Real Time: Intellectual Masturbation

As I was watching Real Time last night, only two things stood out to me.

#1: Paul Begala trying to assure Bill Maher that the Clintons don't want McCain to win -- total bullshit

#2 (and more importantly): When Salman Rushdie predicted that Obama would blow out McCain Bill Maher said, "61% of Americans believe that the 'Noah's Arc' story is literal and was real."
Now... I am willing to forgive people for such a thing because it IS partly literal. We have archaeological evidence that a man -- who was not named Noah-- actually built an enormous arc during the antediluvian era.
Maher probably would have been better served if he told his guests (as I posted here a long time ago) that most Americans don't know that the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs on Japan and can't identify the three branches of government.

The bottom line is Americans are idiots. Everything else that went down on Real Time-- mostly Janeane Garofalo and John Fund's discussion about the government's bailouts of financial institutions-- is intellectual masturbation. I learned during 2004 that we can discuss high brow subjects that relate to the presidential campaign until Karl Rove isn't obese. It doesn't change the fact that most Americans vote ultimately based on "who makes them feel good" and a profound issue such as "don't want them queers marryin' on my watch."

I have included an embed of the opener. If you want to watch the whole episode, continue through cafeblog's links.