Real Time with Bill Maher #339 01/17/16 “Free Speech”

Free Speech

by Catherine Giordano

Where does free speech end and hate speech begin? Maher and his guests tried to find the answer on Real Time with Bill Maher, episode 339, which aired on January 16, 2015. 

 

Free speech means free to provoke. 

One thing on Maher’s mind was Pope Francis (no more Pope Frank—the bromance is over.). Maher announced, “You are dead to me now.”) In the monolog, Maher reported that the Pope said that you should not provoke and then to demonstrate his point, he made a punching motion towards his aide “just like Jesus said.”   

Maher returned to this subject in New Rules. It was personal to him because Maher just did a commencement speech at Cal Tech and some students wanted him disinvited because of his remarks about Islam with Ben Afleck.  (See Wake Up, America ) Maher gave his speech any way, and in the New Rules bit, he said, “Where do I go to protest you?” 

Maher said if liberals are throwing around terms like “bigot,” then they are “Je suis part of the problem.” Maher said we should not advocate boycotts of Rush Limbaugh because we don’t like what he says. Countries like France are wrong to make it a crime to deny the Holocaust. The Ku Klux Klan should be allowed to march. The speech is offensive to him, but if we want free speech, it must all be permitted.  

How do I use my free speech to respond to speech that is bigoted except by calling the person saying these things a bigot? Isn’t it my free speech right to call them bigots? 

Maher makes jokes about The Donald looking like an orangutan and goes even further saying Trump is the love child of his mother and an orangutan. I know Trump finds this very offensive. (He tried to sue Maher over the jokes.) I think the joke is funny and laugh because I don’t like Donald Trump. 

I think the movie, The Interview, that ridicules Kim Jong Un and makes jokes about his assassination is funny because I don’t like Kim Jong Un, but what if the North Koreans made a move about the assassination of President Obama? I’d be angry.  

Free speech?

The cartoons of Charlie Hebdo were very offensive to some Muslims and nothing more than political satire to others. To Muslims it was hate speech. They are just as offended by these cartoons as I am by the Ku Klux Klan. (However, I don’t get a machine gun and start shooting the people who have offended me.) 

It is really hard to support the free speech of people who don’t just disagree with you, but disagree with you in a hateful way. Perhaps we should only draw the line where hate speech turns into hate acts. But it is so easy to cross that line. It happened in Nazi Germany.   

So is the answer then to censor some speech? Now I am right back where I started.

The interview  

Atul Gawande is a surgeon, public-health researcher, professor, chairman of Lifebox, (a nonprofit which aims to reduce deaths in surgery globally), and author of several books. His most recent book is Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. He is also a very engaging guest.

 

Atul Gawande

He got into a tussle with Maher about the flu vaccine.  Maher thinks the flu vaccine is, in his word, “b.s.” Gawande explained why the flu vaccine was beneficial, and even worthwhile (saving 15,000 to 20,000 lives) when it is less than 100% effective.  Maher continued to say the flu vaccine was a scam. Is Maher a vaccine bigot? When you continue to state an opinion about something even after your opinion has been shown to be false, isn’t that the definition of a bigot.  
 

Gawande is taking on the subject of death and dying. He reported that the time in your life when you are most likely to have surgery is during the last week of your life.  He said that in the 1950’s most of us died at homes. Now we die in nursing homes and hospitals where we have been put for our own safety. Gawande said, “What old people really want is not safety, but autonomy."  
 

Terrorism

Josh Barro

Panelist Josh Barro is a correspondent for The New York Times self-identifies as a neoliberal and a Republican.

 

“Neoliberal” appears to be another word for libertarian, and he is very calm and well-spoken for a Republican. Unlike last week’s Republican, Carly Fiorina, he did not pound the table, he did not spout gibberish, he did not give us smug facial expressions). He made sense.

Barro said that in the United States, unlike in Europe, Muslims are integrated into society.  In Europe there is the legacy of colonialism complicating things. (Most European Muslims have immigrated from countries formerly ruled over by the European country where they now live.  There is a lot of resentment. Barro also blames high unemployment and living off of government benefits. It’s true that being on welfare hurts one’s self-esteem, but I hope that Barro’s solution is to address the unemployment and not just to cut off the benefits.
 

