If global warming is the modern secular religion, HBO’s “Real Time” host Bill Maher has bought into it hook, line and sinker.
On the Oct. 8 broadcast of his program, immediately following a segment criticizing a congressional candidate that was a Nazis reenactor for exercising bad judgment, Maher ironically had some words of praise for the founder of al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden, who is believed to have ordered the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks which caused the deaths of over 2,700 people on American soil (video below the jump).
Why would bin Laden be worthy of such praise? Because of his statement on the issue of anthropogenic global warming, which according to Maher was devoid of the usual violent rhetoric one might expect from a leader of extremist Islam.
“All right, let me ask -- let me quote another person who is not in favor in this country and that's Osama bin Laden,” Maher said. “He put out a tape last week. And there was nothing about violence or attacking America. See, Lindsay Lohan, people can change. It was about the Pakistani flood.”
Maher read the quote from bin Laden, which suggested the industrialized nations were at fault for the recent flooding in Pakistan.
“And his quote – show it there, he said, ‘Speaking about climate change is not a matter of intellectual luxury,’” Maher said, reading bin Laden’s quote. “‘The phenomenon is an actual fact. All the industrialized countries, especially the big ones, bear the responsibility for testimony global warming crisis.’”
And based on that statement, Maher determined bin Laden was worthy of praise because they agreed on an issue that Maher’s political opponents haven’t bought into.
“Well, I guess my question is, how come a guy in a cave gets it better than every Republican voting for the Senate?” Maher said.
That statement received applause from the “Real Time” in-studio audience, but later in the segment, Maher suggested bin Laden was speaking out in goodwill to draw attention to this crisis in Pakistan because it really didn’t get a lot of coverage in the media.
“Let just say this,” Maher said. “He made this statement because Pakistan – this really didn’t make the papers, but Pakistan had a giant flood this year. And it is the sixth biggest country in the world, and a fifth of it was underwater and 21 million people were displaced. And it was worse than the tsunami.”
S.E. Cupp, author of “Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media's Attack on Christianity” suggested to Maher that maybe he was trying to capitalize on the flood by blaming the United States and whipping up more anti-American sentiment in Pakistan.
“A lot of people think the United States created this flood,” Cupp said. “And that’s the kind of meme he is trying to jump on.”
Nonetheless, Maher didn’t concede that, but just suggested bin Laden was correct and alluded the recent heat wave in Southern California as another example of global warming.
“Global warming may have something to do with it,” Maher replied. “That’s what he was saying. It was 113 degrees in this city last week. Maybe it was more, but the thermometer broke. I’m not lying. The thermometer broke.”
