212 Degrees I Believe?

I have to admit, that I don't think anyone gets my blood boiling faster than Bill Maher. I caught him last night on Larry King Live.

I believe dissidence is good in government. I am completely aware that the best way to keep a governing body on its toes is to allow criticism and disagreement. But there are some people who've made careers out of offering criticism, without offering sound alternatives solutions.

In my experience (emphasis on my) the Left and other anti-Bush factions, are very crafty. They will say things that start like, "What this country needs", then they will tell you what they think we need, only they don't get you to the part where they tell you how they will actually give you that.

Maher is a classic practitioner. If you ask him what he would have done differently, maybe concerning Iraq, he will give you a litany of everything that was done wrong, and then that's it. He tells you how badly everyone does it, but never quite gets to the point where he lays out his own plan. He makes a whole bunch of intelligent-sounding assertions that he can't quite prove. And by "prove" I don't mean make you sound ridiculous or illogical for not believing him, or the old Rosie O'Donnell tactic ("USE GOOGLE"). No, you made the statement, you present the proof. Telling me to educate myself is another bullshit pseudo-intellectual tactic. Like I said, you're making the statement, you show me the proof of your conclusion.

Maher was put on that very spot. A caller challenged Maher, saying, "You've made a career of bashing everyone, and everything. What would you have done differently? SPECIFICS!" And Maher did the usual anti-Bush move. Went through the list of everything he wouldn't have done, and then, as usual, stopped just short of saying what he would have done. Missed it by that much!

And then he said, that Religion is stupid. That's when I decided to avoid the stroke. I changed the channel.