Wednesday, December 24, 2003
I yoinked this off of the wall at work awhile back, I've been meaning to put it up and I just ran acrossed it again. It's kinda big (length wise), so I'll just post the link to it...
besafe.jpg
Where do I start. I want to get whoever drew this to do a character drawing of me. With a burgalar mask on. Hell, this guy could make a fortune at drawing famous celebrities with burgalar masks on. I've seen alot of unsavory looking people in my time, but none of them were wearing a mask.
Stop the thugs? Thugs?? This is why this poster encompasses America's twisted veiw of crime. People are taught to be afraid of big ugly bald guys wearing bugular masks. Hell, I'd be afraid of him too if he was knocking at our back door wearing a striped prison uniform. From all those bolders he was crushing on the side of the road he's probably armed with a sledge hammer too.
The last thing I find interesting is the prison number at the bottom the illustration. That number seems awful specific to be made up. This makes me think it's a composite drawing. Ya know...some old lady got robbed and decribed this masked goon to the police.
besafe.jpg
Where do I start. I want to get whoever drew this to do a character drawing of me. With a burgalar mask on. Hell, this guy could make a fortune at drawing famous celebrities with burgalar masks on. I've seen alot of unsavory looking people in my time, but none of them were wearing a mask.
Stop the thugs? Thugs?? This is why this poster encompasses America's twisted veiw of crime. People are taught to be afraid of big ugly bald guys wearing bugular masks. Hell, I'd be afraid of him too if he was knocking at our back door wearing a striped prison uniform. From all those bolders he was crushing on the side of the road he's probably armed with a sledge hammer too.
The last thing I find interesting is the prison number at the bottom the illustration. That number seems awful specific to be made up. This makes me think it's a composite drawing. Ya know...some old lady got robbed and decribed this masked goon to the police.
Monday, December 22, 2003
God probably hates you.
Gabe and I went to see Enducer and Soundmurderer saturday. Well, I went and she looked like she wasn't having much fun. Some guy selling shrooms wouldn't leave her alone. I was suposed to get a free Feed the Machine tshirt, but I was rejected on account they ran out. I'm gonna get one if it kills me. I bought the record, it's cool.
Last night at work was sour for some reason. Everyone was getting on my nerves. Kinda like a 5 year old who keeps pulling on your pant leg. You just get the urge to punt them across the room.
I must go now, running late.
Last night at work was sour for some reason. Everyone was getting on my nerves. Kinda like a 5 year old who keeps pulling on your pant leg. You just get the urge to punt them across the room.
I must go now, running late.
Saturday, December 20, 2003
From Michael Moore's Mailing List------------------------------------------
Letters the Troops Have Sent Me... by Michael Moore
December 19, 2003
As we approach the holidays, I've been thinking a lot about our kids who are in the armed forces serving in Iraq. I've received hundreds of letters from our troops in Iraq -- and they are telling me something very different from what we are seeing on the evening news.
What they are saying to me, often eloquently and in heart-wrenching words, is that they were lied to -- and this war has nothing to do with the security of the United States of America.
I've written back and spoken on the phone to many of them and I've asked a few of them if it would be OK if I posted their letters on my website and they've said yes. They do so at great personal risk (as they may face disciplinary measures for exercising their right to free speech). I thank them for their bravery.
Lance Corporal George Batton of the United States Marine Corps, who returned from Iraq in September (after serving in MP company Alpha), writes the following:
“You'd be surprised at how many of the guys I talked to in my company and others believed that the president's scare about Saddam's WMD was a bunch of bullshit and that the real motivation for this war was only about money. There was also a lot of crap that many companies, not just marine companies, had to go through with not getting enough equipment to fulfill their missions when they crossed the border. It was a miracle that our company did what it did the two months it was staying in Iraq during the war…. We were promised to go home on June 8th, and found out that it was a lie and we got stuck doing missions for an extra three months. Even some of the most radical conservatives in our company including our company gunnery sergeant got a real bad taste in their mouth about the Marine corps, and maybe even president Bush.”:
Here's what Specialist Mike Prysner of the U.S. Army wrote to me:
“Dear Mike -- I’m writing this without knowing if it’ll ever get to you…I’m writing it from the trenches of a war (that’s still going on,) not knowing why I’m here or when I’m leaving. I’ve toppled statues and vandalized portraits, while wearing an American flag on my sleeve, and struggling to learn how to understand… I joined the army as soon as I was eligible – turned down a writing scholarship to a state university, eager to serve my country, ready to die for the ideals I fell in love with. Two years later I found myself moments away from a landing onto a pitch black airstrip, ready to charge into a country I didn't believe I belonged in, with your words (from the Oscars) repeating in my head. My time in Iraq has always involved finding things to convince myself that I can be proud of my actions; that I was a part of something just. But no matter what pro-war argument I came up with, I pictured my smirking commander-in-chief, thinking he was fooling a nation…
An Army private, still in Iraq and wishing to remain anonymous, writes:
“I would like to tell you how difficult it is to serve under a man who was never elected. Because he is the president and my boss, I have to be very careful as to who and what i say about him. This also concerns me a great deal... to limit the military's voice is to limit exactly what America stands for... and the greater percentage of us feel completely underpowered. He continually sets my friends, my family, and several others in a kind of danger that frightens me beyond belief. I know several other soldiers who feel the same way and discuss the situation with me on a regular basis.”
