Bill Maher's remarks border on treason? yeah right...

[D_Raay]

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?s=3382806

CAPITOL HILL An Alabama congressman says he wants Bill Maher's H-B-O show taken off the air after the comedian made a comment that the military has already recruited all the "low-flying fruit."
Representative Spencer Bachus has taken issue with remarks made by Maher in a show earlier this month.

Maher said on the show that the military has already picked "all the low-flying Lynndie England fruit, and now we need warm bodies." England is the Army reservist accused of abusing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Bachus says those remarks border on treason and that he wants Maher "off the air."

Numerous television stations pulled Maher's previous show, "Politically Incorrect," when he argued that the Nine-Eleven terrorists weren't cowards.

Maher has issued a statement saying he has the "highest regard for the men and women serving this country."
----
You can't call a spade a spade anymore I guess, even for the sake of humor.
Come to think of it, FUCK Bachus. I will write and tell him so right now, see if he thinks it's treasonous.

[Qdrop]

complete bullshit....

i am so sick of this GOP "treason" routine....

fucking fascists.....

[GreenEarthAl]

Word.

[Qdrop]

treason is deciding you want to send you country to war...then inventing reasons for it.....and not caring if you kill thousands of you countrymen in the process...and turn your nations already questionable status in the world...to complete mush.

treason is concocting bullshit propaganda films and pushing them on the media outlets as "real news".....
and even after you get called out on it....you continue doing so....pushing your agenda on the american people instead of truth.

[Documad]

I hate right-wing politicians, but I think I equally hate Bill Maher. I hate being on his side of anything.

And there is nothing worse than a "comedian" who isn't funny.

[EN[i]GMA]

Isn't Bill Maher a conservative/libertarian?

Oh well, those sycophantic bastards can't claim to be either anymore, they're just pawns and attack-dogs.

[ms.peachy]

You can't call a spade a spade anymore I guess, even for the sake of humor.

I know it's tangenital to the overall point of this thread, but did anybody else cringe a bit on reading this sentence?

[EN[i]GMA]

I know it's tangenital to the overall point of this thread, but did anybody else cringe a bit on reading this sentence?

Nope.

He's right.

[yeahwho]

Representative Spencer Bachus is appealing to the base and grabbing any attention he can muster....picking on an entertainer is all he has....he has nothing. Windbag. Look at his stellar voting record (http://www.issues2000.org/House/Spencer_Bachus.htm), a total redneck who votes to limit choices and a 96% pro corporate line. This guy is a real sweetheart.

All his base are deep right wing fundalmentalist's. He is really a study in the perfect Bush idea of the USA.

[DroppinScience]

GMA']Isn't Bill Maher a conservative/libertarian?

Oh well, those sycophantic bastards can't claim to be either anymore, they're just pawns and attack-dogs.

He's a self-proclaimed libertarian, but he's more moderate than most libertarians. Conservative? Fuck no.

[Documad]

I know it's tangenital to the overall point of this thread, but did anybody else cringe a bit on reading this sentence?
Yes, it's one of my least favorite sayings.

I've always thought it sounded racist.

EDIT: I just googled it and apparently its has an old, non racist origin.

[EN[i]GMA]

Yes, it's one of my least favorite sayings.

I've always figured it was racist, but I've wondered whether it had an innocent origin?

Why cringe?

If you don't MEAN anything bad by it, I don't see what the problem is.

[Documad]

GMA']Why cringe?

If you don't MEAN anything bad by it, I don't see what the problem is.
Because people might think it's racist. It sounds racist to me, and I'm not usually a PC freak.

[YoungRemy]

its not an ethnic slur and many sources back this claim up...

[YoungRemy]

Let's get two things straight here: first, the expression to call a spade a spade is thousands of years old and etymologically has nothing whatsoever to do with any racial sentiment. The second is that in spite of this, some people think it is a racial statement, and therefore it should be treated with some caution.
http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19970115

"to call a spade a spade"
is NOT an ethnic slur.
It derives from an ancient Greek expression: _ta syka syka, te:n
skaphe:n de skaphe:n onomasein_ = "to call a fig a fig, a trough a
trough". This is first recorded in Aristophanes' play _The Clouds_
(423 B.C.), was used by Menander and Plutarch, and is still current
in modern Greek. There has been a slight shift in meaning: in
ancient times the phrase was often used pejoratively, to denote a
rude person who spoke his mind tactlessly; but it now, like the
English phrase, has an exclusively positive connotation. It is
possible that both the fig and the trough were originally sexual
symbols.
http://www.yaelf.com/aueFAQ/miftocllspdspd.shtml


Every now and then, some dispute flares up in the United States that reminds us that sensitivities over language in that country run especially deep.
The specific occasion was a meeting of the Sacramento City Council last week, reported in the Sacramento Bee, in which one speaker, to emphasise his point, said “I think we should call a spade a spade”. A Councilwoman, African-American, objected to this vigorously, saying it was an “ethnically and racially derogatory remark”.
Most people know that to call a spade a spade means that we should avoid euphemism, be straightforward, use blunt or plain language. Most Americans also know that spade is a rather outmoded derogatory slang term for an African-American. Putting the two ideas together, though, requires a person whose sensitivity to possibly offensive language is greater than their knowledge of word history. (Nothing new about that, though: remember all the fuss in Washington in 1999 over the word niggardly, and all those in the US who think picnic refers to the lynching of a slave.)
http://www.worldwidewords.org/topicalwords/tw-spa1.htm

[BOBBY DIGITAL]

Yeah, yeah. Bill Maher does make some good points and nice snaps, but Jesus Christ does he ooze asshole. I mean, I can't watch his show longer than five minutes due to his arrogant self-cockstroking. That and the fact that he's probably the ugliest man on TV. I'd rather watch Roseanne Barr have sex with Vincent Schiavelli. And not the Roseanne of now, I'M TALKIN 1987 ROSEANNE. *CRINGE*

[EN[i]GMA]

Because people might think it's racist. It sounds racist to me, and I'm not usually a PC freak.

People have hang-ups; they're no concern of mine.

'Rule of thumb' for intance, is perfectly harmless in meaning, but people seem to think it refers to beating you wife.

This is untrue.

I use the phrase normally, and if anyone takes issue with it, I refute them.

People have no right to censor my speach just because they THINK I'm saying something offensive.

If people THINK it's racist, I'm more than willing to explain to them how it isn't.

[BOBBY DIGITAL]

I know it's tangenital to the overall point of this thread, but did anybody else cringe a bit on reading this sentence?


Why hasn't anyone else discovered the hilarity in this?????? :eek: :D

[YoungRemy]

Why hasn't anyone else discovered the hilarity in this?????? :eek: :D

i have been sunbathing nude, and now I have tan genitals

[D_Raay]

Having been educated historically, I didn't see the harm in that statement due to it's meaning having nothing to do with race but with subjectivity... Sorry if anyone was offended...

[DroppinScience]

"Calling a spade a spade" is racist? The hell?

I've always thought of playing cards when people say that phrase. I've never known it had any racial connotations at all...

[ChrisLove]

"Calling a spade a spade" is racist? The hell?

I've always thought of playing cards when people say that phrase. I've never known it had any racial connotations at all...

yea right, it never even occurred to me that this phrase is in the least bit racist?!!?! Bit confused..

Anyway, I kind of thought Ms. Peachy meant that the phrase was an overused, cringeworthy cliche, maybe

[EN[i]GMA]

It isn't racist...