Is there anyone else who combines being political with being an entertainer? I can't help think that Michael Moore is an entertainer first. His job is to be outrageous. Which is great, I can divide the two-I know what is for effect, what is for show, what is for real. I worry about our acceptable public discourse towards any issue-which tends to be black or white. Moore read his letter from God, from the new book. I can't help think that it alienated a good number of people. Our public discourse doesn't allow for rhetorical effect-he's being disrespectful to God, end of story.
Another important issue I thought of tonight listening to Moore criticize Republicans: If you keep up with Calpundit and read the Texas Republican Platform that he posted you understand that these people are hijacking the Republican Party. It is really, really bad to lump all Republicans in with these people. The Republicans vote as a block with very little breaking of the ranks. Mostly because we mean the wingnuts when we criticize the Republican party and not the rational people with a different idea on Government spending & function. They hear, see, read our diatribes against the "Rethuglians" and think, "but, I'm not that way, my friends and co-workers are not that way so the majority is not that way." And they vote Republican, not thinking that they are promoting a minority agenda.
I've been really interested in getting to know Republicans and how they think-hey, most of them are normal people without some xtian propagand to sell. Usually fiscal Republican, but socially liberal is who I meet. Nice. Dialogue. Community. Learning.
We need to change the national discourse on politics, the whole us or them meme is untenable and will kill us all.

Today I started the discussion about Bowling for Columbine that we watched last week in my two morning classes. My freshmen are sharp cookies, understanding when Moore is using the same propaganda that he accuses others of using. I have them looking at it as a rhetorical situation, argument, audience, blind spots, context. What's his thesis. It has generated a lot of response. They agree with him, but are wary of his heavy handedness.
He'll be here tonight, I'm excited. He's super funny.
Had my Renaissance poetics class after teaching. Wrote a really crappy two page paper for it. We discussed Countryhouse poetry (johnson and Lanyer). A good area of study is works that depend on specific instances of architecture. E.g: Drawing Room Comedies, Parlor Fiction, etc. Maybe BAchelard's Poetics of Space would be a good place to start.
Going to go home and sleep until the fat man comes.

There are people in your coments section that were enjoyable to read and I imagine that some of these diaries will be a real hoot. Is it possible, in the future, to create a side bar, like the feed from the other sites, that will keep our faves in sight? So we don't have to scroll through all of them to get Senor Lovedaddy's Massage Ball? Just a thought.