newcritics - Latest Comments in George Carlin Was A Liberal

Re: George Carlin Was A Liberal

web directory — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:17:52 -0000

He did not complete his Air Force enlistment. Labeled an "unproductive airman" by his superiors, he was discharged on 1957.

Re: George Carlin Was A Liberal

Botch Rutner — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:27:24 -0000

I received an email, just a couple of weeks ago, in which, among other things, "George" exhorted me to "pray more."

But it's all okay. George is in Heaven now.

Jesus was a liberal, too, by the way.

Re: George Carlin Was A Liberal

RalphDeMarco — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:07:02 -0000

I am a huge Carlin fan. His early work must have inspired Robin Williams -- fast, witty, wacky -- with a point. He stopped doing characters and, Like Jean Shepherd, focused on the minutia of life -- becoming a philosopher of the everyman. In other words, he joked about the stuff that really matters to an intelligent, curious human being. He said things that most people just thought about, or spoke of in private company. I think his TV show could have been a success had the writers let him be Carlin instead of the innocent, clueless regular guy character they wrote for him. There was one episode where he receives a large package of pot by accident -- and he isn't sure if it's real or not. Yea, right. I almost met him at a scheduled book signing, but his wife died and he canceled. He will be missed. One album that is often overlooked is "One The Road" from '78. I grew up with that one. It shows Carlin at the peak of his powers.

Re: George Carlin Was A Liberal

Kevin Wolf — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:23:46 -0000

I suppose there's any number of academics "deconstructing texts" or whatever, and of course Chomsky (agree with his politics or not) pointing out the many ways that language is misused and manipulated in order to deceive the public and conceal misdeeds by the government. But nobody did it like Carlin. I learned a lot, sure, but I also laughed like hell. I think with the help a list of the album tracks I could still probably recite FM & AM in its entirety. ..... And a quick additional thought: George was great not only in taking government to task but in pointing out our own bullshit. Wasn't lettin' NOBODY off the hook. Good man.

Re: George Carlin Was A Liberal

Dan Leo — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:01:28 -0000

You gotta love a guy who made his living telling Americans how stupid we are.

One thing's for sure, he was never going to run out of material.

Re: George Carlin Was A Liberal

Campaspe — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:58:32 -0000

Thanks very much, Viscount. I was astonished this morning to see commenters at Sadly, No! describing him as apolitical. He frequently derided politicians and the dirtiness of politics in general, but that doesn't mean he was simple-minded enough to say "a plague on both your houses" and leave it at that. I agree, he was a liberal, something the conservative blogs, with their sniffy response to his death, seem to understand quite well.

Re: George Carlin Was A Liberal

kathleenmaher — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:26:00 -0000

I hadn't thought of him as a liberal per se. But I would never have believed he sided with the government versus the poor people of New Orleans. More in keeping with what he often said would be: if the government tells you go, better stay put. Thanks, nonetheless, Viscount, for making it known that people were using his name for their ugly attitudes.
George Carlin was funny and to me always made sense, because he ranted against the powers that be but should not be.

Re: George Carlin Was A Liberal

chuck tryon — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:23:49 -0000

I've already discussed my appreciation of Carlin over on my blog. As I mentioned over there, Carlin was instrumental in helping me to learn how to think critically about social norms, about the relationship between wealth and power, and more crucially, how to laugh at some of the absurdities of the English language, many of which are also tied to issues of power ("go tell 'the captain' that Air Marshall Carlin said to go f^&% himself").

And, no he did not mellow with age. If anything, he became even more acerbic, more critical of the abuses conducted by the Bush administration.

Re: George Carlin Was A Liberal

jenncoolfla — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:39:33 -0000

"Liberal" = Free. And angry? HELL YES! If you're not "angry" or "free" then you haven't been paying attention! And shame on you for that! Our Constitution is in tatters, we came a hairsbreath away from losing habeus corpus, rendition, torture, warrantless wiretapping, massive debt, homlessness... and the rich keep on geting richer and the poor well screw them right?

Like I said - Liberal as defined by Websters means free.

—Synonyms 1. progressive. 7. broad-minded, unprejudiced. 9. beneficent, charitable, openhanded, munificent, unstinting, lavish. See generous. 10. See ample.

open-minded or tolerant, esp. free of or not bound by traditional or conventional ideas, values, etc.

Re: George Carlin Was A Liberal

tomwatson — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:39:47 -0000

He was an angry liberal - but what a talent. He certainly had a very real affect of American language...