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August 3, 2006
Laura Ingraham - Scarborough Country and the Science of Mel Gibson
Today on the Laura Ingraham show she devoted several segments to the Mel Gibson flap. In one of them, she described an MSNBC report in which producer Mike Yarvitz drank himself up to a 0.12 blood-alchohol level and was asked if he felt an anti-Semitic urge coming on. Laura felt this represented a new low for MSNBC, which is saying something.
What MSNBC and Yarvitz are forgetting is that-- all kidding aside-- alcohol was only a minor player in Mel Gibson's downfall. The drug that sent his mind over the edge was not ethyl alchohol but a far more dangerous cocktail of catecholamines-- the chemicals associated with anger.
Joe Scarborough and Laura Ingraham cannot be blamed for this misunderstanding because neither of them owns a cat. In a cat, the physiological result of anger is clearly visible: our fur stands on end to make us look much larger than we actually are. The goal is to frighten a threat long enough to enable us to get away. If we can't get away, then we go into attack mode. The thing about attack mode is that we are completely blind to the reality of the situation. If we see anything move, we try to kill it, whether it's the marauding racoon on the other side of the window or Peg-Eye Nate's foot when he comes over to see why I'm making funny noises.
When a human being makes a stupid mistake (and getting pulled over for drunk driving is about as stupid as it gets), the threat reflex kicks in. Since you can't very well attack yourself, the anger is directed at anything in range, and since it's coming from the oldest, most primitive part of the brain, the results tend to be stupid.
I don't want to defend Mel Gibson, because he got himself into this mess and it is his responsibility to get himself out. I do, however, want people to understand him, because it would be a really good idea for everybody to get this anger thing under control. While it can be argued that I did a good thing by ruining Nate's gray pinstripe socks, I am truly sorry that I hurt his foot in the process. That is not something I would have done had I known what I was doing.
I have this feeling that a large portion of the world does not know what it's doing right now, and it all stems from a single incident. Therefore, I would like to ask all these people (and you know who you are) to stop obsessing over the results of the 1948 Palestinian War. I know that it's hard when a bunch of heathens kick your sort of folk out of their own country, but it's been almost SIX FREAKING DECADES. In the intervening period, the human race has built space stations, made international commerce commonplace, and filmed over 45 Clint Eastwood movies. It's a different world, and one's success in the pursuit of happiness has more to do with learning how to type than which religion has the bragging rights to the stupid Temple Mount.
I suggest you get over it quickly. You really don't want to make me mad.
Respectfully submitted,
Ferdinand T. Cat
# At Thu 11:47 PM | Permalink | Trackback URI | Comments (0) | More Laura Ingraham | Tags: alcohol anger anti-semitism catecholamines Israel Laura Ingraham Mel Gibson Mike Yarvitz MSNBC Palestinians Peg-Eye Nate Temple Mount
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