"So is Mel Gibson's drunken anti-Semitic spew really headline news -- or is it just another celebrity DUI?"
Just another DUI. We have free speech in this country and drunk or sober he has a right to his thoughts, belief's and, to speak them.
You don't have to like it but that is the way it goes.
I think Mel will recover from this. At least he didn't say anything about gays - that would have been a career killer in Hollywood.
I notice that a lot of liberals are anti-Israel anyway so Mel fits right in.
OF COURSE he as the right to his beliefs...he's not going to go to jail for it. But we also have the right to our beliefs, calling him on it and boycotting his movies. Can you say, DIXIE CHICKS.
And actually, if what Arianna proposes actually happens, all it will do is convince him, and others who are like minded that the Jews really are exactly what he thinks they are. If they really wanted to do something other than find something to be angry about, they would accept his apology and invite him to learn more about them.
susie
The way it goes is that one must be black or Jewish to be "equal". White or Christian, much less white and Christian is decidedly not entitled to free speech in the perception of this Nation. Any well trained lap-dog will self-righteously tell you that.
Thought crimes are particularly punishable because those who have taken charge are intent on the power of "mastery". One certainly cannot have another Master; that currently impugns Christians. A miniscule percentage of whites (and blacks) were once called "master"; that requires assignation of guilt dumped only on all whites.
If one is both white and Christian plus successful in the face of opposition from those who “master” the stakes are higher so the punishment is exponentially imposed. After all independent thought and freedom of worship are the enemies of mastery.
Those two “enemies of mastery” are exactly what prompted the Mayflower immigrants to set foot on that vessel. Too bad they were white and had a Biblical Master Who had persuaded them to believe that they were Israel going to the "promised land" to become the "city set on a hill".
It's an interesting cultural phenomenon, also, that not only can you be punished for what you say, but you can be punished worse for what you say while drunk.