Quiz!!!!!!
Ugh. I just can't let it go. Mel Gibson apologized to the police, specifically, and more generally to "anyone he might have offended."
For saying that Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world (this gives a whole new dimension to Holocaust denying: the Jews started it), he apologizes vaguely to "anyone he might have offended."
Nice, Mel.
That's like saying, "I'm really really sorry that you're mad at me."
This is a man who at his most egregious claims that his Holocaust-denying father has never lied to him, and at his most conciliatory claims that victims of the Holocaust are no different from any other war casualties. Except that the Jews and Gypsies and Catholics (sometimes irony just isn't funny) who perished in the concentration camps were NOT casualties. They were murder vicitms.*
Dead is dead, that's true enough, but to suggest that systematically segregating, impoversihing, enslaving, torturing, and exterminating a particular group doesn't present its own set of ethical concerns betrays an astonishingly enfeebled moral imagination. It's obscene.
But, I am willing to cut the guy some slack. After all, he was drunk. And we all know that liquor causes anti-Semitism (not for nothing the stereotype that Jews don't drink). So, in honor of my 2nd favorite drunk bigot,** I hereby offer a quiz: "Jews or Booze?"
Here's how it works. For each of the following historical events, decide who was responsible. In order that it not be too easy, there will also be a third choice. If you're playing "Gibson Rules," of course, you can ignore this one.
So here we go:
JEWS OR BOOZE?:
1. Drunk Driving
a. Jews
b. Booze
c. bad judgment
2. Anti-Semitic comments
a. Jews
b. Booze
c. bad judgment
3. Lethal Weapon 3
a. Jews
b. Booze
c. bad judgment
4. Losing my virginity
a. Jews
b. Booze
c. Lethal Weapon
5. Killing Jesus
a. Jews
b. Booze
c. the Romans
6. The Passion of the Christ
a. Jews
b. Booze
c. the glorification of cinematic violence fused to a misguided sense of spiritual duty
7. Hollywood's Glorification of Violence
a. Jews
b. Booze
c. Mel Gibson movies
Answers will be posted tomorrow. Get your number 2s sharpened!
*Poor Ronald Reagan also didn't get the difference when he insisted on visiting Bitburg and saying that the Waffen SS were also victims of the Nazis. Um, Mr. President, the SS were the Nazis. But Reagan was addled and manipulated. Whereas Mel Gibson is...nevermind.
**The number one slot still belongs to a blind date I went on about ten years ago (hi, Denise!), who after 4 or 5 drinks proceded to tell me what she thought about blacks and Laotians and Democrats (at least we agreed on the last one). But I'm sure she didn't believe any of those things when she was sober.
For saying that Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world (this gives a whole new dimension to Holocaust denying: the Jews started it), he apologizes vaguely to "anyone he might have offended."
Nice, Mel.
That's like saying, "I'm really really sorry that you're mad at me."
This is a man who at his most egregious claims that his Holocaust-denying father has never lied to him, and at his most conciliatory claims that victims of the Holocaust are no different from any other war casualties. Except that the Jews and Gypsies and Catholics (sometimes irony just isn't funny) who perished in the concentration camps were NOT casualties. They were murder vicitms.*
Dead is dead, that's true enough, but to suggest that systematically segregating, impoversihing, enslaving, torturing, and exterminating a particular group doesn't present its own set of ethical concerns betrays an astonishingly enfeebled moral imagination. It's obscene.
But, I am willing to cut the guy some slack. After all, he was drunk. And we all know that liquor causes anti-Semitism (not for nothing the stereotype that Jews don't drink). So, in honor of my 2nd favorite drunk bigot,** I hereby offer a quiz: "Jews or Booze?"
Here's how it works. For each of the following historical events, decide who was responsible. In order that it not be too easy, there will also be a third choice. If you're playing "Gibson Rules," of course, you can ignore this one.
So here we go:
JEWS OR BOOZE?:
1. Drunk Driving
a. Jews
b. Booze
c. bad judgment
2. Anti-Semitic comments
a. Jews
b. Booze
c. bad judgment
3. Lethal Weapon 3
a. Jews
b. Booze
c. bad judgment
4. Losing my virginity
a. Jews
b. Booze
c. Lethal Weapon
5. Killing Jesus
a. Jews
b. Booze
c. the Romans
6. The Passion of the Christ
a. Jews
b. Booze
c. the glorification of cinematic violence fused to a misguided sense of spiritual duty
7. Hollywood's Glorification of Violence
a. Jews
b. Booze
c. Mel Gibson movies
Answers will be posted tomorrow. Get your number 2s sharpened!
