Moon Phase: Waning gibbous
Weather: Warm with a clear sky
Okay, I'm not even going to get into some of the crazy shit I've heard from this guy, because there's just too much. This is purely about the latest in a long line of utterly astounding pronouncements from Pat Robertson: He thinks the US should assassinate Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Just for clarity's sake, here's the exact quote:
There was a popular coup that overthrew him [Chavez]. And what did the United States State Department do about it? Virtually nothing. And as a result, within about 48 hours that coup was broken; Chavez was back in power, but we had a chance to move in. He has destroyed the Venezuelan economy, and he's going to make that a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism all over the continent.
You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don't think any oil shipments will stop. But this man is a terrific danger and the United ... This is in our sphere of influence, so we can't let this happen. We have the Monroe Doctrine, we have other doctrines that we have announced. And without question, this is a dangerous enemy to our south, controlling a huge pool of oil, that could hurt us very badly. We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with. [from Media Matters]
How can he possibly defend this? How can he think this is a Christian thing to do? Has he not actually read the Ten Commandments that he's so often arguing for? "Thou shalt not kill", remember? Granted, plenty of Christians don't take that statement literally (and maybe they shouldn't, since it's not translated properly), but in this case what he's advocating is clearly murder, and is in clear violation of the book he believes is God's word. What Pat is suggesting here is, in actuality, terrorism. What is he thinking?
Now all of a sudden the internet is full of suggestions that maybe Pat ought to be assassinated himself (jokes, I'm sure). And one blogger said he didn't want to assassinate Pat, but would like to see him die a natural death. Personally, I wouldn't. Sure he says lots of horrible things, but I can imagine that in death he would become some sort of Christian legend for the Bible thumpers in this country. What I want for Pat is that he might someday wake up, look around at the world, and realize that he's wrong. He could convert to Quakerism or Unitarianism (the two coolest Christian sects, in my opinion), and start using his notoriety and talents for good instead of evil. Start declaring that, actually, most Muslims don't want to kill us; that there should be separation of church and state, for basic fairness; that Pagans and atheists are people too; that queers should have equal rights; that maybe unnecessary wars are a bad idea; that women ought to have the right to choose. That, I'd like to see.
