or your spouse, nobody even on your own side is going to let you slide when you try to pass bullshit. For your own betterment, at least. The issue here is contraception, or more broadly women’s health as those who are wont to hyperbolize it are quick to say. What could be more critical and dead serious to the lives of millions of Americans?

    Nobody seemed to really care, on either side. The acceptable position was to sit back and let the bullshit fly, and to condemn any such as Rush who could not let it.

  133. 133. beverly

    This may well have been said up-thread, but the reason the Leftoids spew such venom on women and black people who have the temerity to be conservatives or, God forbid, patriots, is that it FINALLY gives them ACCEPTABLE TARGETS for their suppressed and denied RACISM and MISOGYNY.

    Like finally getting off a fire hose. . . .

    Also, I was watching a PBS documentary on the life of Marie Antoinette, which was fascinating. The horror of her savage treatment at the hands of the French revolutionaries — especially the relentless, vicious, misogynistically obscene slanders/cartoons — reminded me very much of the hideous things our enemies say about that very decent woman, Mrs. Palin. They killed her husband, humiliated her by keeping her as a caged attraction for the masses to gawp at, took away her children and tortured her little son (8 years old) to force him to say that she committed incest with him and her sister.

    When these monsters read that last accusation in court, she was stunned into silence, then appealed to the mothers in the room. At first she won sympathy, but they took her away and decapitated her anyway, the very next day. They made sure the tumbril taking her went very very slowly, to extend her suffering. But she kept her head erect, and as she mounted the scaffold, she happened to tread on the executioner’s toe: “Pardon me, sir,” she said gently, then bowed her head and La Guillotine, the Left’s beloved instrument, sliced her head off.

    Interestingly, there was nothing in the documentary that supported any accusations against her except that she had been unaware of the hardships of the people in the countryside (she wasn’t allowed out of the gilded court bubble in her childhood, and married at age 14), and that she went through a phase of spending way too much, and it looked bad while France was going through an economic crisis.

    But that was all, really. She did try to get Austria to invade, but only after the revolutionaries had taken over the government and imprisoned her and Louis.

    But what sticks in my mind are the obscene cartoons that pamphleteers of the day put out by the hundreds: drawings so filthy that PBS had to blur them out (though you could usually guess what was being shown). Savage, demonic, really. Very like the things the Left are saying about Sarah. Who was a MUCH better governor than Marie was a Queen, though Marie was a lot better than her undeserved reputation would have you believe.

    The victors write the history. …. If you can, you might check out the PBS video online. They only had a line or two about the people in the countryside starving and Marie and Louis ignoring their plight, but in the face of the atrocities committed by the Reign of Terror, I think even the documentarians wilted a bit and felt sorry for this young woman, perhaps in spite of themselves.

    http://www.pbs.org/marieantoinette/

  134. 134. Yehudit

    “107. Obi-jonKenobi
    There’s a BIG difference between Limpbaugh and Maher.”

    Are Sarah Palin’s family public figures? OK to joke about a 14 year old being gang raped? So is it ok to do that to Sasha and Malia?

    How about Joe the Plumber, who was minding his own business tossing the ball with his kids in the front yard? Who merely asked Obama a question, and was vilified by all the people you are defending? Who had his private records broken into by Democratic officials? Who was ridiculed in a campaign speech by Joe Biden? A simple citizen ridiculed by name by a presidential candidate – I don’t know if we’ve ever had such a thing in this country. They must have been very frightened.

    “Palin who constantly strikes out at her perceived enemies often using violent images and rhetoric (“lock and load”, picturing Democratic opponents with gun sights, etc)”

    Democrats have also used gun sights on maps. Obama: “Strike back twice as hard.” “We will punish our enemies.” Threatening to sic the IRS on a university for not giving him an honorary degree. Then we have all the Leftists who used extremely violent language and threats against Bush for 8 years, way more than any Tea partier has done.

    Nice try.

  135. 135. Sarah Rolph

    “Seriously, what is with the delusional hatred of Sarah Palin? She is more moderate than most Republicans on social issues. She supports general fiscal conservatism. What particular policy or position does she take that warrants this sort of hatred? What is so threatening and horrible about Sarah Palin? They do not merely disagree with her–they want to completely destroy her.”

    As wretchard says in this post, it’s all about the power.

    When they started the destroy-Palin campaign, Palin had power (as a sitting Governor), and had used it effectively (to work her way up to that office, and in office, to go up against the party machine, and to advocate successfully for the people in her state). Most of us were only vaguely, if at all, aware of this, but we all noticed her personal power as a sincere and serious individual when we saw Palin’s acceptance speech as the vice presidential nominee.

