Rating: 
Summary: Rip 'Em Up, Michael!!!
Review: In a time of political correctness, nobody but Michael Moore tells it like it is! This book gives it to political orthodoxy with both barrels. Over and over, I found myself saying: "I can't believe that he put that in print!"An outrageous book with practical (and sometimes way over the top) suggestions as to what the reader can do to restore sanity to American public life. A really fun read!
Rating:
Summary: Truely fascinating and confronting.
Review: This book is a great read, I find it hard to criticise the allegations made by Michael. If you want to understand why many people from around the world don't like America. This could be the book for you. It is not nessicarily the people but that the worlds most powerful and dominant country is run by a whole lot of greedy stupid white men who care for no one but themselves. It is time that Americans woke up to what really runns their country, and this could be the book to do it. The two great things about this book is that is easy to read because it keeps the reader interested, and that whilst confrontational it is not antagonistic. So hopefuly most readers will not dismiss the book without thought. Go Michael!!!
Down with the thief!!!
Rating:
Summary: White Men Can Jump
Review: Moore's wit and wisdom never cease to amaze me. A true populist, he demonstrates a well-informed grasp of the absurdity and corruption of the modern American political arena. I read this book on vacation and laughed out loud at many passages.
The book was as entertaining as it was informative. Most of the facts I cross checked were accurate. Moore often exaggerated for effect but readily distinguishes the absurd from the unreal.
Rating:
Summary: A Brave Voice in a Frightened Nation
Review: God Bless Michael Moore for standing up to speak when so many of us have been cowed to silence. Moore's book, though somewhat quaintly dated in its pre-9/11 perspective, is right on target with Bush and the state of the oppressive Right. The conservatives have always been more organized, better armed, and more filled with vitriol than the Left, and Moore is helping to change this. I see a change coming. Get ready, all you Fundies... the Left is a rising force in this nation.
Rating: 
Summary: A fun read....but it doesn't live up to the hype
Review: I must say, reading all the reviews about this book is what made me purchase it. I love reading about the things we don't really know, but should, which this book essentialy does. It points out all the flaws and the hipocracies that infect our government. I especially love the tiraids on certain people in the goverment (certain republican leaders of the free world that is), but it got to a point, where is seemed like Michael was stretching it to far. I found a lot of points far-fetched and just ridiculous. He just pulls out dirt on everyone and everyhing and tries making everyone look bad. A lot of what he points is very interesting and funny, but there isn't much substance to it. I already know that politics are corrupt. Aren't those two words synonyms? Nonetheless, his book is more of a conversation highlight real. "Did you know....etc." It isn't just politics, he talks about the environment and how 'whitey' has brought us to our doom, and how comercialization has invaded our schools. All interesting and valid points, worth reading, but don't expect too much from this book.
Rating:
Summary: DO NOT read this book after midnight....
Review: because you will be laughing so hard that the neighbors will be banging on your walls. Not wanting to arouse the ire of the folks next door (and also unwilling to risk a late-night visit by New York's Finest for disturbing the peace), I took the book to the office to read on my lunch hour. BAAAAAAAAAAAD mistake... the THUD my co-workers heard was me hitting the floor. From every corner of the office they converged, to find me helpless with laughter, tears running down my face, absolutely wasted for the rest of the afternoon. Anyway... Michael Moore has written a belly-laugh-a-page howler about the current state of affairs in our nation's capital. He has several bones to pick with our current president ("the Thief in Chief") and also with Katherine Harris whose shenanigans helped him into the White House (can you believe an African-American voter and community activist with an impeccable civic record was told she had to be fingerprinted before she could enter the voting booth to prove she wasn't a felon?!!?), not to mention the Supreme Court ("Bring me the head of Antonin Scalia!" Moore bellows). And all this is just in the first few chapters of the book. Moore has no problem at all in poking holes in every self-important nitwit and poobah in Washington and letting out a lot of malodorous hot air. He's saying a lot that needs saying and nobody, whatever their political leaning, from true blue to flaming red, is safe from his wrath if he thinks they deserve it. If you read only one book this year, make it this one.
Rating:
Summary: excellent, educational, entertaining...
