Jason Clarke

Moorelies.com is retired, and I don’t intend for this space to inherit its subject matter. That said, in checking Instapundit today, I noticed my old mark, Michael Moore, is in trouble again:

A double-amputee Iraq-war vet is suing Michael Moore for $85 million, claiming the portly peacenik recycled an old interview and used it out of context to make him appear anti-war in “Fahrenheit 9/11.”

Sgt. Peter Damon, 33, who strongly supports America’s invasion of Iraq, said he never agreed to be in the 2004 movie, which trashes President Bush.

Geez, just when you think a movie could not be more discredited, along comes one of the people who appeared in it to slam the preverbial door even further. Of course, this isn’t the first time Sgt. Damon has complained about the shameful way he was treated by Moore. In the documentary FahrenHYPE 9/11 (disclosure: which I appear in, briefly), Damon first stated that he was taken completely out of context in Moore’s film. So while these aren’t new claims, they do come after over a year of apparent but unsuccessful efforts by Damon to get Moore to admit his wrongs.

One of the little known facts about Moore’s films- one that he would prefer be kept under wraps- is that he does not personally collect all of the footage that ultimately appear in his films. Far from it; in fact- some is gathered by producers, but even more is culled from vast stock video libraries and editied as it is seen fit by Moore. In Sgt. Damon’s case, Moore obtained the rights to some footage from the NBC News archives, cut it down to fit his argument, and stuck it in. The act can only be described as a lazy, cheap, and thoroughly dishonest attempt to pull one over on viewers. Can you imagine being so afraid of your own positions that you would go to such lengths to advance them?

This isn’t the first time Moore has been sued, for that matter. As Dave Hardy and I wrote in our book, Moore was successfully sued by a former friend who won over $4 million dollars from the filmmaker in a 1993 judgement. The lawsuit stemmed from Moore’s 1986 film Roger & Me, and can you guess what it revolved around? That’s right! The friend successfully sued Moore for taking his words out of context and using them against him on film.

Of course, the fact that this time around the treachery involves a solider injured in battle just makes it all the more disgusting.

UPDATE: Dave Hardy has more.

I hope to be the first to link to my friend Bob Cox’s new blog, WordsInEdgewise.tv, with good wishes. After four years, he’s abandoning The National Debate (along with the logo I designed for him- sad) and picking up with a new blog about his work with the Media Bloggers Association (Disclosure: I’m on the board of the MBA).

Yahoo! gives me a URL to display my public calendar: http://calendar.yahoo.com/jgclarke. But they don’t give me an RSS feed to do what I want with the data, and they don’t even give me any kind of widget for displaying on a blog or other site. What’s up with that?!

It may not be well known to the rest of the country, but here in Maine, we have a reputation for sticking together and helping our fellow citizens out. It troubles me, then, to see a fellow resident- and web developer- apparently harassing another Maine web developer.

I’m talking here about Rob Landry, owner of the Portland-based Pemaquid Communications, and his recent comments to and about Lance Dutson, the Maine blogger who just two weeks ago faced a multi-million-dollar lawsuit from Maine Office of Tourism contractor Warren Kremer Paino.

While Rob is certainly entitled to his opinion, I’m sure he’d agree there are more respectful and intelligent ways of expressing differing viewpoints- ways that do not involve leaving anonymous comments about a fellow Maine web developer across different blogs.

I believe that habit is wrong on a couple of levels. First, it’s professionally inappropriate to go around trashing another Maine web developer by hiding behind anonymous comments. Secondly, it’s in poor taste- and bad citizenship- as a commenter to intentionally muddy your identity. Obviously, it begs the questions: why hide behind a pseudonymn when making comments? Are you unable to support your own arguments? Or jealous of a fellow web professional? I’m not suggesting these are Rob’s motives- rather, I’m making the point that we can’t be sure, since he’s establishing a track record of obscuring his actions to the point of suspicion.

Maybe we should give Rob a pass. After all, by his own admission, he’s a newcomer to the whole world of blogging. I know because back in March, Rob emailed me asking for advice on what blogs are and how to set one up.

Now, I notice that he’s running what appears to be his own blog called foresider and located at http://foresider.com. Though his name appears in the registration info for the domain name, he’s curiously absent from any credit on the website. Rob has even gone so far as to intentionally mischaracterize his relationship to foresider.com, claiming that it’s a blog that he “advertises on.” While that is technically true- a link to his company, Pemaquid Communications appears on the blog- that would of course be an entirely disingenuous statement if he were also to own and publish the blog.

In the interest of fairness I emailed Rob asking for his take on both his questionable comments and his anonymous blog. Sadly, while Rob thanked me for the opportunity to comment, he nonetheless chose to continue his evasive maneuvers.

When I asked him why he left anonymous comments, he replied that he “Didn’t really think much of it,” so we’re in agreement there. Next he stated that he “wanted to add a comment that linked to the Foresider rather than Pemaquid Communications.” But of course, a comment’s link can point to anywhere- a commenter’s name is something entirely different. Again, he’s either woefully unfamiliar of common behavior standards online, or he’s intentionally ducking.

When I asked Rob why Foresider.com is an anonymous blog, he replied that he “[didn't] understand the question.” He asked me to “elaborate”, so I wrote him a follow-up email and attempted to re-phrase my already direct questions in a more explicit manner. While he replied to my initial email within 12 hours, he has yet to reply to my follow-up. It’s been two days and counting, and given his record to date, I can’t say I expect a clear reply.

Rob, if you were to ask me for further advice, I’d let you know that anonymous blogging without a damn good reason is generally frowned upon in the blogosphere. If you have something to hide, by all means, hide it. I know of a couple of bloggers in Nepal who blogged anonymously for months to avoid imprisonment and murder. Their country’s radio and television lines had all been downed by the government, so in their case anonymity became essential to survival. You can understand then how it frustrates me to observe anonymity used for cowardly purposes.