    Since then we have watched her use her personal power to frame the debate, to encourage the populace, and to provide ongoing inspiration to the teaparty.

    Palin was Be Breitbart before the man had died.

    And despite what someone else has said in these page, I don’t there is anything the least bit tacky about Be Breitbart, or What Would Andrew Do, or Breitbart Lives Here, or So?

    Breitbart knew how to use power effectively for the forces of good. So does Palin. So, certainly, does Wretchard. So does L3, clearly. So do most of us. I wrote a story this week for publication tomorrow that is going to make a lot of the right people angry. Doing my small part on one small issue to Be Breitbart. We all have more power than we think. Use it!

  136. 136. Gaffe Prices

    Heads up, there is vid out there from at least fifteen years or so ago of Mawr calling homosexuals disgusting perverts, it’s probably from an HBO comedy concert special. He uses a graphic description to demonstrate his position, maybe he’s changed his position some since then.

  137. 137. Mad Woman

    In the Moving Target category of What is the Real Issue:

    Freedom of Religion or a Campaign Strategy?

    ith the economy on the upswing, the Republican Party has chosen this moment to turn the focus away from President Obama’s successes and onto whether women have complete autonomy over their bodies and their reproductive health. Personhood amendments, controversy over contraception, state-sponsored vaginal probes for women seeking abortions in Virginia and congressional hearings on birth control with (almost) no women testifying have made news recently. Certainly this is ample evidence that the GOP may want to re-launch the culture wars that are so effective in dividing electorates in election years.

    Maybe time to reconsider:

    Speaking on CNN of Wednesday’s Republican debate, David Gergen, great tribune of conventional wisdom, said, “[F]or a lot of women, it sounds like four white guys who are out there telling them, ‘Here’s how we’re going to control your lives.’”

    Feminists have been documenting the escalating attacks on women’s bodily autonomy for years. Now, the mainstream media has started catching on. And so Virginia’s mandatory ultrasound bill became a huge national story. This was unexpected. Certainly, the measure was outrageous—as a Virginia Pilot editorial put it, “Inserting something into the vagina of an unwilling woman is a violation in every sense of the word.” But when Texas passed similar legislation last year—legislation that went into effect a couple of weeks ago, after a court challenge—it didn’t receive nearly as much attention. Somehow, the Virginia bill became a symbol of right-wing prurience, invasiveness, and insensitivity. The nationwide reaction was so strong it took personhood with it.

    I guess it was a bigger story.

  138. 138. gokart-mozart

    obi @107: re: Sarah Palin’s ugly rhetoric example request: Still waiting.

  139. 139. william jefferson

    I would love to see palin and Mahar . . .with a pistol in each hand . . standing bck to back then taking 10 paces and see which one has the last word. . if Mahar don’t get confused counting to 10. . . he is like the coward standing behind the big ugly communist yelling. . “I’m going to kick your ass Lady”

  140. 140. Richard Cranium

    “Limpbaugh” “reich-wing”

    After the hours or even days that it took you to come up with those side-splitting phrases, I can hardly wait for more!

    Although, how would *you* be able to tell if your brain had rotted even more than its current state?

  141. 141. Tarnsman

    “what is with the delusional hatred of Sarah Palin? …..What is so threatening and horrible about Sarah Palin? They do not merely disagree with her–they want to completely destroy her. The pathological rage of the Left to Sarah Palin is disturbing.”

    All you need to know is watch her acceptance speech at the 2008 Republican convention again. No one, I repeat, no one has ever delivered such a speech before a national audience. I and millions of Americans watched it live and were held in awe. She effortlessly sliced and diced Obama, the Media and the Left with the skill of a master sushi chef. Right then and there the Left recognized that Sarah Palin was a threat of the First Order and had to be dealt with immediately and completely. Her very presence/being is a threat to the Left’s narrative about women. Mother of five, self-made, independent, self-assured with a handsome, rugged and devoted husband who supports her, and worst of all, beautiful. Everything about her life puts a lie to the notion that the only way for women is the Left’s way. She is THE threat to their power. The surprise isn’t that went and continue to go after her with hammer and thongs, but that she survived and thrived. Is there really any doubt that had she run for President in 2012 that she would have crushed the Republcian field? Last Tuesday would have seen the end of the campaign, Santorum and Gringrich gone long ago, Romney limping along with no hope. Why she didn’t run is still a mystery, but think she knew she had enemies on both sides of the aisle and winning in the General would be 50-50 at best given the zero support she would get from the folks that should be her allies.

  142. 142. Pat

    You can get birth control pills for two bucks at target . Shes not such a smart law student if she can’t find Target 2miles away.
    Darrel was had