Jeffrey Trachtenberg chronicles the success of Christopher Hitchens’ God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything in today’s WSJ.

[T]he biggest surprise is a blazing attack on God and religion that is flying off bookshelves, even in the Bible Belt. “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything,” by Christopher Hitchens, wasn’t expected to be a blockbuster. Its publisher, Twelve, a fledgling imprint owned by France’s Lagardère SCA, initially printed a modest 40,000 copies. Today, seven weeks after the book went on sale, there are 296,000 copies in print. Demand has been so strong that booksellers and wholesalers were unable to get copies a short time after it hit stores, creating what the publishing industry calls a “dark week.” One experienced publishing veteran suggests that Mr. Hitchens will likely earn more than $1 million on this book.

A spin-off is already in the works. Rival publisher Da Capo Press, which is owned by Perseus Books LLC, got in touch with Mr. Hitchens and signed him up to edit, “The Portable Atheist,” a compilation of essays by such writers as Mark Twain and Charles Darwin that will be published in the fall. “This is atheism’s moment,” says David Steinberger, Perseus’s CEO. “Mr. Hitchens has written the category killer, and we’re excited about having the next book.”

I’m not sure why anyone’s surprised at this. There’s no subject more interesting to Americans than religion, and books and movies that incite controversy about religion always do well. And nobody does controversy better than Hitchens, arguably the most important non-fiction author of our time.

Mr. Hitchens, 58 years old, is well-known in media and political circles as an erudite raconteur and essayist; his Vanity Fair columns and frequent TV appearances on political shows have raised his profile. More recently, his loud support for the Iraq war has infuriated many of his former compatriots. His unabashed affection for alcohol and tobacco has been widely chronicled — sometimes by himself. “I smoke, sure, and I can take a drink when offered,” he says. “It’s impolite to decline.”

Now he has turned his caustic gaze on God and organized religion. “A heavenly dictatorship would be like living in a celestial North Korea, except it would be worse because they could read your thoughts even when you were asleep,” said Mr. Hitchens in an interview. “At least when you die you get out of North Korea, which is the most religious state I’ve ever seen.”

Like Maplethorpe Serrano’s “Piss Christ,” Scorsese and Kazantzakis “The Last Temptation of Christ,” and Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ,” Hitchens is reaping the benefits of interest from both sides:

Part of what is driving the sales of “God is Not Great” falls under the concept of know thine enemy. Conservative-minded customers have been snapping up the book because they want to be familiar with its message, says Vivien Jennings, owner of Rainy Day Books in Fairway, Kan. “There is a very strong presence of the religious right, and they want to know what’s being said and figure out how to move against it.”

Some of the same forces were at work last fall when Bertelsmann AG’s Alfred Knopf had a surprise hit with Sam Harris’s “Letter to a Christian Nation,” which questioned whether the Bible is the work of God, and Houghton Mifflin Co., a unit of Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep Group PLC, successfully published “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins. Today there are 500,000 hardcover copies of Mr. Dawkins’s book in print, and 185,000 hardcover copies of Mr. Harris’s book in print.

But those guys are pikers compared to Hitchens, who is a master of the outrageous analogy and speaking ill of the dead:

Mr. Hitchens makes a passionate case against organized religion as well as theocratic, fundamentalist states. He writes that “religion is not unlike racism.” “Literature is a better source of ethics and a better source of reflection than our holy texts,” he says. “People should read George Eliot, Dostoyevsky and Proust for moral leadership.”

[...]

Booksellers say Mr. Hitchens has helped his own cause by staging colorful confrontations with religious figures and by making incendiary statements about the late Jerry Falwell. On “Anderson Cooper 360,” Mr. Hitchens was asked if he thought Mr. Falwell would go to heaven. His response: “No. And I think it’s a pity there isn’t a hell for him to go to.”

Says Barbara Meade, a co-owner of the Politics & Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C.: “Part of the appeal is that he’s a personality; we sold 106 books when he visited our store.”

When Mr. Hitchens debated Al Sharpton at the New York Public Library recently, the event made national news after the Rev. Sharpton attacked Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith. An estimated 1,000 turned out in Miami to listen to Mr. Hitchens challenge a panel that included an Orthodox Jew and a Buddhist nun. “I now wish I hadn’t participated,” says Nathan Katz, a professor of religious studies at Florida International University. “He was utterly abusive. It had the intellectual level of the Jerry Springer Show.”

