Right Down The Middle
For years, my old buddy Dan “The Rulebreaker” Roulier and my sons Joe and Gainer would tell me to watch Real Time with Bill Maher, which airs Friday nights on HBO. I’ve been checking it out for a while now and I gotta say, in today’s wackball world, Bill is one of the only guys on TV who makes sense. He goes after the left and the right and delivers sharp commentary on everything from the ongoing wars and college protests to cancel culture and censorship. And unlike most late-night talk show hosts lately, he doesn’t forget to be funny while he’s doing it. There’s always a lot of big laughs, especially during the monologue and the New Rules segment at the end.
Every week after his show airs, it’s almost guaranteed that something he said will have ruffled some feathers online and in the media. Which is why his new book is called What This Comedian Said Will Shock You. I just picked up a copy. I like that Maher is a rebel with a cause. He’d be the first to say that the only thing that political parties have in common is that they hate each other. He’s always looking for a middle ground away from the nuts on both extremes. His show is designed to promote open discussion and freethinking opinions by just getting different people to talk to each other and have a few laughs.
In a recent Wall Street Journal piece, Maher wrote about inviting an old friend to a party he was hosting. When the friend found out that another invited guest was a Trump supporter, he backed out, saying he wouldn’t breathe the same air. That’s a load of bull, Gin Bottle Garvey. Until we start talkin’ to people with different opinions, we ain’t going nowhere. Growing up, my mother always said, “Live and let live.” That advice holds up more than ever today.
Keep your dukes up.
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