ZGram - 3/6/2002 - "Stupid White Men"
irimland@zundelsite.org
irimland@zundelsite.org
Wed, 6 Mar 2002 15:07:17 -0800
Copyright (c) 2002 - Ingrid A. Rimland
ZGrams - Where Truth is Destiny
March 6, 2002
Good Morning from the Zundelsite:
Some time ago something alerted me to a fellow named Michael Moore
and a book he had written, titled "Stupid White Men" that had the
censors all in knots.
I was curious and subscribed to his list - and then didn't hear much
for a while.
Now this from Mr Moore - and a telling development it is:
[START]
Dear friends,
This is just a quick note of thanks for the support all of you have
given my book.
"Stupid White Men" debuted at #3 on the New York Times bestseller
list this week, and at #1 on the Publisher's Weekly nonfiction
bestseller list for independent bookstores. It's still #1 for all
books on Amazon, and, my personal favorite for a good laugh, #4 on
the bestseller list for the Wall Street Journal. By the fifth day of
release, the book had gone into its 9th printing.
More copies have been sold in one week than "Downsize This" sold in a
whole year. Pundits and publishers are stunned. "But the president
has an 80% approval rating!" There's something going on here, and
they don't know what it is...
I am writing this from northern California, two weeks into the book
tour, on a drive with my family to visit small towns like Ukiah and
Arcata.
Last night in Santa Rosa, at the local high school, they had a
thousand people packed inside and another 500 out on the lawn who
couldn't get in. It's like this in all the places I visit. Hundreds,
thousands, turning out to discuss all the sorry excuses for the state
of the nation.
People have had it with keeping silent for the past 6 months. They
resent having felt like if they chose to question what the government
is up to or, God forbid, dissent, they would somehow be considered
unpatriotic.
Let's get one thing straight -- this is what it means to be "unpatriotic:"
1. When you shred our constitution and eliminate our civil liberties,
passing laws that make it illegal to encourage opposition to the
government's actions, THAT is un-American.
2. When you send our kids to go fight and die on a foreign land so
that you can finally build a pipeline for your oil backers across
that country, THAT is un-American.
3. When you use the dead of September 11 to try to get huge tax cuts
passed that will only benefit your rich benefactors, THAT is
un-American.
4. When you allow criminals who are stealing the pensions of workers
and retirees to come in and hand-pick the head of the agency which is
supposed to be regulating them, and then you place some of the
criminals' top brass in your administration to "serve" as the
secretary of the army and White House counsel, and then these
criminals turn out to be your number one financial backers -- and
their law firm turns out to be your #3 backer -- and, in spite of all
this you still haven't resigned in disgrace, THAT is un-American.
I want all of you to share this success with me and feel heartened
and reassured by the response to this book. It is an overwhelming
rebuke, first to those who sought to censor or ban it, and now to the
oft-repeated conventional wisdom that the whole country is whistling
the same tune and marching in lockstep to the vision of
Cheney/Ashcroft/Bush. It's a bunch of hooey, folks, and I have seen
it first hand -- and not in the usual centers of leftist discontent.
This tour has taken me to Ridgewood, New Jersey (area that always
returns its Republican congressman), Arlington, Virginia (a town
filled with military people), Grass Valley, California (in the middle
of nowhere in a congressional district represented by a right-wing
Republican). In each of these towns it's been a literal mob scene.
The Virginia bookstore says that "this crowd is an all-time record."
The line is out the door in downtown Ridgewood, and the store does
not have enough books. In Grass Valley, so many have come from
hundreds of miles across the Sierras that can't get in, so I tell the
hundreds out in the street that I'll stick around and do a second
show. Three hours later they are still there, and I do it all over
again.
I want to thank all of you who have written. I read your emails at
night and I am so sorry I don't have the energy to respond. Hundreds
of you have written to say that your bookstore does not have the book.
The main reason that is happening is that the publisher has not
printed enough books and cannot ship them fast enough when they do.
Often, it is because the bookstore did not order enough copies. A few
stores, and one chain in particular, have not been exactly overjoyed
to be carrying the book. On the other hand, Barnes & Noble have put
it on their bestseller list and are offering it at 1/3 the price.
Every single independent bookstore I have stopped into has been out
of books and they tell me that both the publisher and the
distributors are not sending them books. I do not know what to do
about this. I have made my calls. I am told everything is OK. I can
see first-hand on the road that it is not OK, and that many stores
simply do not have the book.
You can help me by letting HarperCollins know when you cannot find
the book. Write them at ...
<A HREF="http://www.harpercollins.com/hc/aboutus/contactus.asp">Contact HC</A>
Again, my sincerest appreciation to all of you and I look forward to
seeing many of you on the rest of this tour.
On Thursday I'll be in L.A., Friday in San Diego, Saturday in Denver
and Boulder, and next week it's on to Michigan and the Midwest. More
cities are being added, so check in at my website,
www.michaelmoore.com.
Off to shadow the Cheney shadow government,
Michael Moore
Author
Filmmaker
Evildo-doer
Write me at:
<A HREF="mailto:StupidWhiteMen@aol.com">Write to Mike at Stupid White Men</A>
<A HREF="mailto:mmflint@aol.com">Write to Mike at AOL</A>
<A HREF="http://www.michaelmoore.com/">Michael Moore's site</A>
TO ORDER "STUPID WHITE MEN," GO TO...
<A
HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060392452/ref=ase_dogeatdogfilms/">Amazon.com</A>
... or here ...
<A
HREF="http://www.michaelmoore.com/announce/how_to_buy_SWM1.html">Get
the book</A>
TO ORDER SEASON TWO OF "THE AWFUL TRUTH," GO TO...
<A HREF="http://www.newvideo.com/docurama.shtml">Awful Truth - 2nd Season</A>
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* TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS LIST:
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[END]
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Thought for the Day: (quoted here from memory)
"Remember that your father had a 90% approval rate as well..."
(Senator Burton to President Bush Jr.)