Bill Maher thinks I'm a narcissist

Fast forward to 7:15 to see the part that I'm talking about...

Dear Mr. Maher,

You know, before I had kids, I had a lot of theories on how "good parents" should behave, too. I understand that a man such as yourself, who does not have children might think that bearing and raising a human from birth to adulthood is something "a dog could do." You have also said that having two dogs is like having two "retarded children." So obviously your ideas about what it is like to have kids, with disabilities or otherwise, is at least (and I'm being generous here) a little naive...

And I'm even willing to cut you a little slack because you live in LA, and you're in show business, and in your schema of the world it would make sense that the only reason a woman would bear her breasts would be for attention.

I'll even be so generous as to give you a little more slack because you're a libertarian, and this condition causes stupid things to come out of your mouth with alarming frequency. You really can't help it, can you?

So, even though the grain of salt with which I watched your show was big enough to play soccer with, you still honked me off.

Want to know why? Because you implied that women, like myself, who think that breastfeeding in public is a right, only have enough brain cells to have one opinion. That is insulting. That because I devote a little blog space to saying, "Hey, you can't see anything but shirt and baby head when I nurse my kid, as opposed to most magazine covers and TV commercials where you can see everything but the nipple, so shut your pie holes, already..." I must not have opinions about "larger issues" like politics and the war and so on.

Please. I would argue that having children makes me more likely to care about larger issues, because I don't want my kids living in a world that stupid old men, like yourself, have screwed up. My progeny are going to inherit this earth, after all. Your personal stake in issues like global warming and long-term political consequences will end in another 20 or 30 years.

What I'm saying is that we moms are capable of caring about more than one issues. In fact, most moms I know care a lot about many issues. To reduce us all to one single cause is demeaning, inaccurate, and sexist.

We're mammals, Mr. Maher. Our mammary glands are designed to feed babies. The formula industry has done such a fantastic job of convincing people like you that formula is better for our kids (or cleaner, or more sanitary, or more modest, or whatever...) that in spite of the overwhelming evidence showing that breastfeeding is infinitely more healthy than formula feeding, people like you still give us a hard time.

I'm not lazy or unprepared when I feed my kids in public - I'm feeding my kids. I planned ahead, by bringing my breasts, so that I can feed them. Not all babies will take a bottle. Not all women can pump. Your ignorance of the situation, though, is understandable. Like I said, above, you don't have kids.

Please try to be more informed, in the future.

Sincerely,

Amy