Interesting! Thanks for posting this, Norm!

Sounds like Bill Maher has a cold or something though. Also, Maher looks really small and emaciated next to Craig Ferguson (who, according to IMDB, is 6'2").

That craig ferguson is a funny fellow. Definately underrated.

Bill Maher knows Ann Coulter. WTF. Crazyness personified.

…more than just friends, from what I understand they dated for awhile. He may very well have [i]known[/i] her, although the mental vision of that is …shudder… horrible!

Hey, talking about Bill... Deepak Chopra is gonna be on his show tonight. I hope it gets interesting what with all the nonsense Chopra sells and Maher's anti-religion stance. Hopefully he's also anti-New Age crap.

I would totally fuck Coulter. It'd be like always having makeup sex.

I find it strange that Maher can relate to Coulter. Now, I don't know too much about Ann Coulter really, but it seems to me that aside from the free-market and "small-government" basis (ie. they hate taxes) they are nearly ideological opposites.

Maher: "She was always a fun person, as long as you didn't talk about anything political with her."

In a way, it makes a little sense... just because that's what they talk about on TV mostly doesn't mean that's what they're all about in day to day life. On the other hand...

Maher: "She and I were both sophisticated enough not to 'go there'"

Right. Don't go there about making America a "Christian Nation", don't go there about the Iraq war, don't go there about who can dictate what about people's lifestyles, don't go there about free speech, don't go there about environmentalism, don't go there about minorities... Like these things aren't important.

If I knew someone like Ann Coulter I might say that we were "acquainted" or that we were on "friendly terms". But I myself don't count relationships with a big blind-spot proviso as friendships. Maybe that makes me uncompromising. I dunno.

Furthermore, what would Coulter say about anti-religion pro-drug Maher? I can't see it being particularly friendly...

"Right. Don't go there about making America a "Christian Nation", don't go there about the Iraq war, don't go there about who can dictate what about people's lifestyles, don't go there about free speech, don't go there about environmentalism, don't go there about minorities... Like these things aren't important."

Yeah, I go there all the time with my friends and especially my friends who are women. Oh and my girlfriends just love it when I bring up the effects of globalization on sub-saharan Africa while I'm plowing them from the rear. You should consider taking a spiritual journey into the woods with a shotgun if you can't get over politics.

You have to keep in mind that Ann Coulter is really just another Carlos Mencia or Larry the Cable Guy. In her case, her whole shtick is saying on cable TV what 12 year old trolls say on message boards. Henry Rollins does a really good job of destroying her here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgSBhlw-o9E

I long for the day to see Chopra verbally dismantled on television in front of his face. I doubt Maher is up for the task though. If only James Randi still had a show...

Dionysus:

You should consider taking a spiritual journey into the woods with a shotgun if you can't get over politics.

Did you even read the first part of my post? Where I say "just because that's what they talk about on TV mostly doesn't mean that's what they're all about in day to day life."

I was more trying to point out something to the effect that while one particular stance about certain things (eg. the effects of globalization) probably won't matter to most people, on the other hand you have the other extreme, say a black person being "friends" with a vocal white supremacist.

There's also the point that most people's friends don't go on TV and call politicians "faggots", etc.

Anyways, I'm not saying Bill Maher shouldn't be friends with Coulter (I don't really care actually), I'm just looking at the situation from a certain point of view.

On a more general topic, I think most sane public personalities ignore or underestimate a large part of their own impact on the public, otherwise they would buckle under the perceived pressure. This might explain some of their behavior.

Something weird is going on with my comments (they have no links in them)...

Never mind, it was just a browser cache issue.

Dionysus said "Oh and my girlfriends just love it when I bring up the effects of globalization on sub-saharan Africa while I'm plowing them from the rear. You should consider taking a spiritual journey into the woods with a shotgun if you can't get over politics."

A relationship means a lot more than "getting plowed from the rear".. Well, at least for some of us.

Talk about needing a spiritual journey... wow..

Stay tuned folks, War of the Roses will continue after this message!

"A relationship means a lot more than "getting plowed from the rear".. Well, at least for some of us."

Thanks for the hint Aunt Flo.

Let's see a clip of Craig on Real Time.

Let's see a clip of Craig on Real Time.

Craig was funny, but didn't really add to the discussion much. You can always use bit torrent. Maher episodes are very well-seeded.

Re: Clips

There's also: http://www.hbo.com/billmaher/video/

I'm not sure how comprehensive it is, but you can get some convenient high-quality video right in your browser.

