imkittymyers at hotmail dot com
Sunday, July 30, 2006
SPARE ME THE MORAL INDIGNATION
I will not defend Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic slurs. Nor does his drunken state give him a pass. But alcohol does cause people to say and do things they would never say or do when sober. Does the mere fact that he said such things make Gibson anti-Semitic? Because if that's the standard, then Hillary Clinton is anti-Semtic, and she wasn't even drunk at the time.
Hillary Clinton denies using anti-Semitic slur: In his book, Oppenheimer alleges that Hillary Rodham -- then Bill Clinton's girlfriend -- called adviser Paul Fray a "Jew bastard" to his face on election night. … Paul Fray told CNN that Rodham had indeed uttered the slur.
(Apparently both Clintons have a history of being foulmouthed liars.)
Using that same standard, Hillary is racist, too, and displayed her racism in public -- while sober.
Public Exhibit #1) Hillary Clinton's Gandhi 'Joke' is clearly racist: A seasoned politician and a fine lawyer, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is not that dumb to make a sick joke about Mahatma Gandhi working at a gas station in St. Louis. … After Clinton made that sick remark there was laughter. Nobody from the Democratic group objected. Nobody frowned at Hillary Clinton. Nobody protested. There were 200 Democrats, but apparently all were as sick and dumb as the speaker. Hillary must have realized that it was a sick joke but did not apologize. She only added: "No, Mahatma Gandhi was a great leader of the 20th century." The regret also came days later.
Public Exhibit #2) Hillary's "plantation crack": This past January, in her Martin Luther King Day speech, she said, “When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation and you know what I'm talking about…..”
8 Speaking of anti-Semitic slurs, don't forget Jesse Jackson’s Hymietown slur.
8 Don Surber's perspective ... Mel Gibson pulls a Ramsey Clark: Gibson's drunken remarks are stupid. I used to say stupid things when I was drunk back when I was in my 20s. That's part of why I gave up drinking. But Clark is a mean-spirited, hateful man who has represented every anti-American dictator and genocidal maniac. He is the danger, not some guy whose biggest threat to humanity is to make another bad picture.
Special treatment?
Did Gibson Get a Break After Arrest?: The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's civilian oversight office said Saturday that it will investigate whether authorities gave Mel Gibson preferential treatment when he was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving and tried to cover up alleged offensive comments and behavior by one of Hollywood's most powerful figures. …"People say stupid things when they are drunk, and they later regret it," [Sheriff Lee] Baca said. "You don't convict him on what he said. People aren't convicted for saying stupid things."
The charge of special treatment is really rich, considering that back in May Patrick Kennedy was treated with kid gloves: Kennedy appeared to be intoxicated when he crashed his car into a barrier on Capitol Hill early Thursday morning, said Louis P. Cannon, president of the Washington chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police. Cannon, who was not there, said the officers involved in the accident were instructed by an official "above the rank of patrolman" to take Kennedy home.
No sobriety tests were conducted at the scene.
8 Officers Claim Brass Interfered in Investigation of Rep. Kennedy Incident: Police labor union officials asked acting Chief Christopher McGaffin this afternoon to allow a Capitol Police officer to complete his investigation into an early-morning car crash involving Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I).
Most people on the right wished Rep. Kennedy well when he entered yet another brief stint in rehab. He received a slap on the wrist, and then he was back to work in DC.
This sudden concern for Jews' feelings, primarily from the left, rings hollow. It always has. After all, many of these same people who brand Gibson as anti-Semitic are demanding that Israel stop defending itself against the Hezbollahs. They've proven that they're more concerned with the terrorists' rights than those of the victims. These people, who are now outraged at Gibson, have been silent for decades as rampant anti-Semitism has plagued Europe.
8 In today's TAS, Ben Stein writes that We are in real serious trouble, and I'll tell you how and why I know it: Because the Hezbollah -- as has been well reported -- launches missiles at purely civilian targets in Israel as a matter of course, and no one in Europe or in the American left says "boo" about it. It's considered the Hezbollah's "right" to kill Israelis and when they do, they boast about it and promise to do more.
Mel Gibson said some vile, stupid things, which is his right. But is he an anti-Semite? If all you have are words as proof, then I'd say maybe not. Nixon can be heard on tape making derogatory remarks about Jews. Yet Ben Stein not only worked for Nixon, he loved him and mourned him when he died and has never considered Nixon to be anti-Semitic. But let's be candid: These people don't care one way or the other about Jews. They're just mining this incident for their own political ends. So spare me the moral indignation.
8 QUOTE OF THE DAY...: “If a drunken Mel Gibson did indeed call out, “Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world,” then there can be only one possible place for a man who believes such things: as the next Secretary General of the United Nations.”
—David Frum
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