Full Disclosure: this blogger has problems with HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher" because it comes on at 9:00 PM (CDT) and that is past this blogger's bedtime. As usual, this blogger made it through Maher's opening monologue all of the way into his first back & forth with his guests and then — this blogger awoke from a nap in time for Maher's closing monologue in "New Rules." Thanks to Maher's good relationship with Ariana Huffington, the entire monologue appeared in yesterday's Huffington Post. Maher had a grand time with Dumbo hypocrisy surrounding their XY chromosomes. If this is (fair & balanced) endocrinology, so be it.
[x HuffPo]
Bill Maher On GOP Manliness
By Ross Luippold
Tag Cloud of the following piece of writing
[x YouTube/PhoenixOroboros Channel]
Bill Maher "New Rules, January 24, 2014"
When President Obama told David Remnick last week that he "would not let [his] son play pro football," conservatives jumped at the chance to fit that reluctance to let children play violent sports into their narrative that Obama is a weak president and a weak man afraid to engage in the kind of messy, violent acts men should take part in.
On Friday's "Real Time," Bill Maher found this whole idea very odd. "I don't know where Republicans get the weird delusion that they're the party of manliness," he said.
He pointed out that Republicans, who count their own fair share of "non-serving chickenhawks," are often more likely to push for war, and often silence critics by painting them as ineffectual and feminine.
But he did not let Democrats off the hook for buying into Republicans' tactics. "Democrats have to start being the party that redefines toughness into restraint," he said.
"It's not toughness Republicans love, it's bullying," he continued. The governor of New Jersey was one example of such a Republican, according to Maher. "Somehow we've gone from Teddy Roosevelt's 'speak softly and carry a big stick,' to Chris Christie's 'speak loudly and be a big dick.' "
As for Obama, Maher did not understand why his less hawkish stances on war than his predecessors was painted as negative in the new memoir by former defense secretary Robert Gates.
"Gates said George W. Bush was a good president, because he had no second thoughts about Iraq," Maher said. "That's because to have second thoughts, you have to have first thoughts."
Check out Maher's full New Rules clip above (the manliness bit stars around 2:25). Also, follow @HuffingtonPost's Twitter feed during the State of the Union on Tuesday, where Maher will take over our account to livetweet jokes during the speech. Ω
[Ross Luippold is the Deputy Editor of HuffPost Comedy at The Huffington Post. While a student at The University of Texas at Austin, Luippold was the Editor-in-Chief of Texas Travesty (the largest student-produced humor publication in the United States). He received a BS (Radio-Television-Film) from UT-Austin.]
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