Enough to turn your stomach

http://chronicle.augusta.com/opinion/editorials/2010-09-27/enough-turn-your-stomachUltraliberal filmmaker Michael Moore is so intellectually bankrupt that he hardly warrants the credit of a return argument. But sometimes his blather is so disgusting and offensive, you can’t resist.Moore famously loves the Cuban model, which even Fidel Castro admits doesn’t work, and hates American capitalism, throwing up a little in his mouth on every trip to the bank.His latest fatuousness, though, may be his worst: a mindless contention, in support of a mosque at Ground Zero, that fast food kills more people than died there from terrorism.In Internet parlance, OMG! Even if true, so what?His point seems to be that there’s a moral equivalence between a McDonald’s and the hijacking of crowded airliners and the purposeful flying of them into buildings to kill all those aboard and those in the way.Does that seem a little bereft of elementary-level thinking to you?For one thing, no one is being hijacked and flown into a burger joint; folks go there quite on their own. For another thing, it can be done in moderation, and at no significant risk — whereas there is nothing moderate about flying planes into office buildings.And if anyone really does die of complications from a poor diet, is anyone but the eater to blame?Most importantly, it’s a fairly straightforward proposition for someone to avoid a Big Mac. On the other hand, those folks working at desks in the World Trade Centers on Sept. 11, 2001, did absolutely nothing imprudent to bring on their nightmarish deaths. One second they were working, perhaps daydreaming about dinner or weekend plans; the next second they looked up and saw the horror of a commercial airliner’s nose barreling right at them. Close your eyes and picture that.If they didn’t die immediately, and if they weren’t quickly incinerated in the searing heat, they sought the temporary safety of ledges, maybe imagining for a fleeting moment they could be rescued so high up, so soon after impact. Soon, the heat became so intense, and the reality so stark, that they chose the less painful but no less agonizing way to die — put in the heartbreaking position of having to voluntarily step off to their deaths.Do you feel their wholly undeserved torment? Can you imagine the horror of those moments? The last thoughts of loved ones they couldn’t even say goodbye to? Do you see how reprehensible Moore’s line of “thinking” is? That a fast-food burger is worthy of more contempt than the murder of nearly 3,000 innocents?Such thinking as his is beyond repulsive. It’s grotesque and vile.And it’s much worse for you than any fast-food sandwich.