Make time for Bill Maher tonight / HBO 10 pm / repeat at 11: look who's on

[Mira]

Guest List: October 25, 2013
October 24, 2013

The Interview:

Maajid Nawaz is the author of Radical: My Journey Out of Islamist Extremism and co-founder of Quilliam, the world's first counter-extremism think tank. In 2011 he gave a TEDGlobal talk on developing "a global culture to fight extremism."

Twitter: @maajidnawa


The Panel:

Michael Moore is the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind such documentaries as 'Capitalism: A Love Story, Sicko, Fahrenheit 9/11,' and 'Bowling for Columbine.' His book, Here Comes Trouble: Stories from My Life is available in paperback.

Twitter: @MMFlint


Valerie Plame is a former C.I.A. covert agent and co-author of a new espionage thriller, Blowback. She is also heavily involved in the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons as a movement leader at Global Zero.

Twitter: @ValeriePlame


Rev. Al Sharpton is the host of MSNBC's 'PoliticsNation' and author of The Rejected Stone. In 1991 he founded the National Action Network, one of the nation's leading civil rights organizations.

Twitter: @TheRevAl


Richard Dawkins is a scientist, author and world-renowned humanist thinker whose latest book is An Appetite for Wonder: the Making of a Scientist. He founded the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science to "support scientific education, critical thinking and evidence-based understanding of the natural world in the quest to overcome religious fundamentalism, superstition, intolerance and human suffering."

[haikugal]

1. Wow...

Looks like a good show. I always watch but thanks for the heads up!

[Auggie]

2. Thanks for the heads-up

[Little Star]

3. DVR time for me. Thanks Mira, I would have missed it.

[rhett o rick]

4. k&r thanks for posting. nm

[Archae]

5. No conservatives?

Are conservatives getting scared of Maher?

[rurallib]

9. maybe they finally realize Maher makes them

back up their bullshit.
ETA - they sure drag his show down

[ohheckyeah]

15. I hope so...

they are a pain in the ass when they are on the show. They talk over everybody most of the time.

[itsrobert]

6. 7pm for me

Thanks for considering all time zones and not just East Coast centric.

[Mira]

11. How self serving and small minded of me! Sorry. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

7. It should be an interesting program.

Thanks for the thread, Mira.

[Iliyah]

8. I guess the "conservatives" corporate masters told them to STFU

and only speak on their own stations that will give them complete cover. If you notice, conservatives won't let you get inch wise in responding them, they yell over you and talk crazy spewings lies upon lies while smiling.

Plus, progressives have "individual thinking" and it still may get "live", although they may have the same compassion.

[arcane1]

10. This is gonna be a good one :)

[AAO]

12. Is that 9pm central? I loves me some Bill masher and he's my hero!

Bill Maher - spell check can suck.

[CrawlingChaos]

13. Among other things, it should be quite the Muslim-bashing fest

I'm not familiar with Maajid Nawaz but all Bill needs is for the topic to come up and he's off and running with the stereotyping and the slurs. He's been on the defensive lately though, and he should know when you have to keep prefacing your statements with "I'm not a racist, but...", it doesn't look good.

But he's also got the granddaddy of Islamophobes on the show, the awful Richard Dawkins (who does NOT hate all religions equally, and says so himself), so I imagine it could get quite ugly. Maher and Dawkins both have anti-Muslim (read: anti-Arab) bigotry and misogyny in common, so I will be interested to see if they've dialed any of that back (they've both taken heat for it).

[MellowDem]

14. What an ignorant post...

Full of religious privilege. The claims that Maher and Dawkins are bigoted against Arabs because they despise Islam as a belief system is like Glenn Beck saying Obama hates white people because he despises conservative policies.

And for the record, Islam is an inherently bigoted religion, as it itself states in its own texts.

Now, who is more likely, a bigot, someone that criticizes a bigoted belief system or one who claims to be an adherent of it?

[CrawlingChaos]

18. It is an accurate post

Maher and Dawkins use hateful, demeaning stereotypes of Arabs to accomplish their goal. It's War on Terra(tm) propaganda and it's crap. And for your part, instead of insinuating that all Muslims are "inherently bigoted", you might try getting to know some actual Muslim people in real life and disabuse yourself of these sweeping false notions. You could give people a chance.

