Personal Asides: Neil Steinberg, Still a Liberal and Forever a Liberal, Has a Great Column Nevertheless…Mel Gibson’s Shocking Words Betrays More Than Alcoholism

Steinberg.

As one of the best writers at the Sun-Times but one who wastes his talents often on trivia, Neil Steinberg occasionally hits it right on the button, while continuing to be fearful that he will be mistaken as a…gasp…conservative which is a no-no in Chicago’s Democratic newspaper of record. He is not a conservative, he is still pro-choice, he is still anti-Bush and shouldn’t worry about losing his alleged appeal to the Near North kids to whom the marketing department insists he focuses his column. But he just couldn’t contain himself yesterday and wrote from the heart against the latest phony, rascal and demagogic rogue to invade Democratic politics…Reverend, Senator James Meeks.

Meeks, while making a very good living as a stentorian yelling pastor for a congregation that evidently is very hard of hearing, while also making a state Senator’s salary and salving his insufferable ego by holding himself up as the archangel of the poor, is blaming everyone for African American kids not reading except the people who should get the blame—their parents (or, in most cases, their mothers who are overworked and try to raise their kids alone without the kids’ sperm donors). ”Just what the black community needs,” wrote Steinberg. “”Another demagogue to bang the gong of grievance and tell his audience that all of their problems are some powerful white guy’s fault. Education is one social issue where each individual can make a huge impact. Good parents know that.”

Yes, we conservatives aren’t welcoming Steinberg as a fresh recruit. We know he’s a liberal but just thank him for his common sense.

Gibson.

While he apologized for letting loose with atrocious anti-Semitism, Mel Gibson has more to worry about than angry Jews who, like Abraham Foxman, try to discredit his great “The Passion of the Christ” by saying that it is now clear the film is a hate document because of Gibson’s tirade. Nothing of the sort. But several things should worry Gibson more than his hideous embarrassment. First, the pent up fury that was unleashed by the bottle is more than the ravings of a drunk: they are the ravings of a near-madman. The Jews are responsible for all the world’s wars? Second, being out of his house careening his car in Malibu at 90 mph shows that his family life is in tatters. Third, after he finishes his rehab, he’d better subject himself to deep spiritual therapy. Getting drunk frequently is the symbol of alcoholism. Shouting wildly is another. But spewing this irrational, hateful nonsense shows that there is something more at work here than alcoholism. And he’d better figure out what it is. Better still, he ought to get on his knees and confess whatever it is that’s eating him…for that cancer is what’s doing him in. And while he’s at it he should look into marriage counseling, too. Nobody who behaves like that has a good marriage. If he can’t control this, he’s going to end up on a slab in the morgue.