Website has changed...
Thursday, June 17, 2004
I've officially decided to close blogger shop and move to Live Journal...check me out at
http://www.livejournal.com/users/benny2983/
Monday, June 14, 2004
My Email To Michael Moore...
Before you read this...you might want to check out this news story which I based my letter on...
Dear Mr. Moore...
I am a third year law-student at Southern New England School of Law (in dartmouth, ma) who has done extensive research (and am in the process of writing a law review article) on the situation in Guantanamo Bay and prisons in Iraq.
I am also a very big fan of your films. Unquestionably, "Bowling for Columbine" was one of the most moving and thought provoking documentaries I've ever seen in my life. I saw you speak at Umass-Amherst while I was in college, and I've been a constant defender of your behavior when people called it out of the ordinary and (in some instances) offensive.
However, I cannot honestly understand your decision to wait until you released your new film to bring attention to the prison abuse in Iraq if you knew of it sooner. I honestly find it difficult to believe and sincerely hope you are lying in a way to get more people to see your movie.
What is your main goal as a political activist / filmmaker? If it's to make films and money and become famous (you know the next spielberg) then I can appreciate that. We all want to be rich and famous, and I would never knock you for trying. However I've been lead (possibly deceitfully) to believe over the decade I've been watching your films that your main goal is to help people. That's the feeling I got from Roger and Me. That's the feeling I got from TV Nation (and probaly why it was cancelled, because you were trying to hard to help people) and while crying while watching Bowling for Columbine, that's what I thought as well. But today the (you'll likely say conservative and biased) media made me feel like you're the tiny con-artist behind the fake wizard mask. How could you sit idly by and watch the attrocities that were going on in Iraq and do nothing? There are only two excuses 1.) You're lying and you never saw that stuff and you're just saying you did to make more people appreciate your personal exposure to what happen or 2.) You watched it happen and saw it as an opportunity to make more money by having more people see your film.
I can't agree with your decision, sir. I may be a weak-scrawny 25 year old law student, but if I went to Iraq with the incentive to expose horrible attrocities and I saw some of the things (and by "things" I invite you to read several pieces of my law review, although now I question if you'd even care to see my work since it won't make you any money to do so) that constitute horrible and serious violations of international human rights laws, I would certainly have done everything in my power to make it stop immediately. And I wouldn't wait up to six months for my movie to come out; that's for sure.
You're a great filmmaker Mr. Moore, but today I honestly feel a little cheated by you. You're my General Motors for the day, I think. But you know what? I'll see your movie. You'll get my $9.50 (which I don't really have because I'm a poor student), and I suppose that's the bottom line though. You're the big scary white man, and at the end of the day, I shut up and you steal my money in exchange for an hour and a half of your time. Seems a little non-michael mooreish to me, no matter how awful of a deed you may have been a part of.
I don't even know how you go about fixing something like that though. You won't appoligize. You'll justify it somehow. And when I'm done listening to you try. I'll probably feel dirty and need a shower; (almost like listening to President Cowboy justify what he does). Kinda gives me a whole new impression of that picture you created where you're holding his hand. Two peas in a pod, I guess.
Sincerely
Ryan Benharris
Long Time Michael Moore Supporter
Human Rights Activist
North Attleboro, MA
(P.S.) I'm putting this email on my website/blog for everyone I know to see. I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't allow everyone I know to understand how I felt.
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Ryan Benharris
Student Bar Association President
Southern New England School of Law
2004-2005
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
I'm not gay or nothin' but...
Check out this picture of Eminem exposing his bare ass on television from last week. What's weird to me is not so much that he did it, and he clearly just wants people to talk about him and stuff...
But, what's weird is that, doesn't it seem like his ass is waxed completely hairless!? I know "why am I looking, right?" Shut up.
This is a guy who runs around babbling about how tough he is all the time, and how he's not a "sissy pretty boy" like justin timberlake, but in anticipation of mooning people he obviously waxed his ass so it it'd look good on TV.
That's got to be the saddest and least punk-rock thing I've ever heard. That makes him slightly less cool than Brittney Spears. You lose eminem. You're not cool anymore, sorry.
Monday, May 31, 2004
Yay!...
So, the guy from the Outback, before he left from SNESL graduation (where we had it catered. In case you didn't know, I'm the Student Bar Association President) gave me a coupon for a free Blooming Onion. I guess it's part of their new promotion. If you spend more than $3,000 in one hit, you get a free blooming onion.
Saturday, May 22, 2004
Life...
I just found out that the editor in chief of the collegian from my sophomore year, Casey Kane died last week after a several-year long battle with cancer. I didn't know her for that long, but I sincerely remember her as a fun, energetic, hard worker who, as a boss cared about even the littelest of little guys at work. To do that at a crappy college newspaper means it obviously carried over from her real-life, and that she was certainly like that all the time.
It's funny, the last time I saw Casey she had actually slept over my house with another friend of ours before he moved back to Oakland.
This is pretty emotional for me for several reasons; First for the personal history of cancer in my family between my mother, aunt, grandfather and uncle all having it at separate time, and some other stuff, I just really hate hearing about anyone having to go through that, and it's just kind of extra scary the more I think about it. Second, this is the third person I've known that's died this year (actually in a span of less than three months). At my age that's supposed to be relativly rare.
I still feel really badly though. She was a good person. They always are though.
Two Questions...
1.) Why is this an acceptable picture to show on the news.
2.) How is it different than the Janet Jackson thing
...3.) Free Howard Stern
Friday, May 21, 2004
Expressions of Gratitude...
Because I'm in one of those time spans where I actually have relativly nothing to do, allow me to be slightly petty for a second. I'm a "please" and "thank you" person. I defly have more consciousness and respect for people who act with dignity and courtesy. I've been the victim of several non-thank you's lately and I'm slightly annoyed. I also realize that I'm a person who doesn't say "no" to anyone, so when people aske me for stuff I generally always do it. I've gone above and beyond a few times in the last few weeks, (defly in one situation where it was clearly someone just abusing the fact that I wouldn't say "no," as she generally doesn't speak to me unless she wants something) to get nothing in return. I don't want anything in return, but a "hey thanks for doing that" would be nice...i'm not going to whine about it, though. It's funny to realize how quickly I went from having not enough time to eat to having so much free time that I can think things like that...Structure never hurt; that's for sure.
...Oh, and the phone is a strongly under-used tool. Allow me to point that out...
Oh, and I overheard this at the supermarket today. I'm still trying to come up with the logic behind it. "My ex-boyfriend used to buy groceries for me. But he's a fuckin' asshole."
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Somebody Needs a Life...
How pathetic is this article. Apparently this coach went out of his way to make the highlight of the evening a public humiliation of a 13 year old child. You know you're a low-life degenerate when your life's gotten so bad that this is what you live for.