Do you also defend Maher and Dawkins in regards to their well-established misogyny?

[MellowDem]

32. Islam is bigoted...

Read the Quran. If you think Maher and Dawkins are misogynists, read the Quran. I know people that identify as Muslims that aren't bigoted, and they aren't bigoted because they engage in the same intellectual dishonesty and cognitive dissonance most every follower of an Abrahamic religion must in order to claim to follow a bigoted belief system yet say they don't believe it.

It's like a KKK member telling me they aren't racist, even as I read from their own statement of beliefs that says exactly the opposite. If they aren't racist, why are they identifying with the KKK? I think that's a fair question. But that's the sickness of religion, such mind-boggling cognitive dissonance is somehow possible.

If you want to claim that Maher and Dawkins use hateful demeaning stereotypes of Arabs in order to support the War on Terror, then show some evidence. I can show you that Islam is inherently bigoted with all sorts of loving passages from the Quran, if you want me to.

If Maher and Dawkins actually are misogynist hateful bigots, then no, I don't support them, but Islam is still bigoted itself, explicitly and terribly so, and it's not a person, it's a belief system followed by over a billion people. Pointing that out is just being honest and factual.

[maxsolomon]

20. Then they have misogyny in common with Islam

and the other 2 Abrahamic monotheisms.

[CrawlingChaos]

22. Making them the worst sort of hypocrites, eh?

Maher and Dawkins only seem to care about women's rights when it can be used at a cudgel against Arab Muslims.

Also, consider the possibility that women's issues in the Muslim world are far more complex and nuanced than your one-liner implies. Furthermore, if we agree that there is a great need for improvement, how would that be served by the use of demeaning stereotypes?

[maxsolomon]

33. I think you sound defensive about Arab Muslims

The way Loli Phabay is defensive about the Rom.

Perhaps Dawkins and Maher's misogyny (and Atheism) are far more complex and nuanced than your monomaniacal focus on it implies. I have seen both men on TV quite a bit (esp Maher), and I don't really see what you see, but my antennae are not tuned for it.

And please note that I included Christianity and Judaism in my one-liner.

On edit: can you cite me an example of their anti-arab, anti-muslim, and anti-woman rhetoric? As I said, I must have missed it.

[CrawlingChaos]

37. My tax dollars are used to slaughter Arab Muslims on bogus pretenses

That is a fact I find horrific beyond words and I have no wish to support those who bolster that effort through fearmongering.

There are so many examples, but try these links for a start:

http://www.juancole.com/2012/09/muslims-are-no-different-or-why-bill-mahers-blood-libel-is-bigotry.html

http://www.salon.com/2013/08/10/richard_dawkins_does_it_again_new_atheisms_islamophobia_problem/

Was that supposed to be a joke when you said Dawkins and Maher's misogyny might be "complex and nuanced"? Try googling "Richard Dawkins elevatorgate" for starters. There are many other examples. I wouldn't even know where to start with Maher - if you search for Bill Maher with the terms "sexist" or "misogynist", you should bring up a boatload of examples.

[maxsolomon]

41. I watched the show Friday night

There was no Misogyny, but there was anti-Muslim opinion from Maher. To the point where it made the panel uncomfortable, and they went to the "we do it too so we can't criticize" and "they're only fighting back against our oppression" equivalency. And Maher called this a false equivalency. Dawkins was silent on the matter.

So I understand what you're objecting to better, but I also think Maher has a point when he says that Islam has a problem. It does, but I don't think he understands what it is that well.

& yes, it was a joke, based on your "complex and nuanced" comment.

[NuclearDem]

40. Are you shitting me?

Dawkins calls Islam the single greatest threat to western civilization.

Bill Maher rips apart Islam in Religulous without even bothering to attack the insane religious fervor with which Israel justifies its existence and its campaign of slaughter against the Palestinians.

Dawkins savaged Rebecca Watson for discussing rape culture. Basically, if she's not being subjected to FGM, she should stop whining.

Dawkins and Maher are part of the white atheist boys' club and they show it repeatedly. Dawkins is a brilliant evolutionary biologist, and Maher makes some good jokes every now and then, but they are blatantly racist and misogynistic at times.

