Category Archives: Politics

April 29, 2026 Ray Ivey 1 Comment

Hi, Friend or Relative who thinks my liberal friends and I are just too mean in our political discourse:

Sorry you feel that way.

If you are upset by the fact that people are disagreeing with you strongly, well, that’s political discourse for you.

And I hope you are not saying that the people on my page are being unusually or uniquely shrill in their political tone. Because if you are, you need to understand the ridiculous, relentless onslaught of lies, fabrications and downright seditious comments we see posted about the President EVERY DAY. He’s a Muslim, he hates America, he is working for the Muslim Brotherhood, he’s bisexual, he’s a Nazi, he’s a communist, he’s a socialist, he’s a Kenyan. Whatever. We NEVER DID THAT TO BUSH. We complained about his ACTUAL failings, not made-up ones.

We see government officials calling for Obama to be assassinated. REGULARLY.

Continue reading →

Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 188 user reviews.

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Politics

April 29, 2026 Ray Ivey Leave a comment

I know we’re supposed to be easing up on political posts, but I am really disgusted by the desperate attempts by the some to turn Benghazi into a scandal. Or to turn Susan Rice into a villain. Things happen, intelligence changes as you learn more. At every point, Rice emphasized that what she was saying was the best information available at that moment.

The inevitable and shockingly obvious comparison to Condi Rice shows what a sham this whole thing is. Rice repeated her “Mushroom Cloud” talking point OVER AND OVER. Didn’t keep the Republic party from confirming her as Secretary of State.

Even better, McCain is calling her “unqualified.” This from the man who picked, as his running mate… do I have to actually say it?

Go home, Lindsay Graham. Go home, John McCain. Strap on a Depends and yell at those pesky kids to keep off of your lawn.

Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 227 user reviews.

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Food For Thought, Politics

April 29, 2026 Ray Ivey Leave a comment

Ray Gently Debriefs the Republican Party

Morning, Republican Party. Thanks for coming. Have a seat. Can I get you some coffee? Tea? How about a joint? Sorry, a little joke lol.

I won’t keep you long. I just want to make sure you understand what happened yesterday. Yes, I know it was a very upsetting day for you all around. Yes, we can wait a moment. No problem. Do you need a tissue?

Okay. So here goes.

I want to help you, Republican Party. I don’t want you to make the same mistakes in 2016 that you made yesterday.

It’s important that you understand that your Angry White Man Anti-Gay Anti-Woman Anti-Immigrant Anti-Anything-That’s-Not-Your-Brand-of-Christian Anti-Science Anti-Fact campaign, which came very close to winning yesterday, will never come this close to winning ever again in a National Election.

I’ll explain.

Let’s take those stances in reverse order.

THE ANTI-FACT THING.

Let’s look to history for a little perspective. When Bill Clinton was President, you HATED him. But the things you went after him for were actual things. Whitewater was an actual situation. Travelgate was actually based on a real incident. Clinton’s roving genitals were a REAL problem. Next, during the Bush years, our people hated Bush, but we went after his REAL failings: A trumped up phony war, the treasonous outing of an acting CIA operative, clueless economic policies.

All that changed when it appeared during the Democratic primary process that The Magic Negro was overtaking lefty favorite Hillary Clinton. From that moment, until the present day, you have engaged in a shameless campaign of fabrication about Barack Obama. You’ve branded him a Kenyan, a Muslim, a Nazi, a Socialist, a Communist. You have claimed he’s after your guns. You’ve claimed that he’s after your religious freedom. It was all lies, and despite the best efforts of Fox News, yesterday you were shown that…

AMERICA DIDN’T FALL FOR IT.

THE ANTI-SCIENCE THING/THE ANTI-ANY BRAND OF CHRISTIANITY BUT YOUR OWN THING

Global warming is real. Women’s bodies don’t have magic Rape Sperm Detectors. It’s not curtailing your religious freedom when the law prevents you from discriminating against other people or trying to impose your religious ideas on other people.

