The G-word has been at it again. Mel Gibson has been letting off a bit of racist steam near a tape recorder. This is from Huff Post (quoting an article on radaronline):

His abusive and disgusting rant was caught on audio tape and includes a wish that the mother of his infant daughter be “raped by a pack of [N-words]”

– now is it just me or does that seem an impossible muddle of language. Do “N-words” travel in packs? Can an N-word rape? Raped by a word. Mel Gibson didn’t say “N-word”. (Imagine if he did: it would be a kind of PC-racism). What I find strange (from my sofa in the UK) is that they can’t simply star the offending word, like they do c*nt (sorry, c**t) in the very next sentence:

Mel also calls Oksana a whore and a c**t while their baby screams in the background…

What about “n*****”? Which is at least closer, typographically, to what Mel yelled. Or “N*****” if you want to serious-up the insult with a capital. (Did Mel yell it with a capital? He seems to have, judging from “N-words”. But is the capitalization paying too much respect to the insult? Does it make it more insulting…?)

Also, “whore” is neither given an asterisk or the ultimate honour of a W-word contraction. Same with “rape”. Is rape not offensive? Why not R-worded by a pack of N-words? Or raped by an N-bomb. Mel didn’t said “N-bomb” as much as he said “N-word”. And being raped by a bomb seems somehow nastier, and truer to the nastiness of the original yelling.

The headline reads: Joe The Plumber Slurs Gay People: I Would Never Let “Queers” Near My Children.
Never. Obviously. He’s not an idiot. He knows how that stuff can spread.

It’s an interview with ‘Christianity Today’ (an oxymoron?), in which he says: “You know, God is pretty explicit in what we’re supposed to do–what man and woman are for.” Such a delightfully old school belief (barely registered as a belief) in the bible as a transparent & perfect conduit of the word of God. On which matter: “People don’t understand the dictionary–it’s called queer. Queer means strange and unusual.” His use of the word “dictionary” in that sentence is remarkable. It is functions in exactly the same UNTHINKING way as the words “the bible” do when used to mean the infallible and perfect transcription of God’s revelation … “the dictionary” is a thing which exists for Joe, like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, a particular thing, an AUTHORITY in a perfect unchanging (really) form, a taken-for-granted touchstone. A bible of words. You know… the dictionary. The dictionary says.

“Queer means strange and unusual.” Yes, and for a time it meant “drunk”. Likewise, the word “plumber” means someone who “plumbs the depths”. A bit like a whapsnatcher, but with smoother balls.