Penn Jillette, Not Having the Courage to Confront Islam is Bull

David Horowitz's NewsReal Blog ^ | June 26, 2010 | David Swindle

[HorowitzianConservative]

It’s always a sad day when someone you admire tremendously, who has entertained and challenged you for years lets you down and reveals themselves to really stand up only for themselves instead of the ideas of freedom they claim to support.

Reason Magazine highlights some deeply discouraging remarks from Penn Jillette, the libertarian co-host of the extraordinarily great Showtime show “Penn and Teller’s Bullsh*t”:

Are there any groups you won’t go after? We haven’t tackled Scientology because Showtime doesn’t want us to. Maybe they have deals with individual Scientologists—I’m not sure. And we haven’t tackled Islam because we have families.

[1010RD]

Very good Lori.

[Squantos]

Agree. Good points !.......LMAO !

[discostu]

He didn’t say anything about servicemen, that’s all from you.

[Squantos]

I will .....heading for big city tomorrow for reading material anyway !

Thanks for the tip........

check my homepage here for other reads, some free PDf files.

Stay safe !

[1010RD]

Thanks, will do. You too!

[Squantos]

Yes it is all from me...... I didn’t say he referenced the troops.

That is my point, he has a stage and an audience to present his message. But he wont as he states the risk to his family is to great.

My point is servicemen do it every day at greater risks including their families who can as well be targeted here in the CONUS.

[Boucheau]

Can’t blame ‘em.

Heck, I would make a show about Islam if I thought Americans/Christians were going to have my back.

As it is, Americans can’t save their own sorry *sses from Communism, let alone help me battle Islam.

Conservatives, are too busy demanding apologies from their own to offer any assistance.

[Lurker]

I'll take your bet, but I'll do it in Daley Plaza. The only caveat is that you have to be there with me.

Are you in?

[I see my hands]

"When was that, exactly? Last year? I think not"

The point was that moving from a network building to limo does not guarantee security, as you suggested. You are very cavalier with others' safety.

PS: I liked the "PS" in your subsequent post. Neat!

[B-Chan]

Imagine you are Penn Jilette. You decide to take a stand and do a show ridiculing Islam. There are punlic protests, but nothing bad happens. The rating are high. Life is good.

Then one day, your little daughter disappears from the schoolyard...

[discostu]

Servicemen’s families aren’t really at risk. Because servicemen are relatively anonymous their families are even more so. Penn’s not anonymous, and neither is his family. He’s done enough video-blogs from his home that a smart person could probably figure out right where it is (and it’s very clearly not any kind of secured compound), and doing the show on Showtime takes him away from his family’s home to LA frequently. It’s perfectly valid to decide that’s too much risk for his wife and 2 kids. Nobody with half a brain in their head just volunteers their kids for the life of Salman Rushdie.

[Squantos]

Your opinion noted and respected...... Stay safe !

[Squantos]

LMAO !!

[tarawa]

Actually, if you think about it, his atheism may be the exact reason for him not speaking up. Those of us who believe in something and someplace greater have less fear of the consequences of speaking the truth. If we die in defense of what is right, we know we are headed to someplace greater and that we will see our families again. For someone like Penn, this is all he believes he has, and so he is reluctant to give it up. I’m not saying it excuses his unwillingness to speak up, but that maybe it is just his perspective.

[fhayek]

Penn and Teller are heroes. They butcher sacred cows all the time. Just because they are reluctant to go after Islam doesn’t make them any less heroic. It makes total sense to me. Are all of us willing to sacrifice our families for a given cause? All of us would pause, before doing so, and I, for one, will not fault them for not doing so.

[sharkhawk]

Even if they did do a show on Islam, does anyone believe Showtime would show it. I think they are owned by the same company as Comedy Central. The show that got censored because of a cartoon depiction of a fake mohammed

[chae]

Exactly what I was thinking. South Park did a show eviscerating Scientolgy and Comedy Central showed it, but not the one with a 3 second shot of Mohammed. If Showtime is scared of the Scientologists, there is no way they would air a show taking on Islam.

[dirtboy]

It was said of George Orwell that if the Islamists had put out a fatwa on him the way they did on Rushdie, he wouldn’t have hid himself, he would have walked down the street wearing a bullseye t-shirt.