Posted 4:15 PM by Scoobie Davis

Tidbits of Wisdom from Bill Maher
Bill Maher has gotten some heat for some comments he didn't make about Dick Cheney. I just got the April 2007 Playboy in the mail yesterday and the Playboy Interview is with Maher. It's a great read.  Here are some of the more insightful comments from Maher:

MAHER: . . Paris is the head-honcho cheerleader who decides who's cool and who's in her group.  You can make fun of her, and I of course enjoy doing so quite often, but you have to give her her due. Somehow she is the head bitch in the high school of America.

PLAYBOY: What is it about her?

MAHER: I think it's confidence. She's a rich kid. I compare her to George W. Bush, a rich kid who really didn't accomplish anything but had the confidence rich kids often have--an attitude that the world should come to them because it always has.  It's very attractive for a nation of followers. Britney Spears, who nominally should be the leader of the pack--she actually had a career, has sold millions of dollars' worth of records--and Lindsey Lohan, an actress who movies, understand who the boss is: Paris Hilton.  It's because she does what the Democrats don't do and the Republicans have consistently done.  They let the country come to them.  By standing their ground and standing by their principles, they have successfully moved the country way, way to the right. When Barry Goldwater ran in 1964, he lost by a landslide, but they didn't care.  Ronald Reagan was a laugh-out-loud joke when he first ran for president in 1968.  But he stood by what he thought was right and true, and the country came to him. . .

MAHER: I'm the antipope, The pope is very consistent about life: Don't fuck with it. I'm that way about death. I'm pro-death. I'm for the death penalty.  I'm pro-choice.  I'm pro-assisted suicide, and I'm pro-regular suicide.  What ever gets the freeway moving. . .

PLAYBOY: How important a force is Fox News?

MAHER: It's peaked.  And I think the ratings back that up.  The American public has caught on to the Bush Administration. "Oh, just because they're saying it on TV doesn't mean it's not complete bullshit." Now everyone knows it's not really a news organization.

PLAYBOY:  But Fox has a sizable audience.

MAHER: A loyal audience not interest in the truth.  For Fox, "fair and balanced" means all the news that's shit we print.  The audience turns to Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly and hears one side.

Addendum: The rest of the issue: There's a story by Deborah Schoeneman on how internet Hollywood gossip sites like Gawker, TMZ.com, and PerezHilton.com are giving the tabloids a run for their money. . .There's a pictorial on the women of WWE. . . There's a skeptical article about Human Growth Hormone as an anti-aging panacea. . .Next, month there will be a pictorial on the Girls of Conference USA. Hef still hasn't taken my advice to do a pictorial on the Girls of the Mid-American Conference.