Posted on 02/05/2009 10:20:43 AM PST by jagusafr
Last night, I watched the Kennedy Center show honoring (posthumously) George Carlin. A truly brilliant, insightful, funny comedian, Carlin's bits over his 40 year career in standup were introduced by a number of comedians and I thoroughly enjoyed the chuckles down memory lane.
Until the next-to-last presenter: Bill Maher, the smirking, rabidly liberal former funnyman who is not only a professed atheist, but virulently anti-religious.
Well by this stage Carlin has learned if he was right or if he was wrong.
George Carlin said that Christianity was a mental disease.
I credit that eight years of grammar school with nourishing me in a direction where I could trust myself and trust my instincts. They gave me the tools to reject my faith. They taught me to question and think for myself and to believe in my instincts to such an extent that I just said, “This is a wonderful fairy tale they have going here, but it’s not for me.”
— George Carlin, in the New York Times, August 20, 1995
“George Carlin said that Christianity was a mental disease.”
He also passed a remark that Republicans and conservatives always talk about rights for the unborn and then don’t “give a sh*t” about children after they are born.” He used to make me laugh BEFORE he got political.
I always found Carlin to be a hypocrite, but a very funny one.
As for Bill Maher...he was a D list stand up comic. Now, he’s just a coward that requires three liberal ‘backups’ with him when he brings one (1) Conservative onto his cable show.
If there's a nugget here, it's this: to paraphrase General George S. Patton: "You're always on parade." People who seek the limelight need to be prepared to face the consequences of their poor decisions...

No, I never was a bad Republican. But I am now a good liberal.
Carlin never recovered from losing his wife to cancer. That is when he turned ugly. I will not argue someone’s faith or lack thereof. But Carlin was never as arrogantly in your face about it as Maher is.
Speaking of mental diseases...
Of course he meant other people's children! And other people's money as evidence of caring.
I wonder how many neglected little bastards he supported?
As far as I know Carlin had only one child.
George, I have known in my life alcoholics, drug users, and mental patients. If we apply this "believe in yourself" New Age nonsense to every individual, the unsaid question has to arise..."What if your instincts suck, and your are a moron to begin with? Pocessing no outside standard higher than 'this is my plan and I believe in it' you arrive at a Paris Hilton if you are unexceptional, and Adolph Hitler if you are hugely charismatic.
How dare they call Maher a funnyman. That’s an insult to comedians everywhere.
An understandable response. However, character never comes into play as importantly as in this example.
CS Lewis had similar grief in his life and, during his grief, which few can understand, he called God the cosmic sadist." Obviously, he got over that, as do most others similarly touched by fate.
I put it on but the moment I saw Bill Maher walk on stage, I changed the channel to Fox News.
Don’t dump so hard on poor Bill Maher. He has suffered his entire life from acute sophomorism.
Me too. In the late 70’s he was funny. I just heard some of his later schtick a couple of weeks ago and he just sounded angry.
Bill Maher was pretty funny when he was Libertarian leaning, once he went left he lost it in more ways than one.
I once did an investigation related to a now dead atheist down in Texas. Its always been my view that just as she was being murdered she screamed out ‘Oh God, No!’.
You're exactly right. Some of his funniest (and angriest) stuff was directed at namby-pamby politically-correct "liberals."
Carlin was amusing, no denying it. But he was also a first class hypocrite.
Maher never was that funny, the only reason he got out off the ‘Yuk Yuk’s laugh bar’ circuit was because of who he knew, not because of his stand up talent.
But the point is that as a good liberal hypocrite, and exactly like an evil "conservative," he was not referring to his (or others') own children in that monumentally stupid statement.
Madalyn Murray O'Hair wasn't as in your face about it as Maher is.
Take that back - it is an insult to all sophomores! Maher exists to show that even Al Franken can be very slightly funnier than someone else (occasionally and rarely)!
Stick a fork in George Carlin; he’s done.
A common fault of converts to a new religion, they get really fundamentalist about it! ... And yes the idea of calling Bill Maher a FUNDAMENTALIST really is FUN!
I know - pisses me off that she gets all the press, and it’s all BAD! At least I got www.danajacobson.com before she did!
Carlin was a fool according to that verse of scripture, but Maher is simply a hateful, no-talent wannabe according to anyone who has ever listened to his asinine schtik for more than 10-15 seconds.
He also passed a remark that Republicans and conservatives always talk about rights for the unborn and then dont give a sh*t about children after they are born.It is true about the pro-life movement; they do not care what happens to the unborn once they are born.
they do not care what happens to the unborn once they are born.
For example..?
wow!! i haven’t heard that woman’s name since i got out of high school. the gentleman who taught our government class was inclined to bring up her name in such a way that it sounded like a swear word. oh yes mr. hannah really did not like that woman. we need more teachers like mr. hannah.
Uh...what?
Yes, he also did one on Global Warming that was quite funny.
That’s not true. The pro-life movement has a hard time taking care of children after they are born because the government does everything in its power to screw those in the foster care system.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.