Polite academic debates don’t sell books. Nor, frankly, are they as much fun when done with the level of skill Hitchens brings to the table.

Mr. Hitchens says he has received surprisingly little hate mail since his book was published. What does he think readers have learned from “God is Not Great?” “That your life is probably better led after you’ve outgrown the idea that the universe has a plan for you,” he says. “The cosmos isn’t designed with you in mind. You might as well just consult an astrological chart.”

That’ll sell another 100,000 copies.

John Aravois is outraged that CNN is defending Glenn Beck’s use of the word “faggot” on its airwaves and urging a letter writing campaigns to the network’s major sponsors.

I’d somehow missed the controversy. It turns out that Beck only used the word in the context of discussing the controversy over Grey’s Anatomy co-star Isaiah Washington’s use. Here’s the exchange between Beck and radio host Dave Glover from the transcript:

GLOVER: Yes. Basically you have Isaiah Washington, who`s one of the stars of the show, who referred to one of his co-stars during a heated argument as a derogatory term for a gay man that starts with “F”, rhymes with maggot. Did it a couple more times after that. And do you like how I did that?

BECK: Yes.

GLOVER: And…

BECK: Do you know that “The New York Times” wouldn’t even print — I mean, we can say the word. We’re having an adult conversation here. Wouldn`t even print the word “fagot.”

GLOVER: Right.

BECK: Wouldn’t print it. I find that amazing.

Presumably, it’s the transcriber who is unable to spell “faggot,” not Beck.

Nothing particularly controversial there, other than that he dares to utter the word and arguing that it’s silly to discuss the controversy without using the word. At that point, he goes on to deride Washington as a “jerk.”

GLOVER: When did we elevate obnoxious behavior to a medical condition? You know, I mean, when is just being a jerk, an obnoxious jerk mean that you now have to go to rehab? We`d be having the same conversation each week.

BECK: It`s Michael Richards and before that it was Mel Gibson. It`s the same damn story.

GLOVER: Yes. It is the same story. And we need to stop. Just call it what it is, OK? When someone acts in an obnoxious way, they are being a jerk. If people do it enough, they are a jerk, and it doesn`t mean that they have a genetic condition that makes them do it.

It means they`re a jerk and they need to study and grow up, be a man and stop acting like a jerk, not go seek out medical attention or, you know, spiritual counseling. Just stop it.

Aravosis is upset that Beck subsequently defends “faggot” as merely a “naughty word,” observing that “Faggot is the n-word to gays.”

Yet, Aravosis uses the word several times in his post. In the same way Beck did: to discuss an ongoing controversy.
That’s entirely appropriate.

Washington’s use of the word “faggot,” in an argument with gay castmate T.R. Knight, was a slur. It was meant to be hurtful. Beck’s use–and Aravosis’ and mine–is merely the repetition of a “naughty word” in an adult conversation about it. Those are quite different things. And I can’t imagine that intelligent gays wouldn’t implicitly understand that.

The Lemguins Marching Into The Sea Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

(AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko/FILE)

The Winners:

First: charles austin – Moments later, in Mel Gibson’s Antarcticalypto, the penguins turn on their human benefactors…

Second: Mythilt – The Disney corporation decided to go with lemmings after the first attempt at creating a mass drowning suicide failed.

Third: yetanotherjohn – Nifong conducts a lineup for a child to determine what species of animal attacked her.

Honorable Mention:

Gollum – The environmentalists cheered, not knowing that merely 110 meters offshore an equally jubilant orca was awaiting the arrival of lunch.

elliot – Would you quit saying… ”It’s either sink or swim”

Lionel – “Hey, I thought this was supposed to be a formal event? I wore my tux for this?”

The Priceless Moment Award

charles austin – Rags to wipe oil off penguins: $4.00
Patagonia outerwear: $840.00
Sony Blu-Ray TV Camera: $4,200.00
Feeling superior to the rest of humanity: Priceless

Rodney’s Bottom of The Barrel

In yet another show of power, Charles Rangel kicks the penguins out of antarctica.

“…and if I hear ‘black and white and red all over’ just one more time I’ll…”

The Emperor has no clothes

“The last time I heard photographers complaining about the smell of fish this much was for the Hilton/Spears shoot.”