Jerry Oliver of the U.S. Army, who has just returned from Baghdad, writes:
“I have just returned home from "Operation Iraqi Freedom". I spent 5 months in Baghdad, and a total of 3 years in the U.S. Army. I was recently discharged with Honorable valor and returned to the States only to be horrified by what I've seen my country turn into. I'm now 22 years old and have discovered America is such a complicated place to live, and moreover, Americans are almost oblivious to what's been happening to their country. America has become "1984." Homeland security is teaching us to spy on one another and forcing us to become anti-social. Americans are willingly sacrificing our freedoms in the name of security, the same Freedoms I was willing to put my life on the line for. The constitution is in jeopardy. As Gen. Tommy Franks said, (broken down of course) One more terrorist attack and the constitution will hold no meaning.”
And a Specialist in the U.S. Army wrote to me this week about the capture of Saddam Hussein:
“Wow, 130,000 troops on the ground, nearly 500 deaths and over a billion dollars a day, but they caught a guy living in a hole. Am I supposed to be dazzled?”
There are lots more of these, straight from the soldiers who have been on the front lines and have seen first hand what this war is really about.
I have also heard from their friends and relatives, and from other veterans. A mother writing on behalf of her son (whose name we have withheld) wrote:
“My son said that this is the worst it's been since the "end" of the war. He said the troops have been given new rules of engagement, and that they are to "take out" any persons who aggress on the Americans, even if it results in "collateral" damage. Unfortunately, he did have to kill someone in self defense and was told by his commanding officer ‘Good kill.’
"My son replied ‘You just don't get it, do you?’
"Here we are...Vietnam all over again.”
>From a 56 year old Navy veteran, relating a conversation he had with a young man who was leaving for Iraq the next morning:
“What disturbed me most was when I asked him what weapons he carried as a truck driver. He told me the new M-16, model blah blah blah, stuff never made sense to me even when I was in. I asked him what kind of side arm they gave him and his fellow drivers. He explained, "Sir, Reservists are not issued side arms or flack vests as there was not enough money to outfit all the Reservists, only Active Personnel". I was appalled to say the least.
"Bush is a jerk agreed, but I can't believe he is this big an Asshole not providing protection and arms for our troops to fight HIS WAR!”
>From a 40-year old veteran of the Marine Corps:
“Why is it that we are forever waving the flag of sovereignty, EXCEPT when it concerns our financial interests in other sovereign states? What gives us the right to tell anyone else how they should govern themselves, and live their lives? Why can't we just lead the world by example? I mean no wonder the world hates us, who do they get to see? Young assholes in uniforms with guns, and rich, old, white tourists! Christ, could we put up a worse first impression?”
(To read more from my Iraq mailbag -- and to read these above letters in full -- go to my website: http://www.michaelmoore.com/books-films/dudewheresmycountry/soldierletters/index.php)
Remember back in March, once the war had started, how risky it was to make any anti-war comments to people you knew at work or school or, um, at awards ceremonies? One thing was for sure -- if you said anything against the war, you had BETTER follow it up immediately with this line: "BUT I SUPPORT THE TROOPS!" Failing to do that meant that you were not only unpatriotic and un-American, your dissent meant that YOU were putting our kids in danger, that YOU might be the reason they lose their lives. Dissent was only marginally tolerated IF you pledged your "support" for our soldiers.
Of course, you needed to do no such thing. Why? Because people like you have ALWAYS supported "the troops." Who are these troops? They are our poor, our working class. Most of them enlisted because it was about the only place to get a job or receive the guarantee of a college education. You, my good friends, have ALWAYS, through your good works, your contributions, your activism, your votes, SUPPORTED these very kids who come from the other side of the tracks. You NEVER need to be defensive when it comes to your "support" for the "troops" -- you are the only ones who have ALWAYS been there for them.
