Kramer

Michael Richards, who played Seinfeld's funny neighbor Kramer on Seinfeld, is in some deserved hot water. Frustrated with two hecklers during a set at a comedy club, Richards burst into a racist tirade. Not surprisingly, we have an immediate apology, but what an apology it is. Richards says that he lost his cool and, I can't believe this is part of an apology, adds "I'm not a racist. That's what's so insane about this." Instead, he wants us to just know that he was really angry and, because of that anger, said the wrong thing. Pardon me, but this is straight out of Mel Gibson's anti-Semitism routine. The only positive that came out of Mel Gibson's excuse ("I only said it because I had too much to drink.") was a joke ("Well, he must have been plastered when he made The Passion of the Christ!").
Who is satisfied by these non-apologies? Lowered inhibitions, by alcohol or anger, don't change your worldview; they just reveal what is usually kept hidden. It's like people who become real jerks when they've had too much to drink. We at History Is A Weapon do occasionally drink and while we might get a little out of control and set a police car on fire (or maybe we get tired, tell corny jokes, and fall asleep), but our politics don't change. Richards is an adult and he needs to act like one instead of lying with petty excuses. Anything else isn't funny.