Michael Moore Today (click here)
Mike has been dashing in and out of events before the festival as he puts the finishing touches on his most recent documentary. I sincerely hope the 'quality' is maintained while he edits during a time when he loves to be with his peers and friends at TCFF. He has amassed a staff of wonderful people that tend to all the details. Perhaps, Mike, this is the year they should 'fly on their own' a bit more. See you at the movies.
Michael Moore coming to TIFF 09 (click here)
POSTED: July 28, 2009 12:29
By: Thom Powers
Today, TIFF put an end to the rumors and speculation around Michael Moore's new film CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY in a press release announcing the film's premiere at this year's festival. The description reads: "On the 20-year anniversary of his groundbreaking masterpiece Roger & Me, Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story comes home to the issue he's been examining throughout his career: the disastrous impact of corporate dominance on the everyday lives of Americans (and by default, the rest of the world). But this time the culprit is much bigger than General Motors, and the crime scene far wider than Flint, Michigan. From Middle America, to the halls of power in Washington, to the global financial epicenter in Manhattan, Michael Moore will once again take film-goers into uncharted territory."
As one of the few people who have seen a version of CAPTIALISM (still in progress), I can testify that Moore is working at the top of his game with a talented crew. And that's about all I can say about its secretive details.
Tomorrow, I'll be headed to Michael Moore's own film festival in Traverse City, MI (pictured). Watch this space for on the scene reports.
http://www.tiff.net/blogs/post/2009/07/28/Michael-Moore-coming-to-TIFF-09.aspx
July 27th, 2009 5:10 pm
Michiganders angling for cheap fun, dinner
Boat registrations drop but fishing licenses soar
By L.L. Braiser / Detroit Free Press
More Michigan residents are hanging out their "Gone Fishin' " signs this year, looking for a cheap afternoon of fun -- and with some luck, a free dinner.
The number of fishing licenses has jumped by more than 54,000 since 2007, state records show.
But, while more people are fishing, they appear to be doing it mostly from small boats or shorelines. Boat registrations have dropped in Michigan in the past year: There were 8,200 fewer boats registered this year, down from 950,772 in 2008, according to state records.
Boat sales are down and more boat owners, especially those with larger vessels, are keeping them in dry dock because of rising fuel costs and a sluggish economy.
With Michigan's rich abundance of freshwater lakes and rivers, boating experts predict that boat sales and registrations again will climb once the economy recovers….
July 27th, 2009 6:02 am
Casualties of War, Part I: The hell of war comes home
By Dave Phillips / Colorado Springs Gazette
Before the murders started, Anthony Marquez’s mom dialed his sergeant at Fort Carson to warn that her son was poised to kill.
It was February 2006, and the 21-year-old soldier had not been the same since being wounded and coming home from Iraq eight months before. He had violent outbursts and thrashing nightmares. He was devouring pain pills and drinking too much. He always packed a gun.
“It was a dangerous combination. I told them he was a walking time bomb,” said his mother, Teresa Hernandez.
His sergeant told her there was nothing he could do. Then, she said, he started taunting her son, saying things like, “Your mommy called. She says you are going crazy.”
Eight months later, the time bomb exploded when her son used a stun gun to repeatedly shock a small-time drug dealer in Widefield over an ounce of marijuana, then shot him through the heart.
Marquez was the first infantry soldier in his brigade to murder someone after returning from Iraq. But he wasn’t the last….
July 27th, 2009 6:08 am
Casualties of War, Part II: Warning signs
By Dave Philips / Colorado Springs Gazette
After coming home from Iraq, 21-year-old medic Bruce Bastien was driving with his Army buddy Louis Bressler, 24, when they spotted a woman walking to work on a Colorado Springs street.
Bressler swerved and hit the woman with the car, according to police, then Bastien jumped out and stabbed her over and over.
It was October 2007. A fellow soldier, Kenneth Eastridge, 24, watched it all from the passenger seat.
At that moment, he said, it was clear that however messed up some of the soldiers in the unit had been after their first Iraq deployment, it was about to get much worse.
“I have no problem with killing,” said Eastridge, a two-tour infantryman with almost 80 confirmed kills. “But I won’t just murder someone for no reason. He had gone crazy.”…
Investigation of Homicides at Fort Carson, Colorado
November 2009 - May 2009
There is an analysis cited on Michael's website about disillusionment and McVeigh. I question that validity. I believe McVeigh and Nichols along with any other accomplices ‘justified’ their actions through narcissistic motives.
The reality in the USA, is to realize there are ‘culturally’ dangerous regions of the country that propagate hatred. We have witnessed people such as the ‘lone wolf’ cases that have manifested since the extremist Right Wing has been outed from power in DC. The South Carolina murderer, the aged angry man at the Holocaust Museaum.
McVeigh wasn’t ‘nurtured’ in a vacuum and it is dangerous and “W”rong to believe he was. The Republicans always state, ‘These people are crazies or demented.’ That isn’t the case. These killers reach conclusions and act on them because of the culture these attitudes are nurtured. These attitudes are poor reasons for ‘manhood. They turn into political agendas at the excuse of ‘Patriotism.’
…That disillusionment grew after he returned to the United States and failed to pass a tryout for the Army's special forces unit. "It was (a disappointment)," McVeigh told CBS from the maximum security prison at Terre Haute, Indiana, in an interview that was taped Feb. 22. "But at the same time, I was losing motivation. This was during a period when I was coming to grips with my role in the Gulf War."…
There is an article in The Boston Globe that I found interesting. I wish the editorial staff and staff writers to The Boston Globe would do an indepth review of these killers, the culture they were nutured in and why they are allowed to exist and even accepted in their communities. It is a vital 'review' of the impetus of 'cultural violence' that also is validated that 'American militias' of civilians are required for national security from the idea of 'an evil government.'
…Following Forde’s arrest, one Minuteman worried that all members would “be painted with the same broad brush.’’ His concern is fair. The Minutemen cannot be held accountable for every act of its members (or former members). But these murders - as well as the murder of Stephen Johns at the Holocaust Museum, allegedly by an anti-Semite; and of Dr. George Tiller for performing legal abortions - are a threat to our freedoms….
