MAP: What EU Nations Are Worst At

The categories for France, Denmark. and Romania are really dumb compared to the seriousness of the others. Visit Thrillist for a breakdown. A huge version of the map is here. (Via JMG reader Aaron)

DALLAS: Anti-Gay Airport Attacker Faces Maximum Fine Of $1000 And No Jail Time

The drunk redneck whose vicious anti-gay assault at the Dallas airport was captured on a video that rocketed around the world has been charged with misdemeanor assault and probably faces at most, a $1000 fine. John Wright reports at Lone Star Q:

According to the report obtained by Lone Star Q, the man’s name is McCleish Christmas Benham, 27. He is currently charged with public intoxication and simple assault, both class-C misdemeanors each punishable by a maximum $500 fine, but no jail time. However, if prosecutors choose to utilize Texas’ hate crimes law, they could enhance the assault charge to a class-B misdemeanor. Class-B misdemeanors are punishable by 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine per offense.

As you see by the map at the bottom of this post, Texas does have a hate crimes law that includes sexual orientation (but not gender identity). Local activists should get loud.

On the arrest report Benham's home is listed as Shelbyville, Tennessee. From the arresting officer's report on the victim:

"I identified the older white male who was the target of Benham's assaultive behavior by his DL. He was identified as [redacted]. [Redacted] told me that he witnessed Mr. Benham verbally assaulting a female American Airlines gate agent. [Redacted] said he told Mr. Benham that the police were on the way and he needed to calm down. [Redacted] said Mr. Benham called him a 'San Frisco Faggot' and then punched him in his right eye. [Redacted] said Mr. Benham then began threatening a different male passenger. [Redacted] said he warned Mr. Benham a second time to calm down because the police were going to arrest him."

The report notes that Benham continued to struggle during the attempt to handcuff him and after the officer identified himself. Only after the second officer arrived were they able to handcuff him. So why no charge of resisting arrest? Hit the link for the full arrest report.

Wonkette: Actor Paul Rudd Was Among Bystanders Who Took Down Homophobe After Assault At Dallas Airport

Wonkette reports today that actor Paul Rudd was among the bystanders that rushed to take down a drunk redneck homophobe who had just assaulted a man after calling him a "faggot." At this writing, it doesn't appear that Rudd has confirmed the story, but after watching the clip again, it does look like him. The original video of the attack now has over 1.7 million views. Dallas police have not yet identified the assailant.

(Tipped by JMG reader Joe)

UPDATE: The tweet below is from the above-linked Wonkette blogger. Some Twitter users remain convinced that it was Rudd.

UPDATE II: The actual hero has identified himself as Dallas marketing guy Ben Kravit.

DALLAS: Airport Bystanders Take Down Drunk Redneck Homophobe After Verbal & Physical Assault On (Possibly) Gay Man

This went down at the Dallas airport. Via Raw Story:

The video is dated Thursday, October 23, and shows an unnamed angry man bellowing and threatening another passenger who is wearing a jacket and a pink shirt. A tall man in a black cowboy hat approaches and asks the angry man what he’s upset about. “Queers!” the man shouted. “That’s what I’m upset about. This faggot right here.” After a tense exchange, the angry man kicks the man in the pink shirt, then slaps at him and grabs his hair. A number of people rush to intervene as the man is tacked and put on the floor. The man in the cowboy hat can be heard saying loudly, “No way! No way, you motherfucker. You ain’t doin’ that fucking shit, motherfucker.”

Handcuffed redneck: "I punched him square in the mouth in the fuckin' mouth is what I did. Because this is AMERICA. When I get up I'm gonna beat the shit out of him."

(Tipped by JMG reader Joel)

Cops Release Palin Family Brawl Report

From Talking Points Memo:

Amid the crackle and chaos of audio released by the Anchorage Police Department on Tuesday, an unmistakable voice could be heard. "Did you find your necklace?" the woman could be heard saying. "Track, that is such a God thing. See?" The voice almost certainly belonged to former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. The audio was released as part of hours of recordings made by Anchorage cops in the aftermath of an alcohol-fueled brawl at a house party in the city in September. The recordings were released along with photos from the scene, and they documented the surreal situation police were faced with when they rolled up to the party. People were scattering and the Palin family was hovering around a stretch Hummer limousine they had brought with them that night. Previously, eyewitnesses had largely blamed the Palins for the brawls, and police documented their findings in reports. But ultimately, prosecutors decided to bring no charges.

