yesterday i went with sister #2, #3, and the stink to go see Fahrenheit 9/11. the movie is wildly entertaining and funny, and ultimately quite moving and disturbing. the scenes of war are horrific and i spent a majority of that portion of the movie with my eyes closed. i can’t handle that kind of stuff and didn’t need to have the charred remains of Iraqi babies haunting my nightmares this week. i think this was especially hard for the sister club because we have a family-member heading over to Iraq in a few months. it’s terrifying.
what disturbed me the most, and i’m not sure if this has been addressed in a multitude of reviews, is that this movie didn’t present any information that i didn’t already know. of course, seeing it all packaged up neatly and paraded before my eyes for two hours is quite jarring– but really there was no news here.
the supreme court decided the election– ohh!
dubya is sort of an unqualified idiot — you’re kidding me!
the bushes and the saudis are good buddies– surprise!
there were no weapons of mass destruction– oh my!
we flew the bin ladens out of the US when nobody else was let out — oh gee!
war turns humans into barbarians — good golly!
people die in war– i never knew!
sure this is a gross over-simplification of the film and the issues it addresses, but you catch my drift– there’s nothing new here.
what distrubs me is that there is such an outcry regarding the movie. i mean come on people– if you’d pick up a damn newspaper on occassion, you’d know all this. this wouldn’t come as a surprise. there should be not outcry at all, because we all have the chance to know all of this.
so really, in my mind, what should disturb everyone the most about this movie (dem and rep, conservative and liberal alike) is that our fucking populace is waiting for michael moore to present the news in an entertaining fashion instead of going out and informing themselves.
The most disturbing part for me is that he doesn’t even examine it from anything but an anti-Bush stance, and Lord knows Bush does enough fuckingly stupid things on his own to taint the public’s view already. Moore has consistently presented his ideas as the end-all-be-all truth, even as he glaringly omits other truths that are incongruous with the facts. He did it with relative impunity in his mocumentaries on Troy, MI and Columbine. The man is an asshole, an connivingly talented asshole, but an asshole nonetheless.
I’m voting for Nader, he’s the only one honest enough to be worthy of the title of President.
Correction: You’re voting for Bush.
O.K. sure you’re gonna argue the ol’ sentiments about two party monopolies, but really… You’re assisting the Bush campaign. And Dick Armey couldn’t be happier with you.
I see, so showing my support for the only suitable candidate isn’t a display of solidarity and refusal to vote for either inadequate career politician?
Bush is an idiot who surrounds himself with intelligent people to make decisions for him. He sounds stupid because he doesn’t understand the words and ideas he’s spewing.
Kerry is a duplicitous bastard who will do, say and act anyway necessary to get into the White House. He has no real desire for anything but that which will further his political machinations. He is angry an belligerant, yet tries to smile and look human for the photo ops.
A vote for Nader is a vote for Nader, no matter what your Demo-nazi or Republi-nazi would have you believe. Voting for who you believe is your right an privledge, and NO ONE should bully, cajole or otherwise coerce you to vote otherwise.
Thomas is totally correct on the subject of your rights.
But, in reality, people voting for Nader is what let’s Karl Rove sleep at night. Knowing that when he wakes up, he will still be running your country.
AND…Jodi hit the nail right on the head!
An uninformed populace is what allows these few people to rule us and take away our rights in whatever manner they see fit. If people were more aware, there would be room for real candidates, like Nader, to have a real shot at higher office.
Sorry, it just really ticks me off that these kinds of uniformed people can claim to be the ‘true” patriots and those of us who dare to question, are labeled dangerous. The most important time to protect our Constitution is during times of war, real or made up, and questioning those who would change our constitution is required of all real patriots!
What scares me more than any of the more traditional branches of the govenment telling us that, due to concerns for the well being of our troops, that we withhold the more petty of the disparaging and vindictive commentary until after we’ve won or lost (the grevious transgressions, of course, should be handled expediently) is that when, in times of peace OR war, the proud independent and self supporting peoples of the nation attempt to validate all they have sacrificed and worked towards in this countries’ development, the self-important (and self-created) “fourth branch” of the government, the media, inserts it’s socialist agenda and ideals on those people, ridiculing them for their moral foundation and faith in a higher diety. Religion may be the opiate of the facists, but the media is the opiate of the Marxist.