Word: maher
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Raleigh, N.C.—the interior of Tuckers Chapel, a trailer church, in which a former Satanist-priest, among other large, red-faced Christian men, claims the Bible saved him from drugs and prostitution. Here, we quickly learn Maher has some serious balls. “How can smart people believe in a talking snake?” he asks. Later, after a round of farewell hugs, he cries, “Hey, where’s my wallet?” Priceless nervous laughter ensues...
...gays are born gay and are actually gay because of their insecurities, despite Maher’s rebuttal that it takes a lot of security to walk out of the house in assless chaps. The two make peace in the end, as Westcott bounces over to Maher to give him a hug to the underscoring of the “Brokeback Mountain” theme song. This moment is almost matched when, in a later sequence with a bonafide pothead with clerical credentials, Maher jumps up like a schoolboy as the Reverend’s hair is lit on fire...
...Maher does well not only to attack Christianity; he also digs his claws into Judaism and Islam. An interview with Rabbi Dovid Weiss, an anti-Zionist who supports the Iranian president’s recent denial of the Holocaust, reveals the darkest entrails of religious hypocrisy. While roaming the underground tunnels of Amsterdam, Maher interviews Muslim British rapper Aki Nawaz of the band Propagandhi, whose controversial lyrics glorify terrorism. Incidentally, Nawaz, whose livelihood literally depends on freedom of speech, has no qualms about the fatwa placed on Salman Rushdie for his book “The Satanic Verses...
...Religulous,” while sure to put Maher on a million shit-lists, challenges what we take for granted in religion, as both a phenomenon and institution. Despite its inevitable bias and self-commentating nature, the film speaks for itself—and it speaks loudly, passionately, and presciently. The job of a comedian is to attack sensitive issues in society in a way that both innocently mocks and pointedly slanders. Maher succeeds, probing into old wounds that refuse to heal. An anthropological affront, “Religulous” reminds us that religion looks a lot like mental...
...York to the resolve of the passengers of the Arbella. The book could just as easily be a conversation with the author herself.“The Wordy Shipmates” is a gem, and Vowell’s ambitious and rewarding work to date. Unlike her contemporaries Bill Maher and Lewis Black, who use a skewed view of American history to point out its flaws, Vowell exhibits a deeply sympathetic perspective for American figures both past and present, and in doing so, she evokes the same in her audience. —Staff writer Ryan J. Meehan...