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Real Time with Bill Maher missteps with Mos Def
By Stone Martindale Sep 10, 2007, 16:49 GMT
06/01/2007 - Mos Def - moron! © Terry Thompson / Photorazzi
Love him or hate him, the one thing you can usually count on with Maher's controversial HBO show, "Real Time," is a decent array of smart guests who know something beyond the ordinary.
Not so this past weekend, where Maher hosted rapper Mos Def and the academic, Cornel West.
Mos Def, a hip-hop musician and actor, showed us all why entertainers should zip it when it comes to serious subjects. Def inarticulately floated his bizarre 9/11 theory which claimed Osama bin Laden had nothing to do with it, as he also characterized George Washington and the Catholic church as “terrorists.”
Def defended the actions of terrorists to a bemused, then pissed-off Maher, who wasn't having any of it.
Def said: "I don't believe it was bin Laden today, I don't believe it was never him. I think it's some dude just standing, I don't even, I can't even believe. I don't even, I'm sorry, I'm from the projects, I know danger. I don't feel no danger from that sh*t, those mother-f**kers."
Maher looked incredulous: "But you don't think bin Laden knocked down the Word Trade Center?"
To which Def replied: "Absolutely not."
Maher was getting annoyed at this point: "Come on."
Def replies, "I don't. I don't. You know what, I don't."
Maher's B.S. meter was off the charts at this point. "That's where you lose me, my friend, and I'm so on your side, but you know what."
Def, not knowing when to shut it, continued: "In any barbershop I am so not alone, I'm so not alone."
Which made Maher state the obvious: "That doesn't mean you're right."
West kept jumping in in the annoying way he does by deflating any incendiary comments with his patented, "what brother Mos Def is really trying to say.." over and over.
Def claimed that “George Washington and all them dudes was terrorists as far as the Queen was concerned,” charged that “the Catholic church's stance about child molestation is a form of terrorism in and of itself” and when asked by Maher if bin Laden was behind destroying the World Trade Center, declared “absolutely not.” Def asserted that “highly-educated people in all areas of science have spoken on the fishiness around the whole 9/11 theory.”
Def then defended terrorism as a response to America's foreign policies: “Let's deal with the fact that there are valid reasons even to a lot of terrorists' arguments, quote unquote, terrorists' arguments about why are they frustrated with colonial presence, imperial presence. The way that this government has pursued its foreign interests has been meddlesome, murderously meddlesome.”
A note to Bill's producers, get your act together putting mics on people- Mos Def kept making shuhshudh noises as his mic kept moving, and please fire the booker and get someone from last season to line up some smarter, interesting guests.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
Def is a moron
stop ridiculing Mos Def this is america and i hate to say it but anyone can have any stand point on a subject. Some of you have even bashed a man (Cornel West)who i can easily tell from your description is has not only so much more knowledge and education but wisdom also. Also the Catholic churches stance on child molestation is a form of terrorism in and of itself.
Cornel West is an ass kisser and always will be-
he was better than Def though
How many civilians did George Washington target and kill? Let's not blur definitions. A revolt against a suppressive political regime in the form of an attack on the troops of the oppressing regime is a revolutions. Flying a commercial airliner full of innocent civilians is terrorism. I know modern education is big on relativism, where there are no absolutes, only differences of opinion, but if you think the two are the same you're cutting with a dull knife.
matindale,
where is the rest of the storyline of the show. Crow,Maher,and Mos say the media is one sided. This is another misrepresentation of the whole story? Yes, you have excerpts, but not the whole. There is no mention of the story down in Louisiana. One thing I learned if nothing else, stupid people are in charge.(hint, hint).
Mos Def made quite a lot of valid point and with charisma and humor. There are million to billions of people across the globe that believe that the US was either directly involved or complicit with 911. The US is quick to gather circumstantial evidence against 'enemies' and call it as truth, but there is significant and credible circumstantial evidence that one could conclude the US was involved or complicit with 911. Mos Def may have been loud, profane, and blunt, but many of his points are extremely plausible.
If you think Mos Def was plausible regarding 9/11 and George Washington, please put down the bong.
The only thing idiotic about that particular show is this write-up. People have different opinions. They have a right to be heard. They have a right to speak differently from you. Didn't you learn that in college? I watched the whole thing. Mos Def is quite eloquent at times. He made a lot more sense that our President does on some of these same subjects. Your small minded opinion should remain just that -- unimportant.
