Inside: Bill Maher: The cows disagree with him

Nearly seven years after the fact, I'm still confounded and devastated to find myself living under the Bush administration. However, I take some comfort in knowing that, each Friday, Bill Maher will show up on his HBO show, Real Time, and call out the emperor for running around naked.

My adoration for Maher is a teeny bit short of hero-worship. There are a few issues I disagree with him on. And he seems like he'd be a total asshole on a date. I guess the latter doesn't really bother me all that much, primarily because he dated Ann Coulter, and although I don't like to think about that, the fact is that I occasionally do think about it. And when I do, I like to think that he crushed every bit of what was left of her shriveled soul. I also like to think that he found evidence that proves that she survives on the blood of infants and that he's threatened to release this information to the public and to the authorities if she ever stops making conservatives look completely ridiculous.

But I digress. My point is, it warms my poor broken political heart to watch Maher each week because he consistently bases his realty on...reality. Yes, I know it's pathetic that I'm so grateful to hear points based on things like "research," "science" and "common sense." But I am.

And Maher's arguments often make something that's been nagging me tangible. One recent example is when Maher called out John Mellencamp (one of the guest panelists that evening) for arguing that people should be able to keep their political innocence. Mellencamp, after characterizing people in the heartland as truthful people who expect others to be truthful as well, asked "What's wrong with being naive?" Here's Maher's response:

"You must know what’s wrong with it. What’s wrong with it is, because – it means that they buy into shit that isn’t real. This is why they elected George Bush, because they wanted to have a pot roast with him. This is why they believe Fred Thompson is the real deal, because he “drives a pickup truck; he’s got dirt under his fingernails…”

In other words, of course we should have trustworthy politicians. But we don't. And we never have. And trusting them will not make them trustworthy. And why shelter adults from these realities anyway? I know the world is full of ugliness, and it can be tough to swallow. Personally, I read gofugyourself.com in the morning before I read the news. But I still read the news.

And frankly, I'm more frightened of the power of the ignorant. On tonight's Real Time, which was live, protesters interrupted the panelists with screams about how 9/11 was orchestrated by the government. Like Maher, even I don't hold Bush accountable for that. FYI, the title of this post comes from Maher's response to one protester who started booing/mooing after Maher made fun of their cause.

Although the episode (which included Maher jumping off the stage to help kick one one guy out) was unexpectedly entertaining, the fact that these people took a look at their world and decided that this was the thing to get pissed about is, at the very least, disturbing.

Worrying over something that seems terrible, yet isn't actually as threatening as something that seems less horrific is, unfortunately, a flaw most of us live with. It's why I'm afraid of flying, even though statistics show that I'm much more likely to die driving to the airport (my apologies if this all sounds familiar -- this point is more eloquently described in Freakonomics). Politicians are no exception. From all the energy wasted freaking out about marijuana and gay marriage to the invasion of Iraq, plenty of politicians spend their lives imagining threats that don't exist and creating solutions that cause actual harm.

Maher, on the other hand, has a gift for shrugging off the pathos that other talking heads and politicians depend on, and debating an issue with the facts at hand. As a result, arguments like "We have to fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here" don't stand a chance. And, pathetic or not, I am thankful for it.