It is Mr. Bush and his filthy rich cronies -- whose sons and daughters will NEVER see a day in a uniform -- they are the ones who do NOT support our troops. Our soldiers joined the military and, in doing so, offered to give THEIR LIVES for US if need be. What a tremendous gift that is -- to be willing to die so that you and I don't have to! To be willing to shed their blood so that we may be free. To serve in our place, so that WE don't have to serve. What a tremendous act of selflessness and generosity! Here they are, these 18, 19, and 20-year olds, most of whom have had to suffer under an unjust economic system that is set up NOT to benefit THEM -- these kids who have lived their first 18 years in the worst parts of town, going to the most miserable schools, living in danger and learning often to go without, watching their parents struggle to get by and then be humiliated by a system that is always looking to make life harder for them by cutting their benefits, their education, their libraries, their fire and police, their future.
And then, after this miserable treatment, these young men and women, instead of coming after US to demand a more just society, they go and join the army to DEFEND us and our way of life! It boggles the mind, doesn't it? They not only deserve our thanks, they deserve a big piece of the pie that we dine on, those of us who never have to worry about taking a bullet while we fret over which Palm Pilot to buy the nephew for Christmas.
In fact, all that these kids in the army ask for in return from us is our promise that we never send them into harm's way unless it is for the DEFENSE of our nation, to protect us from being killed by "the enemy."
And that promise, my friends, has been broken. It has been broken in the worst way imaginable. We have sent them into war NOT to defend us, not to protect us, not to spare the slaughter of innocents or allies. We have sent them to war so Bush and Company can control the second largest supply of oil in the world. We have sent them into war so that the Vice President's company can bilk the government for billions of dollars. We have sent them into war based on a lie of weapons of mass destruction and the lie that Saddam helped plan 9-11 with Osama bin Laden.
By doing all of this, Mr. Bush has proven that it is HE who does not support our troops. It is HE who has put their lives in danger, and it is HE who is responsible for the nearly 500 American kids who have now died for NO honest, decent reason whatsoever.
The letters I've received from the friends and relatives of our kids over there make it clear that they are sick of this war and they are scared to death that they may never see their loved ones again. It breaks my heart to read these letters. I wish there was something I could do. I wish there was something we all could do.
Maybe there is. As Christmas approaches (and Hanukkah begins tonight), I would like to suggest a few things each of us could do to make the holidays a bit brighter -- if not safer -- for our troops and their families back home.
1. Many families of soldiers are hurting financially, especially those families of reservists and National Guard who are gone from the full-time jobs ("just one weekend a month and we'll pay for your college education!"). You can help them by contacting the Armed Forces Emergency Relief Funds at http://www.afrtrust.org/ (ignore the rah-rah military stuff and remember that this is money that will help out these families who are living in near-poverty). Each branch has their own relief fund, and the money goes to help the soldiers and families with paying for food and rent, medical and dental expenses, personal needs when pay is delayed, and funeral expenses. You can find more ways to support the troops, from buying groceries for their families to donating your airline miles so they can get home for a visit, by going to my website, www.michaelmoore.com.
2. Thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed by our bombs and indiscriminate shooting. We must help protect them and their survivors. You can do so by supporting the Quakers' drive to provide infant care kits to Iraqi hospitals—find out more here: http://www.afsc.org/iraq/relief/default.shtm. You can also help the people of Iraq by supporting the Iraqi Red Crescent Society—here’s how to contact them: http://www.ifrc.org/address/iq.asp, or you can make an online donation through the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies by going here: http://www.ifrc.org/HELPNOW/donate/donate_iraq.asp.
3. With 130,000 American men and women currently in Iraq, every community in this country has either sent someone to fight in this war or is home to family members of someone fighting in this war. Organize care packages through your local community groups, activist groups, and churches and send them to these young men and women. The military no longer accepts packages addressed to “Any Soldier,” so you’ll have to get their names first. Figure out who you can help from your area, and send them books, CDs, games, footballs, gloves, blankets—anything that may make their extended (and extended and extended…) stay in Iraq a little brighter and more comfortable. You can also sponsor care packages to American troops through the USO: http://www.usocares.org/.
4. Want to send a soldier a free book or movie? I’ll start by making mine available for free to any soldier serving in Iraq. Just send me their name and address in Iraq (or, if they have already left Iraq, where they are now) and the first thousand emails I get at soldiers@michaelmoore.com will receive a free copy of "Dude..." or a free “Bowling…” DVD.
5. Finally, we all have to redouble our efforts to end this war and bring the troops home. That's the best gift we could give them -- get them out of harm's way ASAP and insist that the U.S. go back to the UN and have them take over the rebuilding of Iraq (with the US and Britain funding it, because, well, we have to pay for our mess). Get involved with your local peace group—you can find one near where you live by visiting United for Peace, at: http://www.unitedforpeace.org and the Vietnam Veterans Against War: http://www.vvaw.org/contact/. A large demonstration is being planned for March 20, check here for more details: http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=2136. To get a “Bring Them Home Now” bumper sticker or a poster for your yard, go here: http://bringthemhomenow.org/yellowribbon_graphics/index.html. Also, back only anti-war candidates for Congress and President (Kucinich, Dean, Clark, Sharpton).
