Michael Moore sucks.

I'm against the Iraq war. I want socialized medicine in the US. So I agree with him on at least some policy. (Though I think anyone who ever voted for Ralph Nader is an idiot.)

I don't like his shtick. He takes serious issues, like plant layoffs, and tries to make a joke out of it. I recall in one of his flicks, forget the name, where he gave some coporate spokes-woman a big check for 58 cents (approx) as the Corporate Downsizer Award. She stood there, not saying much, looking at this big guy in his Tigers hat as he gave her the award. It's not funny and it doesn't tell us much about de-industrialization. It's the cheapest of laughs. And, again, I say this as someone who would be very into seeing a real movie about plant closings.

Even lamer is director Morgan Spurlock. I get the joke. Eating at McD's will fuck you up. That's why I don't. And he doesn't either generally. Don't eat hamburgers if you are concerned about your health. What's the big deal?

How these guys make a living with this stuff eludes me. I do wonder where the serious documentarians are. Maybe they aren't *funny* enough to get the eyeballs. Too bad. Like McD's we are getting a second rate product instead of the real.

Letting school kids choose the books they read.

The NY Times article - A New Assignment: Pick Books You Like, by Motoko Rich 8/29/2009, talks about some schools where the teachers are letting the kids pick which books they want to read and there's some discussion about whether this is a good thing or not. On the one side the students should be more motivated to read books if they pick them. On the other side, they'll just read Harry Potter.

From the article:
Literacy specialists say that giving children a say in what they read can help motivate them. “If your goal is simply to get them to read more, choice is the way to go,” said Elizabeth Birr Moje, a literacy professor at the University of Michigan. Ms. Moje added that choices should be limited and that teachers should guide students toward high-quality literature.

It isn't asked why they should be required to read fiction at all. What's the purpose? Who defines what 'high-quality' literature is?

Maintenance Developer's Dilemma.

Too many bugs will make management angry. Too few bugs and they don't need developers.

Fall is Coming - Yes!

Damn. I'm looking forward to Football, cool weather and shorter days.
Nice stuff.

What is wrong with the NY Times?

Thumbing through the mag online this weekend I ran across this headline:

The Self-Storage Self
By JON MOOALLEM
What is it about Americans that makes us store elsewhere all that stuff we accumulate?

Why does the MSM always stucture articles like this -
Who is this 'us'? I don't store shit. Most people don't actually.
Why the emphasis on Americans? People in other countries never store anything?
6 pages on people using storage units?
Why isn't the fact that they don't have space for their shit
an adequate answer? Or the fact that some people are hoarders?

Looking for generalizations/trends is a lazy way of giving some
potentially interesting reporting more *depth*. It's fun to psychologize
though and I'd bet this sort of thing is a big hit with the editors.