Michael Moore, the extremely-leftist director, is really starting to get on my nerves.

He is back in the news because his new film that bashes the Bush administration and the president’s family won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival. The film, Fahrenheit 9/11, reportedly links the Bushes to the Bin Laden family, shuns the president’s actions after the Sept. 11 attacks and portrays U.S. soldiers abusing prisoners.

It’s not the content of the new movie that is ticking me off — at least not yet; I haven’t seen it, as Moore is having a hard time finding a distributor. It’s rather a couple of Moore’s latest statements that have really got my blood boiling.

The Hollywood Reporter has stated that the film “reduces decades of American foreign-policy failures to a black-and-white cartoon that lays the blame on one family.”

Reportedly, Moore, reflecting on the situation in Iraq, recently said, “Why should the other countries of this world, countries who tried to talk us out of this folly, now have to clean up our mess?” Moore then added, “I’m sorry, but the majority of Americans supported this war once it began and, sadly, that majority must now sacrifice their children until enough blood has been let that maybe — just maybe — God and the Iraqi people will forgive us in the end.”

This latest quote about America’s efforts in Iraq is almost treasonous. He has actually implied that other countries should stay out of Iraq and let the continued attacks and deaths of American military members continue in order to apparently teach our country a lesson.

Sadly, this is not a diversion from Moore’s overall beliefs about our country. He heavily criticizes the United States and just about everything about our society while praising other cultures for their sophistication. The New York Post quoted Moore as going so far as to liken the terrorists we face to the colonists in the American Revolution and declaring, “they will win.”

The other quote from the lefty director that bothered me was made at a demonstration in France against cuts in welfare checks to artists. According to the Wall Street Journal’s opinionjournal.com, at the event, Moore shouted into a megaphone, “A job is a human right; a living wage is a human right.”

Moore seems to ignore the fact that such “human rights” would mean that someone would have to actually be forced to employ individuals in order for that right to be protected. Whom is he suggesting should be forced to hire them? Corporations? Government? Me? You? And to top it off, the protest was actually about “artists” getting welfare check cuts. Who in their right mind would support handing out taxpayer money to “artists” who can’t find work? Oh right, I forgot that we’re talking about the French.

Is he also actually suggesting that everyone be paid a “living wage?” Does he honestly believe that the kid who works part-time at a McDonald’s to pay his way through school should make enough money to live on? In the case of artists, what if their art is nothing but stick drawings not worth the paper they’re drawn on? Again, it’s ridiculous. But, then again, we’re talking about France.

Such government actions would cripple American business such that it would resemble France’s; not to mention the fact that they go against the principles of private property that Americans hold dear. But I guess given that, it’s understandable that Moore would be for such “human rights.” After all, France is one of those countries he deems better than the United States.

Almost everything about Moore is anti-American. He is against almost everything this country has done and what it stands for. His beliefs are anti-American, anti-capitalist, and as a result are basically anti-freedom. It’s sad.

Also sad is the fact that Moore often finds a welcome embrace from university professors and students throughout the country. Many of these same professors were the students of the ’60s and ’70s who opposed the war in Vietnam, bucked tradition, espoused socialist ideals and are now in positions of authority over students who sit in their classes every day.

Adam Fowler is a senior majoring in political science. oraclefowler@yahoo.com