Bill Maher...still a tool

Well, I went and saw Religulous this past weekend. I am not the biggest fan of Bill Maher, and nothing about this movie changed my mind. In fact, Bill Maher is kind of a dick. Nevertheless, I LOVED this documentary.

Maher went around the world talking to religious figures (a couple rabbi's, all of whom were crazy), a few preachers (all of whom were crazy), some politicians (all of whom were crazy), a couple ex-Mormons, a Muslim (kind of a nice guy), and a dude who plays Jesus (really batshit nutso).

What did I like about the movie? Well, it pretty much offends everyone, although he does pay particular attention to catholics. But he did a great job pointing out how STUPID religion can be. In particular, how stupid religious people can be.

Not wanting to give away too much of the hilarity, so please, for the love of god (snark snark) go see this. If it offends you, dude, you need to grow a set. If you hate Bill Maher, don't worry, there are some points where his dickishness is called out. You will not be disappointed.

The root of misogyny

This morning, as I was watching the news while I got dressed, a video came on of a woman who had been arrested in Shreveport, Louisiana. She was being held in an interview room by one male officer. There was a camera taping the episode.

The woman was getting combative, and the officer was manhandling her probably more than he needed to. Then, he walks towards the camera, and shuts it off.

Minutes later, the camera turns back on. The officer has a smirk on his face, and at first you don't see the woman. Then, slightly out of frame, on the bottom, is a pool of blood, and then you see the crumpled form of the woman.

Pictures were taken of the woman's face. Two black eyes, a bunch of broken teeth. The cop claims she fell. He was fired, but his union is backing him, saying it's entirely possible to sustain such extensive injuries in a fall.

Then I got to work, and I came across this article about the ads of yesteryear from asylum.com. The gross misogyny displayed in these ads just hammers home to me the disrespect that women face daily, even today. Recent reports even state that the KKK is backing Obama simply because they would never want a woman to be president.



I'm not trying to be all doom and gloom, or anything, and I, more than anyone, can appreciate a light view on today's world, because that's really the only defense we have against the unfairness that we face.

What can I say? No one wants to be useless. No one wants to think that they're replacable, or have no worth.



I have a fourteen year old sister who's growing up in the epitome of suburbia. It's bad enough that she's a teenager - teenage girls are notoriously cruel - but she's also dealing with the fact that she's Jewish in a predominantly Catholic community, where anti-semitism is rampant. Add to that a Muslim father, especially in today's patriot act world, and I am really concerned about her ability to be happy as she is.

When she was a kid - and I don't know if she remembers this, and Monkey, if you're reading this, just know that you're awesome - a kid in her class, just after 9/11, told her that they could no longer play together because my sister was Muslim. And now, as a freshman in high school, her ex-boyfriend (who turned out to be a man-whore, but that's a whole other story), his father and his best friend have formed a We Hate Jews club. As a kid, she has to deal with this religious bullshit, and when she grows up, she can always move to a more tolerant place like I did, but then she has to deal with misogyny. And don't give me any of that life's not fair bullshit. I remember when I was a freshman in high school, I was friends with this guy who lived down the block from me. He got all of our friends christmas presents, but not me, because he "didn't know what you buy a jew for christmas".

Anyhoo, I don't really know where I was going with this. Nowhere, I guess. Whatever. I guess I can just be satisfied with the fact that as a jew, we control hollywood, the governments and your money, sucka. So suck on that, beyotch.