The above-linked piece includes transcripts of the audio and links to photos taken in the aftermath. Below is an audio excerpt starring Bristol Palin.

ALASKA: Palin Clan In Huge Brawl

This should prove fascinating. 

The details are a little sketchy, but there's enough of them, from enough different sources, that a story emerges, a story that according to the gossip Gods, looks kind of like this: There's some sort of unofficial birthday/Iron Dog-type/snowmachine party in Anchorage. A nice, mellow party, until the Palins show up. There's beer, of course, and maybe other things. Which is all fine, but just about the time when some people might have had one too many, Track Palin stumbles out of a stretch Hummer, and immediately spots an ex-boyfriend of Willow's. Track isn't happy with this guy, the story goes. There's words, and more. The owner of the house gets involved, and he probably wished he hadn't. At this point, he's up against nearly the whole Palin tribe: Palin women screaming. Palin men thumping their chests. Word is that Bristol has a particularly strong right hook, which she employed repeatedly, and it's something to hear when Sarah screams, "Don't you know who I am!"

(Tipped by JMG reader Homer)

Alcohol Consumption By State

Via Policy Mic:

According to a new report by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), the hardest-drinking state turns out to be New Hampshire. The study calculated per capita consumption of ethanol from alcoholic beverages and found that the average New Hampshire resident consumed 4.65 gallons in 2012 — nearly twice the national average of 2.33 gallons. Among the New England states, Connecticut was the only one that didn't make the top 20 list for per capita alcohol consumption. Alaska, Louisiana, Florida, Delaware and Washington, D.C. are all big drinking regions, as are the Northern states, with the average resident consuming over 2.5 gallons of ethanol in alcohol per year. The NIAAA report also found that overall, per capita ethanol consumption increased by 2.2% — only seven states experienced a decrease.

(Tipped by JMG reader Win)

Fox News Anchor Arrested At Airport Bar

Fox News anchor Gregg Jarrett was arrested last night at a lounge in the Minneapolis airport.

Jarrett, 59, is charged in Hennepin County District Court with a misdemeanor, obstructing the legal process, interfering with a police officer and has an arraignment scheduled in an Edina courtroom for June 6. Jarrett, who is a weekend co-anchor on the FOX News Channel, was arrested about 12:30 p.m. at Northern Lights Grill in the main terminal, said Patrick Hogan, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission. Jarrett was released from custody shortly after 1:30 a.m. Thursday after a $300 bond was posted, according to Hennepin County Sheriff's Office records. The records show he's due in court on June 6. Police had been called about an intoxicated man at the grill. Officers reported Jarrett refused to follow orders and was arrested for obstruction of the legal process and taken to jail.

A spokesman for Fox News said that Jarrett is on leave from the network. The spokesman added: "He is dealing with serious personal issues at this time. A date at which Gregg might return to air has yet to be determined."

Feds Revoke Powdered Booze Nod

That was fast. Via USA Today:

Don't expect powdered alcohol to hit store shelves anytime soon. A product called "Palcohol" gained widespread attention online in recent days after it was reported that the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau approved the powdered alcohol, including vodka and rum varieties. But a representative for the federal bureau, Tom Hogue, said in an email to The Associated Press late Monday that the approvals were issued in error. Hogue did not immediately respond to requests for further details, including how the error occurred. In an email message, Palcohol's parent company Lipsmark said "there seemed to be a discrepancy on our fill level, how much powder is in the bag." It said it will resubmit the labels for approval.

Feds Approve Powdered Alcohol

Via Orlando's WFTV:

The same government that won't let us have commercial drones or home DNA testing kits has made yet another brilliant regulatory decision. The U.S. Treasury's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has just approved — wait for it — powdered alcohol. A Bevlaw blogger first spotted the application, which approves seven different varieties of powdered alcohol. The blogger writes, "I am not astonished that this is a real product — but I am absolutely astonished that this is approved. The person that pushed this through must be very patient or lucky."

