I didn’t know that either, although it doesn’t suprise me. I’ve even heard Michael Moore describe himself as a “adopted Canadian” so he must like the cuture and makeup of this ol’ country of ours.

Word..

He seems to mention in every interview with Canadian press, it is strange that Canadian press readers would not have picked-up on this.

Come on, the Canadian sequence in Bowling for Columbine is not a random event, he’s based out of Flint, MI which is, what, 1 hour outside the CND border? You can’t be that ignorant. Most people in that area are more more pro-Canadian than you think.

As hard as it may be to believe.

Please, the Canadian sequence in Bowling was one of the most contrived things I’ve ever seen. Even in my hometown of 600 people the stores ask for identification when buying ammunition.

And the scene where he’s walking around a really decent neighborhood in Toronto checking whether or not the doors are unlocked? Jesus Christ. How many areas in Toronto do you think that’d be realistic in? Parkdale? Jane and Finch? Hell, man, I’ve been mugged at dusk right at Yonge and Dundas.

So obviously I thought the picture that he painted of Canada was a little optimistic :-)

(Reading through my last post, I sounded a little bit like an ass – not intended).

Also, yeah, the Canadian scene in Bowling was a tad much. I regularly lock my doors, and I’ve also had a number of unfavourable run-ins with the supposed gentle folks of Canada. So the picture is pretty inaccurate. I’ve also visited a number of areas in the US where I felt extremely safe and local news was not all that bad (granted, they were the more priveledged areas, so it’s the have’s protecting themselves from the have-nots).

My earlier post was written in angst because Michael Moore is starting to piss me off with his Canadian pandering. I love this country, but if he keeps it up (and I saw this last week) Canada will end-up being a target of extreme American bias (we are bordering on it right now).

The message he gives has it’s good points, I will admit, but using us to push his sensationalist agenda will only do us harm in the future.

Oh, and go see Fahrenheit 9/11 if you haven’t already. Not so much for the conspiracy theory aspect, but because it’s pretty good on it’s film merits (artistic aspect, I guess).

That’s my point. Moore has much, much more to go on but he just sticks to the topics and conjecture without delivering the meat of the argument. Chomsky delivers a punch that can hardly be refuted since his references are often longer than the written portion of the book.

I agree with Moore. I like his films. But, if you have a strong (and good) point(s) to make, then let the facts speak for themselves. It might make for less interesting cinema, granted, but leaving all your fact checking and references on your webpage, which, let’s fact it, the only people who care are us trolls, seems like too much of an afterthought.

I’ve read through some of that 9/11 timeline before. Moore should have taken more of his information from that site (or it’s sources) and brought forward some of those arguments rather than the 5min. shot of the mother crying in front of the Whitehouse.

As an interesting aside, given all the controversy over Bowling For Columbine, not one person or group has brought forward any litigation against Moore for any of the supposed lies that Moore’s been slammed for ever since it’s release.

I have a hard time swallowing that the age of reason has come to end. The pandering may cost Bush & co. the election, which is exactly what Moore was aiming for (and what I agree with) but when all is said and done, that’s it. When have the “reasoned” masses ever voted based on fact? It’s the paltry state of our supposed democracy that’s deemed anyone capable of holding a #2 pencil, is not in prison, and is of a certain age can participate (and I’m not saying this is necessarily a bad thing). Nothing is or has been mentioned about informed/unbiased masses because it’s outright impossible.

That being said, this doesn’t dictate actual and actualized policy, because facts do. Sure, they can be misleading (think, Powell vs. UN) but facts all the same. Repetition works, but only marginally. Eventually, people will tune out excessive noise (granted, they might be replaced with more noise – but the cycle does peak and trough). I mean, seriously, browsing through countless blogs/mefi-type sites breeds countless uninformed, but more often than not, seemingly informed opinions. You may argue that this is a somewhat securalized facet of society, but more and more people are recognizing the potential, and it will only grow. When is the last time you actually turned to mainstream press as the final say on anything?

As for Moore, I don’t think he’s as ignorant as UK press makes him out to be. As you said, he plays the game, and he plays it well. Credit is due.

Haha. I thought it was funny.

Matt heading over tonight, you should come along. He said he’d give you a call. Not sure if you have my number anymore.