in vino, veritas

The mainstream media is still playing catch-up on the Gibson case. Now that they have a whiff of it they are pursuing issues and the facts are starting to come out. But still media outlets false report Gibson is a "devout Catholic" or fundamentalist Christian when he is, in fact, a member of small sect which denounces the Vatican. His father, who promotes this sect, says the Vatican is under the control of Masons and Jews. Gibson is building a church for his father and had one built near his home in Malibu as well.

The Los Angeles Times confirms that Gibson's arrest had the Sheriff's Department running around like chickens with their heads cut off. It also provides some information which, for the first time, makes the anti-Jewish tirade of Gibson make some sense. We know Gibson demanded to know if the deputy who arrested him was Jewish. In fact the deputy is Jewish. If Gibson discerned this by the man's name it would explain what set off his rantings about Jews.

Yesterday this site expressed doubts that Gibson's mini-series about the Holocaust would come off as planned. Now ABC television says the program has been cancelled.

Sources at the Sheriff's Department are saying that the original report on Gibson's discourse and demeanor was locked up to keep it away from the press but the department says they planned to give it to the prosecutor who could choose to release it during a trial. But I believe this would only happen if there was a trial. If Gibson pleaded guilty to the charge of drunk driving there would be no trial. I could be wrong here as I'm no legal scholar but if Gibson took a guilty plea then the report would not have seen the light of day. In other words the Sheriff's Department was helping Gibson by structuring evidence in a way that would keep it secret if the actor so wished -- which no doubt he would have prefered.

The paper also spoke to experts to determine if the verbal insults of Jews was an expression of Gibson's opinion or merely the alcohol speaking. Some experts said that "gross intoxication" could lead to "free association" result in rambling comments. But then Gibson was only mildly intoxicated. It does appear that moderate levels of intoxication releases people from inhibitions and they say things they believe but inhibit or do things they would like to do but suppress. Given that Gibson has been feed anti Jewish material from his father for most of his life, if not all of it, it far more likely that Gibson expressed views he actually holds.

Eugene Robinson, at the Washington Post, expressed it well. "Well, I'm sorry about his relapse, too, but I just don't buy the idea that a little tequila, or even a lot of tequila, can somehow turn an unbiased person into a raging anti-Semite -- or a racist, or a homophobe or a bigot of any kind, for that matter. Alcohol removes inhibitions, allowing all kinds of opinions to escape uncensored. But you can't blame alcohol for forming and nurturing those opinions in the first place."