"It wasn't distracting having your flat mates be women?" God, Trebek.

In retrospect that was not a wise comment! As I just explained to Ghost, I wasn't trying to defend his use of the word. I'm glad he apologized, as he should have. I was saying the reaction, and from liberals, was overblown. His show is still valuable entertainment and information for liberals and I hope he doesn't…

It may have not been the best idea to argue you the word with a black person! I apologize. I didn't mean to say that his use of the word was okay. I It was not and I am glad he apologized. I meant the reaction was overblown. He didn't do it out of malice, and wasn't making racist hate against African-Americans. (And…

Well, this has been a great way to spend my Sunday.

Yeah, man, you're making it hard not to ape the language of white Republicans who say "why are African-Americans allowed to use that word and we're not?" But just logically, if use of that word minimizes slavery every time it's uttered—but, really, it's not that word, but the friendly derivation of it, which makes it…

I didn't say anything about his views on Muslims. He does bring up Islam a lot, and I disagree with his opinion that the religion is the primary cause of Islamist terrorism. He did a show right after a terrorist event with Sam Harris where they talked about how the religion should be reformed to become liberal, where…

I doubt anyone listening to this who isn't already a racist will think of it that deeply and then become a racist.

In that fast banter, he wasn't thinking that deeply. He was responding to the slave connotation of Sasse saying "you should come work in the fields with us" by immediately making that connection and a self-deprecating remark that he wouldn't be able to do hard work. He said "a" not "er", which is a form of comfortable…

They wouldn't if they knew him and watched his show, or even saw the clip where you can see how he came up with the word and how he used it. The interview, the context of how he used the word, which wasn't at all in a racist way. I don't think it's very healthy nor productive for a national culture to fixate on a…

Chance's tweet was at 9 am the morning after, before Maher apologized. Let the media squeeze every last drop of this ending non-story for page views.

You should try things before you say you don't like them, but that's not a reason to hound a person until he does. Then you're just being a jackass. Anyway, who cares if your favorite food isn't liked by someone else because they haven't had it? Their loss. (I'm continuing the half-jest serious objections to a silly…

The Ninth Gate did not feel like it was directed by Roman Polanski. This one definitely did.

Yes.

Just finished watching Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer. Well, that was bloody fantastic. The last movie I saw of his was the disappointing The Ninth Gate. But this one is the Polanski I was looking for, and was worth ending my boycott. It's riveting, thrilling, disquieting, cynical, caustically funny, cynically…

Carrie! Carrie! Carrie! I expect a lot more head-thumping on the show, if there wasn't any before.

Without any sociological evidence, I kind of believe that only in a deeply racist country can we be so surface delicate about policing individual people and language, regardless of whether they deserve or not to be castigated, because we're impotent in figuring out how to to change systemic, institutional racism that…

Emmanuel (Macron) Can Wait. Oh, crap, that's the opposite. Ah, it's too hot today.

He's not racist, though. If you watch his show, you would see that. He never disparages his frequent black guests, agrees with them a lot of the time, loves black culture. For pete's sake, he gave a million dollars of his money to the Obama campaign. This was a thoughtless remark in a fast conversation. He was…

The trailer for Murder on the Orient Express came out yesterday. I commented I was surprised such a show-little trailer elicited so many responses that the movie doesn't look good. Digital culture has definitely made us Pavlovian outraged. We have to express the anger we just got reading a few paragraphs or seeing a…

This wasn't actually Maher courting outrage like inviting Milo Fuckface to the show. This was a conversation the two were having, where the responses were fast and funny. I want to say "for fuck's sake" to all of this, including telling that to the people here who don't actually watch him but are prepared to get on…