I know it feels hopeless. That's how they want us to feel. Don't give up. We owe it to these kids, the troops WE SUPPORT, to get them the hell outta there and back home so they can help organize the drive to remove the war profiteers from office next November.
To all who serve in our armed forces, to their parents and spouses and loved ones, we offer to you the regrets of millions and the promise that we will right this wrong and do whatever we can to thank you for offering to risk your lives for us. That your life was put at risk for Bush's greed is a disgrace and a travesty, the likes of which I have not seen in my lifetime.
Please be safe, come home soon, and know that our thoughts and prayers are with you during this season when many of us celebrate the birth of the prince of "peace."
Yours,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com
Letters the Troops Have Sent Me... by Michael Moore
December 19, 2003
As we approach the holidays, I've been thinking a lot about our kids who are in the armed forces serving in Iraq. I've received hundreds of letters from our troops in Iraq -- and they are telling me something very different from what we are seeing on the evening news.
What they are saying to me, often eloquently and in heart-wrenching words, is that they were lied to -- and this war has nothing to do with the security of the United States of America.
I've written back and spoken on the phone to many of them and I've asked a few of them if it would be OK if I posted their letters on my website and they've said yes. They do so at great personal risk (as they may face disciplinary measures for exercising their right to free speech). I thank them for their bravery.
Lance Corporal George Batton of the United States Marine Corps, who returned from Iraq in September (after serving in MP company Alpha), writes the following:
“You'd be surprised at how many of the guys I talked to in my company and others believed that the president's scare about Saddam's WMD was a bunch of bullshit and that the real motivation for this war was only about money. There was also a lot of crap that many companies, not just marine companies, had to go through with not getting enough equipment to fulfill their missions when they crossed the border. It was a miracle that our company did what it did the two months it was staying in Iraq during the war…. We were promised to go home on June 8th, and found out that it was a lie and we got stuck doing missions for an extra three months. Even some of the most radical conservatives in our company including our company gunnery sergeant got a real bad taste in their mouth about the Marine corps, and maybe even president Bush.”:
Here's what Specialist Mike Prysner of the U.S. Army wrote to me:
“Dear Mike -- I’m writing this without knowing if it’ll ever get to you…I’m writing it from the trenches of a war (that’s still going on,) not knowing why I’m here or when I’m leaving. I’ve toppled statues and vandalized portraits, while wearing an American flag on my sleeve, and struggling to learn how to understand… I joined the army as soon as I was eligible – turned down a writing scholarship to a state university, eager to serve my country, ready to die for the ideals I fell in love with. Two years later I found myself moments away from a landing onto a pitch black airstrip, ready to charge into a country I didn't believe I belonged in, with your words (from the Oscars) repeating in my head. My time in Iraq has always involved finding things to convince myself that I can be proud of my actions; that I was a part of something just. But no matter what pro-war argument I came up with, I pictured my smirking commander-in-chief, thinking he was fooling a nation…
An Army private, still in Iraq and wishing to remain anonymous, writes:
“I would like to tell you how difficult it is to serve under a man who was never elected. Because he is the president and my boss, I have to be very careful as to who and what i say about him. This also concerns me a great deal... to limit the military's voice is to limit exactly what America stands for... and the greater percentage of us feel completely underpowered. He continually sets my friends, my family, and several others in a kind of danger that frightens me beyond belief. I know several other soldiers who feel the same way and discuss the situation with me on a regular basis.”
Jerry Oliver of the U.S. Army, who has just returned from Baghdad, writes:
“I have just returned home from "Operation Iraqi Freedom". I spent 5 months in Baghdad, and a total of 3 years in the U.S. Army. I was recently discharged with Honorable valor and returned to the States only to be horrified by what I've seen my country turn into. I'm now 22 years old and have discovered America is such a complicated place to live, and moreover, Americans are almost oblivious to what's been happening to their country. America has become "1984." Homeland security is teaching us to spy on one another and forcing us to become anti-social. Americans are willingly sacrificing our freedoms in the name of security, the same Freedoms I was willing to put my life on the line for. The constitution is in jeopardy. As Gen. Tommy Franks said, (broken down of course) One more terrorist attack and the constitution will hold no meaning.”
And a Specialist in the U.S. Army wrote to me this week about the capture of Saddam Hussein:
“Wow, 130,000 troops on the ground, nearly 500 deaths and over a billion dollars a day, but they caught a guy living in a hole. Am I supposed to be dazzled?”
There are lots more of these, straight from the soldiers who have been on the front lines and have seen first hand what this war is really about.
