if this was an isolated incident

Seriously, a rant like that is never an isolated incident. It's too long and vitriolic. He keeps repeating certain things, like how she "humiliated" him -- that is, how his *11-year-old daughter* humiliated him by NOT ANSWERING THE PHONE.

It seems to me that an isolated incident wouldn't be a long rant, because a long rant says to me that all of that anger and nastiness has been percolating in what passes for Alec Baldwin's brain for some time.

Here's the transcript of the full message: [link]

"I'm tired of playing this game with you. I'm leaving this message with you to tell you you have insulted me for the last time. You have insulted me. You don't have the brains or the decency as a human being. I don't give a damn that you're 12 years old, or 11 years old, or that you're a child, or that your mother is a thoughtless pain in the ass who doesn't care about what you do as far as I'm concerned. You have humiliated me for the last time with this phone."

"You've made me feel like s--- and you've made me feel like a fool over and over and over again."

Okay, SERIOUSLY. How on EARTH can an 11-year-old child *humiliate* a parent by the simple -- yes, thoughtless -- act of not answering the goddamn phone?

FWIW, the biggest complaint the Bounty mutineers had with Captain Bligh was actually his verbal abuse more than corporal punishment. Even the sailors, used to a certain level of 'salty' vocabulary, found him foul-mouthed and abusive

And some Imperial officers feared Darth Vader's sarcasm more than his ability to chock people to death at a distance. And Darth Maul was particularly prone to insulting people's mothers.

how come? I mean, I wonder why he'd try to get out of it, though I can see why the show might want him out.

This is all I know: [link]

I tend to believe the representation from NBC that they really don't want him to leave.

No, seriously, tommyrot: records indicate that Bligh was much less likely than most of his contemporary Royal Navy captains to order floggings and other punishments. The sailors would rather have taken a couple of lashes and gotten on with their work. Instead he'd verbally humiliate them again and again for infractions, including his officers.

No wonder the Bounty wasn't his only mutiny command.

No, seriously, tommyrot: records indicate that Bligh was much less likely than most of his contemporary Royal Navy captains to order floggings and other punishments. The sailors would rather have taken a couple of lashes and gotten on with their work. Instead he'd verbally humiliate them again and again for infractions, including his officers.

Oh no, I wasn't doubting that. But my post sorta' sounded like I was - oops.

J's mom talked all four of her kids that way when angry. Yelling and insults. She is much MUCH mellower now but it definitely scarred them.

My dad smacked us when we were horrible, but no insults or put-downs from either parent. I consider myself lucky--not that we didn't have knock-down drag-out fights. You did NOT want to be in a room with me and my mother when I was 14 or so. Oh, the shouting and drama and flouncing from the room to go play records at a loud volume. I was such a pain.

I did not know that Bligh had more than one mutiny under him! Talk about a black mark on one's record. First time, shame on the mutineers, but second time --!

Few parents would ever come off as even fit to have a child, if their low moments were taped and made public.

Or we might all suddenly go, "Hey, check that out, parenting is hard! I too occasionally fail, and may stop dunking my head in battery acid every time I do." ...It never ceases to boggle me the perfectness (and ideological) standards to which popular culture holds parents. Like, you know when a toddler has a meltdown on public transit, and half the traincar is disgusted with the parent? What they really should be thinking is, "This is the price we pay for the species not dying out. What do I have in my pockets -- a snack? a paper clip? Some colorful paper? -- that can help that poor parent out?"

Seriously, a rant like that is never an isolated incident. It's too long and vitriolic.

Seriously -- that's not always true, even if though was true in your experience. Do I think it's likely in this Baldwin thing? Actually, I do, but I just can't know, because I don't know them, and because I know it's not always true. I'm not even speaking personally about my own experience as a parent (my kids are pretty darned good, and still young), but I'm thinking of people I know to be good enough parents that I'd leave my own kids with them, but who have had a hideous moment or two in their parenting history.

Some parents are generally emotionally abusive, but most ordinary parents I know have had moments where they have totally lost it on a kid (particularly as their kids get older) -- wrongly and unfairly and feel ugly, afterward. In my opinion, it sort of ties into what you said earlier -- when you (correctly, imo) pegged his verbal onslaught as an insult. There are parents who lose at roughly the Baldwin level (name calling, or not) once or twice in a kid's lifetime, are ashamed, and know they were wrong. There are other parents who do this most times things don't go their way, because they have their own issues, and some weird sense of entitlement.

Cheney's in town today to speak at Brigham Young University's commencement. There are protests planned. Al Jazeera English is in town. And I've suddenly realized that the crosshairs of some of the world's whack-a-loons are tracking to settle over my town.

I want this day to be over and that man away from me and my commute.

Mormons and Cheney and Al Jazeera, oh my!