Independence, eh?

Coming off the most relaxing week in the history of relaxing weeks, I'm getting ready for my first day at the new job. I'm fully rejuvenate and ready to rock. But before I head off to bed, I wanted to stop in and make Canada look really good by comparing it to something much worse.

What better way to celebrate the Fourth of July than with a viewing of Fahrenheit 9/11? Actually, I didn't even notice the inherent irony of the situation until Lina pointed out that it was indeed Independence Day just as the movie was beginning. I've seen Michael Moore films in the past and I'm fully aware that everything he says should be taken with a grain of salt. However, makes some good points over the course of this one, despite certain pieces of information coming across as semi-fabricated or at least embellished.

I could have done without the lengthy, awkward scenes of people crying on camera and the gratuitous and often graphic Iraqi Freedom footage. Even though Moore tends to overdramatize issues with these devices, he still drives a point home - though the point kind of changes over the course of the movie.

I did take a few things away from this film though. I always knew that W was an idiot, but this film really showcases his stupidity. Actually it showcases his ignorance more than anything, but ignorance is just a byproduct of stupidity anyway. If he had any chance of winning the next election at all, this film just obliterated that chance.

I also never felt really badly for the American people when that muppet became the most powerful man on the planet but I kind of do now. Obviously they were tricked into believing in a president that they didn't elect and supporting a war that didn't really exist in the first place. Nevermind the fact that the war was basically a way to cover up the skeletons in his own closet, but he sent hundreds to die for a fake cause and sent thousands of innocent Iraqis to their graves for something they were never involved in. Millions of people were royally duped and paying for it in blood - that's just not right.

The one thing that stood out the most for me came rather late in the movie. Moore does a large segment on US Military recruiting campaigns and shows just the kind of crop the military looks for in times like these. They look for the down and out, the unemployed, the trouble cases. I find it both amazing and disgusting how the people who live in the worst accommodations, make the least money, and have been left behind by their government are the first to stand up and "protect" the system that has forsaken them. And in the end, their sacrifice doesn't serve any purpose other than to increase the profits of the corporations who play puppet master on Capitol Hill.

I myself am proud to be Canadian, where we don't do stupid crap like that. I know our Prime Minister might be a crook but at least he's not killing people to make money. Plus, I'm reasonably sure that we elected our leader and in this day and age that's got to count for something.

So the next time you think we've got it bad just take a look South. I mean, at least we still have choice.

qotp: "This Texas fuhrer, for sure a
compassionless con who serve a
lethal needle to the poor, the cure for crime is murder?"
- Zack De La Rocha, from March of Death

- Colin (invincibleironman@hotmail.com)