Rating:  Summary: Stupid Everybody Review: Moore makes you think about everything and even gets you to hate a little bit of yourself in this book. The great thing about him is that he's a liberal who takes potshots at EVERYBODY, not just the far right. He cracks on democrats, republicans, even on occasion the green party of which he is a part. As a republican I disagree with a few of his views but surprisingly VERY few. Most people who straddle the middle will find that this book really makes them think about how they vote. Oh, and anyone who hates the Thief-In-Chief (George W), will LOVE this book.
Rating:  Summary: Angry White Guilt, it should be titled Review: I strongly disagree with Michael Moore's politics, but have a great deal of respect and admiration for him, and find him quite entertaining. It was based on that that I bought this book. TOO MUCH of the book is in too whiney a tone and it seems a little soft at some points - less than what I'd expect from him, I suppose. He comes across as more angry than positively geared toward making changes. We get A LOT about the 2000 election and he seems to be under the illusion that people don't know the real facts and it's up to him to share them. Michael, anyone socially/politically motivated enough to read your book, on either side, is going to be aware of the events surrounding the election. Footnotes would be nice, also. He does have references in the back, but it's not always clear from where he is pulling particular quotes or facts and there were a couple of statements he made that I could find no corroboration for whatsoever. And the chapter that's geared toward high school students is a big waste of time. Is that much of his audience in high school that he needs to direct so many pages to them? Does he expect progressive parents to share this chapter with them? Does he hope they'll follow in his footsteps and try to ruin the career of a principal - who by all indications is not a bad man - in their youthful folly, akin to what he exhibited? And Cynthia Mckinney - CYNTHIA MCKINNEY?? - topping his list as fantasy president??? All in all, I'd recommend it - but don't expect to be moved or enlightened the way you may have been with his earlier work.
Rating:  Summary: Now Go On From Here Review: After reading this book, one can have no doubt that Michael Moore is funny and talented. Though we can spend forever debating the accuracy of many of his allegations, I think most people will agree with the general thrust of what he is trying to say about America in this book, however unfortunately named. Whatever side of the spectrum you are on, it is now possible for you to go on to learn more, to learn the little known history and philosophy behind how Michael Moore's feelings about America arose. How? Fortunately, it's made easy in a new book recommended to me that I think is another easy-to-read, rising star titled "West Point: Character Leadership Education, A Book Developed From The Readings And Writings Of Thomas Jefferson", a book in which West Point is a metaphor for America.
Rating:  Summary: The Sound and The Fury.... Review: "Stupid White Men" reminded me of "Nickel and Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich. Oh the unfairness of it all! O tempora, O Mores! SWM is little more than a diatribe against all that is wrong with America. The principal target is W, the president of the United States. Moore takes careful aim at the stolen Florida election and does so in well -documented fashion. In fact, little is made up on these pages. There is an impressive 18 pages of "Notes and Sources". Moore knows whatof he speaks. The view here is so what? What can be done about it all? No real answers emerge. One problem is that the author has lost the fresh, impudent innocence of "Roger and Me". He is no longer the poor kid from Flint, Michigan. Now he has some money in the bank-and it shows! (It also showed for Ms. Ehrenreich, who could quit her fake jobs anytime after publication date). Moore comes across as an angry, rich liberal when those in trouble are likely to be angry middle class or poor liberals! The author gets very high marks from this reviewer on one score: In his eyes, Bill Clinton and the Democrats are little better than W and the Republicans. That much is appallingly true and if enough of us get that particular message, then SWM has not been written in vain. Democrats are not so well meaning as they may appear. The bottom line: negative diatribes (the same word twice in a paragraph!) are not what this country needs these days. I recommend passing SWM by.
Rating:  Summary: A work of genius that every American needs to read Review: I approached this book with a degree of trepidation, expecting a biased liberal compendium of conspiracy theories and whining. What I discovered was one of the most enlightening, hilariously funny and thought-provoking books I have ever had the pleasure to read. Well articulated and brilliantly researched, Stupid White Men does not target any single political social group. Democrats, Republicans, the NRA, environmentalists and the politically correct lobby are all fodder for Moore's cutting analysis of modern America. The most disturbing aspect of this book is its emotional impact. I found myself both laughing and getting angry simultaneously; although my anger was directed not at Moore, but at my fellow citizens for being so blind to the injustices and corruption that plague our society. It is hard to argue with hard statistics, and Moore bombards us with them in a relentless assault on blind jingoism. Moore uses humor in an effort to make us think, to ask questions and to open our eyes to the reality of the American Dream. In doing so, he is much more of a patriot than the millions of comfortable Americans who blindly go through life with their ignorant, insular assertions that America is the fairest country in the world (ask an inner-city mother whose child is denied basic healthcare how fair America is). He dares to question the long-coveted American paradigm of "winners and losers", instead choosing to remind us of what the founding fathers really had in mind when they crafted the constitution. If you love your country and care about the direction in which it is heading, then regardless of your political affiliation, this is a book that you simply have to read... before John Ashcroft bans it as unpatriotic. In these troubled times, Moore's incisive analysis of modern America could not have been more timely. The recent spate of corporate scandals has only served to justify his blunt cynicism of the nature of corporate America, and I would certainly like to see an updated, post-Enron version. Thank you, Mr. Moore, for being a champion of free speech, for trying to open our eyes, and for daring to say what both right-wing extremists and politically correct fanatics are terrified to hear. If America had more people with the guts, intelligence and insight of Michael Moore, this would be a much better (and fairer) land.
