So how do you define "hate"?

The national media are obsessed with Mel Gibson's drunken, anti-Semitic tirade. You can't turn on a cable news channel without being affronted by "expert" panels meticulously dissecting Herr Gibson's psyche every which way 'til Tuesday.

Yeah, let's condemn it but can we drop the sanctimony? I'm sure that none of those talking-heads feigning breathless outrage have ever, even once, uttered a racial, ethnic, or religious slur. I sure haven't! And neither, I'm certain, have any of you good people...

It's ironic, though, that during the Gibson maelstrom -- throughout which, we've unanimously agreed that religious bigotry and "hate" are to be condemned from the ramparts -- Comedy Central chose to rerun its infamous South Park episode: Bloody Mary.

In a nutshell: a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary is found to be bleeding "from her ass" and rubes (including a caricature of Pope Benedict XVI) line up to have their heads signed with the anal blood.




So here we have a wildly successful, award winning cartoon on a major cable network -- shored up by Corporate America's advertising dollars -- mocking the pope and dragging Jesus Christ's Mother through the sewer. (For the second time. The show originally aired last Christmas...) And, predictably, there's no outrage.

I've yet to see the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad aired on the Daily Show (another Comedy Central offering) and I'm sure the Gibson saga will be played until his career is boxed and planted but attacks on Christianity -- from corporate boardrooms - will proceed with impunity.

You can freely assault the faith of billions, drag the most sacred feminine religious symbol in human history through the mud, and portray Pope Benedict with (farted) anal blood all over his face but never, ever forget that Mel Gibson is an anti-Semite.