Topic: Mel Gibson
Guests: Rob McKenna, Washington State Attorney General
Summary: John continues the previous day's discussion of Mel Gibson's anti-semitic weekend tirade, asking listeners what they think of a statement recently released by Gibson that apologizes directly to Jews and asks for their forgiveness. John makes a big point that Gibson is a very conservative Catholic, so he must not have meant what he said because it would be considered a sin by the church. Meanwhile callers melt upon hearing Mel's heartfelt apology. The train really goes off the tracks when a caller announces that Mel's (and by association Carlson's) real problem is that as a Catholic he's not a "real" Christian and needs to be born again. Five long minutes of tedious doctrinal debate follow. zzzzzzz...
Classic Quote 1:
CARLSON: You know Arianna Huffington and others say 'Oh what is this! It cannot be forgiven! It is absolutely intolerable! Drive him out and get rid of this guy!' It's amazing. I have not heard some of these hollywood lefties talk about, you know, Abu Al Zarqawi with the kind of bitterness and anger - Hezbollah - with the kind of anger they're talking about Mel Gibson.
Classic Quote 2:
CARLSON: Look at this: they said that after his arrest, he was not only virulently obscene and anti-semitic remarks and vulgar, but he was jumping like a monkey on his cell bars. I mean to try and dissolve all that into he slurred Jews? That's insulting. It almost misses a much much larger point.
Classic Quote 3:
STEVE: I have a problem against the term anti-semitic in general. Every time you say something about a group of people, they create a term for you. The fact is that this two and a half percent of people in America have way too much power, way to much control over doctors, lawyers, universities, banking. They control every diamond on the planet earth. They do have an enormous amount of power and control over the industries, and maybe Mel got angry one day.
CARLSON: You know what though? You know what my reaction to that is, then people should emulate their habits.
STEVE: Well because the best part about it is that they earned that because the Jewish people push education, and my friend is Jewish
CARLSON: You bet they do!
STEVE: And that's how they got to that point. They're a very smart group of people, very bright, and they push education and they put themselves in those positions. I'm not sure they have a right to control it, but as a gentile
CARLSON: First of all there is no Jewish conspiracy, because you know when people say 'Jews are two and a half percent of the population and they've won fifty percent of the Nobels.' Well, OK, great. It's not like they were colluding together to do it.
STEVE: No, but they're a bright group of people. But on the other hand, if Jews are very sharp about diamonds and as a gentile you wanted to get into that marketplace in New York City where they do everything with a handshake, they would never let you in. No matter what.
CARLSON: Some industries are tougher to crack than others, especially when you have one ethnic group who dominantly controls it, regardless of what it is. That I will admit. But the bottom line is, you know, whenever I hear people recite these statistics I react the same way I do when people say 'Well white people control X percent of this'. I say: "So what?"
STEVE: True! Black people control the NBA, but hey, that's because fly better! Duh!
CARLSON: yeah, and you know get past those things and say, you know, the second most successful ethnic group in America is Asians, you know, as far as income and educational attainment. But look at the similarities: the emphasis on studying, the emphasis on homework, the emphasis on education and self improvement. And if you look within the white race, and for that matter within every race, you see delineation within various ethnicities, where you have traditionally, and again we're being very general here, concentration on family and education than you would have in others.
STEVE: But my question is this: Would you say I'm anti-semitic based on my previous conversation there? Some people would. Some people would say 'Hey you can't generalize like that! You can state those facts!' Which is true!
CARLSON: Well, if you, if you subscribe to the first set of statistics that you had, and then you step toward and say 'Therefore, Mel's right, they do control everything.' Then yeah that is anti-semitic.
STEVE: I can see, we all have a bad day with a Jewish producer or actor or something, and he just lost his mind that day and got pie-faced and was just mulling over this bad day experience or whatever and that's what might have come out one day.
CARLSON: Well, who knows. And I'm not even sure that Mel Gibson even knows what provoked it, but he knows that it's a problem. And he probably feels very put upon and persecuted by his critics going back to Passion of the Christ episode and the movie before, and he knows that it is completely unacceptable and inexplicable and I'm glad that he's getting others to help him, including his critics, to help him get back on track.
Time: 01:00 - 02:00
Topic: Are we raising a nation of wimps?
Guests: Earl Bell, Professor Emeritus, University of Washington School of Architecture
Summary: John discusses a Psychology Today article that claims we're raising a nation of wimps, what with our hand desanitizers, playground safety mats, bike helmets, less frequently hurt feelings, and lack of sports-team picking in schools. Mom's in the area then call in and bore listeners to death with long drawn out stories of how their children's friends are way too pampered and wimpish.