Rating:  Summary: Necessary reading Review: Anyone interested in the future of the USA should read this. It's funny and at times maddening.
Rating:  Summary: Go, Mike, Go!! Review: It never ceases to amaze that, no matter how conservative the news media gets, there is always someone out there decrying the liberal media and its heinous shortcomings for reporting the news. Don't believe me when I say the media is conservative? Then revealing that Fox News is run by a cousin of Dubya should make no difference at all. And this is where Michael Moore comes in. With each page of his new book, 'Stupid White Men', I found something that I already knew or something new that I didn't and found my rage made articulate by Moore's humor and gift for words. This could be a companion book for Al Franken's 'Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot', though Moore doesn't waste any time ... on his complete debasement of facts. 'Stupid White Men' is an account, not only of [George Bush's] rigging and theft of the 2000 elections, again, something I already knew, but also the horrendous policies and laws that spewed forth from Republicans like vomit into the faces of the American people, now so terrified they will undoubtedly welcome the new TIPS informant system that will enable families and friends to rat each other out as terrorists. How McCarthy-istic! How like Nazi Germany! But Moore's tongue and cheek approach makes 'Stupid White Men' imminently enjoyable, a satire laden with facts and information, some which I already had verified before reading them here. And what he points out in simple, no-nonsense terms is that; we as a nation are in big trouble. I [dislike] Republicans; they're evil .... Democrats, he illustrates by listing all of these so-called liberals and the percentages by which they voted in Republican polices, have sold us all out and are nothing more than the second Republican party. He also doesn't fret to point out those Republicans who voted against some of [George Bush's]policies, such as drilling for oil in Alaska to sell to Japan. The myth that the Democrats fought for the little guy has been dead for a long time, 'Stupid White Men' simply knocks the last few nails into the coffin. His chapter entitled 'Kill Whitey' is highly amusing, while at the same time provocative as he recounts that every lousy thing that people have done to him in his life, has been done by white people. And yet the so-called liberal media (sicker) demonizes blacks as if they are the sole cause of the nation's ills, when it's pretty clear to anyone who doesn't read Rush Limbaugh or listen to Pat Buchanon, that this is clearly not the case. 'Idiot Nation' is his look at the out-right attack Republicans and everyone else are making on the nations schools. They slash funding, gut libraries and pay teachers nothing then have the audacity to wonder why our schools are so lousy. Then use it as an excuse to want to privatize them or use their state as an excuse for their voucher program for religious schools. Because they know they can't cram religion down our throats in public schools, because that darn old Constitution keeps getting in the way. I didn't really care for his section on world problems, like the Middle East or Ireland. Yes, what is he said right, but his little letter to Arafat about passive resistance and civil disobedience just didn't seem appropriate given the seriousness of the situation. However, I suspect Mike was succumbing to the frustration we all feel whenever a suicide bomber blows up a night club in Tel Aviv or Israely soldiers gun down a bunch of students throwing rocks, and the helplessness that comes with both. Neither the Right nor the Left have answer for this one, I'm afraid. About the only thing we can all agree upon is that is has to stop. Soon. There is more, but I can't help myself from turning this review into a rant or my own soap box (surely not! ed.) So the only real option is to buy it and read it for yourself. From what I have heard, it keeps selling so fast that it's already in its 19th printing. ... Maybe Mike's right- maybe we need to boot these 'Stupid White Men' out of power, because what they're doing just ain't working.