Plus: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/

I can imagine being friends with some conservatives - Joe Scarborough or Andrew Sullivan, for example. But Ann Coulter? I just can't imagine it, because I can't "have fun" with someone for whom I have absolutely no respect.

Being sophisticated enough to "just not go there" with her is like hanging out with Joseph Goebbels in 1936 and being polite enough to avoid that "antisemitism stuff". I honestly believe that if Ann Coulter were transported back in time and into Germany 70 years ago, she'd be telling us what a swell guy Goebbels is.

That was exceptional. It's too bad they probably both are really egomaniacs, and the barbs are not just an act.

I just can't imagine it, because I can't "have fun" with someone for whom I have absolutely no respect. - Tim

I am nobody to tell you who to get along with, but coming from someone who is considered the extreme Communist-God hating wing of my extended family, it isn't as hard as you'd think. It can be unbearable at times, but you have to just look at it from the perspective that the point to politics is to have no more politics, talk about something else. However, if their politics imbues their opinion of you as a person, perhaps it's best you just spare yourself the trouble.

I honestly believe that if Ann Coulter were transported back in time and into Germany 70 years ago, she'd be telling us what a swell guy Goebbels is. - Tim

This is a manifestation of argumentum ad nazium. Don't go there. Really. Wholly illegitimate, and colours everything you say sensationalist and loopy like kali yuga and the tin foil hat brigade. Just a fair warning from an armchair Third Reich scholar.

I think people in this thread who wonder how conservatives and liberals could ever be friends are missing the irony. Maher just talked about the sectarian strife that is ripping Iraq in three. Is that also the fate of America; a new Mason-Dixon line separating the slobs and the snobs, the hocks and the townies, frat rats and stoners, jocks and nerds?

There's a difference between being friends and having an intimate relationship with someone. Sure, being friends with a slob, frat rat, nerd, or macho redneck is one thing. But sleeping with them? Not me.

Is that also the fate of America; a new Mason-Dixon line separating the slobs and the snobs, the hocks and the townies, frat rats and stoners, jocks and nerds? - leftbanker

The people fighting in Iraq are social rejects, gangsters, religious zealots and demagogues. They fall back on reptilian-brained differences in a security dilemma that didn't exist under the strong central control of Saddam.

There is currently similar violence in the US between black and mexican gang bangers in LA, and it's based on race and power.

After Hurricane Katrina, the loss of American governmental organization compounded the state of anarchy with a desperate traumatic chaos which propelled racially divisive conflict. There was also the stratification element of class and caste warfare.

If the centrality of American power were lifted someone, perhaps with massive power grid failures, a draught, a famine, a major stock market crash and ensuing depression, plus a major plague, all of course masturbatory signs of the apocalypse, I think the poverty that many urban African-Americans live in will go from abject to unbearable, and they will fight back to try to secure their means of living, which could start a chain reaction of developing a new security dilemma that transcends politics and goes back to reptilian-brained differences: Skin color, language, religion.

Anonymous was me.

"Anonymous was me." Dionysus

Are you sure? I'm having a hard time reconciling that interesting post with your previous juvenile ass-ramming related comments. ;)

Well I'm certainly not having a hard time reconciling the two!

Are you sure? I'm having a hard time reconciling that interesting post with your previous juvenile ass-ramming related comments. ;)

Yeah, me too. It seems that we can be deep (no pun intended) in some areas, and rather shallow in others... sigh...

Maher is a fundamentally unserious person. He is interested in politics but mainly for a laugh, or as a vehicle for narcissism. It doesn't surprise me that he's Ann Coulter's buddy. She's much the same way. I imagine Jon Stewart's circle of friends are substantially more high-quality.

I have some very conservative friends. We've talked about politics, but we don't always get together just to have another round about the Iraq War. So in that sense I understand what Maher is saying. But I cannot and could not be very friendly with and have fun with someone who I believe is positively wicked and harmful. I've stopped being friends with plenty of people on those grounds.

There's a difference between being friends and having an intimate relationship with someone.

Maher and Coulter are totally fuck-buddies! I wouldn't be surprised if they roleplay where Maher is Bush and Coulter is America and he screws the country if you know what I mean.

Maher is a fundamentally unserious person. He is interested in politics but mainly for a laugh, or as a vehicle for narcissism.

It's like you typed what everyone else was thinking. Well, at least I can speak for myself.