Not-so-Random Quote of the Month

Speaks for itself:

Many politicians are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition, that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story, who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim.--MACAULAY

The Hammer of Truth

Sometimes, a mirror can be your harshest critic. Michael Moore should invest in one. I had to reprint this post from Rife's Torch (see blogroll), entitled "What About You, Mike?" Enjoy.


Filmmaker and throughly disingenuous huckster Michael Moore has asked Presidential candidates to pledge to go without health insurance should they be elected.
This is almost as stupid and pointless as the candidates’ pledges to work for the minimum wage during their tenure as Executive, but my question is this: What about you, Mike? How about you drop your health insurance, since you’re so in touch with the American proletarian? Given both your net worth and obesity (I’m sorry, but the sight of a 350lb man bitching about the evils of American excess is just too full of humor and irony to pass up mentioning), it would seem that this is the closest you will be able to get to the experience of the “little guy.”
In fact, I think that everyone who supports Mike’s prescription for health care reform - which is notably high in facile, blanket, idiotic assumptions, and notably low in substance and connection to reality (”free, universal health care for life” sounds great, but so does a free Lexus every year - neither is feasible nor morally justifiable) - should ditch their health insurance in protest. Along the same lines, I think that those who are inclined to use force to distribute money from one group of people to another (regardless of purpose) should start with their own damn bank account. After all, why should some of us have health care while others do not? Isn’t this an affront to justice? Isn’t that what the movie is about: the assumption that positive rights do exist and should be enforced by the government?
I haven’t yet seen Moore’s latest propaganda piece (it’s on my list of things to watch via. BitTorrent as soon as I get a chance to run to the liquor store), but I would like for someone, somewhere to tell me just why the hell we’re supposed to assume that when a well-known American filmmaker shows up with a full crew and requests health care from the Cuban government, they will treat him and the poor souls he dragged with him any differently than the most prominent member of the Communist Party? Are we really supposed to believe that this is anything less than blanket propaganda (it is my understanding that the hospital he visited in the film serves dignitaries and high Party officials almost exclusively)? Oh, I see! The Cuban system must be just swell; this is why so many Americans brave shark-infested waters to leave their homes and families and migrate to this worker’s paradise.
So either put up or shut up, Michael. Or just tell me why you should have health care and others should not? Isn’t that the question of the hour?
(The answer, by the way, is “because he can afford it,” but I can guarantee you that in this area, Moore will exhibit the same amount of intellectual honesty presented in his films.)