You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life - Albert Camus

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

I just had a fun time fisking Michael Moore’s latest letter at Moorewatch. This one has to be read to be believed.

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Just an FYI.  We’re gearing up for Michael Moore’s latest excretion over at Moorewatch.  I’ll be off the grid this weekend while I travel to Australia.  If you miss me, you can check out my fiskings of Moore as he promotes his latest cinematic offal.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

When you make a very nice living taking advantage of the benefits offered by the very system you decry, it’s not surprising that it might not be taken too seriously:

Two prominent American pictures were shut out of the festival’s official jury awards—Michael Moore’s attack on corporate greed, Capitalism: A Love Story, and The Weinstein Company’s The Road, which John Hillcoat adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic novel. This will no doubt affect Harvey Weinstein’ release plans for it. Moore’s pic did receive the Leoncino d’oro Award from 26 local youths selected by the festival, but nothing from the official jury—even though he personally came to Venice to premiere his documentary

Moore’s always been the Dyson of American filmmakers--his movies never stop sucking--but at least in Italy, he got the slap to his ego he so richlly deserved.  Don’t think for a minute he’s not pissed that the only award he recieved was from a gaggle of dumb-truck kids.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Stop disagreeing with me, I’m trying to debate! *ahem*

I’ve been rereading old Moorewatch posts, partly because it’s just something I do on occasion, partly because either sunspots or terrorists had smashed the intertubes going to my office and we’re all going to die, but for some reason I could still access the stuff on Jim’s server. He must’ve been too full of awesome to let either the mighty solar overlord OR the followers of durkadurkajihad keep him from getting stuff out. (Or at least it was, until I actually finished this post and tried to send it. THE AWESOME HAD FORSAKEN MEEEE. ... Seriously, I dunno what was up with that, Google and a few other things worked but everything else was kerplotz.)

But anyway, it’s made me recall one of the favorite excuses that Mooreons liked to throw around. “Well Michael Moore might lie, obfuscate, misquote, mischaracterize, and mislead, but it’s just in the name of raising debate and awareness!” These same commenters would invariably be pissed off at us for disagreeing with Moore and holding another stance, essentially getting angry at us for actually engaging in this debate Moore was ever-so-valiantly trying to start. We were aware of the issues, but we didn’t believe Moore on them (even though, remember, his supporters already admitted he wasn’t telling the truth), and so we needed to shut up and listen.

This has essentially always been at the heart of what’s going on with Moore, and what’s currently going on with the Obamastration. (Does it mean “Obama administration” or “Obama frustration”? Take your pick!) The town halls, a venue associated with debate and discussion, are being treated more as “Sit down, shut up, and do what we tell you.” It’s as much a discussion as when you were thirteen and your parents sat you down and said that you were going to have a “discussion” about those magazines they found in your room. As in that case, the “discussion” is going to involve you sitting there while the “adults” tell you what’s what and they’re going to be seriously pissed if anything comes out of your mouth that isn’t “Yessir” or “Yes ma’am”.

(Wait, gotta be careful about that last one. After all, they worked so very hard for their titles not to be used. What do you think, they just get GIVEN the job because they show up, like General or Doctor or some other meaningless title that required no work whatsoever?)

But really, I guess that’s what it comes down to. One side wants government to be Mommy and Daddy. (Fatherland/Mother Russia OTP!!!1!!one!!) They take care of you, pay for your stuff, fix it when you’ve got an owie, get you a job at their place if you can’t find one of your own or just keep giving you an allowance if you can’t keep that one, and protect you from your grouchy discontent siblings but teach you how to get along with that mean kid from down the street. ("Well sweetie, anyone who flies planes into your buildings for not being Muslim isn’t your friend. But maybe you can talk it out with them!") In return, you have to vow to not make trouble (living too long), do what they say (eat how they tell you, drive what they tell you, use the products they tell you), do your chores (paying your taxes, doing your mandatory “volunteer” service), and not talk back. Especially not talk back.

I mean, fuck. If I’m going to tell someone “Shut up, stop posting”, I’m at least going to tell them “Shut up, stop posting. ... Fucktard.” Why bother making a lot of pretenses about the importance of debate and speaking openly, and then get offended when someone does indeed disagree? If the sanctity of debate is THAT important to the left, then I should actually be able to say “You’re a motherfucker” and have the response be “Alright, why do you feel that I’m a motherfucker and what can I do to correct that impression of me?”