*Poor Ronald Reagan also didn't get the difference when he insisted on visiting Bitburg and saying that the Waffen SS were also victims of the Nazis. Um, Mr. President, the SS were the Nazis. But Reagan was addled and manipulated. Whereas Mel Gibson is...nevermind.
**The number one slot still belongs to a blind date I went on about ten years ago (hi, Denise!), who after 4 or 5 drinks proceded to tell me what she thought about blacks and Laotians and Democrats (at least we agreed on the last one). But I'm sure she didn't believe any of those things when she was sober.
posted by Feemus at
3:45 PM
5 Comments:
My experience with alcoholic drinking (if that's what we're talking about) is that it's insane -- by which I mean completely-fucked-up-off-the-charts-makes-no-sense-a'tall-crazy. I'm talking about nuts. That's what makes me exceptionally understanding about all the wonderful things alcoholic people say when they're drinking -- my experience in that dimension. Now whether that's Mel's problem or not, I can't say. But sober or drunk, I really don't CARE what he thinks, and I'm surprised you do. I don't CARE what he thinks about religion (I certainly did not see The Passion -- why would I?) or anything else. He's just some guy, you know?
Now you, Feemus, your opinion interests me! Are you going to tell us (by which I mean "me") where else we can read your writing? It's really clever!!
Signed,
A Fan
By
Claudia / PVS, at 5:11 PM
Uhm... Don't the Kennedy's do this same routine, like, weekly? Al Sharpton? Louis Farakhan?
Mel is a dumbass.
The momentum behind his fall was put in motion by Mel's own stupidity and quickly gained terminal velocity because he is a "pius" conservative, and anything less than perfection from said affiliation puts you on the express elevator to public shaming.
Teddy, on the other hand, could disembowel Japanese tourists with a chainsaw in a blind drunk rage and wire service editors across the nation would just shrug and say, "That's news?"
Lesson for the day: Keep your piety to yourself.
That and: If you are going to leave your frontal lobe in the bar, at least have the remaining brainpower to make sure the cop to whom you are spouting racial slurs is:
A. Not of the ethnicity you are slurring (GEEZ, MEL!)
B. Not packing a tape recorder.
Now, can we face the elephant in the room? Suppose Mel is indeed done. Suppose his career is over.
The pimp still gots hundreds of millions in the bank. I don't think he'll be seen in the Save-A-Lot aisles anytime soon.
By
Anonymous, at 12:48 PM
Practical,
I think I care because I hear so many casual anti-Semitic remarks from people who would never say anything against any other group. And I see a lot of stuff that's less casual.
For example, I had a student recently ON AN EXAM write that Elie Weisel's description of the scope of the Holocaust was hyperbolic and fallacious.
Wow--he was a nice kid, too.
Mel Gibson defended his father's statements long before this last incident (although maybe he was drunk, I don't know). And none of his cronies said boo. Here's a very public figure with a pretty big platform and no one comes out publically and says, "Hey Mel--shut the fuck up."
And the Left is just as bad as the Right. As Dwight says, no one really calls Sharpton and Farakhan and Leonard Jeffries on their shit, either.
But, point taken. I'm all ranted out, anyhow. It's exhausting being this self-righteous all the time. Not as exhausting as being ACTUALLY righteous, but still, I'm plum tuckered.
Wow--clever? That's so nice, Practical!! This poor stolen, sporadically kept-up blog is all there is of old Feemus.
By
Feemus, at 3:50 PM
You're right, Feemus, what Gibson said DOES suck, and I didn't mean to dismiss it so casually...I guess I just feel like there's so much happening that sucks and is, like...REALLY important, you know? And all this Kobe Bryant, The Passion, etc., crap is so pathetic...I just want to hold up my hand like a traffic cop and say, STOP!
So...sorry about that.
And you're a teacher!! I'm from a family of teachers!! And all this time I thought you were a sailor...
By
Claudia / PVS, at 7:11 AM
I teach sailors.
By
Feemus, at 8:34 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home