Well, to start I'll begin by saying I haven't yet seen bowling, or any of Moore's other films, so take everything I say with a grain of salt.

In regards to the Forbes piece:

The comment that the kids didn't go bowling so the title is flawed completely misses the point. I don't think Moore (or anyone else) truly believed that the kids went nuts because they bowled that morning, but rather Moore's playing with the idea of the post hoc fallacy that just because something happens before something, it follows that the prior event was the cause of something. For example:

"I ate bacon & eggs before I got that A on the test, so therefore the bacon & eggs were what caused me to get the A"

Obviously this is ridiculous, but the mass media sure seemed to be hopping on a lot of equally ridiculous causes for Columbine (such as playing DOOM, listening to Marilyn Manson, etc). And I think the title "Bowling for Columbine" is a parody of this silliness of the mass media.

The welfare story is a valid criticism, and seems to be one that is echoed a lot by not only Moore critics, but (oddly enough) even many Moore supporters. The criticism being that Moore distorts or leaves out facts to make stories fit his point-of-view. However, I think this criticism can be leveled not only at Moore, but the vast majority of journalists as well. I'm not saying this is an excuse for Moore's actions, I'm just saying distorting/leaving out facts is more commonplace than I think a lot of people would like to believe.

The talk about the bank & the gun completely misses the point. I don't care if the bank did a background check or not, using guns as a promotional tool is truly bizarre and twisted.

There was also a commment earlier to the effect of many stabbings occuring in Britain, as to support the "guns don't kill people, people kill people" position. The thing is though, guns have no other purpose than to kill (perhaps not people, but if not people then animals). That is the relevent dissimilarity between guns, and say knives.

Anyways, sorry for the length of this post. I have a cold, and needed something to do.


PZ