Pat Robertson's god

Periodically, I enjoy humoring myself by sending out a rash of queries for articles that I think would make a tad more interesting reading than the usual warmed-over fare. Today, I’m performing my two-or-three-times-a-year exercise in futility by sending off posts to Downeast, Yankee and similar publications, about an article idea I came up with while biking past my local volunteer fire department the other day. I’m sure, in about three months, I’ll be receiving my polite, but firm rejection letter from those publications, as they tell me that my article is just not “the right fit” for their publication. In between letters, I've been catching up on some of my reading that I've been missing the past few months.

Since my recent posts about music garnered about as much interest as a fart in the frozen food section, I’ll move on to crazy Pat Robertson and his recent Xian response to Hugo Chavez. It seems the god that Pat prays to is only interested in free-market capitalism, the bloodier and more exploitive, the better. Since Chavez represents a populist movement that threatens the power structure and economic system that is Pat’s true god, in his theology of guns and military might, it’s ok to take him out.

Zbignew Zingh weighs in with his two cents about Robertson’s “Fatwah”, as he calls it.

What I like about Zingh’s article, is his accurate assessment of Robertson and his brand of Elmer Gantry’s, that predominantly reside on the right side of the governmental aisle. As he writes, “Robertson sees himself as a prophet with a direct line to God. All medieval witch-burners do. He is a fool because he could not resist opening his mouth and blabbing to the whole world that he had foreknowledge about America's black bag operations to assassinate yet another democratically elected foreign leader. By speaking so brazenly -- and prematurely -- Robertson caused two immediate effects: First, he provoked sanctimonious denials from other political witch-burners like Minnesota's Republican Senator Norm Coleman and Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld. Second, Mr. Robertson's intemperate prattling has, in essence, spilled the beans about the all-too-real US plan to kill President Chavez. Thus has Pat Robertson unwittingly spared Hugo Chavez from the death that was, indeed, prepared for him -- at least for the time being -- and earned Mr. Robertson a public scolding from those liars whose dark secret he has disclosed.”

If you are interested in the rest of Zingh’s take, you can view it over at Dissident Voice, a mighty fine place to cut through the mainstream media’s apologetic spinning for the powers that be.