Wednesday, August 24, 2005

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OK, I think I've got Pat Robertson's cycle figured out...

So, I see Pat Robertson has spoken out in favor of offing Venezuelan President/strongman Hugo Chavez.

Hmmm... about two years ago, Pat Robertson spoke out in favor of supporting indicted war criminal, former Liberian President/strongman Charles Taylor.

And two years before that, there was the whole 9/11 commentary (although Robertson later said that he had "not fully understood" when he was agreeing with his guest Jerry Falwell).

Readers are invited to identify the target of ire or defense that will make Robertson look like a foreign policy jackass in the summer of 2007.

posted by Dan on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM




Comments:

I regret creating him.

posted by: God on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



Hu Jintao.

posted by: Nathan Sharfi on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



Will Fidel Castro be due for another 15 mins by 2007?

posted by: rosignol on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



Robert Mugabe guest spot on the 700 club, Robertson heartily agrees with his advice on dealing with mosques and homosexuals.

posted by: Ben on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



Robert Mugabe guest spot on the 700 club, Robertson heartily agrees with his advice on dealing with mosques and homosexuals.

posted by: Ben on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



Hmmm, that would be a hard call. I like the Mugabe angle although Unca Bob's ethnic cleansing re the Zim white farmers is a bit of a funny angle, but I am sure it could be spun right. Pulling up a few of the more neanderthalism Zim whities might do, they do tend to say the stupidest and most atrocious things with a bit of liquor in them....

However, I think Castro wins for the domestic factor, and the clumsy, counter-productive pandering angle.

posted by: lounsbury on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



Pat Robertson is not just a television evangelist - he is the founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, the American Center for Law and Justice, and the Christian Coalition of America.

He also ran for the Republican presidential nomination back in 1988.

I can just imagine the story on Aljazeera: The founder of the American Center for Law and Justice called for the assassination of democratically elected Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez...

posted by: Arthur on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



Gen. Franco. Pat will next go into the rehabilitation business.

Also, look out for a few nice words on Pinochet.

Pat has a soft spot for Spanish-speaking military leaders, so long as they were on the right.

posted by: Pigilito on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



Why are the statements of the jack@ss worth two days of news gossip? Wasn't he descredited enough after 9/11, or do we, as Dan as alluded to, need reminders every couple of years.

Kim Jong Il

posted by: Elambend on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



By 2007 I suspect Robertson will probably be due for a good domestic scandal. Disappointment with the new Justice Roberts inability to immediately ban abortion will probably lead him to pray for the killing of a couple more Supreme Court Justices.

In international affairs, Robertson will do his best to incite war between "godless" China and "Christian" Taiwan.

posted by: Kent on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



Pat-the-goof has less viewers with a national program than many local news broadcasts. Why the media chooses to give him so much ink and airtime makes me wonder whether some Christian paranoia about the media may be right.

So, who cares?

posted by: save_the_rustbelt on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



I have it on good authority that Robertson had planned to say that popular music was in decline right now, making it high time for Celine Dion to release a new album. His staff, in damage control mode, persuaded him to do the Chavez routine instead. A small favor to be thankful for, perhaps, but still.

posted by: Zathras on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



I considered Paul Martin (Why? Why not?) but I've decided to hope for None of the Above, if for no other reason than to suggest to a just and righteous God that it's past time to call his servant home.

posted by: Agog on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



Limited

I am riding on a limited express, one of the crack trains
of the nation.
Hurtling across the prairie into blue haze and dark air
go fifteen all-steel coaches holding a thousand people.
(All the coaches shall be scrap and rust and all the men
and women laughing in the diners and sleepers shall
pass to ashes.)
I ask a man in the smoker where he is going and he
answers: "Omaha." Kindly visit
The Economic Fractalist http://www.economicfractalist.com/

posted by: gary lammert on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



Of course, he’s a jackass and may be developing senile dementia. Unfortunately, a significant number of Americans (amazingly) believe that he speaks for “authentic or old-time religion”. He does speak for one kind of religion, the kind that calls down death and destruction on those who reject its teachings. Robertson is actually equivalent to Muslim clerics who call for the faithful to rise up and kill Western invaders, but only those who limit themselves to talking about killing. He’s not as bad as bin laden, because I don’t think that he has killed people or organized and supervised others who kill as distinct from talking about it. He’s much closer to Islamic radicals than to the Sermon on the Mount. However, will you ever see the mainstream media point out how divergent his behavior and suggestions are from those attributed to Jesus?