Review: This is an excellent book on current issues facing the US. Written in a very candid, engaging manner, it takes issues that should make us cry, and instead makes us laugh. The tone of the book gives a much more empowered feeling than similar books written by Noam Chomsky or Ralph Nader. (Read Chomsky & Nader to get more detailed information, but read Michael Moore to keep from slashing your wrists afterwords). The book gives a wide overview of the current state of politics in the U.S. and suggests a number of actions available to citizens to correct these travesties. Stupid White Men is an excellent introductory education to American politics, but it contains only a few new points for people who followed the Nader campaign of 2000. However, even for those folks, the book is good for a laugh. Truly, Michael Moore has a gift for making depressing news more palatable, and laughable.
Rating: 
Summary: Chainsaw Mike - The Grey Knight
Review: When I picked this book up, I must admit that I was looking for a Carlin-esque theme or, Carlin-light perhaps. While not disappointed, I must say that Mr. Moore has an interesting take on many of the issues facing our nation and world today. Some, well, are ludicrous but others are surprisingly well-founded. Mr. Moore (until now perhaps) is best known for his piercing and slapstick humor on his much-maligned and ill-fated television shows "TV Nation" and "The Awful Truth." I never viewed either but have read a variety of magazine exposes on the shows, none of which were particularly favorable to Mr. Moore, his views or his intellect. However, this reader found some nuggets of truth under the cloud of dark humor in STUPID WHITE MEN. While I would not place Mr. Moore in a category for bi-partisan objectiveness, he makes several thought-provoking points. STUPID WHITE MEN begins with the question: "You can choose between two political parties that sound alike, vote alike, and are funded alike by the same exact wealthy donors. You can choose to wear nondescript pastels and keep your mouth shut, or you can choose to wear a Marilyn Manson T-shirt and get kicked out of school. Britney or Christina, WB or UPN, Florida or Texas-there ain't no friggin' difference, folks, it's all the same, it's all the same, it's all the same... How did all this happen?" The answer..."STUPID WHITE MEN!" Thus begins Mr. Moore's tirade (attack, maybe?) on the threads of society. The opening question is followed by what can only be described as a personal evisceration of the man Mr. Moore holds at the highest level of SWM disdain, President George W. Bush. He lays out his "Coup" theory relative to the botched Florida election and has a few "stupid" words for Dub's brother, Jeb. He doesn't stop there. Mr. Moore goes on to espouse his abhorrence for our nation's leadership ineptness (all partisanship aside) and to the possibly daft realization that everyone who's ever done him wrong has been a SWM. His gunslinger approach fires at racism, education, all politicians, and yes, the toilet habits of American men. Thrown into the mix are Mr. Moore's many rules for improving one's life, from running for office to how to become a Hindu. As advertised, there's some comic relief as well, such as a lame parody of Bush's daily schedule. Mr. Moore does make a convincing argument that the policies of the Clinton administration vary little from those of the Bush administration thus confirming his theory that the parties are indistinguishable. And this leads the reader into the real message of SWM, a ringing endorsement of Ralph Nader's Green Party movement. Mr. Moore encourages the reader to step up to the plate and bat for your independent candidate: "There will be more Independents in the coming years; it can't be helped. Actually that's not true. It has been helped - greatly - by the actions/inactions of the Democratic-Republican Party." Its hard to argue with this rhetoric except to say that it is subordinated to Mr. Moore's somewhat arcane peripheral views. An interesting sidenote to SWM, Mr. Moore endured an incredible plethora of red tape just to get this book published due to the events of 9-11. His publisher, Harper Collins, wanted him to rewrite significant portions of the book critical of the president because it wasn't proper when the Bush administration had a 90% approval rating. For nearly four months, Mr. Moore "did not know whether the book was ever going to be read by the American public," Moore wrote in a "Dear Friends" e-mail on February 6, 2002. "HarperCollins, one of the major publishing houses in the world, was trying to decide whether the words I had written were now 'too offensive' to a nation which had suddenly fallen in love with George W. Bush." Moore stood his ground and, contrary to his soapbox style, politicked and lobbied for the the expeditious release of his book without edit. Obviously, word of his "plight" got out through one of his speaking engagements and, lo and behold, Harper Collins was inundated with letters asking them to release the book, unedited. Eventually, HarperCollins relented...to everything. SWM went to press exactly as he had written it. My summary...in surprising fashion, be prepared to think. While not the endall of social and political essays, Mr. Moore will open a few doors in your mind that may have been previously closed.
