Tim Blair

I'm guessing he didn't give it 5 stars.....

What a total evisceration of Moore.

And as we all know, that takes some doing.

Only because there is so much viscera there, Steve.

Amazing. And Moore will answer with a screed that's twice as long and that will answer not one point raised by Hitchens (including the invitation to debate).

I write for a "humor" publication that I wish did not live down to Hitchen's description of Moore:

"He prefers leaden sarcasm to irony and, indeed, may not appreciate the distinction."

ach, I almost thought you said "Michael Moore deformation suit".

My mistake.

nuff said

Hitchens as ever right on the money ,also read what he has to say about Ronnie Reagan .

He certainly got it off his chest, didn't he?

From today's Melbourne Herald Sun:

... controversial filmmaker Michael Moore is gearing up for a fight with the release of his award-winning film Fahrenheit 9/11. A critic of the Bush administration, Moore is expecting a smear campaign from Republicans eager to discredit the film.

Who's doing the smearing and discrediting?

Brian J., is that humour publication on the net?

Reading the review, it strikes me that many of the point Hitchens made about the film are also true for the book, Dude, Where's My Country. Inconsistencies, contradictions, conspiracy theories about relations between the Bush and the Bin Laden families, a need to criticise Bush (and, by extension, the Republican party) whatever their policies are - that's all found in the book.

I refer you all to the current (as of writing) sidebar of The Onion which simply captions a picture of Mr Moore:

"Micheal Moore regrets not making movie about last 600 trips to McDonalds"

Or words to that effect.

Wonderful.

You know, if all lefties thought as clearly as Mr Hitchens, politics would be a lot more interesting, and I submit far better.

Best line:

I never quite know whether Moore is as ignorant as he looks, or even if that would be humanly possible.

Holy crap. I almost feel sorry for Michael Moore after reading that. Almost, but not quite. He took the whole thing down, piece by piece. I like how he caught on to the "have it both way" lefty arguments, and explained it so well. The American left has gone so far off the deep end on this whole ordeal. I'm saying this as a registered Democrat. Note to Michael....Don't sue anyone, especially this guy. That technique always backfires.

Best takedown of Mike Moore - and other lefties as well - comes from P.J. O'Rourke, (linked by Tim earlier):

Michael Moore's previous book was Stupid White Men, titled in a spirit of gentle persuasion unmatched since Martin Luther, that original Antinomian, wrote Against the Murderous and Thieving Hordes of Peasants. Moore's new book, Dude, Where's My Country?, contains ten chapters of fulminations convincing the convinced. However, Moore does include one chapter on how to argue with a conservative. As if. Approached by someone like Michael Moore, a conservative would drop a quarter in Moore's Starbucks cup and hurriedly walk away. Also, Moore makes this suggestion: "Tell him how dependable conservatives are. When you need something fixed, you call your redneck brother-in-law, don't you?"

Brave little Michael, hiding behind the skirts of his attorneys. He throws stones at people but is scared to get bruised in return. I hope Hitch succeeds in luring Mikey into the play yard for an honest to god fight in the dirt.

TimT, yes, it's www.dailyprobe.com. I've had run-ins with the publisher in the past, like when he not only spiked my piece on that new folk song, "Mumia, The Doe-Eyed Cop-Killer," but actually took offense at the characterization. They're definitely partisan left-liberals thereabouts and so I have to work twice as funny to get anything in. Oh well, nobody said contributing free humor to a little-read website would be easy.

Now occasionally a funny word or two gets in, but hardly ever when it's to do with politics. The two Reagan headlines currently displayed on the site (it's basically on semi-permanent hiatus) are mine. I figured why not show them how a funny headline about Reagan might go even though it's my own ox getting gored. Otherwise we were getting a lot of "ketchup still not a vegetable" and other idiotarian crap.

Although it is fascinating to see lefties directing some of their greatest venom at each other. Jonathan Freedland had a dig at Moore last year over his apparent populism which he said was unseemly for lefties.

Is there some transatlantic war going on for global left domination?

And where do Australian lefties come into the picture? Philip Adams is reduced to responding to delusional letter writers about hats.

Man is Hitchens pissed.

"But I offer this, to Moore and to his rapid response rabble. Any time, Michael my boy. Let's redo Telluride. Any show. Any place. Any platform. Let's see what you're made of."

Oh boy - I want tickets to this please.

We already know what Mike is made of

That was a fun read. Moore would be a brave man to sue this guy given how easy it would be to prove Hitchen's comments. I'd love to see a debate between these two, Moore would probably end up in tears.

