Bill Maher Drops the N-Bomb

Last Friday, June 2, Bill Mahar used the N-word on Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO. Tomorrow night, we will see what he has to say to follow-up on his use of the word and his subsequent apology.

I will not defend Bill Maher's use of the N-word on his show, except to say that it was a joke -- a bad joke . A quick, one-liner that might have been funny if he had phrased it a bit differently. Or not. Anyway, Sasse gave him the perfect straight line and Bill Maher, who is a comedian first, went with it.

When I heard it I thought, Uh OH, there is going to be some blowback from this, and I was not wrong.

Most of the attacks I have heard and read have been from liberals. That is the problem with liberals -- they attack their own. They demand them to be perfect, lock-step, progressive and PC all the time or they crap on them. Bill should have apologized right away. He did apologize later, and I understand that HBO is deleting the offensive remark from subsequent broadcasts of the show. (I don't know if it even made it into the so-called "live" airing that goes to the West Coast, which is delayed by three hours.)

This kind of censorship by HBO is unheard-of. Maybe Maher asked for the edit.

Not only did he apologize, but he has been a voice for sanity in an increasingly screwed-up world. Maher has shown time and again that he is not a racist person, and they know that. One ill-conceived joke, which was apologized for, does not make him a racist.

If HBO did retaliate and cancel his show, I would seriously consider cancelling my subscription. Even Game of Thrones could not keep me if I decided to do that. It would be my version of: "Shame...Shame...Shame."I do not condone use of the N-word, but I do strongly believe that "freedom of speech" means exactly that. A network can police what it puts out over the cable-waves, and it needs to have some control over it. But HBO has shown countless black comedians and rappers throwing out the N-word like Hansel and Gretel dropping bread crumbs in the forest. If we truly believe in racial equality, then we don't give one race an unchecked license to use a word and crucify a member of a different race, who uses it once and then apologizes.

Nobody should drop the N-bomb in this day and age. But, we need to not give any one word that much power over us. We need to ask ourselves, why do we -- especially we liberals and progressives -- hold our comedians and writers to a higher standard than the country as a whole holds its president.

I know, all distasteful subjects lead to Trump, but Trump has made so many absolutely outrageous statements and told so many out-right lies -- and never apologizes for anything! And don't get me started on Kathy Griffin. Not my favorite comic, and I never thought I would feel sorry for her, but this is another case of liberals, the media, and others tearing her apart for something that might be considered bad taste, but that's all. And she is getting death threats as well as investigated by the Secret Service.

Strange how Ted Nugent actually did threaten to kill Obama, and he was not investigated. No, he became a guest on Fox News.