In his recent book, "The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined," Steven Pinker brushes past the idea that ridicule has been very effective in moving society away from bad ideas in the past; torture, honor duels, etc. While not a first cause, ridicule can help push bad ideas to the margin. Maher's well reasoned and funny monologue wonderfully captures the ridiculousness of unreasoning, irrational views while simultaneously making us laugh. His satire, and others like it, is absolutely hilarious entertainment that cumulatively can matter. Here is in the USA a majority believe some interestingly outrageous things and it does me nervous. But,even here in a land where ration suffers, presidential candidates Rick Perry and Michelle Bachmann were largely ridiculed into single digits and withdraw. Here is hoping Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert add their commentary on some of these issues more often as time passes.