Finally ... the Left Calls Sexism Time on Bill Maher

I wasn't at all surprised that, on Real Time with Bill Maher this week, no mention was made of Troy Davis's unjust execution and the ensuing protests. Even though death penalty opponent, Michael Moore, was a guest panelist, the host, himself, is a viral proponent of the punishment, so I didn't expect what I considered to be one of the most important news items of the week to even get a mention.

I would have been interested in seeing Billy spar head-to-head with his other big-mouthed BFF and fellow eternal manchild, Moore, regarding capital punishment.

Bill consistently labels himself a Progressive, but I don't know of anyone from the Progressive end of politics (and few who call themselves "liberals") who espouse the right of the State to take a life as a means of punishment.

But that's all right. I wasn't disappointed, because this week saw Bill being handed his ass by a real, honest-to-Pete, Left-of-centre Democrat about his blatant sexism.

And that's another thing "Progressives" aren't supposed to be either - sexist.

Bill's built up a reputation as a love'em-and-leave'em ladies' man - ne'mind the fact that most of the "ladies" have been from the high end of the sex worker marked and almost all artificially and pneumatically enhanced via silicone and collagen, or that he probably paid most of them for their services. In the course of his career, he's made a mint, making remarks that are clearly disparaging about women in general.

As per usual, the people on the Left titter nervously and defend him as being "just a comedian," whilst people on the Right say nothing, unless he happens to insult one of their iconic mother superiors.

I must admit, I got more than a bit uneasy when he referred to Sarah Palin as a dumb twat or that he regularly calls her the ruder word for "twat", regularly, in his stand-up.

I am certainly no fan of Sarah Palin. In fact, I dislike her intensely, but for any man to refer to any woman by what I deem to be the ugliest word in the English language (and certainly the ugliest by which to deem any woman), transcends sexism and lands firmly in the dominion of misogyny.

Here's a New Rule for Bill to learn: Any man who openly refers to any woman as a "cunt" has neither liking nor respect for women in general - not their wives, not their sisters, not their daughters and not their mothers. Think about that. And that goes as much for John McCain making that reference to Cindy as it does Bill Maher hiding behind the comedian's mask to snipe shots like that at various Republican women.

Until now, people from the Progressive Left have afforded Bill the luxury of the comedian's claim and have ridiculed any criticism from the Right concerning this.

But Bill jumped the shark on Friday night.

Whilst discussing the most recent GOP candidates' debate, moderated by Fox News, he referred to Fox's Megyn Kelly as "the blonde twink," affecting not to know her name and dismissing her question concerning public support for the President's proposed millionaire's tax as "dumb" and linking her perceived lack-of-intelligence to the fact that she was both female and blonde.

Here's the segment. It happens quickly, so note former Congresswoman Jane Harman's quick pounce and Billy's pissy defence:-



Get that? Bill promotes the classic defence of a naughty and petulant little kid, caught by his mommy with his hand in the cookie jar. First, he offers the insipid rationale that it would be sexist if he didn't insult Kelly. (How, exactly?)

Secondly, he pretends not to know who the woman is, when Bill's as avid a Fox News viewer as Rush Limbaugh. When he's not tuning into MSNBC (or appearing there), he's watching Fox, where another of his BFF overgrown manchild friends, Bill O'Reilly, works. He knows very well who Megyn Kelly is, as much as he knows how she and the Fox and Friends female couch potato, Gretchen Carlson, are both ridiculed by people like Bill and Keith Olbermann for being stereotypical bottled blondes, the likes of which would be inevitable punchlines in blonde jokery.

In reality, Carlson has a degree from Stanford, whilst Kelly has a law degree and practiced law for ten years before leaving the profession to become a journalist. A bit like Glenn Greenwald and Cenk Uygur.

when Harman registers her offence and reminds Bill that he's only just interviewed Ron Suskind, whose current book is all about alleged sexism in the White House, when she reminds Bill that she's the only woman present on the program this week and that she, herself, is blonde, Bill's final desperate defence is that his criticism of Kelly wasn't because she was a woman, it was because she was dumb.

So there.

Take that, Congresswoman.

Then, like the eternal adolescent hissy-fitting against having his ass smacked by the adult in the room, he further inserts his foot into his mouth and shoves, by whining that no one ever called him sexist when he was complaining about how dumb George Bush was.

Well, no, they wouldn't have, for the simple reason that there's no way Bill's criticism of George Bush - a white, affluent, Ivy League-educated man (like Bill, incidentally) - could be deemed sexist. It certainly couldn't be deemed misogynistic, because Bush isn't a woman.

The proper response to Harman's reaction - the adult response should simply have been, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you."

After all, Harman was a guest on his panel, and his remarks offended her as a woman.

Interesting, as well, to note that Michael "rape is hooey" Moore kept his usually big trap firmly shut during the exchange, only to aid and abet John Avlon in trying to move the discussion away from any perceived misogyny in Bill's remarks and onto the more familiar political sphere.

Such discussion hits too close to home for Moore, whose misogyny, along with that of Keith Olbermann's, was revealed for all to see as those two sniggered, last autumn, about the claims of the Swedish women against Julian Assange. Misogyny is also just a hop, skip and a jump away from another spot of hot water in which Moore recently found himself, and into which he submerged Maher - and that little kerfuffle should be next on the agenda ...

Now, that leaves me wondering which Democrat/Progressive/Liberal/Leftie/Whatever-as-long-as-(s)he's-not-from-the-Right person is going to find the fortitude and courage to be openly offended the next time Bill Maher makes a racist comment about the President?

The clock is ticking now ...