If I say “Well, you can explain this, let up on this, not do this, and oh yeah, quit fucking your mother”, your response in a debate is not “That’s unreasonable and ridiculous, and you shame the debate by putting it forth”, it should be “Here’s my explanation, I’m willing to entertain that possibility, here’s why I do this and don’t think I should not do it, and is that necessary because I really like fucking my mother.”

... What? Obama’s a motherfucker. ... Whaaaat?!

The thing is, placing government in the position of the “loving” parent who’s there to guide all of us means that debate is effectively over, forever. Debate cannot happen between an adult and a child, because the adult has all the power. The child has no way of forcing the adult to hold to any promises, or hold to any agreements, because any agreement is essentially a concession on the adult’s part. The child promising to do something in return for something from the parent isn’t actually making a deal, the parent’s just going what they think is an easier route, because they could order the child to do it anyway.

You require two adults for a debate to happen. Or two children, actually, which is more akin to the style of debate that would go on with Mr. “I Won”, if he was gonna have any. But the fact is, you require equals for a debate, which isn’t going to happen when you’ve got the one side dismissing their detractors as “clutching their guns and bibles” or ignoring the other side to answer their fucking cell phones. The government is treating us like children for the purposes of debate… they’re indulging us, out of an attempt to make what they intend to do anyway easier. So we can do one of two things… we can force them to recognize us as adults (unlikely), or we can throw the biggest tantrum possible until they give in out of frustration.

It’s up to them to decide which they’d rather have.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Oh boy (rubs hands), this one is fun…

One of the more unusual conservative-leaning sites I’ve run across is Mitchieville.com,, which is run by a Canadian named “The Mayor.” It’s typically devoted to silly fluff like “Hospital Food Week,” and documenting wierd things about humanity in general, but the Mayor and other posters show a shocking amount of knowledge about the political minutiae of this country.  Like many readers of this blog, I migrated over here from Moorewatch, and I remember nothing seemed to give Lee greater pleasure than ripping The Flint Fatass a new one on a regular basis.  So when I saw this post, I knew I had to share it here.  A couple of highlights:

Moore likes to think that GM’s issue was that they ignored environmental concerns of the population, causing their downfall. Then why was it their large SUV divisions were so profitable and their mid-size to compact cars weren’t? Mind you, this was before the $4 a gallon gasoline, and GM was certainly on a downward slide even before the giant spike in gas prices. If GM were producing a surplus of SUVs no one wanted, and they were being destroyed by their Japanese competition, why did GM and Toyota sell the same number of cars in 2007 and yet GM lose so much money? It must have been selling all of those SUVs. You know, the very profitable ones that at the same time no one wanted.

Rather than making cars with basic fuel efficiencies that are manageable and within our grasp, Moore wants to reshape all of society, whether they need it or not. This is the nature of Moore, a lie manufacturer making a product nobody wants.

Damn, that’s so delicious I want to dip it in chocolate and have it served to me by five nubile Princess Leia Slave Girls.  You know the drill--read the whole thing.

Also, please don’t forget to hit the server drive tip jar.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

China is indicating they will finance our debt.  But they’re not happy about it:

China will continue to buy US Treasury bonds even though it knows the dollar will depreciate because such investments remain its “only option” in a perilous world, a senior Chinese banking regulator said on Wednesday.

China has used the dollars it accumulates selling manufactured goods to US consumers to accumulate the world’s largest holding of Treasuries.

However, the increasing US budget deficit and its potential impact on the dollar have raised questions about the future Chinese appetite for US debt.

Luo Ping, a director-general at the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said after a speech in New York that China would continue to buy Treasuries in spite of its misgivings about US finances.

Mr Luo, speaking at the Global Association of Risk Management’s 10th Annual Risk Management Convention, said: “Except for US Treasuries, what can you hold?” he asked. “Gold? You don’t hold Japanese government bonds or UK bonds. US Treasuries are the safe haven. For everyone, including China, it is the only option.”

Mr Luo, whose English tends toward the colloquial, added: “We hate you guys. Once you start issuing $1 trillion-$2 trillion [$1,000bn-$2,000bn] . . .we know the dollar is going to depreciate, so we hate you guys but there is nothing much we can do.”

Luo goes on to say he like Glass-Steagall, so I’m not sure if he’s in earth orbit or not.  But it can’t be good to finance a massive pork barrel extravaganza economic stimulus on the backs of a billion annoyed Chinese, can it?  I mean, that’s never going to backfire or anything, right?