The company's website has since been amended, but critics are noting what used to be there:

"Let's talk about the elephant in the room ... snorting Palcohol. Yes, you can snort it. And you'll get drunk almost instantly because the alcohol will be absorbed so quickly in your nose. Good idea? No. It will mess you up. Use Palcohol responsibly." 

Another now deleted portion:

We’ve been talking about drinks so far. But we have found adding Palcohol to food is so much fun. Sprinkle Palcohol on almost any dish and give it an extra kick. Some of our favorites are the Kamikaze in guacamole, Rum on a BBQ sandwich, Cosmo on a salad and Vodka on eggs in the morning to start your day off right. Experiment. Palcohol is great on so many foods. Remember, you have to add Palcohol AFTER a dish is cooked as the alcohol will burn off if you cook with it…and that defeats the whole purpose.

UPDATE: BevLaw notes that California already has regulations for powdered distilled spirits.

Gay Pride Parades Are Lewd Displays

We'll have to save this one for when the usual screamers launch their complaint campaigns in June.

Obama: Pot Is Safer Than Booze

In a long interview with the New Yorker, President Obama said that he believes marijuana is safer than alcohol. The question came regarding the legalization of the sale of marijuana in Colorado and Washington state.

When I asked Obama about another area of shifting public opinion—the legalization of marijuana—he seemed even less eager to evolve with any dispatch and get in front of the issue. “As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol.” Is it less dangerous? I asked. Obama leaned back and let a moment go by. That’s one of his moves. When he is interviewed, particularly for print, he has the habit of slowing himself down, and the result is a spool of cautious lucidity. He speaks in paragraphs and with moments of revision. Sometimes he will stop in the middle of a sentence and say, “Scratch that,” or, “I think the grammar was all screwed up in that sentence, so let me start again.”

Less dangerous, he said, “in terms of its impact on the individual consumer. It’s not something I encourage, and I’ve told my daughters I think it’s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy.” What clearly does trouble him is the radically disproportionate arrests and incarcerations for marijuana among minorities. “Middle-class kids don’t get locked up for smoking pot, and poor kids do,” he said. “And African-American kids and Latino kids are more likely to be poor and less likely to have the resources and the support to avoid unduly harsh penalties.” But, he said, “we should not be locking up kids or individual users for long stretches of jail time when some of the folks who are writing those laws have probably done the same thing.”

Read the full interview.

Anti-DUI Prank

Going viral with 1.5M views today. Clip recap:

Pranks typically have little depth to them other than terrifying some unfortunate soul or, in the case of pranks featured in viral marketing campaigns, trying to capture our attention for long enough to convince us to buy something. This prank, however, serves a much greater purpose. The anonymous prankee is taken to a "hospital bed" after passing out in his truck while driving back from a night of heavy drinking. His "Doctor" informs him that he went into a coma after crashing his vehicle, one that he has been in for 10 years. Whether this convinces the man to not drink and drive again remains to be seen, though pranker Tom Mabe certainly got his message across loud and clear.

The 2023 news report on the hospital TV is worth waiting for.

Morning View - Theft Deterrence

MARYLAND: Anti-Gay State Rep. Don Dwyer Busted Again For Drunk Driving

Last year Maryland state GOP Rep. Don Dwyer was arrested for drunk boating after an accident that seriously injured six people, including four children. Dwyer later declared that he'd become a drunk because gay marriage had been legalized in Maryland. He then vowed to join Alcoholics Anonymous after pleading guilty in that case. Yesterday, he was busted once again for DUI.

