And honestly...

A lot of (rich or middle-class) black people think that "other" (read: "poor" or "ghetto") black people are lazy.

I've heard my Jewish friends joke about how Jews love money.

I have Latino friends who make jokes about Latinos having too many babies.

Gay friends who make wisecracks about queens.

And I haven't heard any of my Asian friends talking about driving habits; but I have heard lively conversations about "Yellow Fever," whatever.

Not one of us here is so enlightened that we don't carry some whacked-out stereotype rattling around in our brains.

All this to say, there will not be a return to Nazi Germany because of Mel's drunken tirade. Jews will not be killed over this. Blacks will not be made to pick cotton in the fields again... breathe deeply. Our rights are still intact. You're in a safe place.

If you evangelical and non-evangelic Christians are so disturbed that people are perceiving you as a bunch of ignorant, hate-filled religious fanatics, then you should do something about the fact that the cable news networks present nothing but those types of people on TV as "typical Christians." You should do something about the fact that poseurs like Ralph Reed keep attaining immense power through the people who sent them millions of dollars and who vote for them, and who continue to support them even when they are proven to be con men who use Jesus like a baseball bat to the head.

It's nobody's fault but your own that you sit and do nothing and say nothing when every single day an idiot like William Donohue or Jerry Falwell has his say on CNN or Fox or MSNBC without an opposing Christian viewpoint in sight. It's not our fault when William Donohue, the "good Catholic" runs around claiming "secular Jews in Hollywood" are the root cause of immorality in society, especially when evangelical Christians like George W Bush and his cohorts are waging wars based on outright lies, killing people who did nothing to either harm or threaten him... to us non-evangelical Christians, that's tremendously immoral.

It's not our fault that Pat Roberston is a very rich man because "religious" people send money to this "man of God" who calls for the assassination of world leaders, says that only Christians and Jews should be allowed in the government (no atheists, agnostics, Muslims, Buddhists et al, allowed), and calls for the fumigation of non-Christian "termites" while still enjoying almost unfettered access to top republican politicians and their operatives. It's not our fault that Bob Jones calls the Pope the antiChrist and you Catholics then go out and vote for the politician who sucked up to Jones and his ilk. It's not our fault that we see you as lunatics who deny scientific research to people with life-threatening diseases while supporting politicians who insert themselves into the private medical affairs of the family of Terry Schiavo, making an elaborate photo op out of their intrusion into the medical affairs of private citizens while cynically calling for "less government".

Take your lumps. If you really cared about the teachings of Jesus Christ you would be horrified by these self-centered, egomanical, money-and-power-seeking wolves in sheep's clothing and you would flood the media outlets with your outrage, demanding equal time to religious spokespeople who differ in opinion from these hucksters and hate-filled "Christians" like Ann Coulter, a conservative Republican Christian who demands the forceful conversion of Muslims to Christianity and who slanders people who don't conform to her narrow, bilious form of Christianity every day --- most recently by penning a bestseller called "Godless".

Stop being so disingenuous. You want to have your cake and eat it to. You want to criticize others as unholy while you quietly sit and allow the venomnous "faithful" label others with hate speech. It takes David Brock, a former hateful person himself who has reformed himself, to call for a stop to the hate speech of "Christians" like Coulter and William Donohue, Jerry Falwell, James Dobson and Glenn Beck in the media. It is Brock who is spearheading an effort to defuse the hate talk that eminates from our airwaves instead of concerned Christians banding together to make their voices heard.

You had your chance to take back the terms "Christian," "evangelicals," "born agains," "evangelical Christians" and "Catholics" and you sat there and did nothing. You showed your true colors and the bankruptcy of your "religious convictions". Now live with it. Don't go blaming Neil Gabler, letter writers to Salon and "liberals" when the Mel Gibson WE TOLD YOU was an antisemite, due to his own words and actions and his defense of his hateful Holocaust-denying father, finally gave himself away in plain sight. No excuses, no code words this time hid Mel's true convictions. Blame yourselves for getting caught supporting someone you knew was a pinheaded antisemite who slipped up and left his code words in the bottom of a bottle.

But then, like George W Bush and his fellow "good Christians", you won't take the blame you've earned. You'll point your finger at someone else, just as you always do. It's the non-"JudeoChristians" who are at fault, as always with you folks.

You know how to say it, thanks.

Hey May2000 - in case you hadn't noticed, it's not like Mel Gibson is just your loveable-but-misguided Uncle who makes a few unfortunate remarks when he gets a little tipsy.

The guy is a megastar with his own production company, something that gives him a pretty big megaphone to spread his beliefs with. And it's not "jealousy" that makes folks condemn him, it's his beliefs. There is no excuse for anti-semitism. It's disgusting, vile and led directly to the deaths of Six Million people during the Holocaust (which, I would like to remind you, Gibson and his father deny and minimize).

So yes, Mel Gibson should be blamed so severely. Any other stupid questions you need answered today?

Mel was drunk. Do not worry so much about him. BUT:

Our 21st century American fundamentalist Christians really do support Israel, and they know a good deal about Jewish history, and they say they like Jews...

But most of them do not even know any Jews. Outside of a few cities on the coasts and in the upper Midwest, the Christianists never even have opportunities to meet Jews. So their "support" is theoretical and abstract.

Remember that these Christianists all come from a long-standing anti-semetic tradition. Nowadays, they say they like Jews, but they also say they like angels. Please keep in mind that they never actually have met either Jews or angels.