Maher added “Sometimes in a melting pot, people don’t melt.” 
 

Obama has been getting a lot of heat lately for using the term “radical terrorism” instead of “Muslim terrorism.” Obama is right not to inflame by implying that these terrorists are terrorists because they are Muslim. Barro said that in Europe, only 5% of Muslims attend religious services. He said the problem is not religion but a lack of social integration.
 

Mitt Romney  

Mitt Romney

 

Mitt Romney is running for president again. He made a speech about his intentions on a “moth-balled aircraft carrier that had outlived his usefulness.” Do you think Romney saw any hidden meaning in that? 
 

Romney appears to be trying to reinvent himself as the anti-poverty candidate, just one more reinvention in a long series or reinventions. Earth to Romney: 1)Republicans don’t like anti-poverty candidates. 2)You are the last person in the world anyone would believe was sincere about anti-poverty. 
 

Cuba 

Wes Moore

The United States is ending the embargo with Cuba.  Maher asked if the pace of change with Cuba would go as fast as it did with gay marriage and the legalization of pot. 

 

Panelist Wes Moore is a businessman, U.S. Army veteran, host of "Beyond Belief" on the Oprah Winfrey Network, author.  His first book, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates, became an instant New York Times bestseller. His most recent book is The Work: My Search for a Life That Matters.

Moore said that his grandmother was from Cuba and that Europeans have freely visited Cuba all along. They have some of the best beaches in the world and it is an inexpensive place to visit.  
 

Prison Reform 

Maher mentioned that it is ironic that U.S. embargoed Cuba while maintaining a prison, Guantanamo Bay, on the island.  This was a segue into a discussion of prison reform. Maher pointed out that the U.S. has more people in prison than any other country.  Barro mentioned that during the last recession, the prison population went down because it was too expensive, but now the number of prisoners is on the rise again.



Josh Gad

Panelist Josh Gad, an actor best known for voicing Olaf in Frozen, asked “Where is the
money to reform people?” Prisoners are warehoused, but most of them will eventually be released unprepared for re-entry. I agree.
 

Maher said that he liked the idea of free college for two years.  He said, “It would get people ready for a job, so they don’t sell pot.” So true, a year of college is much less expensive than a new of imprisonment.  Yet there is always money for building new prisons, but not for education (in or out of prison).

 

Hollywood 

In the monolog, Maher joked that the best British movies this year were about a brilliant astrophysicist (Stephan Hawking, The Theory of Everything) and a brilliant mathematician (Alan Turing, The Imitation Game). "In the United States the biggest movies were about a wrestler, a drummer, and a sniper—everything a boy wants to be when he is ten." 
 

The 25 biggest movies in recent years have all featured superheroes, aliens, wizards, or talking animals of some sort. The only exception was The Titanic. 
 

Maher talked about the new movie Selma about Martin Luther King.  Some have faulted the movie because they say President Johnson’s support for the Voting Rights Act is not sufficiently shown.  Maher said, “A biopic doesn’t tell the whole story. When you don’t leave things out, you get 17 hours of The Hobbit. (By the way, Selma is a great movie—go see it.)
 

Mid-Show Guest: Kathryn Bigelow 

Kathryn Bigelow

Kathryn Bigelow is a director, producer and screenwriter. Her two most recent movies are Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker.  She was on the show to promote her  campaign to prevent the extinction of elephants and her animated/live action short/PSA called  Last Days.   
 

She told us that elephants are the most intelligent and sensitive communal creatures on Earth (she didn’t exclude humans), and that they could be extinct in the wild in 11 years.  They are being killed or their ivory. She claims that the profits from this illicit ivory trade are funding terrorism.
   

Her film is very short, very beautiful, and very important.  Please watch it now.

 

Mid-Show Comedy Segment

Politicians getting ready to campaign for office always have a book.  Maher had fun renaming some of these books. 

• Marco Rubio’s book: Hispanic But Not Too Much.
• Rand Paul: Just Like My Dad Without the Crazy Parts
• Sarah Palin: Hey Sucker. Yeah You. Give Me $29.95
• Donald Trump:  Me Want Banana. Me Climb Tree. Inside the Mind of a Half-Human Half-Orangutan Billionaire
• Mitt Romney: What Do I Have to Do to Be President? Suck Your Dick? OK, I’ll Do It.