A police officer who was driving a prisoner said he saw a vehicle "commit numerous traffic violations in a short period of time that posed an immediate safety risk for all other drivers" on Route 100 eastbound at Edwin Raynor Boulevard in Pasadena, according to a police report. The officer pulled over the car, a 2001 Cadillac DeVille. A second officer found Dwyer inside, with "a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from his breath," according to the police report. Dwyer, 55, told the second officer he had had two beers earlier in the evening and was coming home from a tavern in Baltimore, according to the police report. The officer wrote in the report that Dwyer had red, glossy eyes and a flushed face and his speech was slow and slurred. When Dwyer go out of the car, he was unstable and trouble keeping his balance, according to the police report.

Dwyer remains a member of the Maryland House Of Delegates and today even some GOP officials are demanding his resignation. (Tipped by JMG reader Chris)

RELATED: In 2011 Dwyer sat next to Maggie Gallagher during Maryland's marriage equality hearings, telling the committee that any state delegate that testified in favor of the bill should be "arrested for perjury" because saying that gay people deserve equality "is a lie and they know it." During the hearings Dwyer presented documents from the SPLC-certified hate group, MassResistance, claiming that gay activists want to introduce sadomasochism to grade school children. Dwyer also recorded an anti-gay robocall for NOM.

Bars Per Capita By State

North Dakota is the "booziest" state according to an analysis of 2010 census data. New Hampshire ranks last and New York ranks 19th. An interactive map at the bottom of this article also includes a ranking of liquor stores per capita.

Headline Of The Day

Details. (Tipped by JMG reader David)

Another Drunk Driving Catholic Bishop

Bishop Robert McManus of the Diocese of Worchester, Massachusetts was arrested in Rhode Island last night and charged with drunk driving, leaving the scene of an accident, and refusing a Breathlyzer test.

McManus is to be arraigned Tuesday in district court in Wakefield, R.I. “I made a terrible error in judgment by driving after having consumed alcohol with dinner,” McManus said in the statement. “There is no excuse for the mistake I made, only a commitment to make amends and accept the consequences of my action.” “More importantly,” he said, “I ask forgiveness from the good people whom I serve, as well as my family and friends, in the Diocese of Worcester and the Diocese of Providence.” Pope John Paul II appointed McManus as the fifth bishop of the Worcester diocese in 2004.

Last year McManus forced Anna Marie College to cancel a commencement address by Sen. Ted Kennedy's widow, allegedly because of her support for marriage equality. (Tipped by JMG reader Allen)

RELATED: San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone was arrested for DUI in San Diego last August.

NORTH CAROLINA: Bill To Allow Guns In Bars Advances In House Committee

Yesterday the North Carolina House Judiciary Committee approved a bill that will allow gun owners to bring their weapons into bars.

The bill would allow concealed handgun permit holders to carry their firearms into bars, restaurants and other places where alcohol is served. A similar "restaurant carry" measure passed the House during the 2011 legislative session but hit a roadblock in the state Senate. Gun rights groups have lobbied hard to push this expansion of their carry privileges.  "I do not drink, but I go out to restaurants that serve alcohol," said Josette Chmiel, a member of Grassroots N.C. "Why am I not permitted to carry my weapon concealed?" She said that women, particularly, are potential crime victims when walking from restaurants to their cars. "We are already not permitted to drink while we're carrying," Chmiel said. A representative of the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association said his group was not opposed to the bill.

Representatives from the NRA spoke in support of the bill during its hearing. What could possibly go wrong? (Tipped by JMG reader Mark)

Drunk Driving SF Archbishop: Won't Somebody Please Think Of The Children?

"To legalize marriage between two people of the same sex would enshrine in the law the principle that mothers and fathers are interchangeable or irrelevant, and that marriage is essentially an institution about adults, not children; marriage would mean nothing more than giving adults recognition and benefits in their most significant relationship. How can we do this to our children? No matter what the Supreme Court rules, this debate is not over. Marriage is too important and the issues raised by treating same-gender unions as marriages are too fundamental to just go away.

"Just as Roe v. Wade did not end the conversation about abortion, so a ruling that tries to import same-sex marriage into our Constitution is not going to end the marriage debate, but intensify it. We will have a bitterly polarized country divided on the marriage issue for years if not generations to come." - San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, speaking to USA Today.  Cordileone goes on to cite numerous debunked stories about the oppression of Christians at the hands of homofascists.