Michael Moore...a criminal mind?
While over at Slatts News perusing some comments about Michael Moore and his "style" of documentary presentation I made a connection to experiences of some years ago.
After the unfortunate drunken period in my life, I decided to use my experience, strength and hope to help others out of the life of addiction that I had been trapped in. I went back to school for 6 months taking classes that allowed me to do drug and alcohol counseling. I ended up working for a friend at a facility that contracted with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice [TDCJ] to handle convicted felons whose offenses were drug or alcohol related in a program that offered them one last chance to prove themselves capable of reform or to fail and actually serve their prison terms. A good program, by the way, for well over 50% did make a decision to change their lives. Several I have seen recently are doing well, own succesful companies and have done work on our home as I have chronicled before.
How does this relate to Michael Moore? Well, the felons who failed our program and Mr. Moore, it seems to me, have one thing in common. Namely, an almost pathological aversion to the truth especially when it comes to improving their lot in life. In a period of over 3 years, I talked in depth to hundreds of these felons with the ones who were a success in the program being able to honestly admit their mistakes, while those unsuccessful would go to any lengths to cover up the truth about their wrong doing, no matter how small the offense. And quite often I would catch them in a lie about something that didn't even matter. Pathological in the sense that I'm firmly convinced that some of these people actually believed the fantastic stories they would foist upon me.
What is also remarkably similar between the criminals and Mr. Moore is that their stories, on the surface, were wholly believable. Full of actual facts, their sagas would meander from "Fact A" to "Fact B" to "Fact C" to Fact "D" which was designed to prove "Fact A"....the more fact filled and convoluted the better. The problem was that on actually checking all the facts one could deduce that none of the facts had anything to do with each other, or might be related but occured in different times or locales other than the time and/or locale in question. I'll have to admit that these people were pretty good, and honestly I rather enjoyed listening to these wild tales. Just like Michael Moore, my friends the criminals, were offering up only the bits and pieces of the truth that they thought would support their thesis...that they were innocent.
I was being paid to be a "doubter" and having offered up a fair share of tall tales myself in order to keep out of trouble, I usually dismantled the culprits stories, the result being that many of those unable to change their lifestlyes are actually serving time in TDCJ-Huntsville as I write. Michael Moore on the other hand is enjoying life as the Far Left Media Mogul. What's wrong with this picture? And it makes me wonder...are convicted felons just latent "documentary" film producers or perhaps, does Michael Moore possess a criminal mind?
While over at Slatts News perusing some comments about Michael Moore and his "style" of documentary presentation I made a connection to experiences of some years ago.
After the unfortunate drunken period in my life, I decided to use my experience, strength and hope to help others out of the life of addiction that I had been trapped in. I went back to school for 6 months taking classes that allowed me to do drug and alcohol counseling. I ended up working for a friend at a facility that contracted with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice [TDCJ] to handle convicted felons whose offenses were drug or alcohol related in a program that offered them one last chance to prove themselves capable of reform or to fail and actually serve their prison terms. A good program, by the way, for well over 50% did make a decision to change their lives. Several I have seen recently are doing well, own succesful companies and have done work on our home as I have chronicled before.
How does this relate to Michael Moore? Well, the felons who failed our program and Mr. Moore, it seems to me, have one thing in common. Namely, an almost pathological aversion to the truth especially when it comes to improving their lot in life. In a period of over 3 years, I talked in depth to hundreds of these felons with the ones who were a success in the program being able to honestly admit their mistakes, while those unsuccessful would go to any lengths to cover up the truth about their wrong doing, no matter how small the offense. And quite often I would catch them in a lie about something that didn't even matter. Pathological in the sense that I'm firmly convinced that some of these people actually believed the fantastic stories they would foist upon me.
What is also remarkably similar between the criminals and Mr. Moore is that their stories, on the surface, were wholly believable. Full of actual facts, their sagas would meander from "Fact A" to "Fact B" to "Fact C" to Fact "D" which was designed to prove "Fact A"....the more fact filled and convoluted the better. The problem was that on actually checking all the facts one could deduce that none of the facts had anything to do with each other, or might be related but occured in different times or locales other than the time and/or locale in question. I'll have to admit that these people were pretty good, and honestly I rather enjoyed listening to these wild tales. Just like Michael Moore, my friends the criminals, were offering up only the bits and pieces of the truth that they thought would support their thesis...that they were innocent.
I was being paid to be a "doubter" and having offered up a fair share of tall tales myself in order to keep out of trouble, I usually dismantled the culprits stories, the result being that many of those unable to change their lifestlyes are actually serving time in TDCJ-Huntsville as I write. Michael Moore on the other hand is enjoying life as the Far Left Media Mogul. What's wrong with this picture? And it makes me wonder...are convicted felons just latent "documentary" film producers or perhaps, does Michael Moore possess a criminal mind?
