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is unchangeable. You’re collusive with the religion when you accept it; you have a choice.” So I think intellectually if you accept it, intellectually I have every right to question that choice you made. Whereas your blackness, ethnicity, homosexuality is something that might be genetic, I can’t touch that, and I have no right. I saw religion as the Wrst big betrayal of me. You know, they promised everything . I remember at Wrst communion I was seven years old, and they said, “You’re going to feel di¤erent, you’re going to get the blessed sacrament in your mouth, and you will be in a state of grace, you will feel God’s presence.” I thought, “None of that happened.” I think religion is a terrible distortion and exploitation of a very natural urge every human has—to be rejoined with the one somehow, to become a part of the universe. Once the high priests and the traders took over, we were lost as a species. q: You talk about businessmen with such scorn. That’s the lifeblood of America, isn’t it? carlin: It absolutely is, and that’s probably why there is so much scorn. Everybody in America is a part of this big herd of cattle being led to the marketplace, not to be sold, which is usual with cattle, but to do the buying. And everyone is branded. You see the brands—Nike, Puma, Coke—all over their bodies. Pretty soon you’ll go to a family and say, “$100,000 if we can tattoo Pepsi on your child’s forehead, and we’ll have it removed when he’s twenty-one. A hundred grand.” I’m sure the George Washington Bridge will someday be the Ford Motor Company George Washington Bridge. It’s gone beyond what you can merely mock, so it has to be a frontal attack. Folks, this is bullshit. This is jerk-o¤ time. Don’t you see what’s happening? What you’re doing? What you’re participating in? You know, that justice is blind, everyone ’s equal, the press is fair and impartial. It’s what I call the “American OkeyDokey .” It’s the oªcial bullshit story. —Marc Cooper, journalist, writes for The Nation and The Huªngton Post. The author of Pinochet and Me, he also teaches at the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Journalism. An Interview with Janeane Garofalo, Actress Elizabeth DiNovella may 2003 q: Why are you speaking out against this war in Iraq? janeane garofalo: I’m so public about this because I’ve been asked to do so and because I painfully felt that the antiwar movement was being ignored. If I thought the antiwar movement was getting proper coverage in the mainstream media, I would have said no. You don’t need actors to make this a mockery. DiNovella / Interview with Janeane Garofalo 343 But as it became abundantly clear that no one was getting on TV talking about this, and when I was speciWcally approached by the founders of Win Without War and some people at MoveOn.org, I said yes. And I wasn’t reluctant about it. I can’t stand watching history roll right over us. It’s like they’re asking you to bend over, put your head in the sand, and put a Xag in your ass. q: You’ve been on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox speaking out against the war. How has that gone? garofalo: On the one hand, it’s so bad that it’s enjoyable. Some of the anchors or journalists or whatever you want to call them, personalities, have been kind and it’s been Wne. But for the most part, you just have to defend yourself. You don’t get a chance to have a real debate. You don’t get a chance to discuss anything. You defend your position, defend your career choice, defend your patriotism, defend your intelligence level, and then no information has been disseminated to people watching the show. q: Have you gotten a lot of hate mail? garofalo: Oh shit, yeah. I had to change my home phone number. A lot of the hate mail I get is clearly misogynist. I am a proud liberal, feminist woman, and the hate mail I get for those three things is not about me. It’s about those signiWers, and about what the right in this country has managed to do to perpetuate anger over what...

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