some of y'all need to take a deep breath!
Well, to quote fom Henry Martin's comment, I sure did stir up a can of worms with my views on global warming and Mel Gibson. There were so many comments (most of which hit at least one liberal talking point) that I thought it best to respond in a whole new post.
Let's start with Mel Gibson. Tim accused me of "pointing my finger at liberals." I guess he came to that conclusion because I called Gibson a "standup conservative" and because I ridiculed the saints of the liberal religion--the Kennedy family and Bill Clinton. Well, let's look at the facts. Gibson is a conservative, right? Gibson didn't give any B.S. excuse for his actions, did he ("I had a bad reaction to medication" or "The cops lied" or "I was sleepwalking")? No. He told the truth, he expressed remorse and shame for his actions, he made no excuses, and he stands ready to accept his punishment. By definition that makes him a standup guy. The examples I used of people who didn't "stand up" did happen to be mostly liberal, but only because they were the most obvious examples to spring to mind. Feel free to supply conservative examples of Clinton-esque or Kennedy-esque behavior if it warms your liberal hearts to do so.
Dan said that I trivialized drunk driving. This is a perfect example of what I call liberal warfare. Dan the Liberal is upset that I am not jumping on the bandwagon to hang Gibson, so he takes the GIANT LEAP to "Hondo trivializes drunk driving." That's not true, and nothing in my original post even suggests that it is true. What Gibson did was illegal, immoral, and horribly wrong. He should be punished as the law prescribes. He should also be admired because, contrary to another untruth in Dan's comment, Gibson went against the normal Hollywood response (excuses, excuses, excuses) and actually expressed shame, remorse and repentance. There were some other comments left by "anonymous" (it doesn't take a CSI detective to see who "anonymous" is!) that fall under the category of "ignorant, mindless bigotry." I won't dignify those with a response. I will leave some responses to certain specific comments--you can look at those if you wish.
Well, I hear my kids stirring around in the other room, so the rest of my comments will have to wait until later today. It's time for Daddy to fix breakfast. Duty calls!
Let's start with Mel Gibson. Tim accused me of "pointing my finger at liberals." I guess he came to that conclusion because I called Gibson a "standup conservative" and because I ridiculed the saints of the liberal religion--the Kennedy family and Bill Clinton. Well, let's look at the facts. Gibson is a conservative, right? Gibson didn't give any B.S. excuse for his actions, did he ("I had a bad reaction to medication" or "The cops lied" or "I was sleepwalking")? No. He told the truth, he expressed remorse and shame for his actions, he made no excuses, and he stands ready to accept his punishment. By definition that makes him a standup guy. The examples I used of people who didn't "stand up" did happen to be mostly liberal, but only because they were the most obvious examples to spring to mind. Feel free to supply conservative examples of Clinton-esque or Kennedy-esque behavior if it warms your liberal hearts to do so.
Dan said that I trivialized drunk driving. This is a perfect example of what I call liberal warfare. Dan the Liberal is upset that I am not jumping on the bandwagon to hang Gibson, so he takes the GIANT LEAP to "Hondo trivializes drunk driving." That's not true, and nothing in my original post even suggests that it is true. What Gibson did was illegal, immoral, and horribly wrong. He should be punished as the law prescribes. He should also be admired because, contrary to another untruth in Dan's comment, Gibson went against the normal Hollywood response (excuses, excuses, excuses) and actually expressed shame, remorse and repentance. There were some other comments left by "anonymous" (it doesn't take a CSI detective to see who "anonymous" is!) that fall under the category of "ignorant, mindless bigotry." I won't dignify those with a response. I will leave some responses to certain specific comments--you can look at those if you wish.
Well, I hear my kids stirring around in the other room, so the rest of my comments will have to wait until later today. It's time for Daddy to fix breakfast. Duty calls!
posted by hondo at 7:12 AM
2 Comments:
Actually, "shame, remorse, and repentance" is standard order of battle when you've actually been caught red-handed like Gibson did. Seriously, what else could he do? I'm not condeming him for (more or less) coming clean, but he had absolutely no choice - there is apparently a recording of the incident that would have doubtlessly leaked out at some point had he acted otherwise. In many instances, getting caught lying after the fact is far worse for the career than the deed itself.
It's hard to call it nobility when someone does basically what their press agent would have told them to do, but neither should he be condemed for it.
No, "shame, remorse and repentance" is not the standard order of battle when caught red-handed. I'm thinking of Wade Boggs ("I'm a sex addict!) and Bill Clinton (liar, liar, pants on fire!) and Ted Kennedy (pay off the girl's family and the police) and Patrick Kennedy (It was narcolepsy! No, really!) and Pete Rose (another famous liar) and Mark McGwire/Rafael Palmeiro (more liars) and Sammy Sosa (No habla!) and Michael Irvin (pay to get the witness killed) and I could go on and on and.... Mel Gibson did something completely unique and quite refreshing. He took full responsibility and he apologized. For that, he has my admiration.
Post a Comment
<< Home