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The Editors of Effect Measure are senior public health scientists and practitioners. Paul Revere was a member of the first local Board of Health in the United States (Boston, 1799). The Editors sign their posts "Revere" to recognize the public service of a professional forerunner better known for other things.

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« Democrats behaving badly | Main | Hospital hazards, "Holy Crap" Department »

Freethinker Sunday Sermonette: George Carlin, gone but not forgotten

Category: Freethinker Sermonettes
Posted on: June 29, 2008 7:51 AM, by revere

This week we lost George Carlin. I only saw him once in person, sometime in the early seventies or maybe late sixties. He was already wildly popular and Mrs. R. and I weren't too flush with disposable income so we wound up sitting in the stratosphere of a gigantic theater, stuffed to the gills with Carlin fans. He was a tiny figure on stage from our altitude, but up close and personal with his hilarious routine. While electronic traces of that hilarious presence remain on YouTube and recordings of one kind or another (I still have "Class Clown" on vinyl), George Carlin the person is gone. While he's not "up there" looking down on us and smiling, we're still smiling at him:

Find more posts in: Politics

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Carlin was non pareil.

Posted by: PhysioProf | June 29, 2008 9:37 AM

I was thinking, "Gone, but not forgotten." But then I kept thinking . . .

While a person we value is alive we enjoy the time we spend with them. When they are absent physically, we nonetheless carry a reasonably accurate model of them with us. This model is a treasure and we frequently admire and add to it. And we anticipate their return to our presence, which has some probability.

When someone dies the only thing that is different from their temporary absence is hope for reunion, which now has probability zero (in practical terms). We still carry the model. We still take it out and enjoy it; add to it; pass it along to those who will listen.

When a person who is famous or notorious (better, both) and known in some detail by people at large, who has been an entertainer and recorded and replayed over a time span of a couple generations or more dies, is the sheer cumulative bulk of all those models sufficient to justify changing the platitude to, "Remembered, and ever near?"

Posted by: Crudely Wrott | June 29, 2008 2:10 PM

George Carlin was of course known to the Government of the United States, for his "seven words that you can not say on the TV"

George Carlin was so much more than just that though.

Here is that classic show from George Carlin.

But then they were all classics by the comic and the philosophical genius, that was George Carlin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTyzTJTNhNk

He got in to a lot of trouble for this one!

George carlin is explaining here, as to why the word m... f... is a derivative and therefore a duplicate on his list, of the seven words that you can not say on the TV.

Therefore, this word has to be removed from the said list.

There are a lot more of his shows (40 actually) in the following links.

You could do a lot worse than to click on them all.

Posted by: James M Tom | June 29, 2008 7:19 PM

On Keith Olbermann's show not too long ago Carlin said that America was "finished" because "no one questions things anymore" and that the population had been bought off by distractions, toys and gizmos.

During during an appearance at Borders bookstore in New York last October he was asked what he thought of the 9/11 truth movement. Carlin said "I always question the received reality." "The consensus reality is often intentionally misleading,"

Carlin was skeptical of any future investigation or impeachment "They don't investigate themselves in this country - it would be a whitewash, it would be like the Kennedy thing, it would be like everything." "The people who are in charge do what they want and they will always do what they want, power does what it wants to and I wouldn't trust an investigation,"

Someone once said people only laugh at that which is based on the truth. Maybe thats why Carlin was a succesful comedian. He knew the truth, so he could get a lot of laughs from the masses who believed in the consensus reality. If they only knew what a joke their reality was. The powers that give us this reality must laugh a lot.

Posted by: pft | June 29, 2008 8:40 PM

There's a difference between skepticism and paranoia. A plane hijacker is just as able to crash said plane into a building as a passable shooter is of picking a man off in a slow moving car.

And while on the subject, re-read your history; Kennedy was no enemy of the military industrial complex. Heck, given how many millions of dollars they received to develop space rockets, capsules, and multi-stage warheads during his admin, I'm sure Northrop-Grummond and their ilk toasted him on a nightly basis. And don't forget, John Connally, a conservative and very business friendly governor of Texas and long time friend of LBJ damn near died from the wounds he received in that shooting.

Carlin was a great comedian, and I think you're right about much of his humor hitting close to the truth of life, but being talented in one area doesn't make you right about everything.

Posted by: Julian | June 30, 2008 5:12 PM

Julian: Not sure to whom your comment is directed, but I don't have to re-read history, I was there, and I have pointed out Kennedy was an inveterate cold warrior here. My complaints about Obama on the other post were about FISA, not campaign financing.

Posted by: revere | June 30, 2008 6:43 PM

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