Bill Maher and Oliver Stone

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

This was not an ordinary interview. It’s got the usual stuff about movies and all of that, plus some vicariously satisfying political things, like Richard Nixon saying that Ronald Reagan was a “dumb son of a bitch”. But it was the part about drugs that caught my attention. Stone says that drugs were part of his growth process, and that of the soldiers he knew in Vietnam, it was the ones who were smoking grass who maintained their humanity.

I love counterintuitive.

Addendum: I almost forgot why this grabbed me. Stone mentioned that Nixon was plagued by “self loathing”, and hence had great doubt. Doubt is one of the most useful of human intellectual activities. It leads scientists to debunk previous science, formerly religious people to reject religion. Nixon was a complex man becuase he doubted himself.

Neither Reagan nor Bush I or II ever doubted. That is a sign of their intellectual vacuity. Nixon may have been one of our smartest president, the Bushes and Reagan among the dumbest. Clinton was smart and unprincipled.

6 thoughts on “Bill Maher and Oliver Stone”

  1. Counter intuitive doesn’t mean correct. I don’t see much positive about the drug use Stone advocates.

    The mutual ass kissing in the clips was cringe inducing.

    “(Reagan was dumb)”. Interesting that liberals like to give IQ tests when it suits their political goals. Just don’t get too scientific about it.

    Like

    Reply

    1. It was Nixon who said that Reagan was a “dumb sob”, and that’s why the comment caught my eye. Did I not use the word “vicarious”?

      Anyway, isn’t interesting that Democrats put up braniacs like Carter, Clinton and Obama, while Republicans offer up half-wits like Reagan and the Bushes? I think I have established creds as holding both parties in equal contempt, and so make the observation merely because it means something. I just don’t know what.

      Like

      Reply

  2. Apples and oranges. Temperament and smarts. All water under the bridge. What makes this Obama guy do what he does? Plenty smart, but he’s headed to the minors if he doesn’t shape up. How many more bad games before the fans tire of losing?

    Like

    Reply

  3. Democrats put up braniacs

    I don’t think there is much difference here. Clinton and Carter were smart, but I don’t see them as much smarter that Bush or Reagan. Reagan was funny and witty off the cuff, but a little too “old school”, so he was put on the teleprompter. Obama makes a lot of gaffes off the cuff, so he is on the teleprompter.

    Like

    Reply

    1. I’ll agree with you that we don’t get much in the way of differences out of these various men, as the presidency is more a distraction than anything. Real power lay elsewhere. But as to relative IQ’s, I have a brain, I can see, and I don’t see much squirrel power in either Reagan’s or Bush’s treadmill. The men were lightweights. Clinton (Rhodes Scholar) and Obama (University of Chicago Professor) have a good more to offer us.

      Like

      Reply

Leave a comment