Yesterday I touched on Michael Moore's Oscar acceptance speech. I found the text on his website, and for those of you who hadn't heard it, here you go:

"On behalf of our producers Kathleen Glynn and Michael Donovan from Canada, I'd like to thank the Academy for this. I have invited my fellow documentary nominees on the stage with us, and we would like to - they're here in solidarity with me because we like nonfiction. We like nonfiction and we live in fictitious times. We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elects a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. Whether it's the fiction of duct tape or fiction of orange alerts we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you. And any time you got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up. Thank you very much."

As always, throughout time, politics and opinion... Fuck, what's it all about?

I'm not real smart, politically. I have my opinions, and am the first to admit a lot of them are unfounded and wrong. But, I do like thinking, and I like people that make me think, even if I don't agree.

Michael Moore: I love the bastard.

www.michaelmoore.com/

I've read a couple of his books, and to be honest, he goes a little off the hook even for me (and I lived in a Bush-run Texas - talk about scary!), but I love the hell out of him. He's one of those people that if I ever got to meet, I'd just want to give him a big hug.

Check out his website (link above - I hope I did it right). There's always a lot of stuff to check out. I just about always crack up, and sometimes, even while I'm sitting here in my fucking cubicle pretending to work, he makes me just cry.

One feature he has on his website is letters from soldiers in Iraq (he gets stuff from various sources: military magazines, home-town newspapers, where sometimes the letter from little johnny got his gun writes to mom and dad, and it makes the fucking Ken-Ten Bee). Today, in particular, he's got a letter on there that a soldier wrote to him, and it's just beautiful. I don't like war, I don't want it, I would never fight for anything just because the guy in the suit says so (now, don't get me wrong, I'd fight if I felt the right to), but I thank God for people like this dude, and all the others out there in uniform (tools or not).

And I agree with him. I'm not sure who saw Michael Moore's Oscar acceptance speech (although from the anti-TV talk on the journals, I assume not many of you). I was watching with my very naive friend Bob, and I cheered. Bob says, I just don't understand why he would do that. I told Bob, because he can. Because that's America. When you can receive and deserve an award by some stupid, yet for some reason respected, committee, and not have to kow-tow and say, o, thank you, o wise ones.
Rock on, Mike!

"Emancipate yourself from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds
Have no fear for atomic energy
Cause none of them can stop the time"

In response to Paul's television rant:

In a lot of ways, I completely agree. I think that television is a whole shit load of garbage, and that people spend way too many hours of their lives deer-eyed in front of it. It makes it real easy to tune in and drop out, without any effort at all... and, here's the best part - you can still have something to talk about with all those other losers at the office, whether it's the latest Survivor refugee, or the best toilet-germ obliterator.

When I watch TV, sometimes it's for those reasons, entertainment, easy mindlessness - sometimes the voices in my head talk so fast, I like to watch TV so my subconcious has something to keep it's mind occupied while my conscience can just chill .

But usually, I like to watch it from an archeological standpoint. I've been well aware of the propaganda in television for some time. (I think I realized when I was a house-wife, at home with my few-month old - although I'd been corrupted as a young girl for years over it - and I saw a commercial for this detergent which makes your clothes smoother, so that you can spend time doing really important things, rather then ironing your 8-year-old's school clothes - I was all, wait a minute, you're telling me I'm going to have to start ironing jeans & t-shirts to be a good mom?; I started freaking out a bit (because I hate being caught up in all that vanity bullshit (although some might disagree that wanting your clothes not wrinkled is vain - I just don't have time for that shit), and then realized - fuck this: it's the same reason I don't shave my legs.)

Of course the media fucks with us - people wouldn't make millions of dollars and political careers out of it if it wasn't powerful... And for those who actually believe that the things they see are the way things are and should always be, those people really do become damaged and brain-washed into buying that SUV, and their God Bless AMerica stickers for the back.

However, for those of us who understand, and see what they're doing, I like to look at it as getting to know the enemy and the means they carry out their evil plans...

You've killed all our leaders
I don't even have to do nothing to you
You've caused your own country to fall...
Tell it to me brother

God bless ya, Terry, I'm glad you're turned on by our brother Stevie, he's the shit.

Now, an intersted segue, let's see if you see the relation...

I also wanted to respond to Matt's recent entry about the movie the Iron Giant. I've seen that with Elijah (The sledding 4-year old in question in Terry's journal), and I think it's a great movie. A lot of times in kid films, they're either inherantly violent (like all those wierdo Japanimation craps (Sorry, Terry, and anyone else who's into that stuff - I just don't get it)), or there all rainbows and sunshine. I liked the Iron Giant because it brings up the many shades, lengths, depths and contours of the right- and wrong-ness of violence. Sorry, but if I was a great big iron giant, developed to kill but taught to love, and the entire army was shooting at me and my best little friend, I might blow em all to hell, too! But it brings to mind to kids, I hope, also how our actions effect the people around us, and that violence breeds violence, which is bred by fear. I also really dug the beatnik character, too; I though he was cool. A recommendation for all ages (although you "grown-ups" out there might need a little herbal stimulation to get into it, if you know what I mean.)

I miss my brothers, and hope you see you soon.!