Bizarrely, Maher Blames Tucson Shooting On...Lack of ObamaCare
Two particularly peculiar bits of reasoning Friday night from Bill Maher on the season premiere of his HBO show, Real Time with Bill Maher, starting with his bizarre explanation for why Jared Lee Loughner was able to commit mass murder. After panelist Chrystia Freeland, global editor-at-large for Thomson Reuters, trumped how her native Canada has “universal health care,” Maher jumped in to assert:
Because we don't have government health care, that's one reason why a crazy person gets a gun because, you know what, it’s hard for a crazy person to get a job, so therefore it’s hard for them to get heath care in a country that doesn’t have government- (Audio: MP3 clip)
The conversation moved on and Maher never offered any further explanation, if there could even have been any which made any sense.
Earlier in the January 14 program, Maher expressed frustration that President Barack Obama would employ the same arguments as Sarah Palin as he twisted a Palin quote into a rationale to oppose intervention in Afghanistan:
This is what bothers me, is that his [Obama] quotes and some of Palin's quotes from Wednesday are interchangeable. He said “terrible things happen for reasons that defy human understanding.” Then he quoted Job. She said “acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals who commit them.” Well, if that’s true, why are we in Afghanistan?
— Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
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Comments
Liberals like Maher never
Submitted by motherbelt on Sat, 01/15/2011 - 10:21am.
Liberals like Maher never offer any explanation. They just throw their B as in B, S as in S out there, feel no need to back it up, and impose the obligation on anyone who disagrees to prove them wrong.
In Liberal-land, no one says, Bill that's a pretty outrageous statement. What are you basing it on?
Well then Bill, itsn't it Obama's fault? After all, he promised to fix the problem of massive unemployment, and there was this guy, still without a job.
Maher lives in Limbo-land
Submitted by Galvanic on Sun, 01/16/2011 - 1:03pm.
He dons two hats: comedian and pundit.
He thinks this absolves him from needing facts because anything he utters is for laughs
Look on the Bright Side
Submitted by NC Boy on Sat, 01/15/2011 - 10:45am.
If we get new laws to allow mentally disturbed adults to be properly dealt with, we may someday get to see Maher led from the stage by two hefty orderlies.
Free psych health care????
Submitted by Pilgrim1949 on Sat, 01/15/2011 - 11:10am.
Yup, I'm sure ol' Jared was just a-pinin' away at how hard it was for him to get the psychiatric care and meds that he obviously (to Maher, at least) was so desparate to obtain.
I'm sure his shooting spree was just a subtle cry for help.
Yup, that's it.
Sure glad Bill The Psyho-anal-ist is on duty to clarify thngs for we great unwashed masses.
Thanks, Bill. It's all perfectly clear now.
"Ye canne change the laws of physics....." but some politicians believe that with the right legislation you can pretend they don't really apply to your own pet projects...
If one of Giffords's assistants had had a gun
Submitted by ekslib on Sat, 01/15/2011 - 11:28am.
most of the dead might still be alive.
One of the bystanders did
Submitted by evets11 on Mon, 01/17/2011 - 10:04pm.
One of the bystanders did have a gun. His name was Joe Zamudio and he came within a split second of shooting the guy who pried the gun out of Loughner's hand.
evets11
Submitted by ant on Mon, 01/17/2011 - 10:58pm.
That's a lie. First of all, he wasn't a bystander, he heard the shots from another part of the shopping center and ran to the scene. If he was a bystander he would have most likely known exactly who the shooter was. Second of all, he never even pulled his gun, he yelled freeze and kept his hand on the gun as he moved forward to attempt to subdue the man when he realized the truth and other actual bystanders pointed out the real perp. Is the "split-second" claim you're flourish or is that directly from those stalwarts of truth at MSNBC?
Bill, he had access to healthcare
Submitted by CobraMan on Sat, 01/15/2011 - 11:50am.
Bill, he HAD access to health care, if he wanted that care. He could have walk into any emergency room anywhere in the country and received the help he wanted, for free.
But here's the thing, Bill: Crazy people don't KNOW that they're crazy! THEY think they're totally sane and that it's the rest of the world that's insane. He wouldn't have sought psychiatric help even if he was PAID to do it. He didn't TRUST anything or anyone, remember? That also includes doctors and psychiatrists who are taught by the very institutions which he thought were a part of the government who is using mind control on all of us: the Universities.
So, Bill, it wasn't a lack of government health care that was the problem. It's more likely that the very thought of government-run health care was one of the triggers!