Read more on this and see the video clip here: Bill Maher: So Sue Me

More Free Speech
 

The last two book titles are very offensive, but free speech means never having to say you are sorry for being offensive.
 

 Bill Maher’s Guests January 16, 2015.

 

Josh Gad: actor best known for voicing Olaf in Frozen 

Atul Gawande: surgeon, public-health researcher, professor, chairman of Lifebox, (a nonprofit which aims to reduce deaths in surgery globally) and author of several books. His most recent book is Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End 

Josh Barro: Self-identifies as a neo-liberal and a Republican, correspondent for The New York Times. (I checked the definition of neo liberal—it sounds like just another word for libertarian.) 

Wes Moore: businessman, U.S. Army veteran, host of "Beyond Belief" on the Oprah Winfrey Network, author.  His first book, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates, became an instant New York Times bestseller. His most recent book is The Work: My Search for a Life That Matters 

Kathryn Bigelow: director, producer, screenwriter. Her two most recent movies are

Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker.  She has started a campaign to prevent the extinction of elephants and has produced an animated/live action short/PSA called  Last Days.

 

HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher #271 Drones, Bones, and Orange Tones

by Catherine Giordano

HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” episode #271 aired a very interesting show on February 8, 2013 discussing a wide range of topics. When you have a theoretical physicist on the panel as Bill did this week—Lawrence Krauss, the author of A Universe from Nothing-- you can expect, at the very least, intelligent conversation.  

Bill might be tacking a new tack with his show. This is the second week in a row that he did not have bombastic political types on the panel—just intelligent people who know what they are talking about and who can express different opinions on the topics under discussion in a rational manner. Maybe this change harks back to what Bill said a few episodes ago about how it is impossible to have a conversation with someone who won’t accept facts.

The downside to this new tack, (if, indeed, it is a new tack) is that the show is calmer and that makes it harder for me to write about it. Outrageousness allows me to write with righteous indignation. Slamming someone for something stupid he or she said is more fun than just reporting on what was said. Nonetheless, I’ll do my best to write an interesting review.

This week’s  interview was with Julian Assange, the founder and editor of WikiLeaks.  The interview was done remotely because Assange can’t leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London where is being given sanctuary from arrest. England wants to extradite him to Switzerland to face trial for sexual incidents (a “he said/she said situation” and most likely trumped up). The Swiss, if they get their hands on him, will most likely extradite him to the United States. It seems he published some classified documents and the United States doesn’t like that type of thing one little bit. (I’m not sure how I feel about what Assange does, but I do feel a little bit sorry for him about the mess he has gotten himself into.)

Assange seemed dour throughout most of the interview. Bill remarked on it attributing his mood to being cooped up in the embassy for months. I did learn two interesting things from the interview.  One, Assange does not know who his sources are. Documents are transmitted to WikiLeaks in such a way that no one knows the identity of the sender. (One small question, how does WikiLeaks prevent fraud if they don’t know who sent the documents?)  And two, WikiLeaks does not publish everything that they receive. They only publish information of significant historical importance or to aid whistle-blowers who want to reveal wrong-doing. They will not publish, or they will delay publishing, if they feel that there is a good reason to let something remain secret.    

In addition to Lawrence Krauss, the other two panelists were Martin Bashir, from MSNBC News, and Josh Barro, a reporter for Bloomberg News. Both of these men are serious about news and worthy of our respect.

Drone attacks is an important issue in the news right now and the panel began with that.  Bill said, “In a world where there are nuts and nukes, there are no good choices.” Fighting Al Qaeda is like a game of Wac-A-Mole. Bashir was concerned about a permanent war. “When does it end?” he asked. Barro thought drone attacks were a better alternative than invading countries. Klauss was concerned about giving the government the power to kill. All good points--some pro, some con.

I personally favor drone attacks as necessary to disrupt Al Qaeda and prevent an attack on U.S. soil. But, I also feel that there must be some checks and balances. There has to be some kind of trial in absentia to determine if the attack is necessary. I think that the people who are going around saying one man can decide who lives and who dies are just trying to score political points; I think it is a group decision made by the military, the CIA, and the president.

