Two Powerful Documentaries

I saw a couple of interesting documentaries in the past couple of weeks: This Film Is Not Yet Rated and America: Freedom to Fascism.

The former played in select theaters last year and is now out on DVD. It's about the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) film rating system. Ever wondered how movies are rated and by whom? The answer is: almost nobody knows because the MPAA is a secret organization whose membership is not published. The criteria by which movies are judged are vague and the MPAA doesn't publish specific guidelines. And why is that movies with so many violent scenes can get a PG-13 rating, while a sex scene automatically relegates it to an R rating? As discussed in the documentary, in Europe, the rating system is just the opposite (sex is OK, violence is not). And why should someone else decide what I can or cannot see? It takes a lot of digging by director/writer Kirby Dick to find out some of the mystery behind the MPAA. This is definitely a worthwile film to watch.

The latter film is a documentary mostly about the IRS and taxation on individuals' earnings. Writer/Director Aaron Russo discovers that there is no federal law that mandates paying a federal income tax on wages. In a larger context, the film also touches upon diminishing individual rights in America. This was also a great movie and you can see it on Google for free (see the film Web site to purchase the DVD). Here are a few quotes from the film:

"Do you think America is going deeper and deeper into becoming a police state, and if so, in what ways do you see that as a Congressman? --Aaron Russo

"Yeah, I think, we're moving in that direction, because there is not much we can do without permission. The absence of a police state is that people are free and if you don't commit crimes you can do what you want, but today you can't open up a business, you can't develop land, you can hardly do anything, you can't go the bank, you can't go the doctor without hte government knowing what you're doing. And they talk about medical privacy--that's gone. Financial privacy--that's gone. The right to own property--that's eseentially gone. So, you have to get permission from the government for almost everything, and if that is the definition of a police state that you can't do anyting unless the government gives you permission we're well on our way. This is something that eventually I hope people will get sick and tired of and say enough is enough." --Congressman Ron Paul (TX-R)

The Federal Reserve is a privately controlled entity owned by the major banks of this country.
--G. Edward Griffin, author of Creature from Jekyll Island

"The war on terrorism is the war on your freedom"

"There is no constitutional basis for a tax on the wages of Americans living and working in the fifty states of the Union" -- Peter Gibbons, Tax Attorney

"If Americans just learned that the IRS was actually knowingly deceiving them that would be enough for them to rise up and put a stop to it." -- Joe Banister, Former IRS Criminal Investigator