Count Bill Maher as among those who don't buy into the fable promulgated by much of the mainstream media about young Ahmed Mohamed building the clock that he brought to school. Maher expressed his extreme skepticism about the fairy tale last night on HBO's Real Time. One huge takeaway from the show is the utter cluelessness of guest Ron Reagan. I won't ruin the surprise by revealing what Reagan said in advance but I ask you to imagine him as a TSA agent checking baggage at the airport after viewing the video below.
BILL MAHER: I want to do an update on the story we covered last week about the fourteen year old boy in Texas who they said invented a clock. Okay, a little update on this. His parents took him out of school and he's just doing TV now and he's on like a tour. I'm not anti this kid. I hope this kid has a wonderful life and does great things but the liberals, mostly liberals, you'll like this, who have glommed on to him as a mascot, are ninnies. Because somebody showed that he did not invent anything. Show the tape of somebody, that this was on the internet...it took 20 seconds for somebody to do what this kid did. He didn't invent a clock. He took the guts out of a clock radio that he bought in the store and then put it in a pencil box. Okay, this is like pouring Cheerios into a bowl and saying you invented cereal.
S.E. CUPP: And then made it look like a bomb.
MAHER: And made it look like a bomb.
RON REAGAN: I'm not saying the kid is Thomas Edison but did he deserve to be arrested for making this...
MAHER: We did that last week. That's not the point. He didn't deserve to be arrested but they did absolutely do the right thing thinking that it could be a bomb. I thought we had zero tolerance for no safety in the schools.
CUPP: If you can get expelled for drawing a picture of a gun I think you can be detained for bringing something that looks like a bomb to school.
REAGAN: But it didn't look like a bomb. It looked like a clock.
MAHER: IT LOOKED EXACTLY LIKE A BOMB!
CUPP: Have not seen any of the Die Hard movies? That looked exactly like a bomb.
REAGAN: Here's the thing about bombs, right? They have that little timer that's the clock part. And then those wires that come out. They're attached to fissile material that explodes. That was the missing element in this bomb. The thing that blows up. Nothing blew up.
MAHER: I don't notice all that when I see that. The metal there...
REAGAN: You didn't see a clock?
MAHER: You know what, Ron? Try to take it through airport security tomorrow.
REAGAN: I think you could. It's a clock! It's a clock!
MAHER: It's a clock only because we were told it was a clock.
REAGAN: It's a clock!
MAHER: And by the way, it's only the guts of a clock.
As could be expected this segment drew a lot of response from YouTube viewers. Here is a sampling:
That 'Ron' guy should have came into the studio with a Dunce hat on his head.
The real Ronald Reagan is turning over in his grave ... absolutely the great President's greatest failure was raising such an asshole of a son in his own name.
I like Ron Reagan; but I have to say.... he's being stupid here. Gee Ron, not all teachers have your computer-like ability to instantly recognize the internal workings of an electronic clock as a clock, and notice that there is "no fissile material" hidden in or under the box with it. Of course, with your x-ray vision, you could see that, but not all of us have your superpowers. Come on, Ron.....