Perhaps the biggest mistake you made in this area was your cynical and transparently hypocritical embrace of Mitt Romney as a “good Christian.” He’s not a Christian. He’s a Mormon, and if you’d turned Fox News off for five minutes and done just a tiny bit of reading about the Mormon church, you would know that this man believes stuff even YOU would consider wacky. And yet you branded Obama, who’s an ACTUAL Christian, a Muslim. Again, if you knew four atoms worth of facts about Islam, you’d know there’s no such thing as a “stealth Muslim.” No President would be able to hide the fact that he prays towards Mecca five times a day and keeps a halal kitchen in the White House (look it up).

Scariest of all, guess what the fastest-growing religious demographic in our country is? Yep, it’s us non-religious folks. We’re gaining ground at a dizzying pace, as young people reject the Bronze Age superstitions of their parents. In every election going forward, the “Christian” base you think you can play to is going to be a smaller and smaller slice of the electoral pie.

But you tried to sell all this nonsense to the American People and ….

AMERICA DIDN’T FALL FOR IT.

THE ANTI-IMMIGRANT THING.

Bush got 40% of the Hispanic vote! McCain got 30%. Guess how much Romney got last night? 20%. Yeah. It turns out all those Hispanic voters were listening when you spewed all that anti-immigrant hate, and as a consequence…

AMERICA DIDN’T’ FALL FOR IT.

THE ANTI-WOMEN THING

Romney was TROUNCED by women voters last night. And two of the most notorious Republican lawmakers who made stupid and hateful remarks about rape were defeated as well. It turns out, women DO vote in this country. And they’re not going to vote for you if you don’t think they know when they’ve been raped, and you don’t think they own their own bodies.

You counted on women, and people who LIKE women (like me) to hate the Black Nazi more than they loved themselves, but…

AMERICA DIDN’T FALL FOR IT.

THE ANTI-GAY THING

This one must REALLY chap your ass, because it’s been such a bountiful Golden Goose for soooooo long. In days gone by, you could whip up your electorate by spreading lies about gay people for free. No more. When the President came out for equality for gay people, it HELPED him, it didn’t bury him. Your candidate, on the other hand, maintained a position that no longer reflects a majority of the American public: He supported an amendment to the U.S. Constitution which would have made gay people second class citizens forever.

Even more dramatic, America elected its first openly gay senator last night. And in an unprecedented series of victories, marriage equality was on the ballot in four states and WON IN ALL FOUR STATES. So there. Gay people are here to stay, my homophobic Republican friend. You tried to demonize us once again, but…

AMERICA DIDN’T FALL FOR IT.

THE ANGRY WHITE GUY THING

This one is probably the hardest one for you to take. But please understand the reality of the situation. This was the LAST presidential election in our history in which white voters are the majority. Which means the blaring voices of your Tea Party are going to grow dimmer and dimmer in the coming years. You counted on xenophobic white guys to clinch the election for you, but…

AMERICA DIDN’T FALL FOR IT.

For four years, your entire focus has been on making sure Barack Obama was a one-term President. Not on making the country better, not on creating jobs, not on expanding freedom. You’ve been obsessed, like a stalker, at neutralizing The Magic Negro.

To defeat him, you nominated, by default, a Rich White Empty Suit. A man so conviction-free that if he had won it would have been essentially having a lobbyist for President. A man more comfortable with lying than I am with sitting through double features. A man you KNEW wasn’t really a good man. You just thought he might be an ELECTABLE man. It was a cynical move on your part, and you’ve paid the price.

All of your lies, and all of your billions of Rich White Guy dollars, didn’t work yesterday.

Now that you’ve utterly failed, I hope you decide to find some wisdom in this failure.

I hope you come back in 2016 with something better than the Klown Kar of crazy candidates you had this time. I hope you start ignoring the crazier members of your party. I hope you decide to grow up and embrace policies that actually benefit the middle class.

While you’re casting about for new techniques, I discourage you from studying the Democrats. We really kind of suck at politics. We did not do a very good job at selling the President’s many accomplishments during this campaign. We only won because we had the better candidate.

