Stupid White Men
By Michael Moore
Published by Harper Collins 2001 Michael Moore is now my hero.
He is also a filmmaker and a writer. His films include Roger & Me, The Big One, Canadian Bacon and he’s working on a new film called Bowling for Columbine. He has worked on the television shows The Awful Truth and TV Nation.
Moore was also one of the key people working for Ralph Nader’s 2000 presidential campaign.
His latest book is a beautiful piece of gonzo style writing. Yes, it is subjective’ but it is extremely well researched and shows America in a new light. We all knew something was up with the election but we didn’t realize how bad it was. Florida Governor Jeb Bush helped his brother out to make sure that few Democrats would be able to vote. The Supreme Court – all daddy’s appointees — stopped the clock on ballot recounts when it looked like Gore would win yet allowed illegal, after-the-date votes from military personnel (normally Republicans). Fox announced Bush’s win prematurely.
The man who ordered this….
Bush’s cousin.
One paragraph really stood out for me. ‘‘The coup began long before the shenanigans on election day. In the summer of 1999 Katherine Harris, an honourary Stupid White Man who was both George W. Bush’s presidential campaign co-chairwoman and the Florida secretary of state in charge of elections, paid $4 million to Database Technologies to go through Florida’s voter rolls and remove anyone “suspected” of being a former felon. She did so with the blessing of the George W.’s brother Jeb, whose own wife was caught by immigration officials trying to sneak $19,000 worth of jewelry into the country without declaring and paying tax on it… a felony in its own right.” That’s just the first chapter! Moore takes on the airline industry, Black/White relations (he promises to hire only non-Whites from now on), the lack of a real education, the environment, women’s rights, what the USA is really number one for — prisons and the death penalty –health care and then wraps it all up at the end.
This is an informative and well-written read and more importantly it is a fun read. It isn’t often you get all of this in one package. I was forever going up to coworkers and pointing out little paragraphs here and there much to their annoyance. But there is a waiting list, including the guy across the hall, to read it. If you read one new author this year make it Michael Moore. I know I’ll be looking for more books from him.
The Spirit That Kills Ronald Levitsky Published by Onyx of Penguin Group 1993 I came across this one out of the blue and was intrigued. It is a Native murder mystery. We find that Native American leader Saul Blue Sky has been jailed for murder and a civil liberties lawyer by the name of Nate Rosen is taking on the case. It is a twisted tale where the murder victim likes to buy old medicine bags and Native bones (whole skeletons if possible). He is found within 50 yards of Blue Sky, who is in a sweat lodge at the time and professes to have heard nothing. Did we mention that the skeleton was on the property that Blue Sky refused to sell?
Then there’s the road everyone in town wants to build through his property to build a new western-style casino.
The surprising thing about this book is the characters. They are well developed and fit in with the surprises and twists this novel takes. Not a bad murder mystery at all.
Top 10 Fiction Bestsellers 1 THE SUMMONS, by John Grisham. (Doubleday, $27.95.) A law professor who has been called home to Mississippi by his father, a dying judge, discovers more than $3 million in cash in the old man’s study.
2 THE COTTAGE, by Danielle Steel. (Delacorte, $26.95.) An aging, virtually penniless Hollywood star experiences excitement and even happiness after he rents out part of his house.
3 UP COUNTRY, by Nelson DeMille. (Warner, $26.95.) A Vietnam veteran investigates the mysterious death of an Army lieutenant three decades earlier.
4 THE DIARY OF ELLEN RIMBAUER, edited by Joyce Reardon. (Hyperion, $22.95.) The fictional journal of the wife of a Seattle industrialist;^ companion volume to the mini-series “Stephen King’s Rose Red.” 5 SOUTHAMPTON ROW, by Anne Perry. (Ballantine, $25.) The Victorian police detective Thomas Pitt tries to prevent a ruthless leader of a secret society from acquiring an important seat in Parliament.
6 JOURNEY THROUGH HEARTSONGS, written and illustrated by Mattie J. T. Stepanek. (VSP Books, $14.95.) A collection of poems by an 11-year-old boy.
7 HUNTING SEASON, by Nevada Barr. (Putnam, $24.95.) Park ranger Anna Pigeon investigates the murder of a good ol’ boy in Mississippi.
8 CATCH AS CAT CAN. by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown. (Bantam, $24.95.) With help from her cats, the postmaster of a small town in.the Blue Ridge Mountains looks into two mysterious deaths.
9 THE CORRECTIONS, by Jonathan Franzen. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26.) A multigenerational saga in which a mother tries to bring her dysfunctional family together for a final Christmas at home.
10 THE MILLIONAIRES, by Brad Meltzer. (Warner, $25.95.) Things go awry when two brothers who work at an exclusive bank try to pull off a foolproof crime.