You are all confusing the right to have an opinion with the right to have your opinion given equal time. All opinions don't merit equal time, any more than discussions about Noah's Ark deserves time in the science classroom. This is relativism and open mindedness gone mad. Some opinions are silly and don't merit equal time. Charlie Sheen, in his conspiratorial opinions about 9/11 said defensely, ' all I'm doing is asking questions.' What if all I was doing is asking if the world really is round? Should I be given equal time in the national debate? Granted, I myself haven't orbited the earth to prove the earth is round, I haven't been to China, but does than mean I should be given equal time to debate thecountry's existence. I'm not going to waste time debating the issue with 'open minded' idiots who want to leave open the possibility that the earth is flat, that man didn't actually land on the moon, that terrorists didn't actually fly into skyscrapers with an airplane full of innocent people, and that bigfoot is stomping around in the forest. There is a distinction between open minded and empty heaed. I'm so glad I live in a republic and not a direct democracy. We'd be spending all our goddamn time having to give people like you equal time on the national stage. I'm still a fan of the Internet, but it demonstrates why our founding fathers decided on a repubic instead of a direct democracy. If it hadn't been the case, we would be voting on every issue American Idol style.
Interesting how Mos Defs opinions/comments were cherry picked.
Did not see any comments about him talking about the Jena 6.
All in all an opinion is an opinion and everyone is entilted to one Mos def must be doing something right to be on Bill M. show and though he might not talk like anyone on corporate america or since he challenges what the majority think on sensitive issues he should not be valid.
I found the show very funny and interesting not to mention informative at the same time.
It is a mistake to give the opinions of artists on anything other than their art,any more gravity than you would any other person on the street.
The well read and informed are rare.Most of us argue from ignorance and hearsay. Which is on the whole harmless and with out effect. Broadcasters should be aware though that televising uninformed opinion can give it at the least a veneer of respectability it does not deserve. After all would they really waste airtime on rubbish the thinking will go.
What Mos Def said can be read on hundreds of websites and in hundreds of books and articles. Man didnt land on the Moon the Israelis blew up the World Trade Centre, etc etc.Why do grown men and women believe this?
Who knows. Is it worth being an airing on tv? Not really. As a post has already said not all opinions are of equal weight and.
A friend of mine has free tickets to see Mos Def on Sunday I will go. If he between songs starts to liken the Royal family to lizards or the War on Terror to the Crusades I will retire to the bar till the music starts again.....and if he gets really stupid i will leave.
The ultimate critical tool.
I'm stunned anyone would want to prohibit someone from voicing doubts. Mos may have grown up in the projects and have trouble being articulate, but he is interesting to listen to and isn't wrong to question this administration. If the planes were even commercial planes which is questionnable, there is no way they took down the towers. Those towers and building 7 were detonated. That is not conspiratal. It's a fact. Those towers were taken down demolition style. I don't care what you were told. Watch the freaking footage morons. So Mos isn't that far off. Terrorists do not have the means to infiltrate our country as much as our government leads you to believe. They are without any resources. Pearl Harbor and many other things were inside jobs as was 9-11. Governments do this all the time to justify going to war or take land or whatever and dumb citizens not paying attention fall for it because they're trusting and don't question what their government is up to. Think about the money Halliburton has made. Think about the no contested contracts. Our government as are many governments is a joke and self serving bullsh*t.
emmarose, your post was filled with so much ignorance and mind numbing claptrap that you almost made mos def look smart. Pearl Harbor was an inside job? Even though even the perpetrators, the Japanese
acknowledge that they attacked us? Please don't have children.
This article also seems very opinionated.
For example, George Washington WAS a terrorist as far as the Queen was concerned, which was what Mos Def actually said, and not the snipped version that this article relayed. Any proud American today would hate that idea, rather wanting to perceive him as a hero, but the truth is the truth. It's just like where how the American soldiers in Iraq might seem like heroes to Americans, but terrorists to the suffering residents in Iraq.
A lot of what Mos Def said is what a large group of people feel. Just because some people might be more educated than others doesn't make their opinions more valid than those with less education.
page: 1
Menoma MinxSep 11th, 2007 - 01:21:30
Mos Def is right about Washington. A few other things too. Just because a person is wrong on one major issue doesn't mean everything they believe is contaminated by the mere fact they believe it. Do your own research.
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