No Impact Man: The Documentary

Date Watched: June 26, 2010
Source: Netflix Instant Play

This guy was REALLY SUPER annoying. His wife was a whiny, preened and pampered sissy who did nothing but complain about giving up coffee. And you want to know something else? These people had a little girl that they forced to live with no electricity in the summer in New York city in a walk-up apartment… that was absolutely infested with flies because they had what he called a “worm bin” of compost inside the apartment, and it was a breeding ground for flies. Every time you lifted the lid, they just burst forth in more of a cloud than a swarm, and they made this little girl live in it.

Aside from the fact that he could bend the rules as he wished, while he passive-aggressively chastised his wife for trying to cheat some caffeine, he said that having no impact on the environment meant they couldn’t use any kind of automobile, and they couldn’t eat food unless it was grown within 250 miles of NYC where they live. Um, unless they’re walking or biking the 250 miles to get their produce, that is no different than taking mass transit to work. It’s still going to run whether you use it or not, and your food was grown on a farm organically but someone still dumped it into a gas-guzzler and drove it to your stupid farmer’s market. Damned hypocrites. Ugh.

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Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)

Date Watched: June 26, 2010
Source: Netflix Instant Play

I will never pretend to know about the stock market. I will never see it as anything other than something that parallels going to Vegas with a sweaty wad of cash. I will never be able to listen to people talk finance without my brain shutting off after about 10 seconds, as if it were trying to interpret Mandarin.

However, because of this wonderfully made film, I totally understand, finally, the debacle that was the infamous Enron. Aside from the fact that I could have done a better job with their books, which says an AWFUL lot, I only have one thing to say about the whole ordeal:

Tee hee… freakin’ morons.

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Super High Me (2007)

Date Watched: June 26, 2010
Source: Netflix Instant Play

First thing I want to get out there is that I don’t smoke. I’ve smoked cigarettes regularly, but I quit a long time ago. I’ve smoked pot twice, and both times, I had horrible reactions to it, pretty much the opposite effect of what it does for most people. I have no desire whatsoever to inhale anything but oxygen, ever.

Second thing is that I think marijuana should be legalized for recreational purposes and have the ever-loving f*** taxed out of it. Cigarettes have more crud in them than “legitimately” grown marijuana and those are still legal… and I don’t think the taxes are high enough on them, but that’s another story.

I wanted to watch this because unlike Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me, which inspired this film (originally as just a joke in a stand-up routine), I don’t understand the draw to marijuana. It smells like skunk, it leaves a nasty sticky residue, I don’t like smoking, I don’t like not being in my head, and I can think of about umpty-eleven things I’d rather spend money on.

This wasn’t nearly as science-based as Morgan’s McDonald’s project. The guy took two rounds of SATs, got a basic lung function test, and some “psychic ability” tests. It was a cop-out.

As much as it sucks to admit though, the guy was really annoying sober, and I found him really funny once he was high again. /sigh.

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Lord, Save Us From Your Followers (2008)

Date Watched: June 25, 2010
Source: Netflix Instant Play

This is how Christians should be viewed by the world, because THESE people are the REAL Christians. Love thy neighbor, despite who they are or how they have sinned. Do unto them as you would yourself. Sacrifice some of your own “riches” to those who have nothing. These people = people of God. Jesus Camp = not people of God. Any questions?

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Into the Arms of Strangers (2000)

Date Watched: June 25, 2010
Source: Netflix Instant Play

[I guess I’ll call this “Documentary Saturday” since it’s Saturday and I’ve watched and am about to post 5 documentaries in a row.]

This was another side to the Holocaust that most people don’t learn about. I like how this film didn’t focus at all on the extermination, but the rescue of Jewish children by the Kindertransport.

About 10,000 children, mostly Jewish, were sent to British homes, farms, and hostels by their parents to wait out the war. As much as I’ve learned about the Holocaust, timelines are fuzzy for me, so I’m not sure that nine months prior to the outbreak of WWII it was clear the sheer horror that was to come. But what I do know is that while about 1.6 million children were murdered by the Nazis, there were a small few who were saved, and I think that’s just a bit of a miracle, considering how everything turned out. 5 years later, there were few reunions to be had, as most of the parents who had parted ways with their children were also murdered in concentration camps. The few reunions that did take place were painful for the parents, who missed huge chunks of their children’s lives, the children who had known other parents for 5 years, and the people who took those kids in and made them family for half a decade. It’s incredible to me how even in a miracle and what should have been a time of joy and thankfulness… could still contain so much pain.

The documentary itself was great… the story even greater.

Queue it on Netflix