So, in closing, I’d like to thank you, Republican Party. Thanks for the enormous stimulus package your rich sugar daddies just infused into the economy. Thanks for being my fellow Americans. I want America to be a great place for you just like I want it to be a great place for me. We’re all in this together.

Now get out of my office. I’ve got a conference call with Lady Gaga, Cris Kluwe and Elizabeth Warren in a minute.

Average Rating: 4.4 out of 5 based on 259 user reviews.

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Politics

April 29, 2026 Ray Ivey 3 Comments

Obama is Not a Muslim (No Matter How Badly You Want Him to Be)

All of my grandparents were Christian.

Both of my parents were raised Christian.

I spent two years in Episcopal schools! I spent twenty years attending Southern Baptist churches. My old copy of The New American Standard Bible is as marked up and highlighted as a college textbook.

The summer after my senior year in high school, I won Second Place in the State of Texas in the Baptist Youth Speakers Tournament. Also that summer, I went on a mission trip to California, where I proselytized the Good News to innocent children and families in Yosemite Park.

There are hundreds of witnesses who can attest to my participation in all these Christian activities. People who could cheerfully stand in front of a news camera and attest to the fact that, at least in 1976, I was a staunch devotee of Jesus Christ.

And yet, despite this avalanche of damning evidence to the contrary, I solemnly aver that I am not a Christian. Incredible? Unlikely? Impossible to believe?

But true. I have not been a Christian since 1979.

None of my friends seem to have a problem understanding this fact. My friends who are still Christian are sometimes plenty irritated with me, I’m so very much NOT a Christian these days. My friends understand that my religion is what I say it is, right now.

And yet, millions of Right-Wing pinheads in this country won’t afford the same courtesy to the President of the United States.

Obama’s middle name is Hussein. [gasp!] His grandfather was an African Muslim [sharp intake of breath!] Even worse, Obama has consistently spoken with inclusion and good will to Muslim world. [scandalous!!]

Obama’s father, though raised a Muslim, was, like me, a confirmed atheist before he was out of college.

Did Obama live in Muslim countries when he was young? Uh, yeah, he did. So did my friends David Givens and Amy Fox. And I’m pretty sure neither one of them are Muslim.

Obama has written extensively about his life. NOWHERE in these writings does he claim to be anything other than a Christian.

So what do you believe, Right-Wingers? That from before he was a teenager, Obama had a secret plan to lead America into the evils of Sharia Law by initiating a lifelong deception about his religion?

He went to a Christian Church in Chicago for twenty years. Was that all a ruse?

Are you people in third grade?

Do you know anything about Islam at all? If you did, you’d understand that it’s not really possible to be a Secret Muslim.

Unlike Christianity, which does not require any outward change in your behavior at all (lots of suggestions, but no requirements), when you become a Muslim you actually have to do things. Two very visible examples of this are having to eat halal (the Muslim equivalent of kosher) and the ritual of the Salah.

If Obama was a Secret Muslim, the food service people in the White House would know it, since every meal they would have prepared for the President for the last four years would have had to be halal. This is not something that could be done without attracting a lot of attention.

The Salah is the required ritual of prayer every Muslim must fulfill at five absolutely specific times per day. I’m talking about the prayer mat, the facing Mecca thing, etc.

There is absolutely no way any President could perform this ritual for four years, five times a day, and word of it not get out. And guess what? If Obama doesn’t observe the Salah, he’s not a Muslim. Yeah, that’s how that works.

And one more thing. What if it were true? What if the President was a Muslim? You realize that to object to that is un-American and unconstitutional, right? Yeah, it’s in the Constitution that no religious test ever be required for political office in the United States. That Religious Freedom thing you keep wailing about? It cuts all ways. It applies to Muslims, too. You can be a real American and be a Catholic, a Baptist, a Buddhist, a Wiccan, a Hindu, a Muslim, or even someone who has no religion at all, like me. And if you disagree with the preceding sentence, you are a religious bigot who doesn’t respect the Constitution.

I understand that many of you despise our President. I get it. I felt the same way about Bush II. But here’s the key difference in how Democrats expressed their political dissatisfaction compared to a huge percentage of self-identifying Republicans today:

We didn’t make stupid shit up about the President We talked about the REAL things about George Bush that we didn’t like.