Rating:
Summary: Righteous and "on time"
Review: Thank you Michael Moore! It is reassuring that someone still seems to have both a memory and a conscience. Moore assures us that, yes indeed, people still are seething about the usurpation of justice that the last Presidential election represented and that, in fact, the Bush administration is cynically and egregiously exploiting the working poor, promoting environmental devastation, and aggravating the world's anger, loathing and fear of the United States. However, he also admonishes democrats and "liberals" not to be complacent or sanctimonious, as their "representatives" are simply a more sanitizied, perhaps more palatable, version of the current Republicans. Said representatives (e.g.: former President Clinton) in a more warm and fuzzy fashion have perpetrated the same injustices against working Americans and the rest of the world and, in fact, work in tandem with the Republicans in following the direction of the corporate sector. I have never before heard the plight and oppression of African Americans as succinctly and eloquently outlined by a Caucasian. Moore outlines and points the responsibility clearly where it belongs -- to white American society. The brutality and callous indifference he describes are chilling and shaming to read. Moore also provides a fair and convincing case for Ralph Nader and the Green Party. He certainly made a valid argument from my perspective, and I was disinclined heretofore to be very sympathetic in light of my interpretation of Nader's impact upon the last Presidential election. At a time when the realities of our politicans' actions are being obscured by jingoism, a prolonged military side show, and cynical milking of the recent national tragedy we sorely need more figures like Moore to implore upon the national conscience. Governmental policies in the interest of corporate greed are simply mean and wrong, and myopic in that they also sow the seeds for potential Armeggedon. Moore employs absurdity, understatement, and deadpan humor to present his case in an entertaining style. While the book may make those of us with sardonic, cynical humor occasionally guffaw at the ironies, what he describes is far from funny, it is tragic.
Rating:
Summary: Wake Up and Smell the Cop-out
Review: Michael Moore is a national treasure. All of his work has been brilliant and this book is his best work so far. "Stupid White Men" makes it easy for us to understand what a completely lame bunch of sheep we are, does it in an easy to read and humorous way (so our teeny little attention spans can handle it), and does it with thoroughness, good documentation and down-to-earth, straight talking honesty. Most of us have been copping out of our responsibilities as "We, the People." Mike explains to us many of the very hideous things that have been done and are being done to our country, our planet, or fellow citizens and ourselves by our "leaders." While we were following the football scores and clipping coupons, he has been keeping an eye on things and he's been kind enough to put it in a book, kind of like a Cliff's Notes for the politically challenged. While we have been busy telling our complacent selves that there's nothing we can do and it doesn't matter anyway, Mike has not lost sight of the dream of a democracy, or the dream of freedom, peace and plenty, or "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." (Remember that one?) The thing is, Mike understands why so many of us have disenfranchised ourselves and he's trying to open our Prozac-glazed eyes and get us to see what's going on so we can act on behalf of ourselves to make the world a good place to live. I'm a sheep myself so I can really appreciate the wake-up power of this book! I was on my state's Democratic Administrative Committee and my state's Democratic Platform Committee. I worked hard in various political campaigns, but I began to get sick of the futility of the political scene, sick of it right down to my bones, so I dropped out. I stopped reading the newspaper and watching the news. I cancelled my periodical subscriptions. I was sick of watching my country go down the tubes with so very few of my fellow citizens even flipping a voting lever to prevent it. However, while I was sleeping, with my head buried in the sand, the prison population exploded, we ended up with a President who I feel is in the White House under rather questionable circumstances, the health care problem has become a national crisis and pollution and poverty are growing at alarming rates. This book will quickly wake you up if you take a couple of hours to read it. PLEASE WAKE UP! You really do have an obligation to, at the very least, yourself to know what is going on around you, and NOT what the media lap-dogs choose to spoon-feed you. This book will tip you off about the shenanigans of government and big business (which are one and the same), and the destruction of the environment, civil liberties and a host of other things that are precious and vital to your life that you are going to LOSE if you don't wake up. Read it and if you don't like it you can always "re-cycle it" and then it will magically disappear and not trouble you any longer. I promise it's a very important book.
|
