Bill Maher has been fairly sympathetic in the past to the argument that the war in Afghanistan is a waste of time and lives, but the jump from there to trusting their justice system or those running it is one he proved last night unwilling to jump. Discussing the topic of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, Glenn Greenwald suggested Americans should allow Afghans a role in Bales’ punishment, to which Maher scoffed, “What is the compromise, we’re going to plea bargain down from stoning to death?”

For all the noise Bill Maher has been making about not apologizing for his insult-laden jokes, Sarah Palin has remained mostly out of the fight, letting her daughter Bristol fight her own battle. Sean Hannity asked the original Mama Grizzly to weigh in on the matter last night, however, and she took the fight to the President for accepting Maher’s “dirty money” and for once having “mocked special needs children.”

Bill Maher‘s one-man crusade against apologies made a stop in the New York Times this week and has picked up some unlikely allies– perhaps most notableGreg Gutfeld, who managed to call Maher a “ferret wrapped in Saran wrap” while doing it– but he hasn’t convinced all that many people that they should leave him alone. Case in point, a letter in the New York Times today from Democratic analysts Penny Lee and Kirsten Powers, telling Maher to “please start apologizing.”

If there’s one thing in this world that’s been able to unite people like Bill Maher and Ann Coulter, it’s the obsession some people seem to have with getting offended over every little thing people say. Being offended is the best way to change the subject in this country. Contraception? Nah, let’s talk about how Rush Limbaugh talked about contraception. Rush Limbaugh? Nah, let’s talk about Bill Maher instead. Assessing Obama’s abilities against the GOP candidates? Nah, let’s all complain about Robert De Niro instead.

On tonight’s episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, the host and gay columnist Andrew Sullivan spoke out strongly against hate crimes legislation, branding it as the government trying to regulate people’s thoughts. Sullivan argued that in an ideal society based on the rule of law, a person should be judged on their actions, not their thoughts. Maher and Sullivan also agreed that the roommate of Tyler Clementi, the gay Rutgers student who committed suicide after said roommate pranked him, should not be charged with bias intimidation.

While many of us were off dreaming of grits and Etch-a-Sketches and pipelines, Red Eye‘s Greg Gutfeld — echoing comments he’d made to collegue Greta Van Susteren earlier in the night — and his crew offered up their take on Bill Maher‘s recent call for people in the public eye to “stop apologizing.”

Bill Maher penned an op-ed in The New York Times on Thursday, asking for us all to just stop apologizing already. He asked, why do we think “we have the right to never hear anything we don’t like?” Appearing on Greta Van Susteren‘s show, Fox News’ Gret Gutfeld surprised even himself by saying he agreed with Maher. We need to stop apologizing, he said, because the apologies are not sincere.

In an op-ed piece for The New York Times, HBO host Bill Maher — no stranger to demands for apologies and retractions — shares a plea for his fellow public figures: Please stop apologizing. He refers specifically to GOP hopeful Newt Gingrich‘s recent demand that President Barack Obama issue a formal apology for a joke made by actor Robert DeNiro

In light of the recent Rush Limbaugh “slut” controversy and its close cousin, the Bill Maher “c-word” controversy, Ann Coulter has emerged as one of the more tolerant of entertainment personalities saying whatever they want. On tonight’s Hannity, Coulter reprimanded liberals for being, among other things, “utter frauds, liars, and hypocrites” and “horrible people,” but warned conservatives not to follow suit and take up the “offended routine.”

For everyone who hasn’t been paying attention, I’ve got a fun story to tell you. Once upon a time, a woman wanted to speak to Congress about how her friend was really sick and thought it would be nice if her school helped her get pills so she would be less sick. In retaliation, Rush Limbaugh called the woman a “slut.” This made a lot of people mad. And it was good. Because being mad is fun!

As the Sandra Fluke controversy flounders along as one narrative along the greater opposition to needlessly offensive comments in the media against women, Sean Hannity updated his audience today on the reactions of liberal women to attacks by Bill Maher in contrast to the response to Limbaugh. It was surprisingly silent compared to the previous outcry, a reaction Kirsten Powers called “disgusting.”

Two weeks ago, Bill Maher aired a report by Alexandra Pelosi on impoverished Mississippi residents that enraged many conservatives, but promised a counterpoint to it the week after. On Friday, Pelosi debuted her report on mostly black welfare recipients, many who appeared unwilling to work and relied on the government. The report appalled Bill O’Reilly, who told his panel tonight he would like to see at least one of the people in the report in jail.

