Season 7, Episode 13 - "May 22, 2009"
22 May, 2009
Guests:Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank; Simon Johnson, economist; Jon Meacham, author; M.I.A, recording artist Maherisms We've got to worship principles, not people. – Bill Maher In state parks, you can now carry a gun. So, when you're buried under a mountain of debt, now at least you have a scenic place to go kill yourself. – Bill Maher We're $26 billion in the hole. I don't want to say it's bad, but today Mexico announced they're building a border fence. – Bill Maher On the Financial Crises I don't know if we're ever going to move our country to a place where we're going to have a sound financial footing as long as people think happiness springs only and eternally from money. – Bill Maher We also should be looking at [the global financial crisis] as the greatest of opportunities. Crisis brings the opportunities to change. – Muhammad Yunus We need micro-finance now in America. – Jon Meacham I'm not against profit; this is good. But, at the same time, there should be a business on the basis of the selflessness, so that I do business to make the world change, to impact on people's lives. – Muhammad Yunus On Dick Cheney I think it's a bad thing that the media doesn't have a bullshit meter. – Bill Maher. Bobby Jindal has a not-enough-oxygen-to-the-brain problem already. – Dan Savage Cheney is fighting, in a way, not with Obama, but with his former president, because a lot of the issues that he's arguing about are, in fact, second-term Bush initiatives. – Jon Meacham Eight years of Bush Administration was enough for the whole world. – Muhammad Yunus On Gitmo Wartime presidents commit great sins, and I think [Obama] is willing to do that. – Jon Meacham On Obama You do not get to be President of the United States when you're 46 years old and you're a black guy, without being a very hardball, hardcore, practical politician. – Jon Meacham When Spider-Man catches someone robbing a bank, he punches their nuts through an armored car. Whereas, Obama writes them a check. – Bill Maher On Religion American presidents didn't used to be so openly religious and so politically religious. – Simon Johnson I think [Obama's] sense is that the American religious tradition includes religious freedom. And a key element of religious freedom is the ability to be unreligious and non-religious. – Jon Meacham I can't think of a character who is less reliable as a role model than the God of the Old Testament. – Bill Maher I think that Obama...has, in fact, helped us move beyond a kind of public piety. – Jon Meacham