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
I was in the ER a couple of
Submitted by motherbelt on Sat, 01/15/2011 - 12:09pm.
I was in the ER a couple of years ago with my daughter, and a man walked in and told the triage nurse "I've been having thoughts about killing myself."
He was not asked if he had health insurance; he was not asked how he planned to pay, he was not turned away. She told him to have a seat (directly across from her, where she could see him), until she could get him in to see a doctor.
Could that be why...
Submitted by KyWriter on Sat, 01/15/2011 - 5:03pm.
...Bill Maher is still around?
Several years ago, while I
Submitted by ProudAmerican58 on Sat, 01/15/2011 - 8:02pm.
Several years ago, while I was unemployed and had no insurance, I went through a very emotionally trying period where I felt my own mental health was at risk. My mother drove me to the nearest mental health clinic where I received therapy and medication...all free of charge. That place and those people saved my life.
It's a shame that someone like Bill Maher, who no doubt has the best insurance policy possible, is too stupid to know he really needs help.
He grows increasingly incoherent by the minute.
Amazing how you all missed
Submitted by evets11 on Mon, 01/17/2011 - 10:00pm.
Amazing how you all missed the point. ProudAmerican58 received psychiatric help for free - this is what Republicans are trying to diminish and what Democrats are trying to provide more of. Would it eliminate all wackos with a gun? No, but which direction do you want the country to go? More armed nutjobs on the street, or less?
Amazing how you missed it.
Submitted by ant on Mon, 01/17/2011 - 11:07pm.
Amazing how you missed it. Someone gets medical treatment for free before Obamacare has been implemented, but Republicans ridding us of Obamacare will mean no free care? Explain please.
Actually it was the liberals
Submitted by Radical1979 on Mon, 01/17/2011 - 11:28pm.
Actually it was the liberals who insisted the people in mental hospitals be released. This has contributed not only to "nutjobs on the street" as you so inelegantly put it, but an increase in homeless people on the streets as many of them cannot take care of themselves.
Amazing how you missed the point, evets11
Submitted by SickofLibs on Tue, 01/18/2011 - 1:03pm.
Several years ago we did not have Obamacare and PA58 STILL received treatment.
There is absolutely nothing in any Republican proposal or plan that demands hospitals reject patients due to lack of insurance.
I see HBO moved his time slot
Submitted by johnsonl on Sat, 01/15/2011 - 12:41pm.
I see HBO moved his time slot so that even more people could not watch him.
Who writes this guys lines?
Submitted by Bobbygn on Sat, 01/15/2011 - 12:41pm.
Canada has had socialist medicine for 30 years. ... Didnt stop a lunatic from buying a gun 10 years ago or so and going into a College and killing 14 female engineering students. Guess Maher and his guest never heard of the guy in Canada who took out 4 Royal Canadian Mounted police. Of course he also had socialized medicine. Didnt stop him.
There is a comparison made between Canada and USA health care.
Some people will say that only 40% or the people have full health care in the USA . In Canada 100% or the people have health care.
Paid for by 40% or the people.
Maher, I worry about YOU!
Submitted by gobnait06 on Sat, 01/15/2011 - 12:44pm.
One wonders if the state of Mr. Maher's mental health has ever been professionally assessed?
Deinstitutionalization?
Submitted by okiehawk44 on Sat, 01/15/2011 - 12:45pm.
JFK thought that by closing most institutions specializing in the treatment of mentally ill people in our society and mainstreaming those people using community-based service providers would be a win-win for both the mentally ill and for society.
Now many see the results of that well intentioned plan and rue the day it was enacted because now those who live under a bridge (or in their parents' basement) and don't take their medications on a regular and persistent basis often act out and hurt themselves and/or others.
It is not easy for a family member or a friend of a mentally ill person to get them committed in a facility for observation and treatment even when it is obvious that such commitment is required at that very moment. Often a person can only be admitted against their will (yes, society gives us free-will rights even when we are delusional and/or homicidal) for 3 days. Three days of observation is often not enough and the parents or the spouse or the caring friend takes the individual back into the home even though that is totally inappropriate.
Bill Maher may truly believe that mental illness is acknowledged by the ill person who will then voluntarily seek professional help if only the costs can be covered by insurance but this is delusional and Maher should know this or should educate himself before he makes a complete ass of himself again.
Bill Maher
Submitted by sarge329 on Sat, 01/15/2011 - 1:24pm.
