Klarinet Archive - Posting 000517.txt from 2004/06

From: "Erik Tkal" <bbtkal@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] The Bush Junta and Michael Moore
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 09:08:04 -0400

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bill Hausmann
>=20
> At 05:11 PM 6/29/2004 -0400, Jeremy Schiffer wrote:
> >And keep in mind that he hired an entire team of fact-checkers (from =
the=20
> >New Yorker magazine and others) to make sure that _this_ movie got=20
> >everything right. Thus far, despite all the hype and hysteria, no one =
is=20
> >pointing to actual scenes from _this_ film and saying 'this is =
wrong.'=20
> >Talk all you want about his style (arrogant, grating, =
patronizing...), but=20
> >he apparently dotted his i's and crossed his t's for Fahrenheit 9/11. =
The=20
> >movie's been out seven days in New York, and that's more than enough =
time=20
> >for critics to assail any errors. Once you get past the partisan =
furor,=20
> >though, there's been almost nothing to call the facts presented in =
the=20
> >movie to question.
>=20
> You haven't been paying attention. This from the normally rabidly =
liberal=20
> Slate magazine:
>=20
> http://slate.msn.com/id/2102723/
>=20
> Bill Hausmann

-------------------------------

So you watch the movie and take it with a grain of salt. Or a pound. No =
different from what I do with press releases from our own government =
lately. They seem to be at least as remiss as Mr. Moore in their fact =
checking. IMHO our administration has performed several impeachable =
offenses, not the least of which is going to war claiming a clear and =
present danger from another country, despite the fact that no such =
imminent threat has ever been proven. And now we back out and hand over =
control to what I suspect will be a puppet government on a dictated =
schedule with none of the original stated criteria met, simply to say we =
did what we said we would do.

If we put half the money and effort that we put into this "war" instead =
into fixing our roads and our schools and our health care system, and =
kept our collective nose out of other countries' business (qv Bush's =
recent comments to the EU, Isreal/Palestine, etc, etc, etc), then such =
terrorists would have no reason or desire to attack us. There is no =
excuse for our behaviour other than greed and arrogance and hubris.

And all Michael Moore is trying to do is to get people to think. We do =
far too little of that. More than half the population simply believes =
what the papers say, what the TV says, what the radio says, assuming =
there is no spin on it. Ha! So you watch the movie and make your own =
opinions. Even if there are a few mistakes and inconsistencies, what =
about the rest, is it all wrong? Do so many people have to shout out to =
get others to not go to see it because they are nervous that there is =
some truth in it? Why are right-wing groups, and now Disney even, trying =
so hard and funneling money into efforts to stop it from being shown? =
Even though the movie has an R rating (despite a number of far-more =
violent and disturbing movies getting by with PG-13), it still made box =
office records. That tells me that at least some people are willing to =
judge for themselves.

Erik Tkal

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org