Tag Archives: Michael Moore

Amazon review

[My review of Do As I Say (Not As I Do) : Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy]

What is a book? It’s not merely ink and paper, what makes it a “book” is that it imparts information.

Schweizer could have written such a book. He could have called it “Do as I say (not as I do): profiles in media hypocrisy”. He could have profiled hypocritical media blowhards of all kinds, and put his investigative journalism skills to good use.

Instead, he chose to write a book which makes plain at first glance that it is hopelessly politically slanted. As such, the information in the book is immediately suspect. It’s like reading a book about the history of World War II that pretends the war started in 1941 when the US joined in, or an oil industry environmental report on Alaska that doesn’t mention that it’s a wildlife refuge: you immediately know that the credibility of the book is near zero because of its blatant bias.

Hence–and this is the key point–Schweizer’s book will only be read by those who already take it on faith that liberals are all hypocrites. They already (think they) know that Michael Moore employs only Aryans and that Al Franken strangles kittens. In short, nobody who actually reads this book will gain any knowledge from it; it will merely reaffirm that which they already know and believe.

Therefore this is a book, but at the same time it’s not a book; it has the form of a book, but even if every fact in it is accurate, it will impart no knowledge to anyone, trigger no discourse, contribute nothing to the sum total of human knowledge. Frankly, Schweizer could have just set up an Amazon payments ID and had right wingers send him money directly, and avoid wasting so much ink and paper.

News you can use

To celebrate its redesign, The Guardian is offering free access to its online edition for the next two weeks. If you live in America and have always wondered what a real newspaper would be like, now’s your chance to find out.

(If you think the New York Times is a real newspaper…well, they ditched their entire technology section to make way for more articles on shopping, fitness and fashion. Says it all really.)

To my mind, there are three reasons why The Guardian is a great newspaper.

The first is accuracy—the paper has a policy of correcting every factual error, and the Corrections and Clarifications column can make for very entertaining reading. The paper even does a pretty good job of covering technology and science.

The second is that the paper does real investigative reporting into things that actually matter. For example, today:

MPs from all parties are planning to campaign against the CIA’s use of British airports and RAF bases when abducting terrorism suspects who are then flown to countries where they are allegedly tortured. An all-party group is to be established this autumn to coordinate the campaign and to inquire into the extent of Britain’s support for the operations, which are said to violate international law.

The development was announced as the UN began inquiring into the operations, known in US intelligence circles as “extraordinary renditions”, and as an investigation by the Guardian uncovered the extent of British logistical support. [...]

And elsewhere there’s the first full account of the May 13th massacre in Uzbekistan. If you have no idea what that’s about, it may be because the violence was carried out by paramilitaries sent in by one of the USA’s crucial allies in the war against (some) terrorists.

The third reason I like The Guardian is diversity of opinion. Although it’s popularly believed to be ‘left wing’ or ‘socialist’, The Guardian in fact gives space to all kinds of (often contradictory) viewpoints. Today, for example, the opinion section has an article arguing that the UK road haulers’ threatened strike and fuel blockade should be smashed the way Thatcher smashed the miner’s strike. That’s like FOX News suggesting that Michael Moore should be elected President.

I should mention that the digital edition is having a few teething troubles right now; normally all the stories are available indexed, but at the moment some pages are only readable as PDF. Still, stick with it, I think you’ll find it worthwhile.

History in the rewriting

Two days after the Sept. 11 attacks, with most of the nation’s air traffic still grounded, a small jet landed at Tampa International Airport, picked up three young Saudi men and left.

[...]

For nearly three years, White House, aviation and law enforcement officials have insisted the flight never took place and have denied published reports and widespread Internet speculation about its purpose.

But now, at the request of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, TIA officials have confirmed that the flight did take place and have supplied details.

The odyssey of the small LearJet 35 is part of a larger controversy over the hasty exodus from the United States in the days immediately after 9/11 of members of the Saudi royal family and relatives of Osama bin Laden.

The terrorism panel, better known as the 9/11 Commission, said in April that it knew of six chartered flights with 142 people aboard, mostly Saudis, that left the United States between Sept. 14 and 24, 2001. But it has said nothing about the Tampa flight.

[...]

The Saudis asked the Tampa Police Department to escort the flight, but the department handed off the assignment to Dan Grossi, a former member of the force, Unger said. Grossi recruited Manuel Perez, a retired FBI agent, to accompany him. Both described the flight to Unger as somewhat surreal.

“They got the approval somewhere,” Perez is quoted as telling Unger. “It must have come from the highest levels of government.”

[...]

The 9/11 Commission, which has said the flights out of the United States were handled appropriately by the FBI, appears concerned with the handling of the Tampa flight.

“What information, if any, do you have about the screening by law enforcement personnel—including law enforcement personnel affiliated with the airport facility—of individuals on this flight?” the commission asked TIA.

The TIA Police Department said a check of its records indicated no member of its force screened the Lear’s passengers.

—Tampa Bay Tribune

So there we have it. Official confirmation that immediately after the 9/11 attacks were carried out by Saudi Arabians, the Bush administration organized a secret airlift of Saudis, including Osama’s family—and there was apparently absolutely no security screening.

Take note, as this will no doubt be one of the things Michael Moore is accused of having made up.

