Hopefully Not Stupid
Sunday, October 17, 2004
The first Michael Moore movie controversy: Roger & Me
Long before Bowling for Columbine threw up its hands in the direction of violent crime in the U.S. and Fahrenheit 9/11 threatened to sway a presidential election, there was Roger & Me, Moore's scathing attack on General Motors for pulling out of Flint, Michigan (to which he's returned in each of his documentaries since).
All of you people who think Fahrenheit 9/11 is full of "deceits" (bah to you), have a look at this Roger Ebert essay from 1990, written about a similar controversy with that film. Before you point and say "You see? See?!! He's always been doing it!", have a look at what Ebert had to say about it back then. The names, places and details are different, but the points apply to the film even today -- that the movies are more about putting forth an opinion in an entertaining, poetic manner than being a rote recitation of facts. His films are not straight facts but an interpretation of them. That means they're opinion, but so what? Non-conservatives are still allowed to have opinions, aren't they?
Even if they were, they certainly wouldn't be as bad as those outright false attacks on Kerry's war record, you don't get much more evil than that folks.
Long before Bowling for Columbine threw up its hands in the direction of violent crime in the U.S. and Fahrenheit 9/11 threatened to sway a presidential election, there was Roger & Me, Moore's scathing attack on General Motors for pulling out of Flint, Michigan (to which he's returned in each of his documentaries since).
All of you people who think Fahrenheit 9/11 is full of "deceits" (bah to you), have a look at this Roger Ebert essay from 1990, written about a similar controversy with that film. Before you point and say "You see? See?!! He's always been doing it!", have a look at what Ebert had to say about it back then. The names, places and details are different, but the points apply to the film even today -- that the movies are more about putting forth an opinion in an entertaining, poetic manner than being a rote recitation of facts. His films are not straight facts but an interpretation of them. That means they're opinion, but so what? Non-conservatives are still allowed to have opinions, aren't they?
Even if they were, they certainly wouldn't be as bad as those outright false attacks on Kerry's war record, you don't get much more evil than that folks.
Go Team Venture!
I just watched a cartoon in which a musclebound secret agent beat up four old men, one of them a sumo wrestler and another a fish-man, disguised as women -- or more accurately, woman robots. And it was funny, oh how it was funny.
Venture Bros. rocks.
I just watched a cartoon in which a musclebound secret agent beat up four old men, one of them a sumo wrestler and another a fish-man, disguised as women -- or more accurately, woman robots. And it was funny, oh how it was funny.
Venture Bros. rocks.
News in spam: http://www.yesbushcan.com/
How did these guys get my address? I mean, it's not *typical* spam, it wasn't sent to tens of thousands of random people, it's obviously meant to be read by a blogger, and since my email address is right there on this page, well, that answers that. But why did they think I'm a conservative blogger? I've been mostly liberal here on Hopefully Not Stupid (when I'm actually posting that is), and most of the stuff over on Three Second Decree is politics-agnostic.
But it's still spam, in that it's unsolicited, automated and sent in bulk, and those are indeed the key ingredients.
This is the full text of the message:
1. I don't know about what everyone thinks about the "Rathergate" documents now (and that name seems mightily like wishful thinking on behalf of conservabloggers), but I seem to remember seeing Daily Kos state that the documents could, indeed, have been real. And even if they weren't -- Bush is known to have been a lax National Guard attendent. Even if Kerry's war record was faked (and if it is, I'd say that shrapnel in his leg shows astounding attention to detail when it comes to fakery), the fact remains: Kerry went to Vietnam, and Bush got out of it. But this isn't even important from an electorial standpoint.
2. The contents of the falsedocs.shtml page lists these documents that they'd also like to have falsified by bored bloggers:
Seeking to disprove these things starts me to thinking -- what if this isn't really a conservative website? What if it's a liberal website that seeks to subtlely undermine Bush's supporters through sly, real-seeming ridicule, the way Landover Baptist does with fundamentalist Christians? C'mon, urging people to debunk Bush's DUIs? If that's true, then the creators of the site are obviously geniuses -- and just as obviously nuts.
This will be remembered as the year the political campaigns, long on the road there, finally broke down and became entirely postmodern. The satire is more realistic than the real stuff, everything everyone says is called a lie by someone else, and "proof" is decided, although nobody will admit to this, more based on what they already believe rather than the evidence presented to them, for after all unless you're a forensics expert actually looking at the evidence involved, how can you really trust it? The right actually laughs at the left's claiming there's a conspiracy against them, despite the fact there exists Fox News, and the best news show on TV is a comedy program, bringing us back to satire!
Thank god a Van Helsing commercial just came on TV, so I can get to hating something it's a lot more healthy to hate than my own country, I mean, ugh!
