The Death of a True Rebel Legend

Flipping channels last night caught part of George Carlin's live "It's Bad for Ya" show.

Wow!!! Buy it at http://www.georgecarlin.com/home/home.html

When I heard the news last June he'd died I remember feeling it was the end of an era, that we as a people had not only lost an icon but an important voice for the voiceless.

One thing about him, he was not just funny, he was the kind of funny that could bite. This show did not disappoint. It must have been recent because he looked bloated and sick. Turns out he did the show just three months before he died of heart failure at age 71.

This was not just classic George Carlin, it was him as a man near the end of his life with little left to lose, and he blasted all the sacred cows from religion to "God Bless America" bumper stickers to ending with "there are no rights ... the government doesn't give a fuck about you or your rights, it's about power and expanding that power ..."

He was the voice of modern existentialism (NOTE: my electric Webster's defines it as "a chiefly 20th century philosophical movement embracing diverse doctrines but centering on analysis of individual existence in an unfathomable universe and the plight of the individual who must assume ultimate responsibility for his acts of free will without any certain knowledge of what is right or wrong or good or bad").

Found this when looking him up (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_carlin):

"Carlin was present at Lenny Bruce's arrest for obscenity. As the police began attempting to detain members of the audience for questioning, and asked Carlin for his identification. Telling the police he did not believe in government issued IDs, he was arrested and taken to jail with Bruce in the same vehicle."

How many of us fans knew this about him? He actually stepped away from the Herd to be counted not of the herd. As some of us know Lenny Bruce committed suicide after years of being hounded by police and prosecutors for exercising his liberty to speak freely -- you know, what our Constitutions guarantee to all of us.

With my next pay I plan to honor his memory and buy the dvd of that show. You should too, and it can be assumed since it's direct from his website the $$ will go directly to his estate http://www.georgecarlin.com/home/home.html