Mel vs. the World

My little sister Patsy sent me this, on the topic of Mel Gibson's drunken anti-semitic freakout:

From Newsweek..

"you can't pour vodka on a turnip and have it say anti-Semitic remarks"

Gary J. Malone, chief of psychiatry at Baylor All Saints Medical Hospital in Ft. Worth, in response to Mel Gibson's claim that alcohol was the cause of the anti-Semitic statements he made after being arrested for drunken driving.

Patsy's a smartass and I love her. She's also single, boys, so call me if you'd like a naked picture of her. From 1968, that is.

I have somewhat mixed feelings about the point Dr. Malone makes below (as have a number of columnists and assorted chatterers) because I know from personal experience that true addicts in the extremes of crackheadedness, especially days of it in a row, find a world normal people don't ever see, and it does weird things to your mind that can override your personality. We've all seen people who change drastically under the influence of drugs and alcohol, and it's never easy to reconcile the two personalities, especially when something particularly ugly is done by such people.

I had a couple of episodes long ago that haunt me because I said and did things I'd never, ever do sober or merely drunk. No relation to anything I've ever done, said, thought or even imagined. In vino veritas, sure, but there's a point beyond all that where things get really freaky and it's naughty time.

Now, Mel Gibson may well be Hitler Jr., I can't say what's in his crazy little mind. He seems to share some basic problems with Michael Jackson: paranoia, nuttiness, substance abuse, and generalized detachment from the reality you and I experience. For all I know, antisemitic remarks both have made publicly may reflect real, actual hate. But there's at least a chance that the same self-destructiveness that allows a wealthy, famous, powerful Oscar-winner to piss his health, reputation, family and earning potential away can also manifest itself in a series of ugly public statements made during a DUI arrest. One feels the need to be punished after years of getting away with murder, after all. Saying the ugliest, most reprehensible things you can think of while the cops are videotaping you might just do the trick.

The other thing that occurs to me about all this is that any number of lefty loudmouths have blamed all the world's problems on Israel for years now, but since they weren't drunk I guess it's not the same thing.