George Carlin Dies at 71

This morning I fed the cats, brewed a cup of coffee, sat down at my computer and turned the TV on. Typical morning. On the news they were doing a story on George Carlin so I started paying attention. I soon realized there seemed to be no point to the story, that this is the kind of story they did when someone just died.

SHIT! I thought and immediate did a Google search and found out that he had. And I started crying, just a little sniffling but I've never cried before when hearing of a celebrity death, but this one hit me hard. Maybe it's because George was the Atheist's Comedian.

"In any decently run universe this guy would have been out on his omnipotent ass long ago."

Who else would, or could, say a line like that. In recent years he was looking pretty old but his comedy was as sharp as ever, maybe even more so as his wit seemed to bite harder into the fabric of society as he got older. I remember the very first time I saw him, it was on the Tonight Show way back in the early 70's. He very first routine cracked me up and I've remembered it ever since. He was doing the hippie dippie weather man: "Tonight's forecast - dark. Turning to widely scattered light in the morning."

Then there was his brilliant playing with language: "Why do we have flammable and inflammable? Either it flamms or it doesn't flamm."

He will be missed. There isn't anything that could speak better for George than his own comedy, this one is entitled "Religion is Bullshit!"