Friday, August 29, 2008

Oh, for...WTF?

If there is indeed a God then I hope he/she/it strikes Mikey down with a massive heart attack/stroke, which His Lardness seems to have miraculously avoided so far.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Looks like the Horny Ninth Circuit Judge may not be so horny after all:

Judge Alex Kozinski’s porn stash turns out to be...not much of a porn stash. The conservative blogger Patterico has uncovered the material in question. (It was sent to him by the same person who tipped off the L.A. Times: Cyrus Sanai, a lawyer with a grudge against the judge.) It seems Kozinski has been accumulating viral Internet humor, some of it X-rated but none of it any less mainstream than a Farrelly Brothers movie. The Times’ descriptions of the material were rather misleading: The “slide show striptease featuring a transsexual,” for example, turns out to be a quiz where you guess whether you’re looking at a natural woman. In the words of Wonkette, this is “the sort of naughtiness you’d find in the dirty birthday cards section at Spencer Gifts.”

Nonetheless, we’re still hearing calls for Kozinski to recuse himself from the obscenity case he’s about to oversee. I hope he stands his ground. There has been no shortage of free-speech trials in which the presiding judges had a moral objection to essentially innocuous material. I don’t see any reason why such a case shouldn’t be heard by a jurist with a history of tolerance.

That last part is striking.  If a federal judge were to declare that he finds any nudity or any sex to be obscene and pornographic, he would not be asked to recuse himself.  But we’re getting these calls for a judge whose sin is apparently liking raunchy humor.  And personally, I wouldn’t care if Kozinski had an entire disk drive packed with porn.  That would give him a lot in common with, oh, let’s say 80% of men who have their own computer and access to the internet.  Hell, half the people reading this probably have porn in another window.

I posted the original article because I thought it was amusing, not because I thought Kozinski was a hypocrite (my posting under the “Right Wing Assholes” category was dumb).  But given that this was uncovered by a lawyer who has a grudge against Kozinski, this is looking more and more like a smear.

Actually, I shouldn’t have bothered to read Reason or Overlawyered.  When CWA called for Kozinski to resign, i should have known this was a bunch of crap.

My bad.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Michael Moore has endorsed Obama.  This should be the death knell for the Obama campaign, since not a single candidate for political office endorsed by Michael Moore has ever won.  The endorsement is aboout what you’d expect, the usual nonsensical ramblings of a multimillionaire socialist.  Read it yourself if you like, I just want to make a couple of observations.

I don’t get to vote for President this primary season. I live in Michigan.

No you don’t, Michael, you live in a penthouse in Manhattan.  Jim and I know your home address.  You own property in a swanky part of Michigan.  (You know, where you held your film festival, rather than in Flint, the town you claim to come from but don’t.  Why help out the disadvantaged in Flint when you can suck up to the rest of the millionaire liberals who own gigantic private estates?) So, either you’re registered to vote in two places (New York and Michigan) or you’re lying your ass off to perpetuate the farcical image of yourself as an average Joe.  Both of these sound equally plausible.

I, like the majority of Americans, have been pummeled senseless for 8 long years.

And here we see the classic liberal self-image as a pathetic waif being beaten by an all-powerful machine.  This is one of the things I find more vulgar and disgusting about liberalism than anything else, their incessant need to view themselves as victims.  I guess this is why they believe that the government is the solution to ever conceivable problem.  If people weren’t pathetic victims they might be able to find solutions to some of their own problems, and if that were to happen (God forbid!) it would deny liberals the ability to derive self-satisfaction from pointing to a government program and saying, “See what a wonderful person I am?  I supported that proposal!”

It’s foolish to see the Democrats as anything but a nicer version of a party that exists to do the bidding of the corporate elite in this country.

Thus says a guy who has made himself filthy, stinking rich by working with massive corporations.  But let’s not let a little rank hypocrisy get in the way of your own perceived sense of victimhood, huh Mike?  Just keep dressing like a slob and wearing your baseball caps, the world is full of idiots who will actually buy your little persona.

(Crossposted to Moorewatch.)

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Ban Ki Moon expresses deep concern over free expression.

