Bowling for Columbine

[father]

Has anyone gotten a chance to see Michael Moore's new documentry about violence in America, Bowling for Columbine? How was it.

[J.R.]

I do not want to see it. I utterly loathe Michael Moore. This filthy sloth accosts the same type of lower-level employees he claims to defend with a camera and grills them on the percieved crimes of their bosses. And he rallies against the evils of capitalism and how everyone with money is evil in his bestselling books from which I'm sure he gets no profit. I want to see someone go after he and his film crew with their own film crew and grill him on why he's such a buttplug.

[Flangepart]

I've often wanted to see the tables turned on some of the news crews that the networks send out to cover stories. Just to see what would happen if they got the same treatment they give out. When you realise your only seeing 10 minutes of a two hour interview with some guy or gal, ya gotta wonder....what did they leave out, and why?
....After reading Bernie Goldburg's book, i can't take any news story without a grain of salt. And thats as it should be......

[Vermin Boy]

I'm looking forward to it. I agree that Michael Moore can be a bit of a jerk, but I still think he's a very funny guy, and I generally agree with his views (though not always to such extremes). I'm not sure whether I'll make the trek to a major city to see it, or just wait til it comes out on video.

[Deena]

I saw this movie last night, god bless college towns, and I really enjoyed it.  I cried a couple times during the movie, but I also laughed a few times.  This movie really got me thinking about why America is so gun-crazed and have so many killings due to guns every year (we have 11,000 some odd, and Canada has around 80) In Canada their are 7million guns in their 10 million households.  I know that not everyone likes Michael Moore, but he presents some interesting facts.  However, i did find myself wondering what he cut out from his interviews.  I think that is something valid for all people to question, no matter what sort of interview they are watching.  But everyone should go see this movie, even if you hate him.  At least it will provoke some discussion.

Deena

[J.R.]

Deena wrote:
America is so gun-crazed and have so many killings due to guns every year (we have 11,000 some odd, and Canada has around 80

Because Canada has less than 1/10th our population. Actually, the way anti-gun groups track shootings is misleading. In the case of child deaths they consider children anyone nineteen or under. Eighteen year olds are legally adults. They also include suicides and gang shootings. When these factors are taken out of the equation the actual number is drastically less. I think the root cause of gun accidents is ignorance. In some European countries (and I normally abhor "In Europe" hippie nonsense) there is a gun in almost every house, to make up for lack of military, and children are taught at a young age firearm safety, and they have almost no problem with accidents.

[Dano]

I know that not everyone likes Michael Moore, but he presents some interesting facts. However, i did find myself wondering what he cut out from his interviews. I think that is something valid for all people to question, no matter what sort of interview they are watching.
*****  Well, you can bet that he'll never show footage of people who stump him, or answer coherently and factually (not easy in his usual ambush style approach).  He misrepresents for the sake of entertainment value and supporting his point.  That said, he has done some hilarious stuff - and some stuff that was on the mark.  My favorite is when he parked a car with a car alarm in front of the house of the guy who invented car alarms and kept setting it off.  We need more people who will do that to those in the annoyance industry (car alarms, telemarketers, junk mail, etc).

[Funk, E.]

Michael Moore was summoned into being to neutralize Rush Limbaugh in the cosmic balance

[Fearless Freep]

My favorite is when he parked a car with a car alarm in front of the house of the guy who invented car alarms and kept setting it off.

That's idiotic.  That's like calling Alexander Graham Bell a dozen times a night to ask him if he wants to switch long distance carries, just because he invented the telephone.

[Chadzilla]

I loved when he hoped into the Sodomobile (a large PINK motorhome) with a groupd of homosexuals and trotted off to Kansas to harass the closet Satanist that is the "Baptist Reverend" Phelps, he of 'God Hates F*gs' fame.  They were merciless and it was funny as heck.

[Pete B6K]

I quite like Michael Moore, really found his book 'Stupid White Men' really interesting and at times really funny.

There's a British guy called Mark Thomas who does the same kinda politicomedy and is really good at it. He's doing some shows around Britain next year if anyone's interested.

Pete

[Deena]

Funk, E. wrote:
>
> Michael Moore was summoned into being to neutralize Rush
> Limbaugh in the cosmic balance


Haha I think you're absolutely right.  And J.R. for the record, yeah I'm sure that anti-gun activists may do things you question to prove their point.  I'm sure that NRA and other gun nuts never do anything questionable.  (Last line is to be read with sarcasm).  But seriously, We should agree to disagree.

Deena

[J.R.]

I'm not arguing for either side, I'm just saying that Michael Moore tends to use even the most untrue or misleading "facts" to support his opinions and many of the points he makes are just idiotic. And using Canada-America comparisons to prove a point is obtuse and just plain sad.

[Funk, E.]

Err... J.R.... With all respect have you listened to Rush? Facts are irrelevant and if a liberally oriented person with a brain manages to fake out his screeners and get on the air he cut them off verbally then drops the line entirely so they can't defend themselves and then insults them until the commercial break. The man has all the rhetorical savvy of an epileptic on crack. Now William F. Buckley Jr. is an intelligent, articulate advocate for conservatism. Rush is a moronic git who resorts to the cheapest of media tricks to keep from being exposed as the fool that he is... and frankly he still fails even at that!

[Dano]

Facts are irrelevant and if a liberally oriented person with a brain manages to fake out his screeners and get on the air he cut them off verbally then drops the line entirely so they can't defend themselves and then insults them until the commercial break. The man has all the rhetorical savvy of an epileptic on crack.
*****  I've never heard Limbaugh except as a guest on other shows, but I'll believe that.  So tell me, how is that different from the selective editing and one-sided presentation of facts Moore indulges in?  Keep in mind, I like some of what I have seen Moore do, but it's all a lot of smoke and mirrors, and it can get just as vicious as you say Limbaugh is.