Poor Joe Lieberman

One liberal author wants him to shut up when he's just trying to work, while another liberal author demands that he lose his job altogether. What's an independent to do?

I suggest that the people of Connecticut boycott Michael Moore. Don't buy his books, don't read his website, and don't watch his movies.

send them to Iraq

In his highly praised documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore is shown chasing several people in Congress and asking them if they were sending their children into the military to serve in Iraq. I wonder what he thinks about Sarah Palin sending out her son.

"Slacker Uprising"

Michael Moore's film Slacker Uprising is being released online for free - "this is being done entirely as a gift to my friends." The film's original title was the more humble Captain Mike Across America. Well, maybe it's not entirely a gift.

You can sign up here to get it through your email.

Michael Moore is sad

Poor Michael Moore. His favorite leader has official retired. If you go to Mooore's site, you'll see a nice picture of a reflective Castro. Moore gives a link to the resignation letter as well as two articles, CIA Plot to Kill Castro Detailed and Bearded revolutionary who laughed in America's face. Nothing, of course, on Castro's oppression of his people and imprisonment of political dissidents. No, that' s all glossed over for articles that focus on his "struggle" against America. That's the important thing in Moore's book - if you hate/defy/demonize America, you've got a friend in Moore.

the shtick of "Sicko"

Reason has a review of Michael Moore's Sicko:

As with much of his previous work, Moore's latest film is, by turns, touching, naïve and maddeningly mendacious, a clumsy piece of agitprop that will likely have little lasting effect on the health care debate.

Ah, well. I still plan to see it.

Michael Moore's favorite books

I missed seeing Mr. Moore on Oprah today, where he was scheduled to talk about his new documentary Sicko (one of the few summer movies I really want to see). If anyone saw Oprah's interview with him, can you let me know how it went?

Anyway, I went to O's site and saw a link to Mr. Moore's favorite books. I thought, This should really be interesting, so I decided to check it out. Here there are, then:

• 1984, by George Orwell: "But the part that isn't discussed much is about the leader who convinced the people that they were in dire threat of being killed by an enemy who was essentially invisible. The leader made a pact with his people that if they gave up freedom and civil liberties, he would protect them. To see Americans so willing to give up their rights to privacy and freedom of expression because of a terrorist threat is a crazy thing to me. " Bush: the cause of all bad things.
• Johnny Got His Gun, by Dalton Trumbo: "Trumbo's novel about a wounded soldier is a very powerful antiwar statement." Of course, it helps when nations other than the U.S. refuse to start wars, but that's not always the case.
• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, by Dee Brown: "It's not surprising to me that in a country born of racial genocide, the issue of race is still an open wound on the American soul. We haven't dealt with it. And we owe it to ourselves to do that in our lifetime."
• Rules for Radicals, by Saul Alinsky: "The beauty of the book—and I live by this to this day—is that we will never accomplish anything as long as we, those of us who are politically active, separate ourselves from the mass of people. I see the Left doing this constantly."
• The Soft Revolution, by Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner: "The thing I like about this book is the idea of using the tactics of judo to make changes."
• How Children Learn, by John Holt
• Fit From Within, by Victoria Moran: "I think it's important that we take care of ourselves mentally and physically. All the things I want to do, well, they don't mean anything if I'm not here to do them. This life is a gift, and to reject that gift or abuse that gift is not human and not worthy of us. "

Interesting choices, to say the least. I'm surprised that he didn't list this book.

Oprah's site lists more favorite books of well-known people, including New York's junior senator Hillary Clinton, actor Liev Schreiber, and TV cook/author Nigella Lawson.

I'm no Michael Moore fan but...

I've only watched one of Michael Moore's films, the Academy Award winning Bowling for Columbine. While I thought it raised some interesting ideas about our country and its (seemingly) obsessiveness with firearms, I thought it fell short in many areas. His interview with Marilyn Manson about Columbine was particularly maddening. I haven't viewed Fahrenheit 9/11, but I've heard and read so much about it, I don' t see the need to.

I truly hope Sicko is good. I expect it to be provactive, like his other films. I guess I'm most excited because I work in the healthcare industry, so it's something I'm greatly concerned about.

The movie, screened for TIME, is double-barreled Moore, a mix of familiar numbers (47 million uninsured Americans, the ever rising cost of care) and chilling moments (the 18-month-old baby who dies of a seizure when she’s denied emergency-room access, the husband and father with kidney cancer whose insurer won’t pay for a bone-marrow transplant). Together, they will have many moviegoers angry enough to gouge holes in their armrests. (Source)

I wonder if the film shows which hospital denied access to the baby with a seizure. I can tell you for certain that many hospitals aren't like this. At the hospital where I work, no one is denied care in the emergency room, regardless of insurance status or ability to pay.

Michael Moore = Paris Hilton

Poor Michael Moore. He must be missing the spotlight something bad to be delivering lines like this from his latest "letter":

Let the resounding defeat of Senator Joe Lieberman send a cold shiver down the spine of every Democrat who supported the invasion of Iraq and who continues to support, in any way, this senseless, immoral, unwinnable war. Make no mistake about it: We, the majority of Americans, want this war ended — and we will actively work to defeat each and every one of you who does not support an immediate end to this war.

He's like Paris Hilton (or Ann Coulter, for you lefties that are reading here) - he'll say anything to get attention. Come on, Mike, go ahead and say it - say that you are actually the icon of the moment.

I thought that the Democrats wanted to show that they are the party of diversity and inclusivism. What Moore and Kos are saying now, especially in the wake of Ned Lamont's victory in the Connecticut primary, is this: Be diverse all you want, but you better think just like me or you'll be turned out.

Added: Mike still posts "letters" from Cindy Sheehan on his blog. Seriously... what's up with that?

"United 93"

Will you see it?

Media reviews:

• Roger Ebert
• Christianity Today
• Indianapolis Star
• Philadelphia Weekly
• Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Blogger reviews:

• Christian Thinker (very positive)
• Citizen Against Lies (very negative)

I found it rather interesting that Michael Moore, who made an entire film from the tragedy of September 11(*), has given no link to "United 93." For several weeks Moore linked to this movie, which centers on the terrorist actions of a purported freedom fighter.

* - I know that some will accuse me of being unfair to Moore, and his film was actually a diatribe against the (in)actions of the Bush administration, and not specifically all about September 11. Maybe that's a fair accusation, but it seems rather odd that he would talk so much about his concern for the 9/11 families and the troops in Iraq and yet not link to a movie that pays honor to some of the 9/11 heroes.