[maxsolomon]

42. Maher critiqued Christianity in Religulous.

I'm sorry he didn't critique the 3rd branch of Abrahamic Monotheism and it's insane zealots enough for you to justify critiquing Islam and it's insane zealots also.

I believe Maher's overarching point is that it's not just the insane zealots that hold appalling beliefs in Islam, it's the casual adherents also, that it's built into the religion's dogma. I don't know enough Koran specifics to judge, myself. I'd imagine that the Koran can be used to justify just about any policy or ideology; pacifism, killing apostates, etc.

Islam is not above criticism, and criticizing another branch of Monotheism shouldn't be a prerequisite.

[NuclearDem]

43. He's an unabashed supporter of Israel.

You know, the country founded on religious zealotry and is currently engaged in creating an apartheid state in the Middle East.

I'm sorry, but it's just fucking disingenuous to be hypercritical of Islam while at the same time apologizing for Israel.

[progressoid]

21. anti-Muslim does not mean anti-Arab.

[CrawlingChaos]

23. They have both crossed a line

By the repeated use of grotesque, anti-Arab stereotypes. As an exercise, imagine substituting "Jew" for "Muslim" in any one of Maher or Dawkins' attacks, then tell me if you don't see a problem. Promoting hate toward any group is not OK.

[bvar22]

16. This line up appears to be an Echo Chamber, which usualy means a dull show.

His show is much more enjoyable when there is a Conservative on the Panel they can embarrass.

Last week was a CLASSIC.
That guy will never come back.
I can't remember the guy's name, and Maher's website is no help,
but he looked like Ted Baxter, and was loaded with the Talking Points which were humorously Shot Down one by one.

[Grins]

19. "That guy will never come back. "

Jim "Dow 36,000" Glassman; founding executive director of the George W. Bush Institute. He left that position in August. I don't know what he is doing now to fleece the sheep.

And he will be back.

[bvar22]

28. Thats him!!!

Did you see the show?

[mimi85]

35. Gotta agree

I never thought I'd say it, but my husband and I think Bill is getting a bit too predictable these past couple of seasons.
The monologues are pretty much the same every week - tonight will be about the ACA with a bit of the NSA thrown in.

We've made up a drinking game (I don't drink so it's really made up). Drink every time Bill mentions

1. Religion
2. Pot
3. Women - hate to say it, but Bill is a bit of a misogynist.
4. Gays - a tiny bit homophobic
5. References to Obama being black like "we elected a black man and he turned out to be white" - like all blacks are exactly alike
6. Interrupts the first guest. He really needs to listen more and talk a bit less

My fav part is New Rules - his writers usually do a pretty damn good job.

And this is just me, it's nitpicky which I'm well aware of, but his hand clapping during the monologue bugs the shit out of me as does that banging on the desk - I wonder if he forgets the mic amplifies the noise? I'm super sensitive to noise, so this stuff is my hangup. Just notice it if you get a chance. Of course, tonight he won't do any of it, just to spite me.

[NuclearDem]

39. With Dawkins on the show, misogyny and religion should come up quite a bit.

[CarrieLynne]

17. wow what a panel!

[yuiyoshida]

24. Wow!!

Amazing panel!

[arthritisR_US]

25. OMG! I love that line up, thanks for the heads up :) n/t

[hrmjustin]

26. Wow. Should be a good show.

[Motown_Johnny]

27. If only Meet The Press could have that lineup...

Oh well....


Maybe I can stomach McCain and/or Graham one more time, but maybe not.

[Mira]

30. It's been a year and a half since I last watched MTP

I have not missed it once.

[Motown_Johnny]

31. I watch it less and less

and channel surf as I do.

There was a time when I would never miss an episode. Of course, back then I would never miss Hardball either.

Times change.

[applegrove]

29. Looks amazing. Just amazing.

[dixiegrrrrl]

34. I will be sure to grab a copy tomorrow.

Thanks for the heads up........

[Fumesucker]

36. What are they going to find to fight about?

[hellbound-liberal]

38. I'll watch the replay at 11:00

I want to watch Alec Baldwin interview Chris Mathews at 10:00