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Bill Maher

Bill Maher

Posted: March 19, 2010 05:27 PM

New Rule: The more human beings try to deny themselves the love they really want, with who they want, whether that love is straight or gay -- or in Lady GaGa's case, miscellaneous -- the dumber they always look in the end.

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring, and this is the time of year when we're reminded that love is like a Toyota -- it can't be stopped. And if you don't believe me, consider that there is now a video of John Edwards performing oral sex on Rielle Hunter while she was six months pregnant. Because who doesn't love watching a politician kiss a baby.

I believe it was Meatloaf who said, "I would do anything for love, but I won't do that." Look, I was a big fan of John Edwards, and not just because he once got me a five million dollar settlement when my hot tub disemboweled a neighbor. But I'm now one of the people asking the question: Why did this brilliant man... Ok, not brilliant, but really smart... Ok, maybe not that smart, but very cute... Why did this very cute man do something so not cute? And more importantly, why did he do it with a woman for whom Photoshop was invented? Love! True love is like a salesman at Home Depot: it only comes along once or twice in a lifetime, so you gotta grab it. Fighting it just makes it worse, like arguing with an airline employee.

If you try to fight the power of love, you end up making a fool of yourself. Think of Bill Clinton asking what the definition of "is" is. Larry Craig's "I just have a wide stance," Mark Sanford's "I was hiking the Appalachian Trail."

It's so tragic -- here's a guy, Mark Sanford, who was deeply and truly in love with his mistress -- wrote her the kind of letters any woman would treasure, especially if English was her second language. But then he blew her off so he could stay the governor of North Carolina... or South Carolina, who cares what Carolina? He could be on a beach in Rio right now, watching the love of his life bossa nova in a thong, but instead he's at some town hall meeting in Cletusville taking shit from hillbillies. Plus his wife dumped him and wrote a book about what an asshole he is. Well played, sir!

Acknowledging the power of love doesn't make me less of a rationalist -- it makes me more of one. It's the rational in me that accepts that the evidence of love's endurance is settled science. Money will make a man betray his brother. Hate will make a man kill. But only love will make a turtle hump a shoe.

Time and again we see that the people who choose love over their careers, and even over the values of society, seem to be the people who find actual happiness. I ridiculed Woody Allen at the time he took up with Soon-Yi, but mea culpa -- it's lasted 17 years. I hated Yoko Ono for breaking up the Beatles, but the lesson there is the same: Asian chicks are obviously irresistible.

So I'll conclude tonight by telling you all something I've never told anyone else: when I was a young man, I once knew true love and I let it slip away when he was transferred to another parish.

 

Follow Bill Maher on Twitter: www.twitter.com/billmaher

 
 
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11:04 AM on 04/30/2010
Ahh, Bill... How do I say this. I really like you; your brand of humor is infectious... but I found this a little sad too. I've read posts that have a little more "solution-focus" between the lines. I'm not into the celebrity gossip stuff, but I think I heard that you are quite the stud--hanging at Hef's and the like. Maybe you've settled down, I don't know. Anyway, although the jokes are good (turtle humping a shoe!! I think that about sums up the gracefulness of the act, regardless of our pumping Madonna on satin dreams!) I wonder if underneath this, you are craving some "real" love. M. Scott Peck wrote that love is commitment. It is hanging with someone through all the roses, chocolate and orgasms, only to have that person get cancer or become paralyzed. Love is what's there when you're willing to feed someone or wipe their ass for them when they can't do it themselves. I feel bad for men of power. It seems like they go out and live their fantasies of "love," only to wreck a marriage and a family. When "certain people" log on to the internet and navigate to a "fantasy site" for a little stress relief, I don't think I would call that love... These "certain people" realize that romantic love takes planning and work. When you don't work to keep the fires burning, you become the insatiable turtle, lumbering through the world looking for shoes to hump.
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dawlishgal
11:31 AM on 05/08/2010
Fanned! Beautifully said. My husband of 41 years died last year on Mother's Day, and we had the "love" situation you described, with the committment and the willingness to step in and do the dirty work when the other couldn't. And we also laughed (a lot) at pretty much the same things, and we were outraged at pretty much the same things. Who would want to endanger a relationship like that by a mere roll in the hay with a cheat or a philanderer.

That is what makes it so hard to hear people like Maher (whose work I really enjoy) calling what Woody Allen has "love."
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CK4NYSenate
11:42 AM on 05/08/2010
fanned and faved!
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MamacitaOfLove
Micro-bio curious
01:16 AM on 04/30/2010
Love me some Bill!
02:26 PM on 04/29/2010
Your are always funny Bill, when I hear your rants it always reminds me of the satirist dream.
"Please take me seriously" However,I'm sure the entertainment industry does pay well enough that you might consider helping solve issue's of our day instead of profiting from inflaming public discourse.
07:45 PM on 04/20/2010
As my dear old grandma used to say....

