Kicking ass

Mad Mel: Bites has always subscribed to the adage “A drunken man speaks the truth.” Bites also believes The Road Warrior, starring Mel Gibson as post-apocalyptic anti-hero Mad Max, was one of the greatest films of the 20th century. So imagine Bites’ consternation at Gibson’s recent DUI arrest in Malibu.

The Academy Award-winning Hollywood megastar was busted cold speeding along the Pacific Coast Highway with a blood-alcohol level of .12, according to police. That’s maybe a beer or two over the line, but the lynchpin of the Lethal Weapon franchise sounded more like he’d quaffed down two cases of Mickey’s Big Mouth.

In addition to claiming to own all of Malibu (Bites thought music mogul David Geffen held that title), Mad Mel made a number of anti-Semitic remarks during his arrest, including blaming Jews “for all the wars in the world.” Gibson asked the arresting officer if he was Jewish and threatened to “fuck” him for the arrest.

So, now Tinseltown is all a-tizzy awaiting the results of Gibson’s brush with what Bites likes to call Anti-Semite Syndrome, or ASS. Was the director of The Passion of the Christ so torched he didn’t know what he was saying? Or does the almond not fall very far from the tree, in this case Mel’s father, infamous Holocaust denier Hutton Gibson?

Lyin’ about Zion: Not so long ago, determining who was an anti-Semite was fairly simple. Right-wing evangelicals, for example, could be depended upon to voice their opposition to everything Jewish, from bagels to bar mitzvahs to Menachem Begin.

Nowadays, however, so-called Christian Zionists, who account for as many as 70 million American souls, according to the Rev. Jerry Falwell, openly profess their love for the Jewish people and Israel.

The problem, according to Theocracy Watch (log on at www.theocracywatch.org), is that Christian Zionism is but window dressing for the fundamentalist belief that two-thirds of the Jewish people must be exterminated in order for Christians to escape physical death as supposedly prophesized in the Bible.

Such contradictions haven’t escaped the notice of Abraham Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League. According to a recent article on Salon, Foxman is concerned about the increasingly blurry line between church and state propagated by the religious right. “Their goal is to implement their Christian worldview,” he told an ADL gathering. “To Christianize America. To save us!”

Foxman is also all over this Mel Gibson thing. This week, he told the Los Angeles Times that Hollywood needs to “realize the bigot in their midst” and to “distance themselves from this anti-Semite.”

State of confusion: Sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you’re a stark-raving Jew hater. And sometimes you’re not an anti-Semite at all, but merely critical of Israel’s actions, such as killing and maiming dozens of children in the Lebanese border village of Qana last week.

Bites is certain that local anti-war activists Stephen and Virginia Pearcy fall into the latter category. The Pearcys first gained national fame with an effigy dressed in Army fatigues hung from their Land Park home. “Bush lied, I died” was the message lost on the warmongering draft-age (if there were a draft) counter-protesters who gathered outside the Pearcys’ home.

The effigy has since evolved. At an impromptu demonstration held Saturday, July 29, at 16th Street and Broadway (Cindy Sheehan made a surprise appearance), it was draped with an Israeli flag and a sign hanging around its neck that read, “Baby Killer.” Say what you want; the Pearcys are anything but subtle—or anti-Semitic, as witnessed by the many Jews involved in the local anti-war movement who also disagree with many of Israel’s policies.

Speaking of protesting against the war, readers may join the Pearcys and Co. Saturday, August 5, from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., at the corner of 16th and Broadway for the regularly scheduled demonstration. Bites can’t think of a finer way to kick ass.