With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
I enjoy paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.
June 26, 2004 - 10:37 a.m.
I saw my third film in a month yesterday, Fahrenheit 9/11. As I expected it was not to my taste. It might just be the prejudices I held going into the film but I think not. Moore plays puts more value on emotional impact than he does on truth and that bothers me. He is makes what he calls a documentary but admits to showing things he knows are false. That leaves me questioning any fact I don’t know. The one clear untruth was showing someone saying something to the effect that no matter how the recount would have gone Gore would have won the election. Yes the person he showed saying that really did say that but what he said is known to be wrong. The recounts really were made and showed that if they were done the way Gore wanted Bush would have won and if they had been made the way Bush wanted Gore would have won.
I found the whole segment showing links between the Bush family and the Bin Laden family objectionable. First off Bin Laden’s family is huge, 100s of people in it. It is not as if they are a small tight knit family. For the most part they have no contact with him. Moore made a big point that some family members went to the wedding of Bin Laden’s son. He doesn’t say how many or when there were. I know there are relatives that I only see at weddings and funerals. That doesn’t mean there is a strong connection with them. He also discussed the business deals between the two families. Most of it was just innuendo. The two families were in the oil business you’d expect their business lives to intersect.
It reminded me so much of the kinds of things you’d hear about the Clintons on the right wing talk shows. I have always objected more strongly to their methods than their politics and I don’t find it any less objectionable when used by someone I agree with.
One sequence I really hated was a cross cutting of Bush saying “Iraq” and “Al-Qaeda.” If you are trying to say that Bush linked the two show him actually saying that. He could have just had easily cross cut Bush saying Texas and Al-Qaeda.
There were effective parts of the film and I wish he had made a more reasoned film. This is designed to preach to the choir not to persuade rational people.
Last night I went to see The Professor and Maryann at the Alphabet Lounge. I realized that over the years I have seen them perform progressively further east. I started at CBs Gallery on Bowery then Sidewalk Café on Avenue A, Hotel Galvez on Avenue B, now all the way over to Avenue C. I guess the next stop is Brooklyn.
I think I’ve only taken a friend to see them once, male Carey and that was years ago. Their style is unusual, I can’t really compare them to anyone so they are hard to recommend. I am pretty sure that female Carey would like them but I don’t know who else. If you are feeling adventurous maybe you’d like to see them. Let me know.
Last night I talked on the phone with Jena for the first time in ages. We really need to talk more. She is so much like a less annoying version of Leah aka the The worlds most annoying person. She told me she could be more annoying but I think Leah should reign unchallenged.
I better get going. I’m meeting Lena at the Port Authority at 1:00. I am spending way to much time there.
The International Jewish Banking Conspiracy - October 07, 2008
On the Road to Westchester County - October 06, 2008
Inside the Madison Square Studio - October 05, 2008
I'm a Bosniac and I'm debating like I've never debated before - October 03, 2008
Islands in the Stream of Consciousness - October 02, 2008
Email me: GordonLew at gmail
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Horvendile June 26, 2004