I have also heard from their friends and relatives, and from other veterans. A mother writing on behalf of her son (whose name we have withheld) wrote:
“My son said that this is the worst it's been since the "end" of the war. He said the troops have been given new rules of engagement, and that they are to "take out" any persons who aggress on the Americans, even if it results in "collateral" damage. Unfortunately, he did have to kill someone in self defense and was told by his commanding officer ‘Good kill.’
"My son replied ‘You just don't get it, do you?’
"Here we are...Vietnam all over again.”
>From a 56 year old Navy veteran, relating a conversation he had with a young man who was leaving for Iraq the next morning:
“What disturbed me most was when I asked him what weapons he carried as a truck driver. He told me the new M-16, model blah blah blah, stuff never made sense to me even when I was in. I asked him what kind of side arm they gave him and his fellow drivers. He explained, "Sir, Reservists are not issued side arms or flack vests as there was not enough money to outfit all the Reservists, only Active Personnel". I was appalled to say the least.
"Bush is a jerk agreed, but I can't believe he is this big an Asshole not providing protection and arms for our troops to fight HIS WAR!”
>From a 40-year old veteran of the Marine Corps:
“Why is it that we are forever waving the flag of sovereignty, EXCEPT when it concerns our financial interests in other sovereign states? What gives us the right to tell anyone else how they should govern themselves, and live their lives? Why can't we just lead the world by example? I mean no wonder the world hates us, who do they get to see? Young assholes in uniforms with guns, and rich, old, white tourists! Christ, could we put up a worse first impression?”
(To read more from my Iraq mailbag -- and to read these above letters in full -- go to my website: http://www.michaelmoore.com/books-films/dudewheresmycountry/soldierletters/index.php)
Remember back in March, once the war had started, how risky it was to make any anti-war comments to people you knew at work or school or, um, at awards ceremonies? One thing was for sure -- if you said anything against the war, you had BETTER follow it up immediately with this line: "BUT I SUPPORT THE TROOPS!" Failing to do that meant that you were not only unpatriotic and un-American, your dissent meant that YOU were putting our kids in danger, that YOU might be the reason they lose their lives. Dissent was only marginally tolerated IF you pledged your "support" for our soldiers.
Of course, you needed to do no such thing. Why? Because people like you have ALWAYS supported "the troops." Who are these troops? They are our poor, our working class. Most of them enlisted because it was about the only place to get a job or receive the guarantee of a college education. You, my good friends, have ALWAYS, through your good works, your contributions, your activism, your votes, SUPPORTED these very kids who come from the other side of the tracks. You NEVER need to be defensive when it comes to your "support" for the "troops" -- you are the only ones who have ALWAYS been there for them.
It is Mr. Bush and his filthy rich cronies -- whose sons and daughters will NEVER see a day in a uniform -- they are the ones who do NOT support our troops. Our soldiers joined the military and, in doing so, offered to give THEIR LIVES for US if need be. What a tremendous gift that is -- to be willing to die so that you and I don't have to! To be willing to shed their blood so that we may be free. To serve in our place, so that WE don't have to serve. What a tremendous act of selflessness and generosity! Here they are, these 18, 19, and 20-year olds, most of whom have had to suffer under an unjust economic system that is set up NOT to benefit THEM -- these kids who have lived their first 18 years in the worst parts of town, going to the most miserable schools, living in danger and learning often to go without, watching their parents struggle to get by and then be humiliated by a system that is always looking to make life harder for them by cutting their benefits, their education, their libraries, their fire and police, their future.
And then, after this miserable treatment, these young men and women, instead of coming after US to demand a more just society, they go and join the army to DEFEND us and our way of life! It boggles the mind, doesn't it? They not only deserve our thanks, they deserve a big piece of the pie that we dine on, those of us who never have to worry about taking a bullet while we fret over which Palm Pilot to buy the nephew for Christmas.
In fact, all that these kids in the army ask for in return from us is our promise that we never send them into harm's way unless it is for the DEFENSE of our nation, to protect us from being killed by "the enemy."
And that promise, my friends, has been broken. It has been broken in the worst way imaginable. We have sent them into war NOT to defend us, not to protect us, not to spare the slaughter of innocents or allies. We have sent them to war so Bush and Company can control the second largest supply of oil in the world. We have sent them into war so that the Vice President's company can bilk the government for billions of dollars. We have sent them into war based on a lie of weapons of mass destruction and the lie that Saddam helped plan 9-11 with Osama bin Laden.
By doing all of this, Mr. Bush has proven that it is HE who does not support our troops. It is HE who has put their lives in danger, and it is HE who is responsible for the nearly 500 American kids who have now died for NO honest, decent reason whatsoever.
The letters I've received from the friends and relatives of our kids over there make it clear that they are sick of this war and they are scared to death that they may never see their loved ones again. It breaks my heart to read these letters. I wish there was something I could do. I wish there was something we all could do.
