Over  a large part of my life, when I needed a good laugh I could turn to George Carlin. Sometimes I thought he was dead-on in his comedy, sometimes I was completely appalled by his viewpoint. But either way, I could usually count on laughing, even when it was at myself. Sadly, I won't be able to count on this any more, except in my memory.  George Carlin died at the age of 71 of heart failure last night. 

From his earlier work, which was - well, happily goofy (my daughter to this day will occasionally break out into the "you can't eat those damn grits" routine) through his more experimental and political periods, George Carlin always had something to say, and a lot of us listened. So, for a couple of minutes, listen to this: