Left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore has been touring Occupy Wall Street demonstrations across the country–including some of the most violent, such as Occupy Oakland–urging activists to continue their fight against the wealthy “one percent” of Americans.

Initially, Moore tried to deny that his massive wealth made him a member of that one percent. Even when forced to admit the obvious, Moore suggested that he was not always among the one percent, based on his income: “Other years, like last year, I don’t have a job (no movie, no book) and so I make a lot less.”

The fact is that Moore is so wealthy that he does not need to worry about his income. According to public tax records, Moore owns a massive vacation home on Torch Lake, Michigan–one of the most elite communities in the United States–in addition to his posh Manhattan residence.

Through an independent source, Big Hollywood has obtained exclusive photographs of the house matching the address of Moore’s waterfront mansion. It is the kind of luxurious summer home that 99 percent of Americans can only dream of owning.

Moore’s vacation property is located on the southeastern shore of Torch Lake itself, which locals tout as the “third most beautiful lake in the world.” Here is an aerial view of the house, situated on the turquoise blue waters for which Torch Lake is famous:

Property values on Torch Lake, according to one real estate website, range “from $400,000 to plus $3 million.” (more…)

Don Mclean’s American Pie.

As you listen to and watch this rather miraculous musical achievement by the entire town of Grand Rapids, Michigan, ask yourself, “Is America dead yet?”

Well, this 2012 video assures History that this 1971 requiem for the meaning of Sixties America won’t be lost on future generations.

“Helter-skelter!”

Yup, the dark and the fading light of it.

“Satan laughing with delight the day the music died!”

“The Church bells all were broken!”

And the Holy Trinity?

They’ve left too.

Yet … just maybe … Grand Rapids will live … due to the glory of having made this video!

Please watch it full screen, if you can. The soul of Grand Rapids deserves to take our stages entirely for the length of this song.

Why?

Aside from Grand Rapids’ singular achievement, all of Michigan, Detroit particularly, seems to have been marked for some form of grave. (more…)

Michael Moore quoting Thomas Jefferson to justify his Marxism is a true highlight. Let’s just hope he’s right about unions being on the ropes. No doubt the low-to-no turnout at his astro-turfed Michigan rally earlier this month has the mega-millionaire feeling a little gloomy.

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Michael Moore gets the Michael Moore treatment in a new documentary created by a fellow Michigan resident. Accountant turned filmmaker Kevin Leffler isn’t a dyed in the wool Republican trying to score cheap shots off the liberal gadfly. He’s just a regular Midwesterner who knew the guy being trumped up in the press as the straight talking Everyman wasn’t the real deal.

Leffler grew up in the same part of Michigan as Moore, attending the same Catholic Church and even working together on a local youth hotline. So when Leffler calls out Moore, it means something.

“Shooting Michael Moore” lets Leffler deconstruct the Moore myth. It’s a project with a tiny budget and little Hollywood razzmatazz – Leffler is a CPA and college professor, not a slick documentarian.

But he digs deep enough into Moore’s activities to reveal a more complicated, and damning portrait of the Oscar winner.

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A few months ago I wrote a column about the effect IATSE’s wage increase in Michigan would have on future production in Michigan.  Just recently, the company I have my first look deal with decided to produce another picture in Michigan and was informed my column made it impossible for IATSE to negotiate or help us in any way.  They basically said this is the deal, take it or leave it if you want to shoot here; your employee ruined it for you. 

My company then proceeded to disavow any knowledge of my column and said that what I write is of my own doing and not the policy of the company.  This is true.  It is my own doing.  No one tells me what to write or censors my editorial content. 

I still believe IATSE is harming the burgeoning film industry in Michigan.  I believe that if IATSE was doing the right thing in Michigan, the state of Michigan would be putting all of the other tax-incentive states out of business.  Producers would be running there in droves. 

Unions are supposed to be the mechanism to level the playing field for the working man.  Their job is to protect the working man from “the man,” and to keep their members employed fairly.  Isn’t employment what unions are really all about:  Especially now when unemployment is so rampant all over the United States, particularly in Michigan and California.  You would think the unions would be bending over backwards to work with “the man” in a mutually beneficial situation.  Let us all do whatever is necessary to keep employment in the United States; not Eastern Europe or Asia.  (more…)

Polish American Walt Kowalski, played to anti-hero perfection by Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino, stands against corruption and lawlessness and wins. But not before sacrificing his life. Kowalski is a Korean War veteran and retired auto worker living outside of Detroit. He is old and tired, and just wants to be left alone after the death of his wife. But fate and duty had other ideas. He carries a long held guilt over killing a surrendering soldier in the Korean War. His death redeems, not just his soul, but the soul of his town.

Events lead Kowalski to resist a local takeover by a Hmong youth gang. The Hmong are an ethnic Southeast Asian people, primarily from Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. In real life Michigan, they are among the fastest growing immigrants. Many Hmong people emigrated from South Vietnam after Democrats shamelessly withdrew monetary support from South Vietnam in 1974. The Paris Peace Agreements thus became toothless and North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam. “Boat people” fled Vietnam and the insane, murderous Pol Pot created the Cambodian Killing Fields. (more…)

A lot can be said about unions supporting wage earners and creating a middle class. However, a lot can also be said about unions ruining this country.  Case in point: Michigan.

You would think that after the UAW destroyed the auto industry and the tax base in Michigan, the people of the state and the unions based there would have learned. However, this is not the case. In the latest union disaster for the state of Michigan, the IATSE has decided that the blooming film industry in the state must be stopped before it even gets started.

As most of you in the film business know, the state of Michigan has one of the most lucrative tax credit/rebate programs in the industry. The state gives you 40% of every qualified dollar that you spend in the state. In addition, if you shoot your film in a few core areas such as Detroit, you will get an additional 2%. That’s a whopping 42% of what the producers’ qualified in Michigan spend. On a 20 million dollar budget, this can amount to a gift from the state of Michigan of approximately 6.5 million dollars after you subtract the non-qualified costs. (more…)

Just a Couple of Supply-Siders

Progressive liberal Democrat Alec Baldwin sent many heads spinning all over the blogosphere when he recently said this:

I’m telling you right now,” the actor warned, “if these tax breaks are not reinstated into the budget, film production in this town is going to collapse, and television production is going to collapse, and it’s all going to go to California.

Now the rich absurdity of a statement like that coming out of the mouth of Alec Baldwin has been chronicled many places all over the web (most notably in the Wall St. Journal), and the fascinating “why?” of it all is still being sorted out.  Has he had an economic spiritual awakening?  Has he gone insane?   Or is he simply a narcissistic hypocrite who only wants tax breaks for the industry that pays him exorbitant amounts of money for saying words other people write during the two or three grueling, catered days a week that he actually has to go to work?  (more…)