Bon Bons Mots
by Catherine Giordano
by Catherine Giordano
 |
| Bill Maher and Bill Nye |
Real
Time with Bill Maher, #307,
aired on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2014.
The hour breezed by.
In “New
Rules,” Maher did a bit called “Zero Dark Chocolate.” He began by saying “Politicians are like a
box of chocolates. The Democrats are too often soft and gooey and the
Republicans are mostly nuts.” I’ll take my cues from this and deliver up some
Valentine’s Day bon-bons, a Whitman’s Sampler of the bons-mots served up on the
show.
In the
opening monologue, Bill Maher said that 58 million pounds of chocolate will be
consumed on Valentine’s Day. Then he added “And one small diet Coke.”
In the
monologue, Maher talked about Ted Cruz. With a nod to the blizzards occurring
all over the country, Maher pointed out that both Ted Cruz and snow are white,
but the snow eventually goes away.
The
interview was with Bill Nye (The
Science Guy), the author of numerous books that explain science to the layman,
including Consider the Following. Nye tried to explain how global warming leads
to climate change which leads to weather. Hot air rising causes changes in the
atmosphere—that’s why you have been hearing about the polar vortex.
Nye also
talked about his recent debate with Ken Ham, the creationist, about
evolution. Nye said that it is OK to say
that we don’t know the answer to everything.
But whenever he did, Ham replied, “There’s a book.” Nye said he had to resist the urge to slap
his hand to his forehead in a gesture of disgust so many times during that
debate.
The panel
included Dylan Ratigan, a former
host of MSNBC, author of Greedy Bastards, and currently a sustainability entrepreneur; Jeremy Scahill, author of the best-selling book, Blackwater and writer/producer of the new
documentary, Dirty Wars; and Eric Klinenberg, a sociologist and
author of the book, Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone. (This sounds like a book I want to read, but it was not discussed on the show.)
The
panelists were not happy about the pending merger of Comcast and Time Warner/Brighthouse. It will reduce
competition. Klinenberg pointed out that
cable fees keep going up, forcing people of modest means to cut themselves off
from the national conversation. Scahill described Fox News as the television station that thinks Obama is “the black
Marxist Manchurian candidate who wants to resurrect Chairman Mao.”
On the
subject of the nation’s crumbling infra-structure, Maher said that the real
bridge scandal is that the George Washington Bridge is 80 years old and needs
$1 billon in repairs. Rattigan said that
most of our infrastructure, like our power-grid, is pre-Eisenhower. Obama recognizing that there is a lot of work
that needs to be done and a lot of people looking for work and proposed a jobs
bill that would address these two problems.
Of course, the Republicans blocked it. Klinenberg said “the Republican
idea of infra-structure is a fence on the border.”
During the
discussion about drone strikes against suspected terrorists, we got some
disagreement among the panelists. This is a difficult one—Bill Maher said that if
someone is plotting terrorist acts against America, even if he/she is a
citizen, we can’t just do nothing. Scahill,
had a different point of view and thought the drone attacks were unlawful. Where are the safeguards to protect people who
may be innocent? Where do you draw the
line and who gets to draw that line?
Did you know
that February 15, 2014 is “National Youth Enrollment Day” for the Affordable
Care Act. Bill had some spoof posters
featuring celebrities for the Day. Here’s a few of them:
Miley Cyrus: There is a 1 in 3 chance you are
currently touching something I licked.
Sarah Palin: Traumatic
brain injury can strike anyone.
Bob Costas: When Putin poisons you contact lenses, will
you be covered?
George Zimmerman: I still walk the
streets. Any questions?
The mid-show guest was Mayim Bailak. She has a PhD in neuroscience and is an actress. She
plays Amy on The Big Bang Theory TV
series. She is also a vegan, and the
author of a cookbook Mayim’s Vegan Table. Cancer rates are increasing and there must
be prevention and not just treatment. We can pay for organic food or we can pay
for healthcare. What role should the
government play in regulating the food we eat.
Ratigan
spoke about cities of the future being “green” cities. Louisiana is on the
forefront of this movement. Texas, because of the drought they are experiencing
is interested.
It seems
that Philip Seymour Hoffman, the actor who recently died, kept a diary. Some of
his diary entries have been published.
Klinenberg said “There is a feeding frenzy on the internet; we no longer
have a news cycle, we have a news cyclone.”
Michael Sam,
the football player, has come out publically as gay. Maher said that the rednecks now know that they
have been following and cheering for a gay man, “just like they do at the mega-church
every Sunday morning.”
In NewRules, Bill spoke about how we like our politicians to be “new.” If you are new on the political scene, people
don’t know your negatives yet. He said, “Chris
Christie should have run in 2012 when he still had that new candidate smell… Now
he is just 350 pounds of toast.”
Don’t forget
the “Flip a District” campaign. Send in
your nomination for the congress person from a gerrymandered district who you
think most needs to be retired. The Bill Maher show will do everything possible
to help flip the district.
Noticed the
show did not end with the “True Confessions” segment where the guests hold up
signs making phony, but funny, personal confessions. I wonder if it has been dropped?
So that’s
the bon-bons, and the bons mots and now it is time for the bye-byes.
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