*F.O.C. = Full Of Cr@p.
Congratulations, Bill Maher. You get to be the first one covered in this shiny new feature of the VM blog! Because, boy, are you F.O.C.!
Mr. Maher has been flapping his gums a lot lately, especially in light of last week's terrible Tucson shooting. (In fact, it was this tragic event and the Democrat-media complex's reaction to it that inspired me to create this new feature.)
One can write a health-care-bill-sized tome about the white-hot hate and violent vitriol that steams from this man's soul. But today I want to focus on what the man said this week about conservatives and their imaginary role in inspiring crazed nut Jared Loughner to shoot up a crowd of people.
This past week Maher has blamed the shooting on -- in addition to right-wing rhetoric on the radio and Fox News -- right-wing gun culture and also on the (presumed) lack of ObamaCare. Ohhh-kaaaay ...
For some reason, on Wednesday this mental colossus got invited onto the Tonight Show (why, Jay Leno? Why???). On this show he actually faced an audience that disagreed with him! Here's what he said [via NewsBusters]:
MAHER: ... [T]hat's the rhetoric they love. The right-wing loves, the go-to rhetoric for them is, "Wouldn't it be fun to kill the people we disagree with?" You know, they try to put across this false equivalence. [To audience] No?
AUDIENCE: NO!
MAHER: Really? Then, do you read?
AUDIENCE: Yes.
Note his condescending retort: His audience disagrees with him, so they must not be well-read.
MAHER: Have you -- have you seen what people have said? Have you seen what Sarah Palin says? You know, she talks about "Don’t retreat, reload.” She says it like a pull toy that's broken, every five minutes she says this. ...
No, she doesn't! She said it just once, right after she quit the Alaska governorship. Rather, it's you Palin-hating lefties who repeat it like a broken pull toy!
Besides, you want to talk about a false moral equivalence? The only way "Don't retreat, reload" in any way, shape, or form is akin to "Wouldn't it be fun to kill people we disagree with," is if you're a mindless conservative-hater like Bill Maher.
MAHER: Left-wingers don't talk that way. And also, left-wingers -- even if they do sometimes make a gun analogy or something -- their audience isn't hysterical. They're already talking the right-wingers to people who are hysterical and are irrational are highly armed to begin with.
... So, so stop telling me that the left and the right are both crazy. Yes, there are crazies on the left, but they're not the same -- they're not gun crazy. They're not violent crazy.
This claim is patently false and absurd. Not only have no conservatives of any legitimate stature ever wished for an opponent being killed or even injured, but such hate-filled speech is very common on the left. The would include rhetoric coming from the mouth of ... wait for it: Bill Maher!
That's right. Here's a list going back a more than a decade [with thanks to Noel Sheppard and others at NewsBusters for their yeoman's compilation job]:
“You know it’s sad when you see crazy senseless deaths like [Pentagon shooter Joe Stack] we can only ask why. Why couldn’t it have been Glenn Beck?”
— March 5, 2010* * * * *
"If we killed two random, rich greedy pigs; blew them up at halftime at next year’s Super Bowl. Or left them hanging on the big board at the New York Stock Exchange, you know, as a warning, with their balls in their mouths, I think it would really make everyone else sit up and take notice."
— February 20, 2009
* * * * *
“Why couldn’t [Rush Limbaugh] have croaked from [drugs] instead of Heath Ledger?”
— February 8, 2008* * * * *
Maher: Well, what did [Huffington Post commenters] say?
John Ridley: They said “We wish he would die.” I mean, it was (?) hate language.
Barney Frank: They said the bomb was wasted. [Laughter and applause]
Maher: That’s a funny joke. But, seriously, if this isn’t China, shouldn’t you be able to say that? Why did Arianna Huffington, my girlfriend, I love her, but why did she take that off right away? ...
Ridley: It’s one thing to say you hate Dick Cheney, which applies to his politics. It’s another thing to say, “I’m sorry he didn’t die in an explosion." And I think, you know…
Maher: But you should be able to say it. And by the way...
Frank: Excuse me, Bill, but can I ask you a question? Do you decide what the topics are for this show?
Maher: Yeah, I decide the topics, they don’t go there.
Frank: But you exercise control over the show the way that she does over her blog.
Maher: But I have zero doubt that if Dick Cheney was not in power, people wouldn’t be dying needlessly tomorrow. [Applause] ... I’m just saying if he did die, other people, more people would live. That’s a fact.
* * * * *
Maher: You could have went to New Hampshire and killed two birds with one stone.
John Kerry : Or, I could have gone to 1600 Pennsylvania and killed the real bird with one stone.
Maher (and his audience): [Laughter and applause]
— October 6, 2006
* * * * *
“Earlier today, a rental truck carried a half a million ballots from Palm Beach to the Florida Supreme Court there in Tallahassee. CNN had live helicopter coverage from the truck making its way up the Florida highway, and for a few brief moments, America held the hope that O.J. Simpson had murdered Katherine Harris.”
— November 30, 2000
I defy anyone to find anything from a remotely prominent voice on the right saying anything remotely caustic. You won't be able to. So, when Bill Maher say that the "go-to rhetoric" on the right is "Wouldn't it be fun to kill the people we disagree with?" and that left-wingers don't talk that way, you are F.O.C.
* * * * *
P.S. Here's a bonus: While the twin towers and Pentagon still lay smoldering, Maher called the 9/11 terrorists brave and us cowardly:
Look at what they did. First of all, you have a whole bunch of guys who are willing to give their life. None of [them] backed out. All of them slammed themselves into pieces of concrete ... These are warriors. ... We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building? Say what you want about it, it's not cowardly.
— Sept 17, 2001
But don't you dare question his patriotism! And don't you dare accuse him using hateful violent rhetoric!
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