The Thursday Contest is already consulting expert advice.

The reports of the death of Mel Gibson’s career have been greatly exaggerated:

Mel Gibson’s bloody epic “Apocalypto” debuted as the No. 1 weekend movie, proving the filmmaker still can deliver a winner despite his drunken-driving arrest and anti-Semitic rant last summer.

Let me hereby predict that, Michael Richards’ tirade notwithstanding, “Seinfeld” DVDs will sell as well as they ever have and that the show will continue to thrive in syndication. On the other hand, Andy Dick’s career is toast.

Gone Hollywood

TMZ has a very blurry video of what purports to be Michael Richards launching a bizarre, racist tirade at a black member of his audience.

Richards, who played the wacky Cosmo Kramer on the hit TV show “Seinfeld,” appeared onstage at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood. Kyle Doss, an African-American, told TMZ he and some friends were in the cheap seats and he was playfully heckling Richards when suddenly, the comedian lost it.

The camera started rolling just as Richards began his attack, screaming at one of the men, “Fifty years ago we’d have you upside down with a f***ing fork up your ass.” Richards continued, “You can talk, you can talk, you’re brave now motherf**ker. Throw his ass out. He’s a nigger! He’s a nigger! He’s a nigger! A nigger, look, there’s a nigger!”

The crowd is visibly and audibly confused and upset. Richards responds by saying, “They’re going to arrest me for calling a black man a nigger.”

One of the men who was the object of Richard’s tirade was outraged, shouting back “That’s un-f***ing called for, ain’t necessary.”

After the three-minute tirade, it appears the majority of the audience members got up and left in disgust.

One would think.

Here’s the video:

Even compared to the infamous Mel Gibson rant, this is quite inexplicable.

Update: Shakespeare’s Sister writes, “I’ll never be able to watch an episode of Seinfeld again without thinking about that loathsome tirade—and I certainly won’t be completing my collection of the series on the DVD, lest another penny of my money end up in his pocket.” I’m generally able to compartmentalize my views of performers’ personal lives and their entertainment value; otherwise, I would be boycotting most of Hollywood. (I won’t be buying the Seinfeld DVD’s, either, but then I wasn’t before this.)

She links an interesting CNN report on the incident at YouTube which, interestingly, does not allow embedding but works at the moment on the site. Richards is back at work at the comedy club, it seems.

Meanwhile, Pajama Media’s Tel Aviv correspondent quips, “[I]t’s not like his career can afford to take the hit. But who knows? Maybe Mel Gibson has a part for him in his next movie.”

A pretty good discussion is going on in the comments sections at both Althouse and Unfogged, too.

UPDATE: Richards offered a lame apology on Letterman.

He called two black hecklers the “n-word” and enthusiastically referenced a time when blacks were often victims of civil rights abuses, but Michael Richards said his verbal barrage during a stand-up routine was fueled by anger and not bigotry. “For me to be at a comedy club and flip out and say this crap, I’m deeply, deeply sorry,” the former “Seinfeld” co-star said during a satellite appearance for David Letterman’s “Late Show” in New York. “I’m not a racist. That’s what’s so insane about this,” Richards said, his tone becoming angry and frustrated as he defended himself. Richards described himself as going into “a rage” over the two audience members who interrupted his act Friday at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood.

His explanation was reminiscent of Mel Gibson’s assertion that he wasn’t anti-Semitic after he let off a barrage of Jewish slurs during a traffic stop last summer: despite what came out of his mouth, that’s not what is inside him.

Industry colleagues were in no hurry to accept Richards’ apology.

“Once the word comes out of your mouth and you don’t happen to be African-American, then you have a whole lot of explaining,” comedian Paul Rodriguez, who was at the Laugh Factory during Richards’ performance, told CNN. “Freedom of speech has its limitations and I think Michael Richards found those limitations.”

Veteran publicist Michael Levine, whose clients have included comedians George Carlin, Sam Kinison and
Rodney Dangerfield, called Richards’ remarks inexcusable. Comics often face hecklers without losing their cool, he said. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” Levine said Monday. “I think it’s a career ruiner for him. … It’s going to be a long road back for him, if at all.”

It’s ironic that Sam Kinison’s former publicist is outraged by this, as Kinison’s entire act was over-the-top misogyny. And I disagree with Rodriguez that the use of the “N-word” exceeds the boundaries of permissible free speech.

