Arianna Loses It

I am normally a big HuffPo fan, Arianna, but you have totally lost me on this one.

She says Mel Gibson's DUI arrest could be "a seminal moment in our cultural history."

I see the Gibson story as "a moment of opportunity," a chance for reasonable people to stand up and be counted. For the sane among us to identify, separate, and condemn the extremists, the fanatics, the fundamentalists, the bigots, the hate-mongers and say 'no more.'

In the same way that ordinary Muslims need to separate themselves from the blood-drenched ideology of Hezbollah, Hollywood needs to separate itself from the odious racism of Gibson. And I don't make that connection lightly. Remember, during his DUI tirade, Gibson claimed, "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." That kind of thinking makes him psychological soul mates with Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, who has said, "If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak, and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology, and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew."

Gibson's no-longer-deniable brand of bigotry has led to the extermination of millions...

Oh, puh-lease! Who's the one guilty of "lunatic ravings" here?

Let's firstly note the fact that Gibson was pissed off his face (and immediately retracted his statements when sober), then calmly consider where he is coming from. This is a guy who was loudly slammed as an anti-Semite because he made a movie which accurately represented events surrounding the death of Jesus. Of course, Jewish groups were outraged because it make them look bad. But hey! They actually were bad, at that time, in that place, in that context. Doesn't mean all Jews are bad, Gibson never said they were, and I certainly don't think they are either, yadda, yadda ... Whaddaya want a goy to do, come up with the standard Hollywood schmalz ending? Smack a kind-hearted rabbi at the foot of the cross just to make it more "fair and balanced"? That is the same sort of "invent your own reality" nonsense as the Bush neo-cons practice (and HuffPo always criticizes).

Now since making Passion, Gibson has been shunned as an anti-Semite across Bush's USA. Who stands up for him in such a barren landscape? Nobody. If you don't think Jewish groups have been making his life difficult for the past few years, Arianna, then Gibson probably has a few interesting stories to tell you. Ya ever been to Hollywood, girl?

Then we have the nightly news bulletins from southern Lebanon for the past two weeks. You wont get your Bush White House or your news anchors on CNN criticizing the Israelis for War Crimes (oooooh, NO!) but you can be damn sure that's what the rest of us around the world are seeing (I recommend SBS as a news source for anyone in Australia, like me, or in the USA and wanting a bigger picture).

You think you go blowing up women, kids, ambulances and UN buildings on the TV News every night and you are not going to stir up a bit of hot-blooded resentment? I want to kick my TV set and scream every night in anguish. Not at Jewish people because they are Jews, but at the whole damn thing, particularly the criminal silence by supposedly "Democratic" leaders who are too spineless to even call for a ceasefire.

Add a big dose of alcohol to that mix, blend in a history of harrassment by Jewish groups, and maybe NOW you start to see where Gibson was coming from.

Listen, personally I don't even like the guy that much. And I'm an Aussie! But if you are not going to cut the guy some slack, at least don't try to turn this minor incident into "a seminal moment in our cultural history". Isn't HuffPo always criticizing others for turning news into entertainment? Let's keep it real. The only way this is ever going to turn into a "seminal cultural moment" for the USA is if Jewish groups and the US media (including HuffPo?) insist on extracting a pound of Gibson's flesh, in which case maybe the fallout will help a few people see who is really running their country.

Yeah, you heard THAT right. Wake up and look around, folks. Mel Gibson is not your biggest problem right now.

Arianna, how about full disclosure on your own links to AIPAC and other Jewish pressure groups?