My apology to Bill Maher
I would like to apologize for thinking that Bill Maher is a unfunny selfish jerk by saying he is a rather pathetic unfunny selfish jerk. Or at least I think that is the way apologies go according to Bill Maher.
His apology under pressure from HBO for calling the Pope a Nazi was ""The pope was not a Nazi. When he was a teenager, he was in the Hitler youth, which meant he said the oath directly to Hitler and not to the Nazis ... which is sort of worse, okay."
Bill Maher and his little diatribes doesn't really upset me. He is like a school yard bully in a small school looking for attention. When I hear about something he recently said I feel more sadness for the man than any outrage. A poor soul who sadly sees the highlights of his life being going to the Playboy mansion. The only real thing Bill Maher evokes from me is prayer for the man and these little outburst only remind me all the more to pray for him.
Josef Razinger as a Nazi Youth was a miserable failure considering that circumstances allowed him to never have to attend one of the meetings. As a seminarian at the time a local Nazi allowed him to just sign up without attending the meetings so he obviously had a good idea about what the Ratzinger family had thought about the Nazi's; especially considering the families moves to avoid them. But facts were never something that Bill Maher was overly fond of.
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When I hear about something he recently said I feel more sadness for the man than any outrage.
I feel the same way about Christopher Hitchins.
Actually, the local Nazi was also a local teacher. It was his job to get all the kids in the Hitler Youth when that became mandatory. Basically, he kept telling this kid Josef that he needed to sign up or he'd get in trouble, and Josef kept saying, "Yep, I've heard that" and not signing up. Then the teacher-Nazi starts telling him that all he has to do is show up for a meeting. No Josef. Finally, the teacher-Nazi, not wanting Josef (or himself) to get into trouble, did the paperwork and signed the kid up himself, and never made him attend any meetings, either.
This is exactly the sort of thing I do when I don't want to do something, so I thought it was pretty funny to see the ol' foot-dragging technique applied to a truly important situation.
Perhaps someone should enroll Mr. Maher in a domestic neo-Nazi group or two.
That is the way 7 year old apologize to their brothers....
"Tell your brother you are sorry, Billy!"
"I am sorry...
...sorry you are such a big jerk!"
I am sorry I called him a balding, bloated has-been who can't make it on network TV and whose makeup artist has to spend an hour covering up his gin-blossoms.
For all I know, he does not have gin-blossoms... yet.
I did send an email to HBO suggesting this rather sorry excuse for a comedian was not an asset to their network but rather a huge liability. It is likely it will just be ignored, but who knows. If enough communicate their disatisfaction it might make their profit picture twinge.
American Life League has started a petition to get Bill Maher fired, at www.firebillmaher.com.
Small, covetous men like Mr. Maher look at men of massive intellect and historical import like Benedict XVI and feel nothing but envy and bitterness (if I can still use that word). They are like kids who throw stones at the pyramids.
Pray for him.
Yes, people don't like to mention that at the time ALL German boys had to be in Hitler Youth.
Yes - it's my understanding that Josef was conscripted into the Hitler Youth while he was in the seminary.
Another post was titled "The Patron Saint of Bitterness" - I errantly thought it was referring to Bill Maher. What a sad little excuse for a life - and I do pity him.
It is encumbent upon us to pray for him. How sad it must be to be him and to have, as his life's blood (not to mention bread and butter), bitterness from dawn until dusk.
God bless you, Mr. Maher. (Oh, it doesn't matter if you don't believe in Him. HE believes in you!)
Maybe someone can confirm this for me: I read somewhere that one of Bill Maher's parents--possibly his mom--was a Catholic. If true, his tirades may be more personal than we know.
As always, we need to pray for him. God's grace is amazing in what it can do...I've seen people worse off than Bill turn to God. But it probably won't happen if we don't remember him in prayer.