The Right-Wing Obama Fantasists have created an utterly fictional Obama. It’s childish, un-American, and pathetic.

I’ll listen to you rail against Obamacare all day. I’ll hear your disagreement with the rollback of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. You can talk to me about any policy the Obama Administration has enacted that you disagree with. We’re all Americans, let’s argue about politics!

But I am done listening to you spread irresponsible and childish lies about the lawfully elected President of the United States.

Have the stones to criticize our Actual president. Not some made up, racist fantasy.

Grow the fuck up.

Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 228 user reviews.

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Politics, Spring Forward, Travel

April 29, 2026 Ray Ivey 3 Comments

Vilnius/Frankfurt/Berlin
May 2, 2011

Distance Traveled Today: 1035

Total Distance Traveled: 9934

Obama Kills Osama

Well, it took nearly 10 years, but we finally go the son-of-a-bitch. I just wish I felt better about it .

Why couldn’t we have apprehended him? Why did we have to pounce, commando-style, guns blazing? Wouldn’t it have been better for us, better for the world, to put him on public trial? Incarcerate him? Did the administration think it would make the USA look weak if we didn’t murder him? I don’t really get it.

This magnificent golden angel figured prominently in the very beautiful but excruciatingly boring film "Wings of Desire."

I also feel a tiny bit guilty for taking a bit of partisan pleasure in the fact that this victory happened on Obama’s watch. Good for him. Along with the exasperated release of his birth certificate last week, it seems to be a pretty good month for the President.

Memorable Accomplishments of Barak Hussein Obama

Getting elected, even though he was a black dude named Hussein
Passing his compromised yet still important health bill
Getting Bin Laden

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I made a pretty costly mistake regarding the inter-Europe flights. The weight allowance for baggage is sharply less than it is for intercontinental flights, and I got slapped with pretty vicious fees on the Brussels to Vilnius and the Vilnius to Berlin flights. I got pretty steamed, but it’s really my fault for not doing better research. If I’d known it would be so expensive, I would have found a way to ship one of my large bags by train or something from Brussels to Berlin. I’ll be more careful next time.

Uh, yeah. Because it worked so well last time.

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As queasy as it made me to fly on the very day Osama’s death announced, my two short flights were easy and boring, as you want all flights to be.

I got to Berlin and my hotel just fine, but quickly realize I’d made a mistake thinking the hotel was in a “cool” part of the city. It’s called Courtyard City Center, so it was an honest mistake, I think. I mean, doesn’t that sound good? But it turns out the “city center” – called Mitte – is a boring, strictly business-only district with few amenities and very little charm. The hotel is very definitely a business, not tourist, hotel.

But that’s okay. I made my way to the subway and after a little struggle figured out how to purchase a week pass. Public transportation is fantastic in Berlin, and with this pass I can easily hop around the city to get to the good parts.

Theres a lot of sort-of "post-Fascist" monumental architecture around Potsdamer Platz

Average Rating: 5 out of 5 based on 268 user reviews.

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Politics, Pronouncements, Spring Forward, Travel

April 29, 2026 Ray Ivey 2 Comments

Cleveland

Soap Box Alert!!

Two of my sisters have accused me of being a very black-and-white person. And this is probably true. I’ve tried in recent years to embrace the shades of gray a little bit more, but on some subjects I find I am unable to.

These affidavits stipulate that their brother Ray is always correct on all matters.

The main one being whether or not I am a full citizen of this country.

I will fully and freely confess to being guilty of black-and-white thinking on this topic.

To be sure, gay rights have come a million miles in my lifetime, and that’s fantastic. But until we have marriage we will remain second-class citizens.

I find I am growing quite weary of the entire argument. We either have the same rights as everyone else or we don’t.

Let’s break down the classic arguments against marriage equality:

1. The Bible defines marriage as one man and one woman.

Absolutely, positively untrue. The Bible defines marriage in many ways. Usually it’s a union between a man and several women. In the case of the Abraham (the original patriarch of Judaism, Christianity AND Islam) it was between a man and his sister. In most of the Bible, women are property. And divorce is mostly forbidden.

