Bill Maher, Where Art Thou?

My wife and I watch only a handful of shows on television -- all but one on the pay cable channels -- and so we make an effort to listen and discuss what we see.  I know several people who watch a lot of TV, yet do little more than laugh at the jokes and comment on the quality of the advertisements.  In other words, my wife and I are highly selective creatures of habit who make time to watch the few shows that we find interesting or entertaining.

We have watched every episode of Real Time with Bill Maher because we found the show both interesting and entertaining.  And until very recently Bill has held a fairly steady course, holding the candle (in his own way) up to the Generally Accepted Lies and Untruths in our society.  This was one of the reasons we dropped our carcasses onto the couch for 60 minutes on a night when we might have better things to do.

Last week, Bill started off the show with the obligatory special guest and quickly set the stage for a point of view that has been simmering in his head for a while.  Too bad he lost it.

Maher said quite clearly that he thought Islam teaches its devout to make war with and lay waste to the rest of the world.  Wow.  He further drove that point home during a roundtable tete-a-tete with Glenn Greenwald.

Bill said Muslims were bad.  Glenn countered with a description of destructive US foreign policies.  Bill said Muslims were bad.  Glenn said the USA was partially responsible for the anger in the region, pointing out the recent Mulsim-friendly targets and the coziness the USA has with anti-Mulsim states (like Israel).  Bill said Muslims were bad.  Glenn said other religions were bad and gave the Crusades as an example.  Bill said Muslims were bad right now and the others were bad long ago, so they don't count.

Now, Bill and I share some of the same opinions on religion, but his jingoistic "Muslims bad!" is so far from the truth, it was painful to watch Bill ignore Glenn's arguments, especially since Bill had been one of those voices who lamented the US foreign policy.

If Bill keeps this up and his shows become an Islam-bashing frenzy, he will lose us as an audience.