Last night, my wife and I saw the opening of Michael Moore’s new documentary “Capitalism: A Love Story”. It was excellent and I highly recommend it to everyone

My husband and I saw Capitalism last night as well, but we both were disappointed.

Our biggest complaint was that he set up a sort of “the people finally revolt,” and ties this to the election of Obama. [Shots of African-Americans sobbing in joy as the Nov 8 results are announced.]

But, after Moore does a good job of pointing out that we’ve really got a “United State of Goldman Sachs,” he fails to mention that the exact same criminals who constructed the bail-out, advised Bush, etc are now occupying their turkey-vulture perches in the White House & Treasury.

I don’t trust the fabulous intellect of the American people to figure out this connection.

Moore leaves the impression that Obama’s the representative of the “change” and reformation that America needs, when we all know that all we got was a lousy t-shirt.

I thought Moore wasted a tremendous opportunity, although the film did have good points. And, it was too damn long. Nonetheless, we were glad to add to Moore’s box office receipts.

Wild turkey are an almost daily sight here in Tennessee during certain times of year, especially in spring after the babies are born. In fact, before we moved the dog’s food into her pen where we can close the gate when we put her up at night, they came up right by the back door and feasted almost every day.

Our land is bordered on all sides by woods and pasture, and we still have individuals or flocks that cut across our yard to get to neighboring fields (the dog and cats just ignore them, the same way they do the deer that reach over the electric fence around my gardens and nip the tops off the tomato plants).

I’m not really sure about the “smart” part though. We often have to stop and wait for a flock to cross the road, and inevitably one or two will panic and run zigzag down the road for a bit (SERPENTINE! SERPENTINE!), forcing you to drive at a snail’s pace until they figure out which way to go.

Necessitous men are not free men Now that’s what I’m talking about…

One of the more interesting parts of “Capitalism” was the film of President Roosevelt’s State Of The Union Address in 1944, just before the end of WW2, in which he first promoted his “Second Bill of Rights”. I found it interesting because I had never heard of his Second Bill of Rights and I’ve always been a little bit of a history buff. I came home and looked it up. This footage was apparently lost until 2008 when Michael Moore found it in S. Carolina while doing research for the movie.

In any case, Roosevelt died before WW2 ended and before he could get his Second bill of Rights passed into law but, interestingly enough, we gave many of these rights to Germany, Italy and Japan in the Constitutions and laws we helped them write after WW2…even though we didn’t…and don’t…have them enshrined in U.S. law ourselves. Today’s comparison’s of the inadequacies of our Health Care System with much of the rest of the developed worlds Health Care Systems are a direct result of this bit of history.

Here’s the part of Roosevelt’s address that’s about his Second Bill of Rights. What a different world we’d live in today if he had lived to get this passed into law by Congress.

President Roosevelt:

“We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.

This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.

As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.

We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

-The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

-The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

-The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

-The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

-The right of every family to a decent home;

-The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

-The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

-The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens.”

The main thing I remember is NO MORE THAN [some SMALL number] of sentences (never mind that I can’t remember the number). Perhaps someone could find it — it was great!!

I’d never seen a wild turkey until one Easter a small rafter of turkeys showed up on our suburban lawn. They left no Eggs for us tho.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5B9ddeLdcQ