Still, speech has social consequences and Levine is likely right that this will cause substantial damage to Richards’ career.

Gone Hollywood

John Kerry, who came a few thousand Ohio voters short of being Commander in Chief of our Armed Forces:

You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.

Unbelievable. And rather ironic given that the line sounds dumb in more ways than one.

And, of course, in the age of YouTube politics, this is everywhere already including, appropriately enough, YouTube:

Update: Lots of reaction out there in the blogosphere, too:

• Michael Demmons: “I happen to know several military people whose smarts would put people like John Kerry to shame.”
• AllahPundit: “[I]t’s awfully goofy. And, of course, completely politically tone-deaf, which makes it vintage JFK. “
• BCB: “There is this vast amount of contempt for the military within the Democratic party.”
• Richard @ Hyscience: “It’s another reason to vote R on election day.”
• Ed Morrissey: “Wow. Just wow.”
• Greg Tinti: “[M]uch like Mel Gibson’s comments about ‘the Jooos,’ you don’t say something like this unless you think it’s actually true. He’ll try to weasel his way out of it, of course, but it’s too late.”
• Dan Riehl: “The bastard should be tried for treason and shot!”

I think we can stop a little short of that . . . .

Update: Foreign Policy’s James Forsyth:

Personally, I buy Kerry's explanation that he was trying to insult Bush's intellect – not that of the troops. Any politician knows that bashing the men and women who serve is the dumbest thing a politician can do and Kerry himself is a veteran. Kerry also seems slightly obsessed with the question of whether he or Bush is smarter. Indeed, one can't help but wonder if he didn't release his Navy records during the campaign because they revealed that he actually got slightly worse grades at Yale than Bush did.

Nevertheless, the Republicans are going to run with this: note McCain's demand for an apology. Today there must be even fewer Democrats keen on Kerry '08.

It’s almost axiomatic that people who spend a lot of time trying to convince you of how clever they are aren’t very clever.

The Walk a Mile for a Camel Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

(CBS NEWS 60 MINUTES/Handout/Reuters)

Winners:

First: Greg Tinti – I didn’t realize you were that close with Mel Gibson…

Second: charles austin – Mike Wallace calms a jittery President Ahmadenijad by telling him that the ticking sound he hears is just the introduction to his news program.

Third: spacemonkey – “You had me at ‘Wipe Israel off the map’”

Honorable Mention:

SgtFluffy – Wallace: Man I love your work Yakov

Matt – Greetings from the Great Satan

Maggie – You must know, I’ve never met a dictator I didn’t adore!

yetanotherjohn – Guy in the back: “I swear if that infidel doesn’t keep his hands to himself, I’ll kill him no matter what Ahmadinejad says about useful dupes.”

charles austin – “Oh no, no, no, no. I assure you that I have more contempt for America than you President Ahmadenijad.”

Truth in Advertising Award

charles austin – (CBS NEWS 60 MINUTES/Handout/Reuters) — Well, that really says it all now, doesn’t it?

Rodney’s Bottom of The Barrel

“You must remember your secret Iranian name Mike, Mustaf Herod Apyur Poupr”

“No, no, Dan Rather is the one with the frequency”

I do not think “bend over and bleat” is a proper greeting.

Wallace: “So you want me to deliver two tubes of Camel Lube to your cousin Aful furees La’am, but it must be mixed before I land in the US, for ultimate freshness? No problem.”

Wallace: “I swear its true. The birthmark on my tuckus looks just like the prophet mohammad.”

The Thursday contest is visiting with Hogzillah.

The Blue Oyster Bikers Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

(REUTERS/Daniel Aguilar (MEXICO))

Winners:

First: Mark – You guys should have heard the crap Mel Gibson said to us when we pulled him over!

Second: charles austin – Bowling for Columbians.

Third: yetanotherjohn – Peyote, its not just for breakfast anymore.

Honorable Mention:

Bithead – “Aw, Jerry…You should have gone before we left!!”

Gollum – Antonio ended up in the middle that day as punishment for not showing up with enough pieces of “flair.”

Hodink – Los Angeles implements a new anti-terrorist tactic.

Gaijin Biker – Most TV critics agree that CHiPs jumped the shark in season 4, with the addition of Ponch’s ten long-lost brothers.

