 don't discount. Tuesday, August 01, 2006 Damn, is the end nigh? As the Israeli army pushes deeper into Lebanon and the American left (and the war-happy Right) seems afraid to call bullshit on their use of force in heavily populated civilian areas, the irony of Mel Gibson's tequila DUI rant against 'the Jews!' has not escaped me. Think on this...Gibson, a Christian, as you by now well know, grossed around $360 million for his film 'The Passion of the Christ.' The film was a true evangelical hit with Christian audiences elevating Gibson into even more of a Hollywood player than he already was. If you remember 'Passion' drew advance criticism from Jewish thinkers for what was perceived as 'blame' on the Jews for the killing of Christ. Gibson quieted his critics by wrapping himself in the Bible. The film flourished, Christians everywhere screamed 'masterpiece!' and Gibson dropped $5 million on a church compound outside of L.A. A church based upon Catholicism not recognized by Rome mainly because Gibson never bought into that whole Vatican II version of being a Catholic. Gibson is a fundementalist who has tried hard to distance himself from his radical father (at this point reknowned mostly because he doesn't believe the Holocaust existed.) Gibson and his ilk are sort of retro-Catholics that really have little to do with anything pertaining to mainstream Catholic beliefs. Gibson's theology, notes Christopher Noxon in the New York Times, 'is a strain of Catholicism rooted in the dictates of a 16th-century papal council and nurtured by a splinter group of conspiracy-minded Catholics, mystics, monarchists and disaffected conservatives -- including a seminary dropout and rabble-rousing theologist who also happens to be Mel Gibson's father.' Hutton Gibson, Mel's dad, author of 'Is the Pope Catholic?' (I'm not making this shit up) post-9/11, dropped these nuggets of conspiracy wisdom when he flatly rejected that Al Qaeda hijackers had anything to do with the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. 'Anybody can put out a passenger list,' the elder Gibson said. When pressed for what happened in his view, he retorted, 'They were crashed by remote control.' Don't get me wrong, to each his own, but besides Tommy Cruise, no actor in H-wood has done more to run around bellowing about his faith that Gibson so I think it is fair to talk about what the guy does or says relating to the subject. Gibson has been the 5'5' darling of neocon-types long before his historically-challenged film, 'The Patriot' re-wrote, for lack of a better term, the American Revolution: He has been mouthy on abortion, he's hopelessly against it; he favors capital punishment, kill them all, unless they are babies; has opposed birth control, he himself has a brood; and has planted his diminutive foot in his mouth over gay and lesbian issues--stand-out nonsense...'They take it up the ass,' Gibson told the Spanish publication El Pais in a January 1992 interview, as he bent over and pointed to his firm round keister. 'This is only for taking a shit.' So should anyone be shocked or appaled? Nah? The guy has been doing this kind of crapola for years. But when H-wood beat writers and Innertainment Tonight poll you to see whether or not Gibson has now committed career suicide, you should answer a resounding 'no.' his fans will not care, his fans feel basically has he does, althought they probably don't even know it and rarely express it so stupidly in public. But it is the Christian Republicans who should stop to wonder why it is that the Iranian story of the Passion of Christ recently airing on TV there, is terribly similar to Gibson's telling and pirated DVDs of Gibson's film version have been readily available to American G.I.s in a part of the world usually Hellbent on keeping Christian propaganda off the streets...the answer is simple. Gibson's story tells the story Islamic extremists want to tell the world...blame the Jews, what better message to give the G.I.s, 'the Jews killed your most important prophet.' So now, back to Israel. The one nation in the world whose foreign policy is absolutely off-limits for rational discussion. I am frustrated with myself for not knowing more about Middle Eastern politics, a complicated matter for those who do claim to know anything. I do surmise from observation that our government wants Israel killing Arabs with our weapons. Iran wants Arabs killing Jews with theirs. Go(o)d times. I say that Israel will eventually be calling for a cease-fire unless they plan on another failed occupation...and by then it will be too late for one. Yes, I am a liberal and no, I don't support Israel's response in Lebanon or our government's response by not being incredibly proactive in movement towards some peace. But you won't hear me yelling at an arresting officer that all the world's ills are one ethnicity's or religion's 'fault.' It is not all black or white in war, when are we as Americans gonna learn more about the massive amounts of grey in our world? Do not discount what knowledge outside of your burg or clan can do to change things...oh and in the words of Mel Gibson to a female booking officer... 'What do you think you're looking at, sugar tits?' Truly, What Would Jesus Do? Discount Shoes. Diana (Banier clone). Ilford HP5+ Comment (15) | Permalink |
