July 9, 2004 [LINK]
Lileks rips Michael Moore
James Lileks rips into Michael Moore for his willful, malicious deceitfulness, and more broadly he condemns the Left's robotically monotonous sceeching about Bush's alleged "lies." Here's how his post from Thursday starts:
Believing in Bush's perfidy gives some people the same comfort and emotional nourishment others get from believing in Jesus. It validates them, cements their view of the world -- venal, conspiratorial, run by capering chimps who are somehow ten times less intelligent than Usenet posters but somehow able to yank strings on a global scale.
I think that pretty welll captures the extremely deep disdain leftist elites have for the Bushies. "Nucyular!" Many people regard Moore as filling the role of Rush Limbaugh for the Left. Well, there are strong similarities: They are both overweight, white, often-obnoxious, middle-aged males. Otherwise, they are as different as night and day. Say what you will, Rush does not come anywhere close to Moore's extremist hysteria. He's a forthright, inspirational, middle-American guy who routinely indulges in satrical hyperbole, but he certainly doesn't spread gloom, doom, and conspiracy tales. Only people with locked-tight closed minds could fail to recognize (if not appreciate) Rush's tongue-in-cheek humor. Some people blame Rush for hyping the Vince Foster suicide as a possible murder during the first year of Clinton, but those circumstances were suspicious. Likewise, his denunciations of Bill and Hillary often bordered on bad taste but stopped short of slander, which is what Moore specializes in.
Thanks to Carolyn Hoaster of the Staunton Republican Party for her letter to the Staunton Daily News Leader drawing attention to the book I Was Wrong by the Rev. by Ken Joseph, Jr. He was one of the pacifist "human shields" who went to Iraq in a vain attempt to forestall the U.S.-led liberation last year. After talking with the supporters of Saddam's regime who actually wanted war with the Americans, Rev. Joseph realized that the pursuit of peace was impossible in the old Iraq. For more details, see the Assyrian Christians Web site.