Bill Maher: Western culture isn't just different, it's better.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

On "The Daily Show," Jon Stewart relatively soft-pedaled his defense of fellow Comedy Central employees, "South Park's" Matt Stone and Trey Parker, against a group of Muslim critics. Over at HBO this weekend, though, Bill Maher wasn't holding anything back. On his show "Real Time With Bill Maher," the show's every-incendiary host opined during his segment "New Rules:"

"When South Park got threatened last week by Islamists incensed at their depiction of Muhammad, it served -- or should serve -- as a reminder that our culture isn't just different than one that makes death threats to cartoonists. It's better." In his defense of the First Amendment and other Americal civil liberties, Maher -- who made the film "Religulous" -- continued: "The Western world needs to make it clear: Some things about our culture are not negotiable. And can't change. And one of them is freedom of speech, Separation of church and state is another."

Completely spot-on observation about real differences in cultures, one that will not play well with PC police. Bill Maher is certainly no friend of religious people; and gives grief equally to Christianity, Judaism, Scientology, and Mormons as you will see. But he specifically singles out Isalm with the recent actions in Afganistan and the Taliban's attack on an all girls school.

Comments

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Well, Quebec recently passed a law that bans wearing hijabs when there's maybe 15 women in Quebec who do. It's blatant racist demagoguery, but alas, to expect something else from Frenchmen anywhere is a losing cause.

My comment is that we are allies with Saudi Arabia, which is the single nastiest regime in the Middle East and one Osama bin Laden and company hate because it is just that nasty. To ally with the Middle Eastern version of Antonescu's Romania and claim that we're seeking freedom is a blatant lie, but that's not stopped us.

Is it shitty to be a woman in the Middle East? Yes. The Middle East's experience with European "liberty" was foreign rule that was as nasty as it was everywhere else. Europeans did nothing to encourage freedom aside from using Christians as wedges and then reducing everybody to equal misery, something their successor states continue.

And nowadays the USA is joining the misery-producing crowd as well.

I personally believe that concerns for women's rights and human rights are insincere because the people who preach this loudest are also the most fervent supporters of an alliance with one of the vilest group of scumbags on the planet and quietly overlook that Dubai is currently allowing real true modern day slavery to make all those tourists happy.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Quebec is a terrible place, just ask any Canadian from another Province.

I completely agree about Saudi Arabia and it's worth noting that the Christian right is every bit as supportive of them as they are China, which is to say, where there's vested financial interests, we feel free in the west to turn a blind eye.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

And frankly, given that the Right supported mortgaging the USA's future to Mao's heirs and also supports the worst theocrats in the Middle East, I think it's safe to say they mean neither their anti-Communist nor their anti-Islamist rhetoric with any degree of sincerity. The problem for them is that running an idealist movement and realpolitik are incompatible. Not that I shed too many tears over that....

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

The problem for them is that running an idealist movement and realpolitik are incompatible.

I think this illuminates the problem for all of us, be it liberal or conservative. There's constant compromises made, be it getting in bed with dictators or going into business with regimes like China. The U.S. only has moral authority in their own minds.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately our own minds happen to be the most influential single bloc on the planet at present. If somebody in Kiribati wants to go a-spreadin' the democracy everyone laughs. It's rather more serious with the USA involved....

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

True - and it's our economic and military power that makes it so.

[mijan.livejournal.com]

...to expect something else from Frenchmen anywhere is a losing cause.

You know, I expected better from you than such blatant prejudice, bordering on racism. Are you going to apply that opinion to all people of French descent? What about the Acadians? Seriously, I thought better of you than that.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

It was a tongue in cheek statement. I'd also note that to expect the English to write a book about the wonders of English cuisine would be a losing cause.

[mijan.livejournal.com]

Amusing thought on the English cuisine (I'm actually quite fond of Cornish pasties)... but it was a fairly accusatory statement that made it sound like you thought all people of French heritage to be bigots. I've been given a lot of crap for my French name (even more than the amount of crap I've been given for my Jewish heritage), and I find it interesting that people can toss around insults about Caucasian ethnicities without people calling them out on it.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Nah......Frenchmen aren't any more bigoted than anyone else.

[mijan.livejournal.com]

That works for me.

Generally, though, based on our history, Acadians tend to be pretty benevolent.