Saturday, October 9, 2010

Richard Dawkins on 'Real Time' with Bill Maher


October 8, 2010 on HBO
UPDATE: You can download or stream the entire interview from Megavideo

14 comments:

  1. It's nice to see Dawkins in such a casual mood. I wish Harris would relax this much.

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  2. "I'm not a science person" Oh no shit Billy? I never would've guessed.

    Maher is just as much of a stupid stopped clock as anyone else who knows (and cares not to know) nothing about science and disciplined, skeptical thought. He was merely lucky enough to have the hands of the clock stop when they were pointing toward atheism and evolution, where by the sheerest luck they make him right twice a day.

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  3. He's backed off of that stance for a while now, Blake. In fact, in the last episode, he openly mentioned that some people really need their medicine.

    It shouldn't be hard to see that what he's fighting is the bloated INDUSTRY around pharmaceuticals and health care (specifically insurance). In a capitalist society, these industries won't ever thrive without profit. But it's the 300-500% profit on medicines that Bill finds so reprehensible. His bullshit on vaccines was completely unwarranted, but his comments about the health industries were pretty spot on. The doctors are not evil, but the people peddling their wares to the doctors and patients are. It's quite an epidemic and for people like you to give all aspects of medicinal industry in this country a pass is a real disservice. Bill is obviously TRYING to fight the good fight, so don't ridicule him. Inform him.

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  4. Blake's disciplined, skeptical thinking, on the other hands, sounds like his usual self-inflationary say-nothing, name-calling, sarcastic, pedantic (and in this case strawman-building)  diatribe, the vacuous nature of which is usually concealed in an <span>admittedly</span> clever delivery.
    Why can't I get past your posts? Because they wreak of ego.
    At least Maher openly admits his "stupid stopped clock."
    Judging from many of your entries, I'd suggest you could use a rewind yourself.

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  5. I thought Richard was magnificent. Too bad Bill had nothing but "shit" for comebacks.

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  6. Oh Johnny, Johnny, John. My nemisis, my spritely muse, mon petit chou, c'mere and give me a big kiss sweetie. You know you can't resist me forever with your coy playground games. O:-)

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  7. This is fucked up, but when I looked at the poster frame of the movie before I looked at the blog post title, I thought Bill was interviewing Pat Robertson.

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  8. You're not being fair here. I've said that Bill DOES NOT deserve the respect for his anti-vaccine tirade, but you discount everything he says based on some stupid comments. I also never said I have a problem with people making money off of medicine, I have a problem with the GROSS amount people are making that gouges individuals and keeps health care costs unsustainably high. It's unfortunate that you conflate cliche with untrue. You really seem to ne ignoring the fact that Bill actually DOES pay attention to the people that write to him (as I did when he spouted the anti-vaccine nonsense) and he has stated in interviews and on his own show that he wasn't educated enough and still isn't.

    You're being quite ignorant and far from impartial.

    Your entire reply consists of straw man arguments and association fallacies. You're weighing on extremes and you seem averse to giving credit where it's due.

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  9. Doesn't work any more, at least not from Finland. Says the video has been removed because of copyright claim.

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  10. Brandon, has Bill openly stated that he was wrong to oppose vaccination?  When did he say that?  I might have missed it, but if he hasn't done that then it would be dishonest to portray what he has done as "backing down" from his position.

    And anyone defending Bill Maher in this has no right to complain about Blake for being overconfidently patronizing - thats exactly how Bill Maher presented his incorrect anti-vaxxer position.

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  11. He did it during one of his stand-up dates in the midwest  - there's a thread about it on the Real Time site.

    Also, I do have a right to complain about Blake being patronizing because I am NOT defending Bill on his anti-vaccination stance. I am saying that his stupidity in one topic does not determine his whole self. I don't agree with that kind of judgment. It's very...religious.

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  12. That's two hip looking cats

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  13. Richard's new haircut ain't bad...

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  14. Actually you did more than that.  You claimed Bill backed down on his stance.  That is what I have a problem with.  He didn't back down and you claimed he did.

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