MICHAEL MOORE'S FAULTY LOGIC

In decrying the "R" rating of his new film Fahrenheit 9/11 (which will mean that 17 year olds and under won't be able to see it unless accompanied by an adult, Moore says:

"It is sadly very possible that many 15- and 16-year-olds will be asked and recruited to serve in Iraq in the next couple of years," Moore said in a weekend statement. "If they are old enough to be recruited and capable of being in combat and risking their lives, they certainly deserve the right to see what is going on in Iraq."

This is a classic non-sequiter, neatly linking 15 and 16 year olds with combat in Iraq, thus justifying their viewing of Moore's film. But hang on a minute! 15 and 16 year old aren't recruited for combat, at least in the Western liberal democracies of which Moore is so fond. You have to be at least 18, which is by neat coincidence the age you need to be to see an "R" film.

And is Moore less than sanguine about the Iraq issue? You bet! To be fighting in Iraq, a 15-year old Moore-savvy intellectual provocateur in 2004 will need to be an 18-year old mean, lean fighting machine in 2007. Moore obviously does not think his mission to save Iraq from the US will be successful. Three more years! Gives him the opportunity to milk the controversy with three more Moore films.

Said it before, I'll say it again, Hitch is a polemicist, scholar and critic par excellence.

To be critiqued by Hitchens is Moore's greatest honour - one which the latter's undergraduate and mendacious maunderings scarcely warrant.

is it just me or does Moore look kinda like Jabba the Hut?

Whoah. And I mean whoah. Moore was ripped to shreds by that article.

is it just me or does Moore look kinda like Jabba the Hut?

Maybe. But Jabba has a more consistent set of ethics, that's for sure.

Plus he'd be more fun to hang around.

"In decrying the "R" rating of his new film Fahrenheit 9/11 (which will mean that 17 year olds and under won't be able to see it unless accompanied by an adult..."

Actually, they'll have to wait for the video.

I wonder if Moore hasn't made these warnings as a sly set up. When he doesn't start his massive legal attacks, his lemmings will assume, in the absence of news that Moore is in court, that his flick isn't being criticized.

And some people say the Chinese government is corrupt, mindeless, and bloated.

Hah!

Hitchens is great. And he's soon to be an American citizen. F' the queen. God save the Hitch!

Let's begin an international taunting campaign. And if Moore needs money to pay his lawyers he can always call the folks who finance Air America.

I dislike Michael Moore so much I'm actually considering NOT illegaly downloading his movie.

ouch, did he get taken to the woodshed.

the right wing is the breeding grounds for extemists. Congratulations.

'guns dont solve problems, i do'

Lo and behold, a Datsun Dipstick.

Michael Moore says 'just the facts ma'am'...

Moore said that documentaries need not be fair and balanced, but added that there was no room for factual error in “Fahrenheit 9/11” given the scrutiny.

“When you say something is fact, it has to be fact,” he said. “Once you establish your facts, then a documentary must have a point of view and it only works if it has a point of view.”

Moore Speaks More

Just the facts, huh?

Hardy friggin' har har there tree hugging sister. Tell you what. Go watch the movie. Give your money to Michael Moore. Give it a standing ovation.

Meanwhile the serious people here in America who actually take care of business will be busy keeping our country free and safe so dipshits like Mr. Moore can do what dipshits historically have always done - fool other dipshits.

The left-wing (with the noted exception of CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, Datsun) is the breeding ground for non-sequitur.

Congratulations for being able to type.

"Guns don't kill people. Abortionists do."

"Was he a symbol of post-modern irony, or was he just an annoying fat blob?" This can describe which character?
A. this movie entertainer .
B. this BBC entertainer .
C. Michael Moore .

Ouch. That was a verbal ass kicking of epic proportions. Of course Hitchens had an ass of epic proportions as a target but that was still a delicious beatdown.

I wonder if Moore will really be dumb enough to try to bully Hitchens around with his "fact checkers" and lawyers. Hitchens is probably praying that he does since this will give him an excuse to publically skewer Moore again. The Round Clown of Agitprop is in way out of his depth against Hitchens.

"When you say something is fact, it has to be fact,"

In the world of MM some facts are more equal than others.

