Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
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NEW RULES
By Bill Maher
Do not buy this book. And if you’ve already bought it, do not read this book UNLESS it is impossible to offend you. I can’t say it strongly enough. If you see this book in the bookstore and you think, “Oh yeah. I recognize that guy from Politically Incorrect on ABC or the HBO show. He’s sort of funny. Maybe I’ll buy it” - then let me encourage you to pause first. Pause and make sure there really is nothing – no topic, no sexual reference, no use of language – that can offend you. Because it’s all in here.
Now, please forgive me when I say that I laughed outloud at many of Bill Maher’s observations. That’s what the book is really. It’s a short book of brief observations Bill Maher has of life and celebrities and politics, most of them crass, many of them vulgar, nearly all of them funny on some level.
And just when you get angry with him for lambasting the president, he attacks the democrats. I couldn’t find a sacred cow with him. Let me give you just a taste: “New Rule – When actors volunteer for war, take them. In a gesture of immense emptiness, Bruce Willis called President Bush and offered to go fight in Iraq. President Bush told him it was unlikely to happen, but they’d get back to him if they couldn’t find Vin Diesel.” Or you’ll love this one, “New Rule – News organizations have to stop using the phrase ‘We go beyond the headlines.’ That’s your job, dummy. You don’t see American Airlines saying ‘We land our jets on the runway!’”
See? He’s funny – but you are totally on your own (as Doug Wright says) on this one. I give an only-if-you-dare recommendation for Bill Maher’s New Rules. On the Book Beat for KSL Newsradio, I’m Amanda Dickson.
