From Jonah Goldberg’s deft evisceration of Michael Moore:
Moore grabs at your base passions to power through his narrative. Which brings me back where I started. The one genre that has mastered the stringing together of unrelated or barely related scenes and facts without much care for the coherence of the narrative solely for the purpose of a visceral response in the audience is, in fact, pornography and Moore is the master of the masturbatory craft.
Tim Russert was right yesterday when he said Moore doesn’t deserve to be called a “documentary maker” — but he most certainly deserves his Palme d’Or.
Personally, I think the Bare Wench Project or Naughty Nurses 9 has more redeeming social value that Moore’s malicious lie-umentary…
Hey, Reding. You seen the film?
You mean in the identical way that the administration has been using 9/11 images to support their war on Iraq, when the connection between the perpetrators of the attacks on the US and the Iraqi government is so flimsy, so far fetched, that even after 3 years, there is nothing to justify the “This is a war on terrorism” call that GW has consistently used to support his war?
I want to be clear here. I support the troops. Do not confuse my skepticism of the administrations’ motives and my dissatisfaction with the direction GW Bush and his cronies have led us with anti-patriotism or being ‘soft on terrorism’. I fully supported GW’s actions against Afghanistan and bin Laden.
But continuing his empire-building processes into Iraq was a foolish and destructive maneuver. All of the good will and support that GW got after 9/11 has vanished, and the US is now the most hated country on the planet. How this has helped to make America safer is beyond me.
Mark: Why does Jay have to see the film in order to post what others write who have seen the film?
dbs:Your post is so laughable that it is hard to begin to pick it apart.
As to ties between Al Qaeda and Iraq: see all of the statements of the Clinton administration, including the 1998 indictment, and the reasons they gave to support their attack on the Sudanese aspirin factory. Consider Zarqawi; he was given medical assistance and safe haven before we liberated Iraq. Numerous other ties exist, some of which even the NYT has begun to document.
The big point is this: on Sept 20 2001 Bush declared war on all of international terrorism. One could not wage war on international terrorism without taking out Saddam. Case closed.
I personally don’t care if Iraq had ties to Al Qaeda, because it is so naive and careless to only go after Al Qaeda. As Rudy Giuliani has noted, when he was going after the mafia, one couldn’t just take out one family, one had to take them all out to win the war.
Also, the only way to effectively win the war on terror is to establish freedom and democracy in the Middle East, and so the liberation of Iraq is really the only way to begin the process to solve the problem long term.
dbs writes “the US is now the most hated country on the planet.”
Except that people all over the world still want to immigrate to here. Except that we are still working with countries all over the world to hunt down terrorists, including France and Germany and Russia. Except that many countries are assisting us in Iraq, and NATO has agreed to provide training to Iraqi security forces. Except that everyday people in the US engage in productive business with people all over the world.
…and the examples go on and on and on…
To call the US the “most hated country” is absurd.
Let’s also keep in mind that our real enemies, the Islamofascists, must have hated us before we liberated Iraq, and even before Bush took office, because they hit us again and again during the 90’s, when Clinton did everything he could to try to get the world to like us and even kissed up to the terrorist Arafat big time. Yet in spite of that the terrorists even began planning 9-11, and of course executed that attack.
It is so naive this notion of getting other nations to “like us”, whatever that means. Other nations will pursue their own agendas regardless; wake up to reality. France, Germany, and Russia didn’t oppose the liberation of Iraq on humanitarian grounds; they opposed it due to hardcore economic interests which they placed above humanitarian concerns, as we are seeing more and more as the oil for food scandal is uncovered.
What we need is to be respected; that is one key. The other key is spreading freedom and democracy, because democracies don’t breed international terrorism, nor do democracies attack each other.
Bush is brilliantly correct, and all this liberal blather about other countries and what they “feel” about us is naive.
Back to Michael Moore: I love the analogy between his work and pornography. That is a brilliant comparison.
Moore is a very convoluted individual: he seems to admire Canada and France more than the US, yet he maintains his million dollar plus residences here in the US, and continues to make big bucks right here in America…
I also agree with Nader on one thing: Moore is way too fat…he needs to lose alot of weight…
Funny how on his poster showing him shaking hands with Bush he has had his body photoshopped to be significantly smaller…at least half his real girth…
Another Thought, ridiculing Moore because of his weight?? How Al Franken of you!
As for Jay, I couldn’t care less if he links articles to critics of Moore’s movie who have actually seen the film. But if Jay is gonna respond to Goldberg’s rant by suggesting that “personally, he thinks the Bare Wench Project or Naughty Nurses 9 has more redeeming social value than Moore’s malicious lie-umentary (????)”, he might want to be able to defend that “personal” assertion with having seen the movie. Only critiquing films you’ve actually seen….what a novel concept!!!!!
Mark: I do think with this movie one can read and listen to critiques and reviews, and especially factual analyses, and come to the conclusion that the movie misrepresents the truth and blatantly lies. One then can also conclude that the movie, in presenting such lies, performs a disservice to the American public.
Again, to judge a movie artistically, I would argue requires actually observing the movie. To judge a movie factually does not, as long as one gets accurate information regarding the factual claims. I think one can read any number of reviews, both positive and negative, and glean the main points that the movie attempts to make.
I believe what Jay means is that Moore’s movie is worse than the typical skin flick in that it attempts to mislead people on the most serious issues of our times.
Here’s more of where Moore is coming from:
“Before a delighted Cambridge crowd, Moore reflected on the tragedy of human existence: ‘You’re stuck with being connected to this country of mine, which is known for bringing sadness and misery to places around the globe.’ In Liverpool, he paused to contemplate the epicenters of evil in the modern world: ‘It’s all part of the same ball of wax, right? The oil companies, Israel, Halliburton…We, the United States of America, are culpable in committing so many acts of terror and bloodshed that we had better get a clue about the culture of violence in which we have been active participants…Don’t be like us,’ he told a crowd in Berlin. ‘You’ve got to stand up, right? You’ve got to be brave.’ In an open letter to the German people in Die Zeit, Moore asked, ‘Should such an ignorant people lead the world?’
Notice how Moore also takes a jab at Israel…apparently, he is not only anti-American but anti-Semitic…
Notice how Moore also takes a jab at Israel…apparently, he is not only anti-American but anti-Semitic…
Oh, right, of course, because it’s impossible to distinguish between the policies of a nation and the ethnicity of its citizens. Does that make me racist if I criticize the diamond mining of Sierra Leone?
That’s a disgusting slander, Another Thought. I hadn’t realized that it would be possible to lower my opinion of you, but somehow you accomplished a miracle.
“but branding it with one of the great lies against the Jews: that they somehow control the world and in a malevolent way…”
Oh, but they do! Too bad I’m not Jewish, I was certainly born with the wrong ethnicity for evil…