Rating:  Summary: Victimology writ large Review: Had Michael Moore not tainted his otherwise moderately enjoyable book with its unfortunately-titled fourth chapter, "Kill Whitey," I probably would have retained some admiration for his stature as a neo-Marxist folk hero. My admiration for Moore stems from his award-winning "documentary" "Roger and Me," which he financed by heroically selling virtually all of his belongings, including his house. The film memorably portrayed the aftermath of the closure of a GM auto-plant in his hometown of Flint, Michigan. Additionally, Moore has been vocal in his opposition to unfettered free-trade, which sends high-paying manufacturing jobs to the third-world where they turn into unregulated sweat shops, staffed by workers making a fraction of U.S. wages. Nevertheless, for all his venerable traits, Moore suscribes to a loathsome brand of left-wing victimology, and in this book, he takes it to new heights. The book is standard Moore fair, replete with his signature rants against multinationals, global capitalism and America's political duopoly. There is even a mildly humorous "open letter" to George Bush, wherein Moore criticizes the president for cutting federal spending and chosing cabinet members with voting records Moore finds disagreeable. Tolerable stuff, even though I strongly oppose the statism Moore embraces. However, it was the pious tone of the fourth chapter that nearly caused me to toss this thing out the nearest window. Moore begins "Kill Whitey" by noting, erroneously, that whites invented slavery. As anyone with a rudimentary grasp of history knows, slavery was practiced by the Persians and Egyptians thousands of years before the Europeans practiced it. Moore also goes on to complain that whites invented nuclear weapons and were behind the most destructive wars in world history. Although this may answer Moore's question of why so few blacks occupy skilled professions (IQ), a more subtle point can be brought to bear. By demeaning his own race, Moore is inadvertently conceding the moral superiority of whites over other races by his standards of moral goodness. That is to say, Moore obviously feels this is the correct moral position to adopt; and by doing so, he's espousing a morality that is shared only by whites. Other groups have been responsible for atrocities equally as reprehensible as those of whites. Mao Tse Tung killed an estimated 60 million of his countrymen -- more than double the amount of deaths attributed to Hitler and Stalin combined -- yet the Chinese people aren't holding daily sermons denouncing their race. The history of Japan is marked by brutal warfare with neighboring countries and Japan's Korean minority is treated openly with disdain, yet the Japanese think they're faultless. So, to reiterate, by Moore's own standards of moral goodness, whites are morally superior to other racial groups in this sense. Without a shred of dignity or good sense, Moore continues: "It's odd that, despite the fact that most crimes are committed by whites, black faces are usually attached to what we think of as 'crime.'" (pg. 60) This begs the question of what crime "we" think of and why it often conjures up images of "black faces." Assuming it's violent crime, whites, at 74 percent of the U.S. population, commit more violent crimes in absolute numbers than do blacks. Blacks, however, at 12 percent of the U.S. population, commit violent crimes with a far greater frequency than do whites. Moore knows this, but with his dishonest liberal conscience constantly whispering in his ear, the chances of him telling the truth about black crime is about as likely as waking up on Inaugural Day to the sight of Ralph Nader taking the presidential oath. Additionally, Moore reasons that since "most crimes are committed by whites," that whites should be frightened of whites and that he himself is. Following Moore's tortured logic, the safest places for him to live are those places containing the least amount of whites. (How I'd love to see Moore put his money where his mouth is by moving to Gary, Indiana or East St Louis.) Moore continues: "I wonder how long we'll have to live with the legacy of slavery." My answer: as long as bottom-kissers like you keep trotting out a "legacy" most whites weren't a part of, so your favorite victims have a convenient excuse for rioting after basketball games. Moore further states: "Well, I'm sorry, but the roots of most of our social ills can be traced back to this sick chapter of our history." Why, because you say so? If by "social ills" you mean the alarming propensity of blacks to fill up inner-city morgues with bullet-riddled bodies and basically decay anything they touch, then I've got news for you Mike -- they do that everywhere! Just look at Interpol statistics some time. The criminality of blacks is universal, from the Afro-Caribbeans of Brixton, London, to the Haitians of Montreal. Montreal's Haitians are unconnected to the oft-cited "legacy of slavery," yet they shoot and loot just as often as our blacks do. I used to think Michael Moore was a decent guy who stood up for the economic interests of middle-Americans. Thankfully, this book set me straight.
Rating:  Summary: Babble Review: Typical left wing BABBLE from the same school as James Carville and Paul Bagala, Moore just throws out idiotic charges with no facts to support him. But he's getting rich off the people who believe his B.S. This is a guy who loves the slimeball Clintons who nearly destroyed this country and saw nothing wrong with their sorrid perfomances and criminal acts-(oops sorry that was Ken Starrs fault). But unlike Clinton I think Moore inhaled too much. Buy a good book backed up with FACTS (SLANDER) a tool that Moore uses on every page of his hate filled book. My bird cage will not want for floor covering for awhile
Rating:  Summary: Just a rant Review: ...so no rave. Moore has opinions; he makes that eminently clear. What he seems to lack are (1) sources (2) reason (3) consistency (4) any shred of self-consciousness. I suppose in the brave new world of Howard Stern, Moore is a pretty good deal. Compared to an actual writer, though, there's just no there there. Anywhere! I looked carefully!
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