And even if the Bible actually DID define marriage this way So what?! Our country is based on The Constitution, not the Bible. Would you really like our laws to reflect Biblical rules and regulations? Are you ready for shellfish and cheeseburgers to be illegal? How red dresses, talking back to your parents, or masturbation? And, of course, if we’re going to be Biblical, then slavery will have to become legal again. If you go around claiming our laws should be this way because that’s how it is in the Bible, if you cherry pick the scriptures and leave out the stuff that would be inconvenient to you, you’re a big fat hypocrite.

2. Why can’t gays be satisfied with Civil Unions?

Two reasons:

First, a little US Supreme Court decision in 1954 called Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. It established once and for all that “separate but equal” is unconstitutional. So even if marriage and civil unions were exactly equal, this would still be unacceptable.

But civil unions and marriage are NOT equal. Not even close. Many of the most important rights and responsibilities in marriage are federal, and civil unions do not bring any of these protections. So this is still second class citizenship.

3. We shouldn’t redefine marriage.

The same religious rhetoric, word for word, was used against the legalization of interracial marriage.

Hogwash. We’ve done it countless times throughout history. Marriage used to be an exchange of property (a daughter) between one man and another. Until fairly recently, it was for life (no divorce). Then divorce was only allowed in the case of adultery. Then we further redefined marriage with the concept (in many states) of “no-fault” divorce. Even more recently, laws banning interracial marriage were struck down.

4. Gay marriage will destroy “the sanctity” of marriage.

This is wrong on so many levels.

First of all, “sanctity”? Really? Do you think all three of Newt Gingrich’s marriages were sacred? How about Britney Spears’ 40-hour marriage? If you are really, REALLY concerned about the sanctity of marriage, why aren’t you picketing to take away the civil rights of people who practice The Divorce Lifestyle? If you aren’t, and yet you oppose gay marriage on “sanctity” grounds, you are a big fat hypocrite.

Finally, you don’t think that gay people treasure their unions just as much as straight people do? The idea that they somehow don’t is pure homophobia.

5. Kids need a mom and a dad.

Really? So why is single parenthood legal? Why is it legal for two people who have no intention of procreating to get married? Why is it legal for people who cannot have children to get married? If you’re going to play the children card, and you don’t call for any marriage that isn’t about to produce children to be illegal, you are a big fat hypocrite.

Beside, EVERY study coming down the pike shows that kids with two loving parents do well, and that the sexual orientation of those two parents is irrelevant.

6. Gay parents will raise gay children.

Really? All of my parents are straight. My dad is straight, and three of the four children he raised are gay. Hmm.

7. We live in a democracy. In state after state, the voters have said NO to gay marriage.

So what? Civil rights can’t be taken away by a bullying majority. At least, not forever. That’s what courts are FOR. If the majority ruled on issues of civil rights, black people might still have to ride on the back of the bus in the south. Sometimes the majority is WRONG.

8. This will lead to people wanting to marry their dogs and their toasters.

No, it won’t. Neither a dog nor a toaster is a legal consenting adult.

And then there’s possibly the most offensive one of all:

9. Forcing gay marriage on us restricts my religious freedom.

Really? How? No one is going to make you marry someone of the same sex. And if you think your religious freedom is being restricted because you have to live in a country that has gay marriage, then, well, get over it. How about the religious freedom of all the millions of Christians to DO support gay marriage? Doesn’t their religious freedom count as well?

Here’s the thing: When I think about the 1950s, when there was so very little accurate information about homosexuality out there, and so many lies about it being propagated, it’s kind of understandable when you think about how homophobic people were. Most people really didn’t know any better.

It's Adam and Steve! Get over it, and get used to it.

But today people know different. People know better. People know their gay friends and neighbors are not monsters. Many people know gay couples. A growing number of Americans know gay couples with children.