Don't you love how Hitch mocks the invocation of Orwell at the conclusion of Moore's mockumentary by doing him one better? At the end of his Moore-the-unserious-man-and-fatuous-filmmaker review, Hitchens also quotes Orwell (from Notes on Nationalism, 1945):

"... there is a minority of intellectual pacifists, whose real though unacknowledged motive appears to be hatred of western democracy and admiration for totalitarianism. Pacifist propaganda usually boils down to saying that one side is as bad as the other, but if one looks closely at the writing of the younger intellectual pacifists, one finds that they do not by any means express impartial disapproval but are directed almost entirely against Britain and the United States …"

Moore is just a junk historian purveying his junk agenda through junk innuendo and PC Newspeak. Moore may be "Orwellian", but clearly is no Orwell.

Hardy friggin' har har there tree hugging sister. Tell you what. Go watch the movie. Give your money to Michael Moore. Give it a standing ovation.

Meanwhile the serious people here in America who actually take care of business will be busy keeping our country free and safe...

Um, calm down Brent. The quote/link to the article were posted to put an exclamation point to precisely what Mr. Hitchens wrote, and meant to provide eye-rolling amusement (har har) at more of Moore's moronic posturing.

As for busily 'keeping our country free', don't be too quick to assume that behind every posting nom de plume is an individual who can be immediately stereotyped by virtue of the same.

[sarcasm] Moore said that documentaries need not be fair and balanced, but added that there was no room for factual error in “Fahrenheit 9/11” given the scrutiny.

“When you say something is fact, it has to be fact,” he said. “Once you establish your facts, then a documentary must have a point of view and it only works if it has a point of view.” [/sarcasm]

Sis, did we forget our sarcasm tags? Or was the tongue-planted-firmly-in-cheek...

That wasn't her cheek! Yow!

Dear little Crusader Bro ~ didn't think they were needed. My bad.

Brian ~ oooh, ICK!

And now they've gone and killed that poor South Korean fellow, the bastards. Makes Moore and his ilk even moore revolting.

And now they've gone and killed that poor South Korean fellow, the bastards. Makes Moore and his ilk even moore revolting.

Makes me wish the SK would send in their Marines to do a bit of armed vacationing.....send a few more of the islamists to paradise in short order...hopefully in pieces....

I know the blogs refer to these breakdowns as "fisking", but I would liken this more to a "bitch slapping"

I know the blogs refer to these breakdowns as "fisking", but I would liken this more to a "bitch slapping"

Or blob-slapping, in this case.....

Yowsir, what a reaming. Let's start a legal defense fund for all the people MM will sue.

What? We don't need one?

Oh.

I'd like to see Hitchens and Franken start feudiing. After all, Hitch did make an opening salvo by calling Franken a "complete hack" on C-Span several months back. Al, where's team Franken when you need them!

Michael Moore is NOT a big fat liar. He's just big-boned and veracity-challenged.

Ah, screw that political correctness. He IS a big fat liar!

Moore unfortunately has a wide (pardon the pun) audience of fawning lemmings to whom every gaseous invective pimped by that giant arse is gospel truth.

That army of hooka puffing jackasses supporting Moore's apparently neckless Boston creme-filled head, are demonstrably capable of transforming his 'big lies' (huge lie in this case...) into a mountain range of cash that will be quickly converted to the equivalent in donuts and post-modern propaganda.

Buy Krispy Kreme® stocks now

Which reminds me. A friend asked me the other day "How high can you pile sh!t?".....I said "I dunno.....how tall is Michael Moore?"

Sorry, tree hugging sister, I didn't get the sarcasm the first time. The high level of witty repartee here can sometimes lead to ill-advided driveby scoldings. Apparently. :)

Wow, gotta love that Michael Moore -- so facts are whatever he says they are? Well, I say that facts are whatever I say they are! And that's a fact! And so is the fact that the moon is made of cheese! The government, they lied because they want to control the cheese supply! Big Dairy is behind it... (Someone please send this to Michael Moore. I want to see a pig try to fly to the moon.)

I guess it's no surprise there are already stories out there about Moore skewing interviews to suit his own biases - here's a good one:

My favourite quote: "I was walking back to my office after casting a vote, and all of a sudden some oversized guy puts a mike in my face and a camera in my face," Kennedy said.

urgh, I suck at html. Here's the link:

http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/8838660.htm

Aw, Brent, that was mighty handsome of you ~ a true gentleman! I do tend to think everyone should automatically know WTF I mean, so that's my bad. Peace, love and happiness... REALLY!! {;^P

tree hug, no one ever knows wtf you mean...if you know what i mean

Oh Bingster, go SOCOM something...