Might I suggest that you look into Al-Anon? It is an organization for friends and families of alcoholics – those that have been affected by someone else’s drinking. Your comments indicate that you have been affected, and continue to carry those effects forward in your lives/attitudes/ perceptions.

Living with an alcoholic did not make me (or you) an expert in alcoholism – what it did was make me bitter, angry, and hurt. And for that there is a solution.

Al Anon.

Your pronouncements about Mel and about your father, made with such conviction, could be judgements make as easily about a person with Tourette’s syndrome. And would be just as mistaken.

I doubt that this thread will convice you to get some healing from the conviction that you grew up with a bastard or that Mel is one. But I have seen overwhelming evidence that often (not always, but very often) these are not bad people, but sick ones. And they often say things when drinking with an objective of pushing buttons, not of revealing deep basic truth. And that’s if they even remember them at all. Given Gibson’s father’s positions on Jews, these foul comments would have been an easy reach.

As for your other judgement:

Speaking of Mel … is it rude to point out something we should all agree on – that anyway acting that nuts with a .12 BAC is really just a big girlyman? C’mon. I could drink that much and perform brain surgury.

If Mel is an alcoholic, (and he says he is, so who are we to disbelieve him) he may be suffering from a typical progression of this disease. Often alcoholic have a tremendous capacity for drink in the early stages. They are the ones who drive the other drunks home. (And I personally know neurosurgeons, now recovering in AA, who DID perform brain surgery drunk.) Then as the liver and brain chemistry changes progress, they suddenly have

no

capacity for alcohol to speak of. It’s not a matter of being a girlyman, it is a stage of the disease.

The more important issue is how one resolves it among themselves – do they work at their inner attitudes or do they go on a rampage with no regard for others?

I’m sure Mel has felt regret and has asked for forgiveness in the court that counts (for those that hate him – your court doesn’t count).

Those who hate him… cast a bunch of stones on him – but quickly and don’t let Amnesty International catch you at your dirty deed.

: )

To start spewing some rather bizarre anti-Semitic comments after a few beers … and then to pretend that those feelings are not real and that its entirely the beer’s fault … stretches credulity to the breaking point.

In Vino Veritas. Exactly. Unless one of you seriously wants to argue that you’d vote for Dennis Kucinich after a few beers. Alcohol in excess lowers inhibitions and disintegrates moral boundaries … but it doesn’t make us think things that aren’t there. Sure, I might jump on Sarah Michelle Gellar after a few pints. But that’s because I already want to. Really badly. She’s kinda cute.

I spent 19 years living with an alcoholic father. I heard him say plenty of awful things. And every single one of them came right from the heart. He was a bastard. The alcohol just let him be himself.

Just like Mel.

Speaking of Mel … is it rude to point out something we should all agree on – that anyway acting that nuts with a .12 BAC is really just a big girlyman? C’mon. I could drink that much and perform brain surgury.

What a weenie. What a bigoted weenie. What a girlyman lightweight bigoted weenie.

This is not about a film. Nor is it about artistic license. This is about real life and recognizing the consequences hurtful words can have. It’s about existing in harmony in a world that seems to have gone mad.

BEST MOVIE EVER!!!!!!

You probably would not do something, while drunk, that violated your morals, or was entirely out of character. I would, and so would most alcoholics I know.

You can’t possibly be serious. One must be an alcoholic to do things out of character while drunk? Please. Part of character is the self-suppression of words and actions that are inappropriate to a situation. Alcohol removes that ability to suppress for both alcoholic and non-alcoholic alike. If an alcoholic has pickled his brain to the point where he is more inclined to say horrible things when drunk, I, personally, am not that sympathetic.

By now, you’ve certainly all heard the reports about Mel Gibson’s DUI arrest and alleged Jew bashing tirade, right? Personally, I generally can’t stand tabloid news, so I haven’t even posted on it. But I did hit the link at……

He says he regrets the drinking and driving, and the way he lost control to the drinking again, and regrets how he treated the police. But almost no-one is freaked out by the idea of Mel getting a DUI. Disappointed, but not freaked out. Even Mel getting lippy and crude with talk of “sugar tits”, “my life is fucked”, and “I own all of Malibu and I’ll get you,” isn’t what has every body all freaked out. It’s the anti-semitism that has everybody freaked out, and it is the one issue he does not directly confront in his appology.

