Fahrenheit 911 ... The Temperature At Which Bush Burns

Just saw this documentary on Thursday. What can I say! It was very moving, very provocative in a sense that it dug up a lot of hush-hush things. It was also executed in the most witty manner, quite unlike the extremist version that I had expected. It of course started out with the notorious election scandal of 2000, the infamy that would never die down, and started off with the big bang booms -- 9-11. The amount of time Bush just sat in that elementary school classroom looking constipated, after his aides told him about the attacks -- I'm sure everyone's heard of all that in the hype.

The truth of the matter is, I've gotten inherently cynical, sardonic -- bitter, if you will -- about information that is presented to me. Don't get me wrong -- I'm as gullible as the next guy on the susceptible things, like the fact that cell phones are evil, Shakespeare is a god, and that you look absolutely fat in those pants and so on. But when I am bombarded with information that is just completely not in accord with what I have been believing, whether or not that belief was embedded by the constant brainwashing tactics of the media, or it popped out of a fortune cookie, I will be skeptical about buying that piece of information.

I loved the documentary. But I'm just not ready to buy into all the information. Moore sure suggested a lot of things, and it did make me decide to become more aware of what I am reading in the news, but most of it was suggestions.

There used to be a time when I was heavily influenced by beliefs of the Republican party. Conservative, one might say, although the definition of conservatism has changed over the years. The "information" (which shouldn't be called information, but rather, biased claims) I had been receiving went like this: "Abortion is the killing of unborn children. It is murder. Therefore wrong." Another is: "Why should the wealthy be punished for their financial success? Taxing the rich more is wrong." They were persuasive, but in a very sneaky way. I bought into them.

A few years down the road, I took some surveys, questionaires, participated in discussions and whatnot. "If you were raped and became pregnant, would you abort the child?" And of course my answer was a honest and clear "no." Then the follow-up question was, "if you proceeded to have a child, as a young adult who hasn't completed a college education and is without a full time job, what kind of life would you and your child have? If you became so poor that you had to send the child to an orphanage or foster care, what kind of life would that child have? Would you still be able to accomplish your goals and reach your dreams as a young struggling single mother?" Then I got dumbfounded. After such rapid turn-over of events, I got freaked. Yes. I got duped by my own beliefs, and I became dumbfounded. At a loss of words. And pretty soon, a loss of thought.

On topics like abortion, or whether Dubya has been a good president, or the Three strikes law, there are valid arguments on both sides. Ok, let me rephrase that. To many, there may be only one side which has the valid arguments -- but to me, both sides seem to have such valid reasons that I can't really make up my mind. So sue me.

So while I am unhappy with the fact that Dubya went to war, when everybody, including the UN, excluding the UK, seemed to be against it, I still like to hold a little bit of faith in him. I'd like to believe that he is a good man, who obviously had enough charisma, power, political savvy, whatever, to get elected (I know that is debatable). He was elected governor of Tx, and he was the head of some major corporations. He didn't rely on his powerful father to get by. Perhaps he was a mediocre student at Yale, but he did get an MBA, and get him self an ejoomication. And anybody in that position, who is elected into such an office, would do the best he/she could. Just like my parents. They may not have made the best choices, and they may not have been the absolute best, but they gave it their best. They did what they thought was right, and I'm sure W did too. I mean, how can you not? The minute you are caught, you are jeopardizing your political career, your name, your family's name -- what happened to Nixon? He will forever be remembered for his quote, "I am not a crook!" What about Clinton? I don't know about you, but I'll remember him as the redneck who made a cuckold of his wife and lied about it in front of the whole universe. He made me look at cigars funny!

So while I am still taking the facts into consideration, I will remain hesitent to absorb everything Moore has said in the documentary. There has been so much retaliation sprouting from the Bush camp as far as the documentary goes, and they are disputing facts left and right. How can I fully make the call about whom to believe? I honestly can't. I know a few things that I can believe though, and that is that Bush went to war when almost everyone said "NOOOOOOOO!" and in my book, war is bad. It's very very bad, and so many people are dead and Osama is still alive, which means that many more people may die -- perhaps another 3000 in the US, who knows? So that's one of the ultimate things that docks points away from ole Dubya.

If I could vote today, I know I will not be voting for Bush. I don't know if I'll vote for Kerry yet, but I know I won't be voting for Bush. But Moore's documentary isn't what moved me. It hasn't moved me at all in my political stand point. It was a very well made documentary, absolutely worthy of my viewing. I guess I'm just too anti-negativity. I can't blame something on someone so much. I can't listen, I can't bear to listen to people who bad mouths other people, whether factually or not. But it was done in a humorous tone, and not too offensive, so I appreciate that.

You know one of the surprising thing about the election? I'm liking Cheney. He's not the bald scroogie Haliburton-scandal-related guy I thought. Even though he is a very conservative Republican, he has had enough guts and integrity to disagree with the president's push to ban gay marriages. It shows that he is a good father who cares about his daughter. That's what I think anyways. And Kerry does look like a horse. But I like his wifey. She's one feisty lady. And I'm digressing. (sigh)

Well, that was my review of the film.