Maybe there is. As Christmas approaches (and Hanukkah begins tonight), I would like to suggest a few things each of us could do to make the holidays a bit brighter -- if not safer -- for our troops and their families back home.
1. Many families of soldiers are hurting financially, especially those families of reservists and National Guard who are gone from the full-time jobs ("just one weekend a month and we'll pay for your college education!"). You can help them by contacting the Armed Forces Emergency Relief Funds at http://www.afrtrust.org/ (ignore the rah-rah military stuff and remember that this is money that will help out these families who are living in near-poverty). Each branch has their own relief fund, and the money goes to help the soldiers and families with paying for food and rent, medical and dental expenses, personal needs when pay is delayed, and funeral expenses. You can find more ways to support the troops, from buying groceries for their families to donating your airline miles so they can get home for a visit, by going to my website, www.michaelmoore.com.
2. Thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed by our bombs and indiscriminate shooting. We must help protect them and their survivors. You can do so by supporting the Quakers' drive to provide infant care kits to Iraqi hospitals—find out more here: http://www.afsc.org/iraq/relief/default.shtm. You can also help the people of Iraq by supporting the Iraqi Red Crescent Society—here’s how to contact them: http://www.ifrc.org/address/iq.asp, or you can make an online donation through the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies by going here: http://www.ifrc.org/HELPNOW/donate/donate_iraq.asp.
3. With 130,000 American men and women currently in Iraq, every community in this country has either sent someone to fight in this war or is home to family members of someone fighting in this war. Organize care packages through your local community groups, activist groups, and churches and send them to these young men and women. The military no longer accepts packages addressed to “Any Soldier,” so you’ll have to get their names first. Figure out who you can help from your area, and send them books, CDs, games, footballs, gloves, blankets—anything that may make their extended (and extended and extended…) stay in Iraq a little brighter and more comfortable. You can also sponsor care packages to American troops through the USO: http://www.usocares.org/.
4. Want to send a soldier a free book or movie? I’ll start by making mine available for free to any soldier serving in Iraq. Just send me their name and address in Iraq (or, if they have already left Iraq, where they are now) and the first thousand emails I get at soldiers@michaelmoore.com will receive a free copy of "Dude..." or a free “Bowling…” DVD.
5. Finally, we all have to redouble our efforts to end this war and bring the troops home. That's the best gift we could give them -- get them out of harm's way ASAP and insist that the U.S. go back to the UN and have them take over the rebuilding of Iraq (with the US and Britain funding it, because, well, we have to pay for our mess). Get involved with your local peace group—you can find one near where you live by visiting United for Peace, at: http://www.unitedforpeace.org and the Vietnam Veterans Against War: http://www.vvaw.org/contact/. A large demonstration is being planned for March 20, check here for more details: http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=2136. To get a “Bring Them Home Now” bumper sticker or a poster for your yard, go here: http://bringthemhomenow.org/yellowribbon_graphics/index.html. Also, back only anti-war candidates for Congress and President (Kucinich, Dean, Clark, Sharpton).
I know it feels hopeless. That's how they want us to feel. Don't give up. We owe it to these kids, the troops WE SUPPORT, to get them the hell outta there and back home so they can help organize the drive to remove the war profiteers from office next November.
To all who serve in our armed forces, to their parents and spouses and loved ones, we offer to you the regrets of millions and the promise that we will right this wrong and do whatever we can to thank you for offering to risk your lives for us. That your life was put at risk for Bush's greed is a disgrace and a travesty, the likes of which I have not seen in my lifetime.
Please be safe, come home soon, and know that our thoughts and prayers are with you during this season when many of us celebrate the birth of the prince of "peace."
Yours,
Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com
Friday, December 19, 2003
Fuck you Media Play. I hate you.
I hate your shiney, smilely bubbly sales girls who pretend to care if you "need help finding anything".
I hate your giant 9X9 video wall that shows up in 9 different tones, I feel like I'm watching a fucking disco floor.
I hate your 38 different brands of CDRs in my face and the really cheap ones are always hidden.
I hate your dumbass novilty T-shirts of bands that were popular 6 years ago.
I hate the guitars in a box you trick ignorant grandparents into buying for their grandkids.
I hate how if I have to go to the bath room I have to set my desired purchases on a table outside...and when I come back they're gone, because one of your bubbly girls assumed someone had left them there and moved them.
I hate your giant stupid fucking gumball machine by the exit door. Those fucking jawbreakers have been around for a century and people still buy them even though they know they don't like them.
I hate your books. 83 million copies of Harry Potter and the Rock's autobiography, but only one copy of any work by shakespere...and it's fucking Othello or something.
I hate the pervs that hang around the playboy and anime' videos for fucking 4 hours. You're fat enough buddy, beleive me, you've seen tits before...every day in the mirror.