Following is the text of the statement by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the film Fitna:

I condemn, in the strongest terms, the airing of Geert Wilders’ offensively anti-Islamic film.  There is no justification for hate speech or incitement to violence.  The right of free expression is not at stake here.  I acknowledge the efforts of the Government of the Netherlands to stop the broadcast of this film, and appeal for calm to those understandably offended by it.  Freedom must always be accompanied by social responsibility.

The United Nations is the centre of the world’s efforts to advance mutual respect, understanding and dialogue.  We must also recognize that the real fault line is not between Muslim and Western societies, as some would have us believe, but between small minorities of extremists on different sides with a vested interest in stirring hostility and conflict.

What a whining bitch. Feel free to condemn what I said…

*(BTW-I’m still waiting on my death threats for posting Fitna. PLEAAAAAASE!!!)

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Our latest warm and fuzzy story from Iran....http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/Story?id=4297085&page=1

A new movie in Iran depicts the life of Jesus from an Islamic perspective. “The Messiah,” which some consider as Iran’s answer to Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ,” won an award at Rome’s Religion Today Film Festival for generating interfaith dialogue.

Filmmaker Nader Talebzadeh spoke to ABC’s Lara Setrakian in Tehran.

At first I thought the idea was novel, but then I dug a little deeper.

LS: Why did you feel a movie showing Islam’s take on Jesus needed to be made?

NT: I’ve been witnessing what’s been going on in Iran for the past 28 years; I’ve been living here after I lived a decade in America. Everybody knows Jesus, so why not make a film about something everyone relates to? And made in Iran.

LS: What are the key differences between Jesus through Islam’s eyes and Jesus through the traditional Christian perspective?

NT: We are talking about the same beautiful man, the same beautiful prophet, the same divine person sent from heaven. In the Koran, it emphasizes maybe three main points: about the birth, about the fact that he was not the son of God, and then, that he was not crucified. The rest is [the same] Jesus ... the sermons, and the miracles, and the political situation.

LS: So, when it comes to Jesus, the message and the reverence are there.

NT: Yes.

LS: But the virgin birth, the crucifixion…

NT: The virgin birth was the same. The difference in the Koran, God says Jesus was saved. Instead of having him hung and crucified, the person who betrayed Jesus was crucified. This is how the Koran sees it, through the Gospel of Barnabas.

LS: So, you gave the alternate ending.

NT: Yes, two endings. I thought, the Christians, when they see it, it’ll be important for them. [In the Koran] God says, emphatically, he was not crucified. Somebody was crucified in his stead. In the Gospel of Barnabas, there are explications of this. The majority of [Muslims] say the one who betrayed Jesus [was crucified]. 

To our resident Christian readers, are you offended by this? I am pretty fired up, but I’d like to know what you make of this first. I am filing this guy under ‘Michael Mooreon’ for reasons I will add later. In the meantime, let’s give the director his goal and discuss. Thoughts?

Update:

For those of you who thought I might have been a little overbearing in my assesment of the movie, why don’t you have a listen to the director? Please tell me that the bullshit spewing out of his mouth doesn’t overtly smack of a little conspiracy?

Update 2:

Now, let’s take a look at the little douchebag bee-yotch who interviewed the vermin. In the blog, the author notes that Lara has been up to no good since 2005 when her parents found out they weren’t on the hook anymore for Harvard. She’s had some stunning *tsk* articles about Gitmo, for example. she was also there to give us the misinformation of the Lebanon War. So, people do you still think that this is nothing?

Monday, January 28, 2008

Welcome to Britain, home of glorious free healthcare.  Now, go home and die you fat fuck.

Yes, folks, it’s the latest socialist medicine success!

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

The Kiss of Death isn’t forthcoming.

I am not endorsing anyone at this point. This is simply how I feel in the first week of the process to replace George W. Bush. For months I’ve been wanting to ask the question, “Where are you, Al Gore?” You can only polish that Oscar for so long. And the Nobel was decided by Scandinavians! I don’t blame you for not wanting to enter the viper pit again after you already won. But getting us to change out our incandescent light bulbs for some irritating fluorescent ones isn’t going to save the world. All it’s going to do is make us more agitated and jumpy and feeling like once we get home we haven’t really left the office.

Well, I guess the Democratic candidates can all breathe a sigh of relief now.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Of the many points Michael Moore raises in Sicko, two stick with me.

1.  Insurance companies routinely deny service to patients as a matter of policy, and they do so out of a heartless sense of corporate greed.
2.  To solve this problem a government agency, with no heartless and greedy profit motive, is essential for equitable distribution of benefits.