So if you’re just trying to lay low, you might want to recognize that lurking both in comment sections, and on your very own blog, are two things that don’t exactly place you on the shortlist for the blogosphere citizen of the year award. And they certainly aren’t tactics that will foster a community among the ranks of the few, but growing, community of bloggers in Maine.

Hola Mainers,

Barbara Merrill is an independent considering a run for the Blaine House. Because her hopes rest on a Clean Elections candidacy, she needs your help to gather the required contributions to qualify for Clean Elections Status.

Please- even if you’re supporting another candidate- take a few minutes, and $5 of your hard-earned dollars, and mail it off to the Clean Elections Fund on behalf of Merrill. It’s an easy, wholesome, and meaningful way to support a slightly more interesting, slightly more varied, and slightly-more issue-oriented campaign season here in Maine.

And oh yes- she needs you to send out your check(s) today, as tomorrow (Friday) is her deadline. It’s not too late, especially if you get to the mailbox before this evening.

Donate $5 to the Clean Elections Fund to support Barbara Merrill’s campaign →

PS - If you want to vett her before you send in the cash, check out her site or Lance Dutson’s recent interview with her.

I finally updated the header image on this blog (RSS readers, click on over!) after nearly six months. The previous one appeared on New Year’s Day and was new year’s fireworks; this one is much more random. It’s the view from a chairlift at Pat’s Peak in Henniker, New Hampshire, from September 2005.

I recently updated my About page with a list of links to each of my online identities at places like Flickr, del.icio.us, LinkedIn, and others. It’s a first-crack effort at being transparent about my online identity at various locations.

As I wrote this past January, identity online is an emerging issue, though it hasn’t quite made the breakthrough I predicted it would this year. A variety of incrimental steps are being taken, with the most recent example I’ve noticed being edgeio’s user profile, which asks you to enter your usernames at other popular online destinations like Flickr. Since edgeio is a classifieds marketplace, the obvious motive behind their clever move in this direction is to create more accountability for their sellers in an open (read: non-eBay) way.

Other work in the space is being done by OpenID as well as RapLeaf. For now though, it’s up to the decentralized masses to come up with their own self-policing and self-publicizing methods of sharing and verifying identity.

If you visited Google today, you may have noticed the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle logo.

Doyle is a personal hero of mine. He would have been 147 today. Besides the obvious- he’s the greatest mystery writer to ever live, and the inventor of the true modern mystery novel (forget Poe)- Doyle also led an amazing real life. His own detective work freed two innocent men, he introduced skiing to Switzerland, he was a devoted husband and friend, a doctor, and he was known across two continents as an adventurer and storyteller. And oh yeah, he was a knight.

Besides the obvious- The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes, which are among the most thrilling, enjoyable, and literary works ever published- I highly recommend The True Crime Files of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which tells the true story of Doyle’s work to free two innocent men accused of horrible crimes.

Despite (or perhaps, due to) my high hopes, I thought The DaVinci Code movie was a long, boring, overwraught, and entirely lame screen incarnation of the book.

I love Audrey Tatou- Ameilie is on my Top 10 All-Time list- and I really like Tom Hanks, Paul Bettany, Jean Reno, and Alfred Molina; but despite that stable of fine actors, not a single of their performances was where I hoped they would be. Perhaps that was due to the clunky, unsure script, which managed to drain the action from the book, dillute its theories, muddy its characters’ intentions, beliefs, and personality traits, and strip away some of the best scenes and turning points.

The most exciting thing about the entire trip was, alas, the previews. I’m happy to report that at least in preview land, all things are well. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (with Will Ferrell) looks hilarious, and Casino Royale (the new Bond flick) looks quite interesting.

The DaVinci Code: C

It’s time for another recurring series here (see also: beta testing, idea factory, best of).

This series is Greatest Lyrics, and it’s pretty straightforward. I’m going to be posting some song lyrics that I think are some of the greatest ever written. I’m not talking overall song quality here- though in most cases, they correlate- I’m simply talking the words; the poetry of the lyrics.

Whenever available, I’ll be using The LyricWiki as my official lyrics source (NOTE: There is another site, which I won’t link to, with a similar name- but you’ll note the other site is NOT a wiki). I don’t assume the site is perfect, and you shouldn’t either. But as its creators state, they wanted an alterative to the otherwise ad-ridden lyrics sites, and with that they’ve succeeded.

First up is The Boxer, by Simon & Garfunkel. It’s a popular song, but I think it’s one that, even though many may know the words, they don’t necessarily absorb them. Inspiration for this choice is thanks to Scheherazade and her post on the song.

I am just a poor boy.
Though my story’s seldom told,
I have squandered my resistance
For a pocket full of mumbles,
Such are promises
All lies and jest
Still, a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest

When I left my home
And my family,
I was no more than a boy
In the company of strangers
In the quiet of the railway station,
Running scared,
Laying low,
Seeking out the poorer quarters
Where the ragged people go,
Looking for the places
Only they would know

Lie-la-lie…

Asking only workman’s wages
I come looking for a job,
But I get no offers.
Just a come-on from the whores
On Seventh Avenue
I do declare,
There were times when I was so lonesome
I took some comfort there.

Lie-la-lie…

Then I’m laying out my winter clothes
And wishing I was gone,
Going home
Where the New York City winters
Aren’t bleeding me,
Leading me,
Going home

In the clearing stands a boxer,
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of ev’ry glove that laid him down
Or cut him till he cried out
In his anger and shame,
“I am leaving, I am leaving.”
But the fighter still remains

Lie-la-lie…