" It's hard for a crazy person to get a job, so it's hard for them to get health care in a country that doesn't have government " . After seeing this quote from former comedian Bill Maher, my first thought was " WTF " ? Then I thought that it was a senseless comment, since he comes across as a " crazy person" and he works for HBO. Then, rationality set in and I said, " That's not fair to say. As far as anyone knows, he's not been diagnosed as crazy. Irrational, yes. Bitter, most assuredly. Lacking in a a sense of humor, of course. But crazy, right now, that's subjective " . To try to link Mr. Loughner's rampage to a lack of health care stretches the bounds of credulity to their limits. Health care, both physical and mental/emotional, is available to everyone. If you don't have money, the state foots the bill. Now, since the current adminstration seems hellbent on dictating terms as far as HOW you receive healthcare, and many businesses are either: dropping out of providing healthcare entirely for their employees, or raising the cost of payroll deductions to make up the differences. So, if you follow the chain of events logically: ( a +b =c) a) government makes it harder for a company to provide healthcare, b) company cuts health-care benefits or drops benefits entirely, c) individual, already on the edge for many reasons, snaps and goes on a rampage. Now, I'm not a sociologist or mental health professional, but it seems to me that the above algorithm ( and no, I don't mean Algore ) makes sense. It's also called cause & effect. If the current adminstration and the puppets in the LSM really were compassionate, they'd drop Obamacare in a hot second, take the money that they had already absconded with, and send it to the states. They, in turn, could move it to where it could be better utilized. After all, the states know where their problems are, not some bureaucratic drone in DC. If you live in Wyoming, how in the world is someone 1500 miles away going to know what your problems are, and where they lie?
NY state provides mental health services.
Submitted by ekslib on Sat, 01/15/2011 - 2:32pm.
MA HAS MassCare.
But how easy is it for someone on MassCare to get an appointment with a doctor?
So now the poor crazy victim
Submitted by ant on Sat, 01/15/2011 - 3:40pm.
So now the poor crazy victim needed Obama's help. I mean for one thing, like Mahrer says, crazy people can't get a job. Somehow they are able to purchase firearms and go to Community College despite being broke and jobless?
And he lived at home ttih his parents!
Submitted by ProudAmerican58 on Sat, 01/15/2011 - 8:16pm.
Probably rent free as he was also able to purchase a video camera to tape his insanity.
Video camera or therapy? Therapy or video camera?
Hmmmm....
ObamaCare
Submitted by junaluska on Sat, 01/15/2011 - 4:01pm.
ObamaCare's new name is Obamahealth Control. It's all about CONTROL. Do you think that Obama gives a hoot about your health?
Irrationality at its finest.
Submitted by Hausmaus on Sun, 01/16/2011 - 11:19pm.
The cruxifiction of Christ, the persecution of Jews throughout the world for several centuries, the Spanish Inquisition, The reign of Ghanges Khan, and his savage conuests of Asia, and parts of Europe, The Plague, The Chinese Boxer Rebellion, The French Revollution followed by the Guillotine Era, The Slave trade to the Americas, World War I, World War II, The Holocust (Europe, Russia), Extermination of over six million jews, Korean War, Vietnam War, Iraq War, Afghanistan, The massive earthquake in Chile, the Haitian disaster, Sunamis in the Indian Ocean, Global Warming, Global Cooling, Global Whatever in the Hell your happen to think about, The Possibility, and Probability of a Meteor hitting the Earth within the next hour, All the Heavenly Hells that man can think about taking place on the Planet into eternity, and back. If you happen to find one I may have forgotten, blame it all on "Sarah Palin". I just found out a moment ago, that she is the reason for the 'Big Bang Theory", and the primary reason for all that has heen ailing this planet since its apparition. If you feel that a certain issue has been bothering you for some time, and its getting to the point that you don't care, even for lack of solid facts, blame it on "Sarah Palin". She has doomed us all from the beginning, and now we all have to go down in flames thanks to her. This woman has committed trillions, and trillions, of murderes, and now is time to find out why. Since the Tucson tragedy happened I felt compelled like everybody else to blame "Sara Palin" for it, although I been asked to focus on the facts, I just didn't have time for that insignificant crap. I just had to put my two nickels worth. There.
If a crazy person can't get a
Submitted by Hoosierboy on Tue, 01/18/2011 - 12:49pm.
If a crazy person can't get a job, and can't get health care as a result, then wouldn't it be more financially difficult for them to buy a gun?