Five Admirable Billionaires

Five Admirable Billionaires

  1. Steve Jobs, founder and CEO of Apple Computer.

    C’mon, you knew I was going to pick Steve, didn’t you?

    It’s not that he doesn’t have his faults. He’s notoriously egotistical, can be breathtakingly rude, and allegedly cheated Woz on the payments for the design of Breakout. (Still, Woz seems to have forgiven him.)

    I’m not sure I’d want to work for Steve Jobs, and I’m still angry that he destroyed the Newton for no good reason, but it can’t be denied that he has turned Apple’s product designs from lackluster to stunning, and brought back a wonderful OS that may yet save the company in the long run.

  2. Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computer.

    His PCs may suck, but that’s just because they run Windows. He managed to turn a dorm-room business selling cheap PC clones into one of the biggest computer corporations in the world, and did it by playing fair. I just wish they’d sell more Linux boxes.

  3. Gordon Moore, founder of Intel.

    I’ve never liked Intel’s instruction sets or processor architectures, but you can’t deny that Gordon Moore was a hard working state-educated engineer who changed the world with his semiconductor designs. Furthermore, in recent years he has given away half his fortune to charity, without begging for press attention the way Bill Gates has for his meager handouts.

  4. George Soros.

    Let’s be up-front about it: George Soros makes his wealth playing the elaborate game of poker that we call the international stock and currency markets; he doesn’t really produce anything, per se, he’s just a middleman. It’s how he uses that wealth that makes him different.

    Soros is a Hungarian Jew who escaped the Nazis and fled to America. He’s been an outspoken philanthropist since the early 70s, and isn’t afraid to take a strong reformist political position. How can you not respect a billionaire prepared to lash out at the Bush administration?

  5. Ted Turner, founder of the Turner media empire.

    Another mouthy billionaire is Ted Turner. Sure, he can be tactless, but he speaks from the heart and has a sense of humor. When he began CNN, it was viewed as a joke by everyone in the industry, yet he built it into a global news presence… and then sold it, at which point it slowly turned into a joke again, but never mind.

    Turner is one of the biggest landowners in the USA, something which seems to bother Michael Moore. I’m not sure why, as Turner isn’t using his land for factories, strip malls or luxury homes. Instead, he’s using it for conservation. He has received many awards for the billions he has spent trying to advance mankind’s practical knowledge of nature conservation practices, and he has also been a major donor to other charitable causes.

Five Admirable CEOs

It has been alleged that I’m unthinkingly rude and negative about the rich, famous and successful. To disprove that assertion, here’s the first of a series of articles.

Five Admirable CEOs

  1. Aaron Feuerstein, CEO of Malden Mills.

    In 1995, a fire burned the Malden Mills factory to the ground. Everyone thought they were out of work, but no. The company CEO kept all the employees on the payroll until the factory could be rebuilt. Wear your Polarfleece with pride!

  2. Paul Fireman, CEO of Reebok.

    The contrast between Paul Fireman of Reebok, and the weaselly Phil Knight of Nike, couldn’t be stronger. Knight publically welched out on a deal he made with Michael Moore on camera, continues to use sweatshop labor without apology, and hijacks events like the Boston Marathon for publicity without paying anything in sponsorship fees.

    Fireman, on the other hand, is an active member of Amnesty International. He has written articles for business publications stressing the importance of human rights, and supporting the right of workers to unionize. Reebok sponsors many AI events, and Reebok board members have stood for election to serve on the board of Amnesty, with the company’s approval.

    Sure, the company’s not perfect. It still makes its shoes in third world countries, and has plenty of critics. But in an industry where margins are wafer thin and competition is extreme, little gestures like paying your laborers 24% above minimum wage mean a lot.

  3. Akio Morita, founder of Sony.

    No grand humanitarian gestures here. Just a company that, after Apple, is the most consistently brilliant at creating beautifully designed high-tech devices of reasonable quality. Morita was an engineer, responsible for inventing the Walkman, a device that I think has changed everyone’s environment in surprising ways. His company also gave the world the transistor radio, the VCR, and many other devices we now take for granted. In the process, it changed the perception of the words “MADE IN JAPAN”. Morita built Sony from the ground up, and maintained a punishing schedule right up to his death in 1995.

  4. Sergey Brin, founder of Google.

    I’m sure everyone reading this knows how wonderful Google is. Sergey Brin is the “moral compass” of the company, trying to do the right thing in a world where the search engine’s visibility has made it a magnet for lawsuits and commercial temptations. I think, by and large, he’s succeeded.

  5. The Kashio brothers, founders of Casio

    Tadao Kashio founded Casio with his three younger brothers; Kazuo is now the CEO. It’s still a family business.

    What I love about Casio is that they’re the poor man’s Sony. They have consistently produced quality, reliable products at low prices. It’s hard to imagine now, but a reliable wristwatch or calculator used to cost hundreds of dollars. I think the company’s biggest gift to the world, however, was putting cheap-but-good synths and samplers into the hands of thousands of musicians in the 80s and 90s.

    To price products way lower than the market required, build them better than necessary, and yet survive and thrive on razor-thin margins, is an amazing accomplishment. To keep the company in the family while doing so is astonishing, even for Japan.