[Previous entry: "Doing the Time Warp"] [Next entry: "Dhimmitude in action"]
09/03/2004: "Post-convention goofinees"
A bit of post-convention celebrity silliness:
1. Composer Philip Glass on constitutional law:
America is in trouble, composer Philip Glass says, because the line between church and state is being blurred.
Glass criticized the Bush administration as trying to erase that line completely.
"They don't seem to have any real agenda except to undermine the separation of church and state," he said.
"The separation of church and state is one of the most fundamental concepts we have in this country, and when politics become taken over by religion, you're being ruled by the Bible and not the Constitution. This is absolutely antithetical to fundamental American values."
Glass' basis for saying this is as unknown as the reporter's reasons for reporting such an inane statement.
2. What would this week have been without Michael Moore and his supporters:
The reaction Michael Moore got at the Republican National Convention this week, from insults to sustained boos, was "tragic," says the director of a documentary critical of the Fox News Channel.
"It was tragic that with all of the complicated problems in the world today, they needed to take five minutes to boo Michael Moore," Robert Greenwald said. "It also saddens me, because it's part of a pattern...which is character assassination. It's not the substance...it's going after the person, and that's very unfortunate."
Greenwald's latest work is "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism." The documentary says the news channel is nowhere near its motto of "Fair and Balanced."
I saw the incident during John McCain's speech to which Greenwald refers. If that qualifies as "tragic," then the word has no meaning. It also means that the tragedy of "character assassination" is the bill of fare every day at Shea Stadium. I'd be willing to bet that someone as thin-skinned as Greenwald obviously is never, ever exposes himself to anything–person, situation, film, whatever–where there's a possibility that someone might disagree with him. Oh, and one other thought–the very idea of complaining about "character assassination" directed at the modern American film master of the art is so ludicrous as to make you wonder why Greenwald's larynx was even able to form the words.
UPDATE: Binky at CaNN objects to my spelling. "Goofy knees"? he writes. Well, I've never seen Glass', Moore's, or Greenwald's knees. But if they are anything like they're public utterances...