How did these guys get my address? I mean, it's not *typical* spam, it wasn't sent to tens of thousands of random people, it's obviously meant to be read by a blogger, and since my email address is right there on this page, well, that answers that. But why did they think I'm a conservative blogger? I've been mostly liberal here on Hopefully Not Stupid (when I'm actually posting that is), and most of the stuff over on Three Second Decree is politics-agnostic.
But it's still spam, in that it's unsolicited, automated and sent in bulk, and those are indeed the key ingredients.
This is the full text of the message:
RatherGate proved that bloggers are the best fact checkers. That is
why we are writing to a few bloggers asking for help.
Yes Bush Can has collected several documents that are clearly suspect.
But we need your help to prove they are fake:
http://www.yesbushcan.com/falsedocs.shtml
Let's spring to action before these documents needlessly tarnish the
reputation of our Commander and Chief. You know the drill: analyze the
handwriting, search for factual errors, and post your discoveries.
And keep us posted by sending email to FakeDocs@yesbushcan.com.
Thanks in advance for your help.
YesBushCan
1. I don't know about what everyone thinks about the "Rathergate" documents now (and that name seems mightily like wishful thinking on behalf of conservabloggers), but I seem to remember seeing Daily Kos state that the documents could, indeed, have been real. And even if they weren't -- Bush is known to have been a lax National Guard attendent. Even if Kerry's war record was faked (and if it is, I'd say that shrapnel in his leg shows astounding attention to detail when it comes to fakery), the fact remains: Kerry went to Vietnam, and Bush got out of it. But this isn't even important from an electorial standpoint.
2. The contents of the falsedocs.shtml page lists these documents that they'd also like to have falsified by bored bloggers:
Dick Cheney's DUI
George W. Bush's DUI
George W. Bush's Second DUI
Bush and Cheney have excellent judgement and would never get behind the wheel while drunk.
Memo to Ken Lay
Second Memo to Ken Lay
Ken Lay has been indicted on felony fraud charges -- there is NO WAY he was this close with President Bush.
Bush Daughters' Possession of Alcohol
It must be fake: This is clearly a liberal media snow job on these poor girls.
Osama Warning Document Part 1
Osama Warning Document Part 2
This so called "official document" suggests that Bush was asleep at wheel before 9-11. Get real.
Are there any other fake documents we are missing? Please send them to us so we can post them on this site for conservative bloggers to debunk.
Seeking to disprove these things starts me to thinking -- what if this isn't really a conservative website? What if it's a liberal website that seeks to subtlely undermine Bush's supporters through sly, real-seeming ridicule, the way Landover Baptist does with fundamentalist Christians? C'mon, urging people to debunk Bush's DUIs? If that's true, then the creators of the site are obviously geniuses -- and just as obviously nuts.
This will be remembered as the year the political campaigns, long on the road there, finally broke down and became entirely postmodern. The satire is more realistic than the real stuff, everything everyone says is called a lie by someone else, and "proof" is decided, although nobody will admit to this, more based on what they already believe rather than the evidence presented to them, for after all unless you're a forensics expert actually looking at the evidence involved, how can you really trust it? The right actually laughs at the left's claiming there's a conspiracy against them, despite the fact there exists Fox News, and the best news show on TV is a comedy program, bringing us back to satire!
Thank god a Van Helsing commercial just came on TV, so I can get to hating something it's a lot more healthy to hate than my own country, I mean, ugh!
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Seven Warning Signs of Pseudoscience
I've often thought about ways to break people out of their fraudlent beliefs, and this is a good list of things to look out for whenever someone presents, say, "startling new research supporting Intelligent Design!" Have a look.
I've often thought about ways to break people out of their fraudlent beliefs, and this is a good list of things to look out for whenever someone presents, say, "startling new research supporting Intelligent Design!" Have a look.
Friday, October 08, 2004
Three Second Decree & Statesboro Blogger
Three Second Decree is my new ultra-short-form weblog, which I predict will be much easier to keep updated than this one. Everything on it is a sentence long or shorter! Have a look at: http://www.hiddenglade.com/threesecond/
I just got a message from another downtrodden Statesboro resident who has a blog. It's actually a rather cool fiction blog! Go on over to Okay, we'll do that to have a look.
That's it for the moment, hopefully I'll have some more Headlines for you guys soon!
Three Second Decree is my new ultra-short-form weblog, which I predict will be much easier to keep updated than this one. Everything on it is a sentence long or shorter! Have a look at: http://www.hiddenglade.com/threesecond/
I just got a message from another downtrodden Statesboro resident who has a blog. It's actually a rather cool fiction blog! Go on over to Okay, we'll do that to have a look.
That's it for the moment, hopefully I'll have some more Headlines for you guys soon!