All this stuff about killing American citizens is just more political rant. If someone leaves this country and joins up with a group that wants to attack the United States, he has effectively renounced his American citizenship. We don’t have the ability to go into middle Eastern and African countries to arrest these people. We can’t be doing an Osama bin Laden type of foray every week. However, Al Queda members (citizen or non-citizen) in this country should be arrested and should receive due process. I don’t think there have been assassinations in the U.S., and that is how it should be.  

In summation, I do feel a little uneasy about the drone attacks, but as Bill said, “Sometimes all you have are bad choices, and you have to choose the least bad.”

Another event in the news this week is the discovery of the bones of Richard III, a former king of England who reigned for two years, and was the last Plantagenet king before the current Tudor dynasty began. His bones were found beneath a parking lot. Richard III’s reign was so short that Bill called him a “speed bump in history.” However, Bill also admired him for “hunchback courage.”  He rode his horse into battle which must have been very painful given the deformity of his spine.

Bill is an avowed atheist so he veered off into a comment about Jesus. If the bones of Jesus were found would this change anyone’s mind about the divinity of Jesus.  Bill also said that 27% of people in the United States thought that God played a role in the outcome of the Super Bowl.  (Was he the One who cast the stadium into darkness, and if so, why? Beyonce?) Krauss added that more people believe in angels than evolution and that nonsense can substitute for fact with impunity.

There was some discussion of the picture of Obama skeet shooting. Bill thought that the release of the picture was just pandering, and served only to give the right-wing crazies a new conspiracy theory. Rollo thought that the president wants to encourage conspiracy theories. It makes the Republicans look crazy and it keeps the attention off other things, things the administration would rather not talk about. (Like drone attacks?)

Tina Brown, editor of Newsweek and The Daily Beast was the special mid-show guest. She talked about her admiration for Malaya, the Pakistani girl who was shot for speaking up about education for women.  Bill said, “The Taliban is more afraid of educating women than of drones.”

Bill took Brown to task for a cover story in Newsweek, “Heaven is Real,” about a neurosurgeon who had a near-death experience. (However, The neurosurgeon thought he had actually died, been to heaven, and  then returned to life.) Brown looked a little put upon as she tried to defend the story, but the rest of the panel scoffed. (I, for one, thought that Brown was smarter than that.) Krauss said that the man had a spiritual experience, but he thinks science is more spiritual because it is real. The man’s experience may have been-life changing for him, but it was just a hallucination.  Bill remarked, “We like to say that there are two sides to every story, what we forget is that one side is wrong.

There was talk about taxes, and Chris Christie’s health (and weight), and government failings and other things, but I’m now going to go straight to the “New Rules” segment about Donald Trump. It was Bill at his best.

Here’s the set up. Last year, Trump offered to donate five million dollars to charity if Obama would release his college transcripts. Bill did a bit on his show where he offered to donate five million dollars to charity if Trump could prove that he wasn’t the love child of a human woman and an orangutan.  He was making fun of Trump’s “birther” nonsense. Recently, he got a letter from Trump’s lawyers suing him for $5 million. Bill thought the letter was a joke; turns out, Trump is serious.

Bill’s response last night was to pile on the insults. He said that Trump didn’t know the difference between a joke and a contract—he thinks a joke is a legally binding agreement.  He said that Trump should have sucked it up like other celebrities who become the butt of a joke. Instead, Trump got so angry that he couldn’t stop throwing his feces. He said Trump really did look like he had orangutan heritage because the orange color of his hair is matched no where on earth except in the color of the hair on an orangutan.

Trump had sent Bill a copy of his birth certificate to prove that his father was not an orangutan. This launched a bunch more jokes. It was a short form birth certificate just like Obama’s. Bill demanded to see the long form. Bill said that Trump’s birth certificate was obviously false because it had a bar code on it—bar codes were not available in 1946, the year shown as the year of Trump’s birth. Bill demanded more proof that Trump does not go to family reunions at the zoo. Ouch!  This was the “I-almost-feel-sorry-for-the-man” moment of the week. But I don’t feel sorry for Trump because he so richly deserves the ridicule that he has brought upon himself.

And I’ll conclude with a riddle—what do drones, bones, and orange tones have in common?  Bill Maher makes jokes about all of them.  

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