Keep these two points in mind as you read this story.

Steadily lengthening delays in the resolution of Social Security disability claims have left hundreds of thousands of people in a kind of purgatory, now waiting as long as three years for a decision.

Two-thirds of those who appeal an initial rejection eventually win their cases.

But in the meantime, more and more people have lost their homes, declared bankruptcy or even died while awaiting an appeals hearing, say lawyers representing claimants and officials of the Social Security Administration, which administers disability benefits for those judged unable to work or who face terminal illness.

The agency’s new plan to hire at least 150 new appeals judges to whittle down the backlog, which has soared to 755,000 from 311,000 in 2000, will require $100 million more than the president requested this year and still more in the future. The plan has been delayed by the standoff between Congress and the White House over domestic appropriations.

There are 1,025 judges currently at work, and the wait for an appeals hearing averages more than 500 days, compared with 258 in 2000. Without new hirings, federal officials predict even longer waits and more of the personal tragedies that can result from years of painful uncertainty.

Backlogs?  Denials?  Years of uncertainty?  Where have we heard of all these things?  Oh yeah, I remember now:  Canada, the UK, Australia, and every other country with compassionate, “free” healthcare fun by the government.  But wait, it gets better.

Of the roughly 2.5 million disability applicants each year now, about two-thirds are turned down initially by state agencies, which make decisions with federal oversight based on paper records but no face-to-face interview. Most of those who are refused give up at that point or after a failed request for local reconsideration.

But of the more than 575,000 who go on to file appeals — putting them in the vast line for a hearing before a special federal judge — two-thirds eventually win a reversal.

Why, it’s almost like the government routinely denies claims.  You know, just like private insurance does.  But how can this be?  Government isn’t motivated by evil profit, is it?  They don’t operate with the brutal capitalist motivation, do they?  Government is the solution, isn’t it?  Government never fails us, does it?

The growing delays in the appeal process over the last decade resulted in part from litigation and financing shortages that prevented the hiring of new administrative law judges. In addition, the number of applications is rising as baby boomers reach their 50s and 60s.

Litigation?  The costs of litigation on rising insurance premiums are continually dismissed by compassionate Moore fans as nothing but capitalist propaganda.  But here it is, contributing to delays and waiting lists and misery in providing Social Security benefits.  But I’m sure that nothing similar will happen when government runs healthcare, will it Mikey?

And people wonder why we oppose government-run healthcare.  The government ponzi scheme is finally starting to fall apart, and the investors are finding out that they’ve being scammed.  What a complete fucking disaster.

But at least it’s a compassionate disaster.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

If this is true it makes the intelligence community look like MOR-ANS!

If Michael Moore is America’s number one documentary filmmaker, then after releasing Super Size Me Morgan Spurlock definitely became number 2. Except while Moore makes more point of view movies, Spurlock’s work is a lot closer to being what we think of when throwing around the word “documentary”.

His next project is by far, his riskiest yet. Spurlock has finished his new movie Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?, in which he sets out to do what the United States government has apparently failed to do: Find Osama Bin Laden. The Weinstein Company bought the thing after seeing only 15 minutes of it at the Berlin Film Festival, and here’s where it gets really interesting. Rumor has it that Spurlock actually found Osama Bin Laden.

The film’s director of photography told SlashFilm that Morgan “definitely got the holy grail.” Since the movie is about him hunting Osama, that would make him the holy grail… wouldn’t it? For now though, everyone around the production is keeping things locked down.

This is going to be a must see, if it’s true.

Update from Lee: I have often been inclined to believe that, by and large, we know where bin Laden is.  Either we know through our own means or through the Pakistanis.  Killing him or bringing him in would make him a martyr, and even bigger symbol around which the wacko fundamentalist Muslims can ally around.  Keeping him alive but contained allows him to be observed, gather intel on his operation, learn who the players are—keeping him alive is a reasonably smart thing to do on national security grounds, provided he is not permitted to slip away somehow.

Pure speculation on my part, I know.  But think about it, it makes a hell of a lot of sense.  Also, bringing in OBL shortly before the end of Bush’s term would give him an incredible amount of cache with the public, and perhaps spin the way history views him in a new light.  Perhaps not.  Perhaps this is all in my head.  But if Taliban Johnny Jihad was able to find him, and various film crews have been able to interview him, then we could sure as shit get a SEAL team in after his ass.