Posted on 03/12/2002 9:03:39 AM PST by real saxophonist
Carroll: Stupid white men indeed: a look at Michael Moore
Say this much for filmmaker Michael Moore: His fury at George W. Bush is not only consistent, it is consistently unhinged.
At his book signing Saturday at the LoDo Tattered Cover, Moore actually referred to Bush as "bin Bush," according to the News' Jeff Kass. Get it? Apparently you had to be there to savor a comparison between the president and a mass-murdering terrorist, as well as appreciate the many other crude, off-the-wall observations from Moore.
The large crowd in attendance reportedly reveled at Moore's insights. And they will no doubt also love Moore's new book, Stupid White Men . . . And Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation!, whose title pretty much sums up its level of thigh-slapping sophistication.
Want to sample another teaser from the cover? "George W: The thief in chief. A trespasser on federal lands. A squatter in the Oval Office. Send in the Marines!"
See what I mean?
As I write this, Moore's book is perched at No. 1 on Amazon.com and No. 3 on The New York Times list. Even after Sept. 11, there obviously remains a huge market in America for juvenile left-wing screeds.
Speaking of Sept. 11, it may not surprise you to learn that Moore's first reaction to that event was to wonder why the terrorists had not chosen targets in Republican states. Think I exaggerate? Here are his exact words, which he posted on his Web site on that historic day:
"Many families have been devastated tonight. This just is not right. They did not deserve to die. If someone did this to get back at Bush, then they did so by killing thousands of people who DID NOT VOTE for him! Boston, New York, DC, and the planes' destination of California -- these were places that voted AGAINST Bush!
"Why kill them? Why kill anyone?"
Yes, why kill anyone? At least Moore remembered to add those three exculpatory words to his obscenely partisan reaction to a national tragedy. And even Moore, who appears virtually incapable of shame, later decided that perhaps it was not quite decent to inject politics into a massacre, and deleted the passage from his Web site.
Before a week was out, however, Moore was back with another obnoxious tirade on the Web. Rather than marvel at the efforts of New York officials to get their city back to work and to prove that terrorists couldn't shut down Wall Street even with a direct hit, he instead reviled their grit.
"The amazing thing," he wrote, "is that you can even still get a Wall Street Journal -- anywhere and everywhere. As I write this late Sunday night, the captains of Capitalism are declaring that the stock exchange will re-open on Monday, even if they don't have running water and phones, just to show its enemies that NOTHING can stop the forward accumulation of wealth.
"The vast majority of the dead are those who labored to bring them that wealth, and it dishonors them and their families to so callously crank up the greed machine within days of this tragedy. Their bodies -- thousands of them -- are still buried under the rubble down the street, but, hey, why wait to give them a proper burial -- let's get busy making some money! I can only hope that the stench from the rotting corpses of their former employees will haunt them for the rest of the day and remain in their consciences for the days to come . . . "
Such savage judgments are Moore's stock-in-trade. He is not merely a "gadfly filmmaker," as The Denver Post daintily characterized him in a headline this weekend.
He's also an intellectual thug.
Yet it seems that just as with the capitalists he so loathes, nothing can stop the forward accumulation of Moore's wealth. He may not be able to think clearly or to write with any grace. He may be vulgar and he may be vicious. But he's still got a book at the top of the charts.
Send in the Marines? No -- for one thing, they've already been sent, and against a far more worthy foe than the likes of Michael Moore.
Vincent Carroll is editor of the editorial pages. Reach him at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com.
Dean Wormer - Animal House
He's also an intellectual thug slug.
The Weekly Standard skewered him a few years ago too.
-Eric
What is DU ?
I believe it was "Fat, drunk and stupid ...." they all seem to describe Moore though.If he was drunk he'd make more sense.
Perhaps he should take Senator-to-be Blutarsky's advice to Flounder. >:)
-Eric
I'd say it was the Anti-FR, but that isn't strong enough. Go and have a look, but take your barf bag.
When I see this smug chump on TV, I am baffled at his popularity. To learn that he is not only mean and ill informed, but a hypocrite ALSO, that's comforting.
This happened about 3 years ago in NYC. I believe the contractors were Union!
This is the URL. I'll go back to HTML boot camp later.
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