I hate your so-called "techno-dance" section. A thousand damn CDs and they're all groups and DJ's that were popular to candy-ravers in 95. They're not buying those CDs anymore, trust me; any brain-cells they had were shot by 97. Now they live in a shitty run down apartment with piss stains on the carpet while their kids they didn't want crawl around the floor dodging the overturned vodka bottles. Everytime they hear anything remotely like electronic music now they spring up and yell "I love techno! I used to go to RAVES!"
Fuck you, fuck your fucking replay card. You ask me every goddamn time if I want to sign up, and every fucking time I say no. Don't fucking act like it saves me money, if it didn't help you get the money out of my pocket and into your cash registers, you wouldn't offer it. The next girl that asks me if I want to sign up for a replay card I'm going to tell her yes. Then I'm going to take the card, break it in half, slit her throat with it, then slit my own. Yes, I am willing to take my own life and the lives of others out of spite towards psudo-customer savings and rewards.
Fuck your special orders. Twice I've fallen for putting a down payment on a CD and it never came in. Of course I didn't keep the slip that proves I paid the 5 bucks so I can get it back. This brings me to the reason I hate you the most: I hate the fucking double CD pack that I ordered, took home and opened up, only to discover that one of the discs was broken in half. I was extremely tempted to take the shattered disc and start slittin' throats. Now I have to wait another goddamn week for a CD you should have stocked to begin with. I hate you media play. With every ounce of my being, I hate you. May Walmart put you out of business.
I hate your shiney, smilely bubbly sales girls who pretend to care if you "need help finding anything".
I hate your giant 9X9 video wall that shows up in 9 different tones, I feel like I'm watching a fucking disco floor.
I hate your 38 different brands of CDRs in my face and the really cheap ones are always hidden.
I hate your dumbass novilty T-shirts of bands that were popular 6 years ago.
I hate the guitars in a box you trick ignorant grandparents into buying for their grandkids.
I hate how if I have to go to the bath room I have to set my desired purchases on a table outside...and when I come back they're gone, because one of your bubbly girls assumed someone had left them there and moved them.
I hate your giant stupid fucking gumball machine by the exit door. Those fucking jawbreakers have been around for a century and people still buy them even though they know they don't like them.
I hate your books. 83 million copies of Harry Potter and the Rock's autobiography, but only one copy of any work by shakespere...and it's fucking Othello or something.
I hate the pervs that hang around the playboy and anime' videos for fucking 4 hours. You're fat enough buddy, beleive me, you've seen tits before...every day in the mirror.
I hate your so-called "techno-dance" section. A thousand damn CDs and they're all groups and DJ's that were popular to candy-ravers in 95. They're not buying those CDs anymore, trust me; any brain-cells they had were shot by 97. Now they live in a shitty run down apartment with piss stains on the carpet while their kids they didn't want crawl around the floor dodging the overturned vodka bottles. Everytime they hear anything remotely like electronic music now they spring up and yell "I love techno! I used to go to RAVES!"
Fuck you, fuck your fucking replay card. You ask me every goddamn time if I want to sign up, and every fucking time I say no. Don't fucking act like it saves me money, if it didn't help you get the money out of my pocket and into your cash registers, you wouldn't offer it. The next girl that asks me if I want to sign up for a replay card I'm going to tell her yes. Then I'm going to take the card, break it in half, slit her throat with it, then slit my own. Yes, I am willing to take my own life and the lives of others out of spite towards psudo-customer savings and rewards.
Fuck your special orders. Twice I've fallen for putting a down payment on a CD and it never came in. Of course I didn't keep the slip that proves I paid the 5 bucks so I can get it back. This brings me to the reason I hate you the most: I hate the fucking double CD pack that I ordered, took home and opened up, only to discover that one of the discs was broken in half. I was extremely tempted to take the shattered disc and start slittin' throats. Now I have to wait another goddamn week for a CD you should have stocked to begin with. I hate you media play. With every ounce of my being, I hate you. May Walmart put you out of business.
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
I had an odd dream. This blog was some kind of harbinger of the apocalypse. Through my actions and words on it, I spread a deadly virus. The first people that read it would become the initial carriers, and infect the world. Scientists were having me do physical scans of my computer looking for this virus. When you were infected with the virus, it wouldn't show up for a day or two, then all of the sudden you would get sick and die within a few hours. I asked the scientists to test me to see if I had it. They told me that it didn't matter, because they suspect that enough people had it by now that it would infect the rest of the population anyway. They told me not to worry, because I'd probably be dead before I suffered for very long. So I watched everyone around me drop dead, and I either couldn't do anything about it, or I didn't do anything about it because I was scared. More and more people died. Their eyes began to bleed and they started talking all backwards before they died. I kept waiting for my turn, waiting to die. Before I knew it I was all alone, everyone was dead. I looked around at all the corpses, blood, death and destruction. I was all alone; alone on a quiet, dead planet. Misery washed over me and I began to scream, and I never stopped until I realized something. I didn't fear death; this scenario was exactly what I feared; being alone. This was the worst possible thing that could have happened to me. This was my hell. Perhaps I had died... Did it matter?
