If Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) had been a man, I think Richard Belzer might have smacked her. I can’t remember the last time I saw such honest anger on TV. He was pissed, and she looked nervous.
I thought most Republicans had given up on the same old talking points for Iraq. Not her.
It was a good show. A few good points made, especially about how we tend to think that our congressperson isn’t as bad/dishonest/corrupt/stupid as all the others.
I hadn’t heard about problems with Ambien – people are driving and eating in their sleep? Woh.
I thought he was a jackass — belligerent, bellicose, and borish. I wouldn’t be surprised if people sitting on the fence were pushed back into her camp. If he wasn’t screaming obscenities at her, he was shouting hysterical sound bites over her. Luckily, he identified himself as a socialist, at least allowing liberals the opportunity to disassociate from him.
From the little I saw, you’re probably right. Although I have to say that I was much more disgusted by the congresswoman from Florida (which is why I didn’t see very much – I just couldn’t stomach it).
Interesting combination; Richard Belzer is a crackpot regarding the JFK assassination; Maher is a crackpot regarding medicine. I’d like to see an all-crackpot show.
Liberal, I heard only one “f_ing” from Belser. Were there more? And he did apologize twice and even kissed her. Meanwhile, she spewed the usual bull and that is an obscene thing to do. (Only I think she honestly believes it.)
Not only is Maher a crackpot regarding medicine, he is twisted in his thinking regarding women. He bemoans the fact that America is lagging in its respect for women leaders and it never occurs to him that his comments that denegrate women play a role in that.
And his attitude about the South and the Midwest sucks.
I just saw this and it seemed to me like Belzer had no choice but to interrupt Ros-Lehtinin. She seemed determined to monopolize the entire discussion and wouldn’t let anyone else get a word in edgewise. She was also continuously spewing suchpatent bullshit in such a condescending way that she HAD to be called on it.
No choice? If I were defending him, I think that’s the last defense I’d use. He couldn’t help himself? He wasn’t thinking, just reacting? She was telling — rather, she was attempting to tell — what she saw and heard when she was in Iraq. Nutwad, on the other hand, was screaming about what he’d read somewhere about a place he’s never been to. The only way he could have outdone himself is if he’d spat on her.
Everytime I see a politician on these shows it’s the same thing. They all seem to have an uncontrollable urge to go into “stump” mode every time they open their mouths. [Robert Kline/on] “I can’t stop campaigning!”[Robert Kline/off]
What she saw and heard in Iraq was the Green Zone. What kind of lame appeal to authority is that?
Belzer had no choice but to interrupt if he wanted to be heard at all. Plus, she was a liar and she needed to be called on it. He would have been justified if he HAD spat on her.
The woman from Florida was not discussing. She was campaiging. Idiotically. What Belzer probably wanted to say was this: your nephew is a 19 year old grunt too dumb to do anything else except join the army. He has to lie to himself to have his life make sense. He has no worldly experience and is the intellectual inferior of the average reader of the New York Times. The fact that he’s in Iraq does not give him a well-reasoned viewpoint on the subject, and probably has the opposite effect. And, there are soldiers who have come back from Iraq who are smarter than your nephew who completely disagree with him, and you.
He was showing restraint by simply yelling, “I FUCKING READ!”
Maher is not a crack-pot on medicine. He might sound a tad extreme, but that’s just because every other thing you ever hear on TV about medicine might as well be a commercial from the drug companies. Maher is the ONLY person who says anything close to what I believe about the application and advertising of drugs. I think that everything else I hear on TV about medicine EXCEPT what Maher says is crack-pottery.
The marketing and prescription of drugs in this country is INSANE. The entire mindset of America has shifted so far to the side that believes there is no discomfort too small to medicate while simultaneous engagaing in behavior that makes the chances of suffering “small discomforts” greater. If he has to be extreme to get his voice heard, so be it.
Shock and Autism: Next time the president poses with an autistic kid, they have to wear nametags so we can tell them apart.
Hard to say, since it isn’t one. The appeal to authority would have to come from the guy who told about what he’d read. And that would be Belzer.
Again, I don’t think you’re doing the best job of defending him. So far, you’ve painted the portrait of a violent socialist know-it-all without any manners or self-control. Care to add more? Maybe he should have thrown something at her, or beat her about the head and shoulders.
Oh, no. He’s definitely a crackpot. He often repeats the myth that Pasteur recanted his life’s work on his death bed, and pushes the claim that the environment, not microbes, are the cause of disease. Pasteur’s life’s work, of course, was to disprove the “spontaneous generation” hypothesis which included such notions that mice were caused by piles of rags and rotting meat turned into maggots all by itself. This doesn’t quite jibe with his assertion that flu vaccines cause the flu (if there’s no microbial pathogen, how can that be?), but who knows how the math works in the man’s head. In this recent episode he gave a big “no duh” to research that questioned the link between fatty diets and obesity. He appeared to be claiming that it was chemicals in the food, not the quantity consumed, that lead to obesity.
Oh, he’s “definitely” a crack-pot. Since you said “definitely”, I guess that settles it.
I have never heard him say that about Pasteur. Do you have a cite?
His main idea (as I see it) is sound : we live completely unhealthy lifestyles (inlcuding eating chemical-laden food) and fall back on drugs to bail us out. It’s a serendipitous food-industry, drug-industry circle jerk. Furthermore, the drug industry manufactures need and markets natural variation as problematic, and pushes drugs to the market that haven’t been sufficiently studied.
Did you see his show this week? To cure regular allergies, we’re being offered a spray by a cartoon bee. After hearing the spray can cause viral infections, the bee comes back on and says, “eet’s a wise choice.”
A cartoon bee telling me a possible side effect of a drug that’s supposed to cure the sniffles is a virus, and that “it’s a wise choice”? Who’s the crack pot again?
I never watch this show, but caught this panel “discussion” while channel flipping. This sort of screaming match is no better than what we decry about the right. Acting like right-wing assholes just makes them left-wing assholes, IMO.
Well, I said in the thread on last week’s show that I hoped Belzer would be back. Hooray! My wish is granted.
Of course Belzer interrupted, talked over, and drowned out the poor, beleaguered congresswoman! That’s what this show is! Her pathetic little bleats of “if you’d just let me finish…” indicated to me that the woman can’t think for herself, and is thrown when she can’t simply parrot her prepared points.
Let’s not kid ouselves. This show is not about debate, it’s about argument. Belzer gives good argument. You want an opposing viewpoint that can stand up to him? Bring on P.J. O’Rourke. Or, in all honesty, Tucker Carlson. I disagree with what Carlson says most of the time, but he does the one thing that most of the actual politicians that show up on Real Time seem incapable of; he actually listens to what his opponent is saying, and tries to refute the specific point they made, rather than making a new one of his own. I think he’s better on Real Time than he ever has been on a show of his own.
He said he was a “Social Democrat” of the European style. In other words a European style progressive, not a “socialist” (“National Socialist” = Nazi, btw).
You’re complaining because the position I took was not sufficiently vague? I made a claim and I went on to give my grounds for that claim. This is a perfectly legitimate order in which to develop a position – say what you believe, then say why you believe it.
I think this is mostly right. But this isnt’ the stuff that gets him accused of being a crank. He’s not just opposed to designer drugs or overmedication caused by the pharmaceutical company’s greed, he’s opposed to vaccination, a technique which has saved millions of lives.