This is the 800lb gorilla, and it is this gorilla that Mel is ignoring. Yeah, he says I regret all of my comments, but that doesn’t cut it. He is directly confronting all of the minor issues, but skimming over the big one.

If he wants people to take his appology seriously, he has to confront what he said directly. Anything else feels like spin to me.

And I hate having to write that.

Hey, if you can fake cool video like this, you deserve to control the world. The JEW is using DOCTORED VIDEO FOOTAGE to MOVE IN ON YOU, and you are left DEFENSELESS. Via Powerline, who have audio of Sen. John……

I’m assuming you are not an alcoholic, so it is difficult for you to understand the loss of control and radical personality changes experienced by some of us when intoxicated. It’s difficult for me to make this argument, because I used to believe otherwise.

You obviously are intelligent, and if you’re interested, I’d suggest you research the subject a little. The brains of alcoholics/addicts are different, anatomically and biochemically, from normal folks.

You probably would not do something, while drunk, that violated your morals, or was entirely out of character. I would, and so would most alcoholics I know.

Mel may very well have meant every word he said. But if he’s a real alcoholic, I wouldn’t count on it.

Mel’s apology says he owns his behavior. And he will suffer adverse consequences from this.

Professor B, although I generally agree with your pithy comments, here I must beg to differ on this topic. Alcoholics will say and do things in blackouts that they never, never would do when sober. Blacking out is not passing out. The person walks and talks and looks present, but none of the behavior is remembered at all.

Lots of folks think they understand alcoholism, but really know very little about its symptoms, progression, or treatment. And the answer for alcoholism recovery is not “gee, I can’t help it.” There is help in programs like AA – and when someone is actually working one of those programs, personal responsibility is central. I have family members (recovering and not) from the disease of alcoholism, and the difference is palpable. Contrast Gibson’s behavior with, say, Kennedy’s. (Pick one.)

Exactly.

Now … can someone pass me some of whatever Dahvid is smoking? That’s gotta be some good stuff.

I have one question for those leaping to Mad Mel’s defense with the “he was drunk and didn’t mean it argument”:

If I gave you a bottle of Patron Silver and left you in a closet with a couple limes and some salt for a few hours … do you think any of you – even one of you – would emerge later singing the praises of John Kerry, announcing that Cindy Sheehan was right all along, and declaring that we need higher taxes and more gun control … and that Ted Kennedy is deliriously sexy?

(Assuming, of course, you’re not one of the neo-lib trolls and/or you just really dig Ted Kennedy. You perv.)

Any possibility? Any chance that what will come out of your mouth will be the exact opposite of what you claim to believe now? No matter how drunk you are?

(To be fair, get me drunk enough and I might admit my gay crush on Ned Lamont. But I like Mentos and find Markos’ nipple-twisting to be rather stimulating)

Well?

And if not – why not?

The summary of the synopsis of the conclusion: the “Mel didn’t really mean it” defense may be the single dumbest thing I’ve heard all week. And I’ve visited Deb Frisch’s web site … so that’s really sayin’ sumthin’.

Of course he meant it. It was, for once, the truth of Mel Gibson. Unvarnished. Do with it what you will … but don’t hide from that obvious truth.

Me, I’m just bummed. And I’m selling my Mad Max action figure collection.

Maybe Gibson is just reflecting the bitterness he must feel over the treatment he received for a portrayal of his Lord’s suffering? If so, he is only human for deeply resenting the unfair characterization of his remarkable movie by the secular Jews who own and run Hollywood. Sadly, even religious Jews were a part of the attack on the film.

As an earlier poster wrote, what attacks on Jews resulted from Christians viewing “The Passion . .”? None I believe.

How many attacks have been made on Jews by Muslims just in this country since 9/11, as recounted by Michele?

No, it’s a pretty well documented fact that by far, Muslim’s attempting to conquer others for Islam accounts for the VAST majority of “wars” the world has ever seen.