I think a little self-examination for the US is is entirely warranted. That’s not the same as saying that 9/11 was justified. The hatred for the US doesn’t come from a vaccuum (and they don’t hate us because we’re “free,” that’s a steaming pile of shit).
A great deal of the hatred the Arab world feels toward the US has to do with its support for Israel. Should we allow the destruction of Israel to make the Arabs happy?
Very true. I don’t object to that, but the way certain Hollywood types go about doing that usually is offensive.
I think this might be mencing words but…
While it maybe be “a steaming pile of shit” it is nonetheless true. Some of the hatred directed at the US is because we’re free. You could argue that reaction is envy or founded in religious differences, but the fact still remains that our definition of freedom, using for example, the Bill of Rights, does run contrary to many (particularly religious-based) governments.
Sorry for the off topic, but I had to comment on the generalization you made DtC (even though I argued with another generalization…hmmm, perhaps I’d better work on that.)
Back to though,
Objectively, can you say that Bill Maher is less pompous, smug, and offensive then Bill O’Reilly? Mind you I’m not letting O’Reilly off the hook, but when put on a balance I have to say that Maher’s side is nearly touching the ground.
BTW, I watch both shows when I can. Just because they both offend/challenge/and occasionally irritate me, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be watched.
LOL. I can’t answer. I find them both irritating and annoying. But a great question.
No, but maybe we can make more of an effort to address the human rights concerns of Palestinians. maybe we can hold Israel’s feet to the fire on some her own excesses. I don’t have any answers to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict but we can at least try to refrain from making it any worse.
I’m not even saying that the terrorists have good reasons to hate us, but the meme that they hate us because we’re so wonderful is really annoying.
Runningwithchickens, don’t get me wrong, I have no love for Maher. I think he is, indeed, a smug, condescending, sexist little prick. Fair is fair, however, he has never expressed any sentiment that America deserved 9/11, and the comments that he was fired for by ABC were completely misunderstood and blown out of all proportion. Maher has always been consistently pro-military to the point of obnoxiousness. He still even defends the Vietnam war for Fuck’s sake.
All in all, though, I find some redeeming qualities in Maher. At least he can be funny, and I don’t think he’s as grandiose or as narrow-minded as O’Reilly is. It’s a close call, but I think O’Reilly is just more hateful and more humorless.
I’d love to see some viewer e-mail from Maher watchers/bashers. At least Oreilly lets viewers take shots at him!
LOL! Runningwithchickens? Was that a typo?
I SWIM with chickens and I RUN with the garden mole.
Maybe it’s the format (HBO versus Fox…hmmm, maybe not…) but I have to agree to disagree.
I respect your opinion as you’ve defended not hating Maher nearly as much as you hate O’Reilly. Fair enough.
What about Fahwell versus Dr. Laura versus Jesse Jackson? Call it a threeway hatefest…
Dr. Laura stands alone. I usually don’t use the “c” word, but if anyone deserves it, it’s her.
Sorry about your name, SwimmingwithChickens, slip of the keyboard. 
I just saw Sean Hannity for the first time a few days ago. He spent half the time with his guest arguing whether or not he had the right to literally point a finger at him. He was so unprofessional. He also acted like a fricking two year old who had to get the last “Yes you are (No I’m not)” in. He tried so desperately to be “hard-hitting” and “no-nonsense” that he came off like a saturday night live sketch.
KidC, that guy Hannity was interviewing was sooooooo out of line.
He got all tough about finger pointing with Hannity when he should have just argued the points. Hannity gave the only real answer. “then leave if you don’t like it!” and his liberal partner bakced him up and defended him.
I think your ideoogical center has a lot to do with which one you can’t stand. Since Bil Maher is a leftist, he tends to irritate me faster. I find O’Rielly to be more of a pragmatist than a leftist, so I am more tolerant of him. And we all know that pragmatists irritate the crap out of lefties. They ask all those inconvienient questions that make pie-in-the sky naivete so much harder to maintain.
On Thursday night Hannity was “interviewing” a woman about the San Francisco police being prohibited from wearing flag bandanas (actually, any bandanas) while on crowd control duty. He never let her finish a statement, kept repeating himself, and at the end waved one of those little ‘flag on a toothpick’ things while repeating “Does that threaten you”. You had to see it. I am paraphrasing, from memory. I was a little stunned, and I don’t stun easily. Those other two don’t stun me. Annoy, yes.
I don’t think his liberal? partner backed him on this one.
Peace,
mangeorge
At least Bill Maher stilll believes that people are allowed to talk, no matter how stupid or offensive they are. O’Reily thinks they should shut up. That automatically makes him the loser in the realm of liberal scientific search for knowledge.
It was in an article in SPY magazine.
Which, while it purported to be a humor magazine, and did contain fiction, it also included non-fiction, and the anecdote was in one of the non-fiction pieces.
Ok, have to admit I came in about 10 seconds before the fight began so I don’t know how evasive the interviewee was prior, but Hannity was unnecessarily antagonizing him after the guy was willing to let it drop.
Keeping the focus on just “Maher vs. O’Reilly”, I’d say that both are equally smug, but that Maher is somewhat worst, as, while at least O’Reilly is what he bills himself as being (a guy who yells at his guests), Maher fails at what he claims to be (a comedian).
Since O’Reilly bills his act as a “no spin zone,” I would say that he is also an abject failure at what he claims to be.
Getting the focus back to Hannity and…
Oh. Sorry.
I see it the exact opposite. Conservatives have a lot of problems with pragmatism. Like, what happens if the Iraqis don’t like you ‘liberating’ them?
The answer of course is neither, that honour belongs to Mick Hucknell.
He is a smug as a smug thing in a smug suit, during the festival of smugness of which he is the smugmaster.