SgtFluffy – The Illegal Immigrants are becoming very creative in the efforts to cross the border

DaveD – There was some concern that the police response to petty crimes depicted on the show “Cops” was becoming a bit excessive.

Rodney’s Charles Austin’s and yetanotherjohn’s Bottom of The Barrel

yetanotherjohn – A spokesman for the Mexico City police force angrily denied charges that the police force was “nothing more than a bunch of trained monkeys in service to the drug lords”.

charles austin – Another job Americans won’t do.

yetanotherjohn – The concept came to me one night after I had swallowed my third worm.

charles austin – Good Lord, not another subjectively judged Olympic sport.

yetanotherjohn – The Hells Angels just hung their heads in shame and left town after seeing what they were up against.

charles austin – If you zoom in far enough you can read their buttons which say, “Vote for Pedro.”

yetanotherjohn – Hey Carlos, where’s the top guy Juan?… I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since the last overpass.

The The Thursday contest has already gone to some captioner’s heads.

Classic:

Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan for the image. Claude Brodesser-Akner provides the backstory:

A comedic capstone on all this comes via an full page, hardcover ad in today’s issue of Daily Variety. In a “For your consideration” Emmy Award ad for the infamous Tom Cruise “Trapped in the Closet” episode of “South Park,” the text reads, “C’mon Jews… Show ‘em who really runs Hollywood.”

The genius of “South Park” strikes again.

Here, once again, some video excerpts of the Emmy-nominated “Trapped in the Closet.”

________
Related:

“South Park” Scientology Spoof to Air Again
Blame Canada Lyrics and Videos
Uncensored South Park Muhammed Clip Video
Comedy Central Censored Mohammed “South Park”
South Park Takes on Islamists, Cowards
Scientology “South Park” Conspiracy Plot Thickens
Tom Cruise Blackmails South Park
Isaac Hayes Quits South Park Over Religion
South Park Lampoons Katrina Coverage
Brokeback Mountain: Not Just Gay Cowboys Eating Pudding
King of the Hill€™ Democrats?
Book Review: South Park Conservatives
Dee Snider: South Park Jew?
Be Your Own South Park Character
From South Park to Afghanistan

Gone Hollywood

No great surprise here: Mel Gibson has been charged with misdemeanor DUI.

Actor-director Mel Gibson was charged Wednesday with driving last week under the influence of alcohol, a misdemeanor, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office said. Gibson, 50, was charged with one count each of driving under the influence and driving while having a 0.08 percent or higher blood alcohol content, said Deputy District Attorney Ralph Shapiro, the deputy in charge of the Malibu office. In addition, Gibson was charged with driving with an open container of alcohol, a vehicle code infraction.

Considering that he’s already publically apologized for this, a Not Guilty plea will be difficult to enter. My guess is that he takes his lumps.

Anti-Defamation League chairman Abraham Foxman, who called for Mel Gibson to be brought up on hate crimes charges for saying bad things about Jews, has now tentatively accepted Gibson’s (second) apology.

Somehow, however, it puts me in mind of Mark Antony’s Funeral Oration, only in reverse: “I come to praise Gibson, not to bury him.”

In words that I am sure will spark comparisons to Richard Nixon’s declaration “I am not a crook,” [and O.J. Simpson's search for the "real killer"] Mel Gibson has proclaimed that he is not an anti-Semite.

His full statement (transliterated into the British, courtesy BBC): [Update: ABC/AP have the American variant.]

There is no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of anti-Semitic remark.

I want to apologise specifically to everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words that I said to a law enforcement officer the night I was arrested on a DUI (driving under the influence) charge.

I am a public person, and when I say something, either articulated and thought out, or blurted out in a moment of insanity, my words carry weight in the public arena.

As a result, I must assume personal responsibility for my words and apologise directly to those who have been hurt and offended by those words.

The tenets of what I profess to believe necessitate that I exercise charity and tolerance as a way of life.

Every human being is God’s child, and if I wish to honour my God I have to honour his children. But please know from my heart that I am not an anti-Semite. I am not a bigot. Hatred of any kind goes against my faith.

I’m not just asking for forgiveness.

I would like to take it one step further, and meet with leaders in the Jewish community, with whom I can have a one-on-one discussion to discern the appropriate path for healing.

I have begun an ongoing programme of recovery and what I am now realising is that I cannot do it alone.