Love will find you, even if it is a cow pile...

So, I don't think many people deny their true love feelings.
They just attribute sex and sexual fantasies to love and
then are disappointed later to find out that it was just that...
sex in a cow pile....
12:09 PM on 03/23/2010
Don't worry Bill, as I'm sure there are a few hillbillies who would like show you some love.

Funny article nonetheless.
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skatoolaki
Passionate, fiery walking contradiction.
02:21 PM on 03/22/2010
Hilarious - yet words of wisdom nonetheless. Well played, Mr. Maher, as always.
08:38 AM on 03/22/2010
Love is just a little squirt let's face it. Well some times a big squirt. But a squirt nevertheless. To center your life around a squirt is a little ridiculous don;t you think. I mean you name your dog that maybe if it's a chihuahua. Love, like family and freindship are some of the most over rated things in life. In fact they can be down right lethal. But every spring I think this is the year I meet her. Then my allergies kick in and by the time it's summer I;d give a million dollars to never have to sneeze again. Diminished expectations. The key to life.
06:28 AM on 03/23/2010
That's what I tell my children every morning before they leave for school - diminished expectations.
But seriously, seawolf77, your response made me sad. I really hope it was not serious and I really hope you don't give up on love. It can happen. Just ask my husbands.
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KenMoore
Cunning Linguist
11:42 AM on 03/23/2010
How many husbands do we have to ask?
08:34 AM on 03/22/2010
Oh sweet flying spaghetti monster, Bill! Did you stop and think before you wrote this? Granted, your fans are a little brighter than average, but not all of them are going to quite get the concept of "sarcasm". And as one of those who has been and done the restraining orders/ bruises/ heavy objects being thrown at me because some guys didn't understand the science of pheromones OR endorphins and mistook a great one-night stand for "true love", I am begging you to think before you speak. People listen to you. They believe what you say. And the last thing we all need is more men running loose with their heads in the clouds hallucinating on hormones and calling it love.

I have little enough faith in the masculine gender and I'd rather not have to go back to exclusively dating women. Please don't do this to me!

Of course, I'm following the assumption that this piece WAS a sarcastic poke at the recent sex scandals. If it wasn't, and you actually meant that drivel, would you please- and I say this with all possible affection- go retrieve your cojones from wherever you dropped them, hmm? "Whipped" is not a look that is ever going to suit you.

Going back to the Daily Show now. Hopefully next time I check in with Real Time you will be more...well, you.
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KenMoore
Cunning Linguist
11:47 AM on 03/23/2010
As someone who has only exclusively dated women, and has daughters and sisters, I can say without equivocation that all you say about men also applies to women. Maybe even more so.
03:06 AM on 03/22/2010
After the insurance company coup tonight, I needed a laugh. Hilarious! : ) Thanks.
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Soundofthunder
Listen to the thunder
08:30 PM on 03/21/2010
Astute and funny, as always, Bill. Thanks for setting the bar for comedic insight high as humanly possible, and without excessive reliance on marijuana. Right?

S
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05:31 PM on 03/21/2010
There was point when love and sex were separate and distinct matters and then it became obvious that if you wanted you genetic line to inherit whatever you managed to steal, it was imperative that women be forced to avoid sex with anyone who did not own them as property.
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skatoolaki
Passionate, fiery walking contradiction.
02:23 PM on 03/22/2010
Ha, well said!
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LiberalBuzz
Voting republican is voting against America.
05:28 PM on 03/21/2010
I only wish I could make it true.

I waited two decades for the love of my life never knowing if she would return and when she did it turned out she is on drugs to control a whole lot of behaviours and one of them is imagining things that never happened......a week ago. Or yesterday. And then kicking me to the curb and THEN finding out she left me a lifelong present.

Denying love?

I only wish it was there to begin with.
05:26 PM on 03/21/2010
Someday Bill Maher will face an emotional conundrum himself, and will discover the meaning of compassion. Or not...
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tssent
The facts, ma'am, just the facts
03:59 PM on 03/22/2010
Clearly, you don't understand anything at all about Bill Maher.
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dangerouslysane
04:02 PM on 03/21/2010
Maher at his most lyrical--such an ode to spring! ROFLMAO
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mark331blue
Left leaning independent
05:16 PM on 03/21/2010
Or his most cynical.
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tssent
The facts, ma'am, just the facts
04:00 PM on 03/22/2010
Or his most lyrical and cynical
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mheister
Raconteur. Blog michaelheister.com
10:49 PM on 03/21/2010
Credit where credit's due. Bill Maher has a great writing staff.
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mark331blue
Left leaning independent
04:50 PM on 03/22/2010
Yep.
04:02 PM on 03/21/2010
flagged as hilarious.