So if you know gay people, if you have gay friends, or a gay cousin, and you like to say you’re not homophobic, and then you go down to the polls and vote against gay marriage, please understand that you are a bigot, pure and simple. You are like the Southern wife in 1960 who would talk about how much she “loves” her housekeeper, while still supporting segregation. If that Southerner didn’t want her black maid to have civil rights, then guess what? She DIDN’T love her. And if you don’t shout and stamp your feet and vote in support of the absolute full citizenship of your gay friends, brothers, uncles and co-workers, then you do not really care about us.

And if that’s a black and white attitude, Donna and Rachel: SUE ME. 🙂

FINAL NOTE: If you’ve read this far, thanks! And if you’re still unsure about this issue even after my pithy arguments, take a minute and check out Prop 8: The Musical and this stunning testimony by Zach Wahls, a young man with two mothers.

Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 181 user reviews.

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Politics

April 29, 2026 Ray Ivey 3 Comments

REUTERS. Last month, film director Kevin Smith made national news when he was thrown off of a commercial airplane for being too fat. Now a new incident promises to heat up the increasingly incendiary debate on how heavy people are treated in our society.

For weeks, the producers of of Mary Poppins, the smash hit Broadway musical based on the beloved children’s books and movie, have been concerned with the expanding waistline of actress Talia Wheatson, who has been playing the title role the national touring production of the show. She had received several warnings from the producers to slim down or ship out. Thus far, the only response from Ms. Wheatson and her agent have been a simple statement that original author P.L. Travers never specified that the magical nanny be thin.

A tragic incident at last Sunday’s matinee performance of the show at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis is sure to ratchet up the rhetoric on this issue.

The end of the musical contains one the show’s most famous special effects, when the character of Mary Poppins “flies” high over the audience through the use of wires. Evidently the wire mechanism wasn’t built to support a 220-pound Mary Poppins, because when Wheaton was at her highest point over the audience, the wire support snapped.

The actress plummeted sixty-five feet into the horrified audience, landing on patrons sitting in the rear orchestra. She was not seriously injured, but three children were killed when their necks were snapped by her plummeting bulk.

Cissy Spiegel, nine, Tor Mallomar, eight and Tyler Du, eleven, were attending the performance as guests of the Make-a-Wish Foundation, which helps make dreams come true for terminally ill children. The three dead tots where all drama students.

In an ironic twist, it turns out that all three children had just that day received diagnoses of being cancer-free, and were only able to attend the performance because they had already received their tickets from the Foundation.

The producers immediately fired Talia Wheatson, who is suing them as well as Flying by Foy, the company which makes the flying harness. Ms. Wheatson’s former understudy, Virginia Noddle, has assumed the role of Mary Poppins. “We couldn’t be happier about our new star, ” a statement from the production office read. “Ms. Noddle is not only fiercely talented, but she’s a full-on anorexic/bulimic. We have the doctor’s note to prove it.”

Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 224 user reviews.

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Politics, Pop Culture, Pronouncements

April 29, 2026 Ray Ivey 4 Comments

The latest salvo in the absurd “War on Christmas” initiative from the Religious Right comes from Merry Hyatt, a 61-year old substitute teacher in Redding, California. She is attempting to force a state ballot initiative requiring public schools to expose students to overtly Christian Christmas music. Yeah, you read that correctly.

For some reason, many arrogant conservative Christians in our country don’t so much like the Constitution. They feel the Establishment Clause (which mandates the clear separation of Church and State) shouldn’t apply to THEIR religion, since it’s the “majority religion” and the (supposed) religion of our Founding Fathers.

Hyatt is appalled that her students aren’t required to sing about Jesus in public school. She’s convinced that if they sing about Jesus, all school problems will melt away.

“These kids, they need it, ” she said. “They need to see that we believe in Jesus, and He is the Prince of Peace. That’s why we are the best country on Earth.”

Really, Merry? THAT’s what makes this a great country? Not our Constitution? If that’s so, then why isn’t EVERY Christian nation “the best country on Earth”? Does think the U.S. is the ONLY nation on Earth with a Christian majority? I sure hope she isn’t teaching Social Studies!

Also note than whenever these theocrats demand that the Establishment Clause be broken, it’s ONLY for THEIR religion. Do you think Merry would be out there attempting to gather the required 464, 000 in order to force Hanukah songs to be singing public schools? How about Kwanzaa carols?