Since President Obama called Sandra Fluke, Bristol Palin has been waiting for her own phone call. Bill Maher made some “reprehensible” remarks about her, and, in a new blog post, Palin argues, if “Maher talked about Malia and Sasha that way, you’d return his dirty money and the Secret Service would probably have to restrain you.”

It’s that time of the however-many-years! Bill Maher has decided to bring back his Stupidest State Showdown, an awards ceremony of sorts for the states he thinks are the dumbest. The award is a man with his head stuck in his behind, because that’s both edgy and funny! Can you guess which states Maher has elected as finalists? (Hint: probably not Massachusetts).

Imagine for a moment that KONY 2012 did everything right; it didn’t overstate the influence of Joseph Kony or the numbers of children he has indoctrinated into his child army, and it wasn’t overly emotional. There’s still one tiny little problem: entrusting the young people of the Western world to help raise awareness about a Ugandan warlord might not be the best idea. Bill Maher gave a strong reality check to these young people in his final New Rule, telling them making Kony famous doesn’t actually do much to get him captured.

Alexandra Pelosi appeared on Real Time tonight with two purposes: to defend the video she filmed of voters in Mississippi that aired on the show last week, and to air a brand-new video that Bill Maher admitted would probably anger liberals in the same way the aforementioned video angered conservatives. For her new video, Pelosi spoke to African-American welfare recipients in New York. There was far less laughter during this piece than the Mississippi one (which Pelosi pointed out after it played), but there were still some revealing moments contained therein.

On Thursday, CNN’s Erin Burnett spoke with David Axelrod, the communications director for President Obama’s re-election campaign, about his recently-canceled plans to appear on controversial host Bill Maher‘s HBO program.

As we speak, politicians around the country are stripping rights away from women, forcing them to undergo invasive procedures and eliminating health insurance while boner pills get paid for by the truckload. But who gives a crap, right? The really important story here is which political party’s favorite sexist is sexistier! It’s Rush Limbaugh vs. Bill Maher! The completely manufactured fight of the century! Today on his radio show, Limbaugh had a laugh about the whole thing.

Bill Maher spoke with ABC’s Jake Tapper about whether there was a double standard for liberals using offensive language towards conservative women. In the interview, the HBO host responded to the criticism over his obscene remarks about former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, and defended calling her the c-word.”The bit I did about Palin using the word c*nt, one of the biggest laughs in my act, I did it all over the country, not one person ever registered disapproval.”

Barack Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod has “bailed” on HBO’s Bill Maher, reports Politico, citing Obama campaign press secretary Ben LaBolt‘s confirmation that Axelrod is “not scheduled to go on at this time.” RELATED: Greta Van Susteren Calls Out David Axelrod For Appearing On Maher’s Show: ‘Maher Is A Serial Pig’ Axelrod faced scrutiny for [...]

On Tuesday evening, Bill Maher sent out a snarky missive targeted at the two Southern states voting in the Republican primaries, tweeting “Toothless Tuesday too tight to tally!”

Jon Stewart began his show continuing the news narrative before it was rudely interrupted by another election night: “radio shock-blob Rush Limbaugh” saying something offensive on his radio show. A rare occurrence on what Stewart called his “Noon-3 Mouth Dump,” he joked, but he found the counterweight to the outrage– outrage over Bill Maher saying other stuff on his show– a bit too much, particularly when there are, he explained, consequences to the jokes you make.

Since leaving MSNBC, Pat Buchanan has made few appearances, some on Fox News, but many on the dangers of censorship of the airwaves. He made such an appearance tonight with Sean Hannity, warning that using language to “blacklist, stifle, and silence conservatives” was the left’s mission and the “inquisition” was dangerous for dialogue.

On the cusp of finding out which Republican candidates will be going home with the biggest chunk of Alabama and Mississippi’s delegates, a PPP poll showing a plurality of Republicans from the state believing President Obama is a Muslim led the headlines, and on tonight’s Hannity, host and panel delved into what they considered a classist bias from the media against the South, adding to that poll the very unflattering footage of Mississippi Bill Maher aired on Friday night.

Rick Santorum dropped by Hannity tonight live from his headquarters before tomorrow’s Alabama/Mississippi primary to discuss his strategy tomorrow, how he feels about the election and, in passing, how he feels about the comments made about his home-schooled children being locked up in a “Christian Madrassa” by Bill Maher. After making a super-retro “arugula” joke, Santorum challenged not just Maher’s style but his logic, declaring the Democrats “the party of emotion.