I think I just saw a pig fly past.

I don't ever agree with Leonard Pitts. His usual philosophy is that if a black person gets into trouble, it's because of racism. If a white person is successful, it's because he trampled some black person to get there.

But I find myself agreeing with him on this one. He says that Justin Bieber acts the way he does because society treats him the way it does. He especially focuses on the deposition young Mr. Bieber gave when he was caught driving drunk and drag racing in Florida. According to Mr. Pitts, young Mr. Bieber "preens, he parries, he oozes with visceral contempt for the entire process."

When the prosecuting attorney asked him if his mentor, Usher, was instrumental to his career, Bieber replied, "I was found on YouTube, I think that I was detrimental to my own career." As Mr. Pitts aptly puts it "rarely have ignorance and arrogance ever combined so flawlessly to produce unintended truth."

Mr. Pitts concludes by saying that one of the by-products of celebrity is that "it can induce people to treat the famous person as if his waste products produce no odor." Chances are, Mr. Pitts says, that if one is treated that way, that's the way he'll act. The best thing for Mr. Bieber is for people to stop making excuses for him.

As I said, I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Pitts on this issue. I wonder, though, if Bieber were black, would Leonard Pitts have written this editorial?

"Bringing up Bieber." The Dallas Morning News; March 17, 2014; p. 13A.