There’s a word for what Merry Hyatt is: A bully. That’s what anyone who clamors for the Tyranny of the Majority is, a bully. Is Hyatt really so clueless that she thinks the Constitution doesn’t apply to her religion, but just to all OTHER religions? More likely: she believes her God’s law supersedes the Constitution.

There’s a really effective way for Merry to make sure that children she cares about hear Christian music in school: Send those kids to a private, religious school. The fact that she thinks taxpayer dollars – that is, money collected from Hindu Californians, Jewish Californians, Sikh Californians, Muslim Californians, not to mention agnostic an atheist Californians.

Hyatt’s quote about the kids “needing” her Christian music makes clear that she doesn’t care about the constitutional issue involved here. Like so many true believers, she thinks rules shouldn’t apply to her since she’s on God’s Team. Her position is un-American. Demanding that the law insert her religion into public schools is simply an indefensible position.

All Christians should be embarrassed by this clown, and if she has any intelligent friends, they need to hand her a copy of the U.S. Constitution and encourage her to get a clue.

Average Rating: 4.4 out of 5 based on 192 user reviews.

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Movies, Politics

April 29, 2026 Ray Ivey 1 Comment

I thought it was over between me and Michael.

I was convinced that his day was over. That his type of guerrilla filmmaking was passe.

It’s true that he really changed the game for commercial political documentaries. Before him there wasn’t even such a category of movie. Now there’s a dozen each year, and it’s all because of his revolutionary series of films, which include Roger and Me, Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko and his most recent efford, Capitalism: A Love Story.

I admired all of these movies, mostly. I admire their bravery and their very provocative nature.

However, there’s always the issue of Mr. Moore himself. He’s like me: obnoxious. And while I can appreciate that, it doesn’t really help his cause or his films. Bowling For Columbine was seriously undermined by his ambush interview of Charlton Heston. And of course he’s been accused of distorting, misleading and outright lying in his movies as well.

His strident presence and juvenile stunts seem as inevitable as his pungent political points.

So lately I’ve found myself just not that motivated to see his Capitalism. Mostly because the trailers for the film show him up to his same old stupid stunts: sectioning off the front of the AIG building with police tape, attempting to make a citizen’s arrest of fat-cat CEOs, attempting to rob a bank for the good of the people, etc.

It just looked tiresome.

So, was I ever pleasantly surprised when I finally dragged myself to the movie this past weekend. I loved it. I think he’s quite brave to attack our national religion, which or course is Capitalism, NOT Christianity.

And the fact is, he really works up to the stunts you see in the trailers. And what seems silly and childish out of context in the trailers actually feels cathartic and justified in the flow of the actual movie.

I think it’s valuable to have obnoxious punks like Michael Moore. They do the heavy lifting that the rest of us SHOULD be doing: questioning the status quo, questioning our leaders, questioning our basic assumptions about how life is supposed to work. Even when Moore pisses me off, I’m glad he’s around.

He makes a particularly smart move at the very end of the movie, which — beware! — I’m going to spoil right now:

Moore’s point in the movie is that greed and big business have taken over our government. So at the film’s conclusion when he unambiguously asserts that we should abolish capitalism, what he suggests we replace it with isn’t what you expect him to say — socialism.

No. He thinks we should replace capitalism with democracy.

And I agree with him.

Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 188 user reviews.

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Politics

April 29, 2026 Ray Ivey 1 Comment

Really?

The Nobel Peace Prize? Already? I didn’t realize that coveted prize was used for encouragement? If so, could I have one?

I love the guy, and I think he might well deserve it later, but now? Really?

Average Rating: 4.4 out of 5 based on 177 user reviews.

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Vilnius/Frankfurt/Berlin May 2, 2011

Distance Traveled Today: 1035

Total Distance Traveled: 9934

Obama Kills Osama

Memorable Accomplishments of Barak Hussein Obama

Cleveland

Soap Box Alert!!

Vilnius/Frankfurt/Berlin
May 2, 2011