Bill Maher’s book, “When you ride alone you ride with Bin Laden”, is written to inform American citizens of the things they can do to help win the war on terrorism. In this book Maher criticizes our government for their failure to do so. Maher questions why we are not using methods that have been used in past wars to enlighten our citizenry. Things like posters to conserve our natural resources, providing the media with information for Americans to rally around, turning off lights that are not being used and the need for car-pooling or creating a more energy efficient form of public transportation. Some where I read that it takes eleven gallons of oil to burn a 75 watt light bulb for a year, now that is food for thought! Maher thinks the token support that Americans are engaged in is of little value; displaying flags, wearing support badges and hats, and the “shop until you drop” theme have little value. Maybe we should be doing more, but this is a totally new kind of war, not one where we are fighting another nation, but an ideology, that is supported by radical Islamists. What should our posters say “ Don’t Trust Muslims?”. Should our media televise pictures of Muslims in their Mosques preaching “kill all infidels”? I concur with Maher that we are not doing enough and that our government could do much more, but we must acknowledge the good with the bad or we are just arm chair quarterbacks that want to point fingers. Give our government credit that we haven’t had another 9/11 in almost 7 years. The Bush administration has almost fought this war alone as Democratic politicians have seized the opportunity to bash Bush on every front. I think the Democrats are trying to get even for Bill Clinton’s impeachment proceedings and Al Gore’s narrow loss in the 2004 election.

Maher’s cynical and condescending nature is a turn off to many Americans. It is almost like he is pandering to the malcontent and disgruntled members of our society. Maybe this sells more books (Ka-ching, Ka-ching) but it lessens the affect on mainstream America. I was struck by a sentence in the “Dedication” part of his book which read, “As my agent never stopped telling me a picture is worth a thousand dollars”. Shouldn’t the cliché be “a picture is worth a thousand words?” The book is filled with pictures ,full page pictures. It just could not be that this book was written and published for the mighty dollar, could it? Well his friend Ariana Huffington is getting rich off of her posts and blogs which tolerates sick attacks on the likes of Nancy Reagan and Charleston Heston. And another friend of Maher’s is Michael Moore who has produced movies with exaggerations, distortions, and even lies that berate America’s present system and how we are governed… Hey, there seems to be some common threads here which are, cynicism and cashing in. Some are even saying or suggesting that our President was responsible for 9/11. The New York Times in their August 31st, 2004 edition reported that our government knew of the plot and intentionally failed to act. Ah America! - free speech - in many other countries this would be treason. As reported by our esteemed Professor,
Dr. Cmizth , a Zogby poll reported that ½ of New York citizens believed this also. Zogby!… Now there is an organization we can rely on, they are credible and much more reliable than our President. At least they will tell you that, and hey how about the possibility of moles in the Zogby polls. The poll was taken outside of a Muslim Mosque, and they polled 10 people. I think this was rumor, my rumor. Consider further purported evidence that our government knew well before the attack the names of the terrorists that hijacked the planes. Our government reported the names just 48 hours after 9/11 happened, how can that be? The conspiracy theorists brought subversives out of cracks to pounce on this as credible evidence that our government was behind 9/11. Did it ever occur to anyone that every time a Muslim climbs on a plane that they are immediately red flagged, sorry, but this could be construed as “profiling”, which our intelligence community would not make public. The ACLU is watching Big Brother. Oh yes! and the immediate cleanup and removal of 9/11’s debris that the investigators were denied access to. This was viewed as more credible evidence of the governments cover up. Should we have let the investigators pilfer through the remains ? Do you know how many items from 9/11 would have surfaced on E-bay if the government had allowed this? Common sense goes a long way in cases like this. This was a crime scene and it was treated as such so that nothing was removed or added to the scene to detract or alter the government’s systematic cleanup inspection or analysis. And how about our neighbor to the north Jeff Wells take on all this? Mr. Wells has a web site and a book, “Anxious Gravity” which suggest that 9/11 was a government inspired atrocity. But I am not into jellyfish and UFO’s just yet.

Another thing that surfaced at about this time was the report on our President and his early drinking days. Not the fact that he drank but that someone ask him if he was still drinking and he reportedly answered “No”. Then the person asking the questions said the President’s answer wasn’t convincing. To me that’s a red flag, subjective judgment which suggested the President was lying. It might have been Al Gore asking the question and making the judgment call, probably not. Sociology as a science has some limitations and that’s why critical thinking is so important. Thinking from the left and the right won’t always get you the correct answer but its much better than a one sided thought. If a representative from Zogby came to your door and told you to get under the bed because the sky is falling, and right behind him was our President who said get on the roof of your house because a flood is coming. What would you do? It is my opinion that 90% of San Francisco would be under their beds and 90 % of Houston would be on their roofs. Our society is so divided and the issues are so complex… Great leaders please come forward. America is a nation that protects its own. Maher’s supports this thesis with his account of his favorite movie “Saving Private Ryan”. In the movie Tom Hanks tells the saved private “earn this”. Maher continues with his thoughts “ I try to remember that every day, and put myself in Ryan’s place. We’re all a little intoxicated with just being Americans, but even better would be to earn it. And kill the world with kindness, because it will make us safer, and even greater. We’ve been the greatest country on earth for two centuries. Let’s Three-peat!” Bill Maher is a great patriot or a great business man, maybe both. Maher’s book made some great points for the loyal masses so the book is certainly worth reading. The last chapter “Not Just Different” should be put on the front page of every newspaper. I think that sometimes we forget just how much our nation is different from past world powers. Maher reminds us that most powerful nations have conquered or trampled other countries and then occupied and exploited them. Maher best describes America as a country that “does not go to war to rob or exterminate or get even; we don’t conquer, we don’t plunder, we don’t carry off anyone’s women and children into slavery and concubine. Name another nation that could conquer the world, but chose not to. A lot of nations have tried, and usually for one reason: they could. They found themselves -like America is now- pre-eminent. And that big stick in their hand was just too much fun not to use.”

Maher, patriot or opportunistic capitalist?… You, decide.