Comedian-actor George Carlin, known for his raunchy but insightful humor, died of heart failure Sunday in Los Angeles, his publicist said. He was 71.
Jeff Abraham says Carlin went into St. John's Health Center on Sunday afternoon, complaining of chest pain. Carlin died at 5:55 p.m. PDT, The Associated Press reported.
Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas.
Carlin was one of those envelope-pushing comedians that I probably wasn't supposed to be listening to as a child, but thankfully my parents thought otherwise. He had a profound influence on my sense of humor, and no small influence on my broader worldview. Without a doubt, one of the greatest comedians of all time, along with Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, and Bill Hicks. All of us who cherish the right to express ourselves as we see fit owe him an eternal debt of gratitude.
And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go scream the seven words. Here's a video clip of some of his standup (NSFW):
Having apparently run out of clever ideas for slogans to put on their campaign literature, Texas Republicans are now soliciting ideas for a new GOP bumper sticker to feature the likeness of Barack Obama. Yes, they're canvassing their base of unhinged, virulent racists for a campaign slogan to use against Obama. Well, at least they didn't put a racist caricature featuring a monkey with huge lips on the sample image they provided, so I guess that's progress of a sort:
I feel sorry for the Republicans - they're having such a hard time this election cycle overcoming the fact that everyone hates them. I think we should lend them a helping hand. If you'd like to help the Republicans by submitting your own bumper sticker ideas, click here.
For my own part, I submitted a few ideas that I hope will give the GOP a boost. I tried to come up with slogans that capture the current Republican zeitgeist and invoke just the right amount of fear and racial hatred. Here's what I came up with:
Today, while many of us in the blogosphere continue to preoccupy ourselves discussing the disturbing tone of racism that seems to have crept into the Clinton campaign's narrative lately, an African-American lady from South Dallas will be gathering together with family and well-wishers and doing something that few other people have lived long enough to do: celebrating her 114th birthday.
