The documentary film War Made Easy, narrated by Sean Penn, offers a simple yet powerful look at how the American public has been continually propagandized into supporting war.
War Made Easy gives special attention to parallels between the Vietnam war and the war in Iraq. Guided by media critic Norman Solomon’s meticulous research and tough-minded analysis, the film presents disturbing examples of propaganda and media complicity from the present alongside rare footage of political leaders and leading journalists from the past, including Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, dissident Senator Wayne Morse, and news correspondents Walter Cronkite and Morley Safer.
CMT has been showing the Dixie Chicks documentary recently. The film serves as a good reminder of how war protesters are often treated in this country. When it comes to honest dissent versus blind flag waving, I go with the honest dissent.
“Constantine’s Sword” is an excellent documentary that was released in 2007. Here’s the synopsis from the film’s official web site.
“Constantine’s Sword” is the story of James Carroll, a former Catholic priest on a journey to confront his past and uncover the roots of religiously inspired violence and war. His search also reveals a growing scandal involving religious infiltration of the U.S. military and the terrible consequences of religion’s influence on America’s foreign policy.
Carroll focuses on Christian antisemitism as the model for all religious hatred, exposing the cross as a symbol of a long history of violence against Jews (and, most recently, Moslems). The film brings the history of religious intolerance to life, tracing it as a source of the fanaticism that threatens the world today. At its core, “Constantine’s Sword” is a compelling personal narrative — a kind of detective story — as one man uncovers the dark areas of his own past, searching for a better future.
I just watched the documentary film “The Tillman Story”. The story of Pat Tillman’s death and the subsequent military cover-up is infuriating, but his family’s crusade for the truth is inspiring.
Some things just have to be seen to be believed. The anti-Muslim bedwetting going on among conservatives would be amusing if it wasn’t so sickening and potentially dangerous.
One of the people in the video wore a shirt saying he learned all he needed to know about Islam on 9/11. There was an excellent statement posted in the comments section at YouTube:
If you learned all you need to know about islam on 9/11, then what did you learn about americans on april 19, 1995?
As a followup to a recent post on Scientology, here is Part 1 of a show broadcast last September by the BBC. At the end of the segment is a link to Part 2. There are four parts in all. This is a fascinating look at the church, and the lengths to which it goes to fight its critics and defectors.
If you’ve done much research into Scientology, you’ve probably heard about the “fair game” policy, which was supposedly cancelled in1968. The policy, which essentially allowed any tactics to be used against opponents of the church, appears to still be in effect, regardless of church proclamations to the contrary. Of course, lying is one of the tactics allowed by this policy.