I am in the process of understanding where those vicious words came from during that drunken display, and I am asking the Jewish community, whom I have personally offended, to help me on my journey through recovery.

Again, I am reaching out to the Jewish community for its help. I know there will be many in that community who will want nothing to do with me, and that would be understandable.

But I pray that that door is not forever closed.

This is not about a film. Nor is it about artistic licence. This is about real life and recognising the consequences hurtful words can have.

It’s about existing in harmony in a world that seems to have gone mad.

While the nature of his remarks, combined with the radical notions of the sect to which he adheres, makes it impossible for me to believe that he is not anti-Semitic, it’s not implausible to me that Gibson–who, after all, has made his living for the past thirty-odd years in an industry where Jews are not strangers–honestly believes otherwise. I also take him at his word that he’s truly sorry for the hurt his words have caused and that his chief concern is for regaining his honor, rather than his ability to make a buck.

Redemption is not impossible. After all, George Wallace sufficiently rehabilitated himself among Alabama’s black citizenry by 1986 that he won re-election on the strength of their vote; surely, Gibson’s transgressions pale in comparison to Wallace’s. It will take time, perhaps many years, to regain his reputation, however. And, for many, it will be forever ruined.

The Mel Gibson incident over the weekend demonstrates the incredibly fast pace of the news cycle in the Internet age.

Almost as stunning as Mel Gibson’s anti-Jewish tirade when arrested on suspicion of drunk driving in the early hours of last Friday was the speed at which the scandal unfolded, doing serious damage to one of Hollywood’s most valuable careers along the way.

In a little over 24 hours, Mr. Gibson’s arrest and subsequent behavior in Malibu had already prompted talk of a claimed cover-up, an exposé, worldwide news coverage, an apology and then a full-blown push for alcohol rehabilitation, even as his representatives and executives at the Walt Disney Company rushed to catch up with the event’s effect on the filmmaker’s movie and television projects with the company.

And this is a story that broke on a blog (albeit one owned by TimeWarner) on a Friday night. It is indeed breathtaking. And not entirely in a good way. While I’m pretty sure we’ve got the facts right in this case–Gibson’s camp isn’t really disputing the reports, merely the conclusions–the old saw that “a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on” has never been more true.

While Gibson’s anti-Semitic leanings have been suspected since the lead-up to his film “The Passion of the Christ,” with this incident lending instant credence to those preconceptions, the man has been a public figure for decades and generally well liked. Yet, within a couple of days we’re already getting major figures making statements about the incident more idiotic than those uttered by Gibson that night, all without the assistance of alcohol. We’ve had the Anti-Defamation League calling for criminal charges to be brought for “hate crimes” and now this:

“I don’t think he should be doing a film on the Holocaust,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who had previously criticized what he saw as anti-Semitic overtones in Mr. Gibson’s hit, “The Passion of the Christ.” “It would be like asking someone associated with the K.K.K. to do a movie on the African-American experience.”

So far as I’m aware, Gibson’s only offense is to get drunk and say some mean-spirited things. He has not terrorized a single person, let alone participated in lychings. To equate him with the Ku Klux Klan is outrageous.

UPDATE: In a side discussion in the comments below, I replied, “Frankly, lots of entertainers believe some repugnant, idiotic nonsense. For the most part, that doesn’t impact my ability to enjoy their work if I were predisposed to like it. Indeed, aside from Jane Fonda and Woody Allen, I can’t think of any off the top of my head that I essentially won’t see because of their off-screen behavior.”

Ann Althouse disagrees. In a post yesterday evening, with the plainspoken title ” Mel Gibson, you are discredited forever,” she wrote, “What artist has ever crashed like this? Not Michael Jackson. Not Woody Allen. Not O.J. Simpson. You’ve shown an evil heart and it changes the meaning of all of your artistic work. How horrible! How painful!”

Likewise, Christopher Hitchens believes, “[T]here was another touch of in vino veritas when he tearfully told the cops that “my life is f—ed,” and this inadvertent truth ought to be remembered in all charity as the last words we ever want to hear from him.” In fairness, Hitchens previously thought Gibson a “bad actor and worse director,” a view I don’t share.

Have we reached the point where adherence to a warped religious mindset and some spewed words of idiocy are more vile than double homicide, pedophilia, and incest? That seems so bizarre to me. I find Tom Cruise’s views borderline insane but have no trouble enjoying his movies. I find things Alec Baldwin has said while stone cold sober knowing he was on national television as offensive as anything Gibson said at that police station, yet I’m not going to burn my DVD of “Hunt for Red October.”

