Michael Moore reminds me of the scene in Animal House when the fraternity misfits have been called on the carpet, and Dean Wormer says to Dorfman, "Fat, stupid and drunk – that’s no way to go through life, son."
Except, to the best of my knowledge, the bloated Bolshevik does not have a drinking problem.
Last week, Moore’s anti-Bush agitprop, Fahrenheit 9/11, was released on DVD and videotape, a companion volume hit The New York Times’ bestsellers list and Moore was beating the campuses for Kerry votes, on his "Slacker Uprising Tour."
Friday night, during the second presidential debate, Moore was at the University of Minnesota doing an instant analysis. In a burst of originality, the Ed Wood of documentary filmmakers told students that Bush "lied" in the debate.
Moore, who considers Americans "possibly the dumbest people on the planet," is himself a celebrated genius – especially when it comes to his grasp of the U.S. Constitution.
Nowhere was his brilliance more stunningly displayed than in a July 20th letter to Bill Timmins, the president of Aladdins’s Casino in Las Vegas.
The previous week, Linda Ronstadt (pop singer cum-political savant) was ejected from Aladdin’s when, in the course of a concert, the chanteuse dedicated one of her songs to Moore (who she hilariously called a "great American patriot.")
Timmins explained, "We hired Ms. Ronstadt as an entertainer, not as a political activist." By the way, real patriots in the audience roundly booed Ronstadt and threw drinks on her lobby poster. Ordinarily, casino owners don’t pay performers to provoke riots.
Moore rushed to his famous fan’s defense.
In his letter to Timmins, the man who thinks the Atkins Diet is part of the vast right-wing conspiracy harrumphed: "I understand from news reports that, after Linda Ronstadt, one of America’s great singers [Yup, right up there with Slim Whitman and Boxcar Willie – DF] dedicated a song to me from your stage on Saturday night, you instructed your security guards to remove her from the Aladdin, which they did."
"What country do you live in? Last time I checked, Las Vegas is still in the United States. And in the United States, we have something called ‘The First Amendment.’ This constitutional right gives everyone here the right to say whatever they want to say… . For you to throw Linda Ronstadt off the premises because she dared to say a few words in support of me and my film is stupid and un-American."
Moore’s gargantuan ego (the world revolves around me and my films) aside, his pronouncement reflects a staggering ignorance of the First Amendment. In case Moore hasn’t checked lately, the relevant part of the amendment provides, "Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech."
Why, I guess that means Aladdin’s Hotel and Casino is Congress. Where do they hold hearings, at the roulette table?
There’s nothing in the First Amendment about the owner of a business deciding what activities – including political harangues – will be allowed on his premises.
Does the lefty filmmaker believe I have a right to stand up in the middle of a showing of one his moronic movies and deliver a denunciation of the tripe? But isn’t the theater in America? And doesn’t the First Amendment give Americans – of which I am one – the right "to say whatever they want to say"?
What if I invaded Moore’s domicile during dinner, leaped up on his dining room table and lectured him on why being a stooge for Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda is un-cool?
If Moore had me arrested for trespass, wouldn’t that be "stupid and un-American?" After all, he himself has told us that citizens of the United States have a blanket right to say whatever they want – any time, any place.
In reality (i.e., that to which Moore’s movies bear no relationship), the First Amendment provides that government shall not abridge (limit, circumscribe, curtail) freedom of speech. At least in theory, Washington and the states can’t forbid political expression, can’t say to Americans, "You can’t say that!"
When government says nein to communication, that’s a violation of the First Amendment. When a private party says: Not on my property, you don’t – he’s fully within his rights.
While liberals like Moore get hysterical over imaginary abridgements of free speech, massive violations of the First Amendment (occurring on an almost daily basis) are largely ignored, because the victims aren’t beautiful celebrities with trendy opinions, but real people the Left abhors.
Consider the following:
- Speech codes
– Hundreds of public colleges and universities have campus speech codes, which prohibit the expression of opinions – about race, gender or sexuality – that favored groups find offensive. For instance, on some campuses, challenging racial quotas is considered insensitive to minorities, hence hurtful, hence verboten. A clearer violation of First Amendment speech you will not find.
- Campaign finance laws – Under McCain-Feingold, the latest Campaign Finance fraud, unions and corporations (including non-profits) are prohibited from running ads that mention by name a candidate for federal office within 60 days of an election. The First Amendment doesn’t say Congress may make laws abridging the freedom of speech in what some consider a good cause. It says: "Congress shall make no law." The Supreme Court has put its imprimatur on what Rush Limbaugh calls "the direct raping of the First Amendment."
- Hate-crimes laws – Clearly, these laws are intended to punish expression. Because crimes with certain motivation (demonstrated by voicing certain ideas) are punished more severely than the same offenses with other motivation, hate crimes laws penalize ideas. As such, they are a species of thought control.
- Protest-free zones around abortion clinics – The 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) forbids free-expression on public sidewalks within so many feet of an abortion clinic – including peacefully holding signs, praying, or politely approaching a woman with literature about fetal development. FACE bans communication in public places. Far from decrying this outrage, the ACLU enthusiastically endorses it.
The foregoing aside, when was the last time a liberal stood up for those who dissent from prevailing liberal orthodoxy? Remember when liberalism’s motto was, " I may not agree with what you say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it"? That was back when gas was 10-cents a gallon and men wore hats in public.
Today, liberals spend most of their time trying to kill a dialogue.
Whenever something bad happens to a group favored by the Left – a homosexual is murdered, an abortionist is shot, a federal building is blown up – liberals rush to tell us that conservative Congressmen, talk show hosts, activists, and individuals created the "climate of hate" (or "inflamed the atmosphere") that led to the heinous act.
Obvious implication: conservatives shouldn’t say certain things, even things that are reasonable and don’t contain even a hint of incitement to violence. Saying those things make them complicit in murder.
Along the same lines, liberals are forever declaring that the debate is over on some issues – meaning that there’s a consensus here (usually among the elite) that only an imbecile or the ethically deficient could deny.
Usually this involves social issues: abortion, gay rights and gun control. Liberals are capable of making such pronouncements even when a majority of the public rejects their position. It’s a heavy-handed attempt to short-circuit a discussion by intimidation.
The most fascistic places in America are the institutions over which liberals exercise the most control: colleges and universities. Nowhere is there more intolerance for opposing views and more of an effort to enforce group-think than in academia.
Moore’s understanding of the First Amendment is as insightful as his films. (He must have dropped out of college before the course on constitutional theory.) Not only did Aladdin’s have the right to give Ronstadt the heave-ho, it was a smart move.
The chief victims of suppression of free-speech aren’t vacuous Hollywood celebs applauding leftist filmmakers, but campus conservatives, pro-life activists and other pariahs.
At the 2003 Academy Awards, after Moore was almost booed off stage, Comedian Steve Martin quipped, "A couple of Teamsters are helping Michael Moore into the trunk of his limousine.’
If he’s ever in Las Vegas, I can guarantee a repeat performance. Perhaps he’ll find the First Amendment rattling around in the trunk with him.