The dream (like most of mine) isn't that hard to figure out, despite its cryptic and confusing themes.
1. The Blog: I sit relatively alone on here. It's me vs. the world basically.
2. The Virus: I have this issue that I think everything that goes wrong around me can be at least partially attributed to my action or inaction.
3. Infecting the world: An exaggerated version of my thinking...something I write somehow spawns a virus that kills the world.
4. Being the last one: My irrational fear of being alone.
5. Hell/Dying: I don't believe in god and so don't believe in hell, but I understand the concept behind it. I kill the world, so there's some guilt involved in that. Just as when something goes wrong in my real life, or the lives of those close to me, there's irrational guilt. Hell=Guilt.
6. "Did it matter?": Being alone on earth living with the guilt was as good as being dead and in hell.
The dream (like most of mine) isn't that hard to figure out, despite its cryptic and confusing themes.
1. The Blog: I sit relatively alone on here. It's me vs. the world basically.
2. The Virus: I have this issue that I think everything that goes wrong around me can be at least partially attributed to my action or inaction.
3. Infecting the world: An exaggerated version of my thinking...something I write somehow spawns a virus that kills the world.
4. Being the last one: My irrational fear of being alone.
5. Hell/Dying: I don't believe in god and so don't believe in hell, but I understand the concept behind it. I kill the world, so there's some guilt involved in that. Just as when something goes wrong in my real life, or the lives of those close to me, there's irrational guilt. Hell=Guilt.
6. "Did it matter?": Being alone on earth living with the guilt was as good as being dead and in hell.
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
I'm in the mood to do some Movie Reviews today.
The Last Samurai:
This is a hard film to judge. On the one hand I loved it. And on the other hand, it's the same plot ( almost verbatum it seems ) as Dances With Wolves. Just replace the Suex Indians with a tribe of Samurai, shave off an hour in length and you've got the same movie. Also, I'm not really into glorification of war and death. There's alot of "It's an honor to die in battle" Klingon-ish type bullshit that's suposed to provoke some kind of emotional responce in the veiwer, I'm just never sure what it is. Also, the movie portrays Samurai's to be this perfect bunch of people with perfect lives and pure ideals. It portrays what Samurai's are suposed to be like, but with any group of people, nothing is perfect...and that isn't shown here. Maybe that was part of the point of the movie though...to show the contrast of the ancient ways to the modern ways. Maybe showing it too realisticly would only distract the viewer. Who knows. But despite my problems with it, I'll still give it 4/5 "stars". It's very good, but it falls short of being great.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World:
I'd lump this in to have a similar feel to Last Samurai, directing and writing/dialog wise. The movie is exciting, with clever plot twists. I'm not completely in love with all of the characters though. I like Russel Crowe no matter what he does, and the guy who plays the doctor is pretty good. Other than that, nothing spectacular acting wise. I'm just happy somebody made a swashbuckling sea adventure that wasn't Pirates of the Carrabean. The ending is a little weak. The Captain pretty much lays out a plan, then they execute it. No suprises. 4/5 stars.
The Last Samurai:
This is a hard film to judge. On the one hand I loved it. And on the other hand, it's the same plot ( almost verbatum it seems ) as Dances With Wolves. Just replace the Suex Indians with a tribe of Samurai, shave off an hour in length and you've got the same movie. Also, I'm not really into glorification of war and death. There's alot of "It's an honor to die in battle" Klingon-ish type bullshit that's suposed to provoke some kind of emotional responce in the veiwer, I'm just never sure what it is. Also, the movie portrays Samurai's to be this perfect bunch of people with perfect lives and pure ideals. It portrays what Samurai's are suposed to be like, but with any group of people, nothing is perfect...and that isn't shown here. Maybe that was part of the point of the movie though...to show the contrast of the ancient ways to the modern ways. Maybe showing it too realisticly would only distract the viewer. Who knows. But despite my problems with it, I'll still give it 4/5 "stars". It's very good, but it falls short of being great.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World:
I'd lump this in to have a similar feel to Last Samurai, directing and writing/dialog wise. The movie is exciting, with clever plot twists. I'm not completely in love with all of the characters though. I like Russel Crowe no matter what he does, and the guy who plays the doctor is pretty good. Other than that, nothing spectacular acting wise. I'm just happy somebody made a swashbuckling sea adventure that wasn't Pirates of the Carrabean. The ending is a little weak. The Captain pretty much lays out a plan, then they execute it. No suprises. 4/5 stars.
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