> I'm not trying to be a sophist, though, and I
> recognize that in colloquial usage "Saudi money"
> could have racist connotations, just as talk about "a
> cabal of international bankers led by the
> Rothschilds" would amount to talking about "Jew
> money."
I don't think "Saudi money" has any racist connotations, even if "Israeli money" does. Jew hatred now requires delicate coding. Hatred of other folks in the Middle East doesn't. The Saudi section of F9/11 is bullshit, but not racist bullshit. Moore really should've focused solely on the class angle, since everything else in the film (e.g. Wolfie et al getting made up) diverts attention from issues of greater importance or even obfuscates what's important. I might be wrong, but I think a version of F9/11 bereft of cheap shots and misleading analysis would've worked _better_ as propaganda.
(Now, to address a point Cox made some time ago: the world contains not only incompetent tool users but also defective tools. Critiquing defective tools isn't necessarily an idle practice. Such critique often leads to the creation of better tools in the future.)
-- Luke