[Comfortablydumb] :(

[poplust.com]

> EDGY COMIC GEORGE CARLIN DIES IN L.A. AT AGE 71
> By Dean Goodman
>
> LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture  
> hero famed for his routines about drugs, dirty words and the demise  
> of humanity, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital  
> on Sunday. He was 71.
>
>
>
> Carlin, who had a history of heart and drug-dependency problems,  
> died at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica about 6 p.m. PDT  
> (9 p.m. EDT) after being admitted earlier in the afternoon for  
> chest pains, spokesman Jeff Abraham told Reuters.
>
>
>
> Known for his edgy, provocative material developed over 50 years,  
> the bald, bearded Carlin achieved status as an anti-Establishment  
> icon in the 1970s with stand-up bits full of drug references and a  
> routine called "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television." A  
> regulatory battle over a radio broadcast of the routine ultimately  
> reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
>
>
>
> In the 1978 case, Federal Communications Commission vs. Pacifica  
> Foundation, the top U.S. court ruled that the words cited in  
> Carlin's routine were indecent, and that the government's broadcast  
> regulator could ban them from being aired at times when children  
> might be listening.
>
>
>
> The Grammy-winning Carlin remained an active presence on the comedy  
> circuit. Carlin was scheduled to receive the John F. Kennedy  
> Center's prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in  
> November and his publicist said Carlin performed in Las Vegas this  
> month.
>
>
>
> His comedic sensibility revolved around a central theme: humanity  
> is a cursed, doomed species.
>
>
>
> "I don't have any beliefs or allegiances. I don't believe in this  
> country, I don't believe in religion, or a god, and I don't believe  
> in all these man-made institutional ideas," he told Reuters in a  
> 2001 interview.
>
>
>
> Carlin told Playboy in 2005 that he looked forward to an afterlife  
> where he could watch the decline of civilization on a "heavenly CNN.
>
> "
>
> "The world is a big theater-in-the round as far as I'm concerned,  
> and I'd love to watch it spin itself into oblivion," he said. "Tune  
> in and watch the human adventure.
>
> "
>
> AWARDS
>
> Carlin wrote three best-selling books, won four Grammy Awards,  
> recorded 22 comedy albums, headlined 14 HBO television specials,  
> and hosted hundreds of variety shows. One was the first episode of  
> "Saturday Night Live" in 1975, when he was high on cocaine.
>
>
>
> Drug addiction plagued him for much of his life, beginning with  
> marijuana experimentation as a teen, graduating to cocaine in the  
> 1970s, and then to prescription painkillers and wine. During the  
> cocaine years, Carlin ignored his finances and ended up owing about  
> $3 million in back taxes. In 2004, he entered a Los Angeles rehab  
> clinic for his alcohol and Vicodin abuse.
>
>
>
> George Dennis Carlin was born on May 12, 1937, in New York City,  
> where he was raised with an older brother by their single mother.  
> He fondly recalled that the nuns at his school tolerated his early  
> comedic inclinations.
>
>
>
> After a brief, troubled stint in the U.S. Air Force, he started  
> honing his comic act, developing such characters as Al Sleet, a  
> "hippie-dippie weatherman."
>
>

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