I watched Bill Maher's last HBO show, before hiatus, with his guest, the irritatingly smug and duplicitous Andrew Sullivan, but TiVo cut out the last minute or so, where apparently Sullivan started massaging his own buttocks.
James Wolcott caught it however:
The strangest thing in the broadcast happened when the show was over. The panelists stood, Sullivan's back to the camera, and as the credits rolled, he began squeezing, massaging his own buttocks with his hands. I thought he might be trying to dislodge a thong strap that had run up rather deep, but no, he seemed to be feeling up his own butt. I've never seen anything quite like it, unless I was hallucinating, and if I start hallucinating about Andrew Sullivan copping a feel of his own butt, it's time to check into the clinic for a little Elizabeth Wurtzel layoff.
So I beg any blogger able to do a “screen-grab,” if you're pardon the expression, to study the last few minutes of this week's Real Time with Bill Maher and assure me my mind's not playing mad tricks.
Sullivan is such an ass, the B12 viewing party had to stop the show periodically to yell at the screen in disgust. I especially hate his repeated point that Kerry lost because of liberal elitist condescension towards Red-Staters. Uh, huh. I'm sure there were so many Christian Evangelicals who were going to vote for Kerry, but because they heard that Tim Robbins was campaigning for Kerry, they changed their minds and voted for Bush instead. Puh-lease.
Sullivan also tried to portray liberals and especially Michael Moore and Noam Chomsky (looking a little older than last time I've seen him speak) as America-haters. Sullivan, you jack-ass, I've heard both men repeatedly proclaim America is a great country, and that neither would want to live anywhere else. Since when does criticism of policy equal rabid-foam-mouthed hatred?
Wolcott again:
Like an infant banging his spoon on the high-chair tray, Sullivan threw quite a tantrum last night after Maher had the GALL to interview Noam Chomsky. Sullivan sputtered that Chomsky made “millions” going around the world telling audiences America was “evil.” Now I don't pretend to have read or heard all of the millions of words Chomsky has written and spoken, but “evil” doesn't seem to be a prominent word in his vocabulary, being so theological; he tends to talk in terms of brutal realpolitick and self-interest. And it's highly unlikely he's raking in “millions”--if he is, he isn't splurging on wardrobe and pimpmobiles.
Since every war criminal in the current Bush administration will be able to command huge honoraria on the lecture circuit and lucrative positions on corporate boards once they leave the bloodshed behind, working up ire over a professor's speaking fees seems a bit much.
Unable to impart the red depths of Chomsky's villainy to host and panel, Sullivan attacked Chomsky for being symptomatic of an America-hating elitist left.
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update - thanks to the miracle of YouTube, this moment is captured for posterity. Err, something.
direct link here