________

Previous:

Gibsonpalooza (Video)
ADL Wants Mel Gibson Charged with Hate Crime
The Passion Of The Drunken Gibson: Jew Hating

The (take your pick) mentally ill individual/evil Muslim terrorist who shot six at the Seattle Jewish Federation, killing one, recently converted to Christianity, according to a Seattle Post-Intelligencer report.

Naveed Haq, now widely portrayed as a Muslim American so angry at Israel that he shot up a Jewish charity in Seattle, had recently converted to Christianity. His conversion is perhaps the most startling contradiction in a puzzling life.

Clearly, this proves that Christians hate America and that there is an organized effort to kill Jews among Christians and that Haq was part of it. Sure, sure–most Christians don’t murder Jews. But many do. There’s a long history of Jew-hating Christians going way back, from the earliest days of the church right up to Mel Gibson. And now this.

Either that, or this is just a tragic crime committed by a mentally ill person. That was my original take on this but, the more I read on the conservative blogs, the more wrong I knew I must be.

Of course, the SPI story could be wrong, in which case it would prove that the press is aligned with the terrorists and confirm that Haq was indeed a Muslim terrorist–probably very high in the al Qaeda hierarchy. Perhaps even the 13th 9/11 hijacker.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin is upset with the “moonbats” pointing to this story (hat tip: Florida Masochist). She notes that she linked to an earlier SPI story over the weekend which also included the fact that Haq “attended the Islamic Center of Tri-Cities mosque two weeks ago.”

She also points to a Wikipedia piece on Taqiyya (which may or may not rhyme with “Reconquista”): “In Shi’a Islamic tradition, Taqiyya (التقية – ‘fear, guard against’)[1] is the dispensation allowing Muslims to conceal their faith when under threat, persecution or compulsion.” The implication that he was baptised to avoid being murdered or persecuted strikes me, to say the least, as implausible. It’s much more likely that Haq was a very confused young man trying to sort through that confusion.

More interestingly, Malkin points to a new statement from the Seattle police which indicates that Taq apparently planned his crime quite well. That’s not particularly surprising–it was carried out with sufficient precision that prior planning was evident. Still, it would seem to vitiate any claims that Taq simply “snapped” and seized a target of opportunity. This was a premediated attempt at mass murder, regardless of whether Taq was mentally stable.

Malkin’s Hot Air colleague Bryan Preston adds, “The guy identified himself as a Muslim when he opened fire and used that identification to justify his actions, actions which find justification in the Koran but not in the New Testament.” Centuries of people persecuted in the name of Christianity might disagree with the second part of that statement. That he “identified himself as a Muslim” at the time of the shooting is indeed relevant and perhaps a sign that the baptism didn’t “take.” (As if attempted mass murder weren’t sufficient.)

Regular readers of the site–including those who read my first post on this case–know that I believe radical Islamist teaching is much more widespread than a simple lunatic fringe. Islam has not undergone the modernist transformation that Christianity went through centuries ago with the Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Reformation. The amount of organized violence committed by non-fringe Christian groups pales in comparison to that committed by Islamists.

Still, I don’t see a terrorist hiding under every tree. It is simultaneously true that we have an “Islamist problem” and that most Muslims–even most Muslim murderers–are not part of it. And when a guy with a history of mental illness, whose previous criminal history is limited to whipping out his private parts in public, kills someone, my first response is not “I wonder what religion he follows?”

UPDATE: Some parallels to the Mel Gibson case occur to me. Both had crazy dads who raised them in the ways of a crackpot religious sects. Taq has a “history of mental illness” whereas Gibson had a history of alcoholism. Both have some rather strong antipathy toward the Jews. That Taq decided to buy guns and kill Jews while Gibson merely got drunk and spouted some nonsense strikes me as having much more to do with what kind of men they are than which church they attended.

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Previously:

Seattle Jewish Federation Shooting

Considering the events that transpired over the weekend, it was a given that Mel Gibson was going to be savaged by Monday’s late shows. And as you’re about to see, they sure didn’t disappoint. Here’s a video round-up of the massacre:

No spoilers, but if I had to choose, I think Kimmel took it by a landslide.