We hear calls for doctors, lawyers and Indian chiefs to police their groups, when will we hear calls for Christians to exorcise these preachers of hatred?

posted by: grandstand on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



Both Sam Brownback and Rick Santorum have appeared on 700 Club in the past 30 days.

posted by: brian on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



"I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces should 'take him out.' And 'take him out' can be a number of things, including kidnapping; there are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted by the AP [Associated Press], but that happens all the time,"

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/24/robertson.chavez/index.html

posted by: Appalled Pat Robertson on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



President Bashir of the Sudan is my top choice, though Kim Jong Il is second, and Hu Jintao is third.

posted by: Tom on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



2007: Robertson Issues Fatwa On Japanese Makers of Hello Kitty Merchandise/ Says Doll Encourages Homosexuality in Boys and Girls!!

posted by: Jason on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



Look, CNN said I apologized for my remarks, (and I probably did, though the media never quotes what I say the way I remember it). I'm not advocating the assassination of any foreign leader. Looking back at my past statements, I figure we got a lot of mayhem we have to accomplish here at home before we start wasting time and money abroad taking these foreign fellows out.

posted by: Appalled Pat Robertson on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



Robertson doens't know it, (too stupid), but he
has destroyed Bush's reason for fighting in Iraq.

The whole war effort now, (but that might change
again), is about bringing democracy to Iraq.

Yet Robertson says the U.S. should kill a democratically
elected president.

Robertson is pointing out that just because you
have democracy doesn't mean you are going to be friends.

Look at France...France has a democracy. But Bush
and all his supporters hate France. And France's
democracy will always forever be better than Iraq's
democracy.

Iraq's democracy will be worst on it's own people
than Frances democracy will be on it's people.

Yet most in the U.S. will like Iraq better than France!

Can you say...Cuckoo.

Mad as a Hatter.

posted by: James on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



Either Hu Jintao, for his standing up to the anti-Christian yoga enthusiasts of the Fulan Gong, or Slobodan Miloslovic (sp?) just on general nuttiness principles. Outside odds on the dictator of some ex-soviet cesspit (Byelorus? Azerbaijan?), for making great strides against the Islamic threat, in bloody twitching heaps.

posted by: dave on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



did anyone see this article? if this is a sign of things to come, in two years pat robertson will be running this country and will have nothing left to make an ass out of himself over:

---------------------------
http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20050823-091720-7768r.htm

The Washington Times
www.washingtontimes.com

Universities and the war on terror
By John Quelch
Published August 24, 2005

What responsibilities do universities have in fighting the war on terror? Most professors have not even thought to ask the question.

The arrest of an Egyptian chemistry Ph.D. who studied at universities in Leeds in Great Britain and North Carolina in connection with the July 7 bombings highlights the potential vulnerability of academic institutions to wannabe terrorist organizers.

Five factors make universities especially vulnerable both to direct attack and to being used as a cover.

Academic Freedom. A relaxed tolerance of diversity of opinion, even extremist rhetoric, provides an excellent arena for those seeking to quietly turn impressionable young minds in classrooms, in campus meetings or in student societies. What might be termed odd behavior in the "real world" is excused in academia as eccentric and benign.

Open Campuses. Urban universities that coexist with neighboring communities attract hangers-on, both individuals and institutions.

Unaffiliated language schools, religious centres and "institutes" seek to boost their appeal by living in the university's shadow. Young people, not enrolled as students, often working in bookstores and bars, pushing propaganda or drugs, blend easily into the environment.

Population Churn. At larger, second-tier institutions, there is a constant turnover of students and increasing use of part-time and visiting faculty, often from overseas. People rarely know everyone in their department and supervision is often slack. A graduate student who keeps himself to himself can easily go unbothered.

Globalization. Academia is now a global business with more students and faculty than ever before crossing borders to teach or study, conduct research or attend conferences.

Second-tier universities have been known to relax their admissions criteria when they can charge higher fees to foreign students.

Resource Access. Graduate students and faculty working in laboratories often have unreasonably easy access to dangerous substances that are not always properly inventoried. Access control procedures should be tightened with fingerprint or iris recognition systems used in critical areas.

Security plans at universities have understandably focused on the safety of individual students and, in some cases, protection against theft of intellectual property. Plans typically emphasize response rather than prevention and rarely address terrorist attacks or undercover terrorist activity.

Security plans need to be reviewed by university governing boards. In an era of reputation risk management, no university trustee or alumnus wants the publicity received by the University of South Florida for the vitriolic
rhetoric of a now dismissed Palestinian professor. Or that sadly received by the London School of Economics which graduated the killer of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

Here are five recommendations:

Set standards for campus discourse. University leaders must show courage and confront professors -- tenured or not -- who preach hate, usually on
subjects unrelated to those about which they are being paid to teach. They may self-destruct in their pursuit of personal notoriety but that does not mean that they should not be fired first.

Student groups that endorse terrorism or use university facilities to link to Web sites that do should also be disciplined. A healthy university is a cauldron of ideas but not all ideas are grounded in intellectual decency.

Behavior pattern recognition. Enlist the police to educate the university community, including campus security staff, about the early warning signs of terrorists-in-the-making in the same way we teach about spotting drug and alcohol abuse. Offer a confidential reporting procedure.

Recruitment screening. Share information with the authorities on prospective student admits and staff hires so they can be checked against international watch lists. To avoid embarrassment, do not extend invitations until individuals have been cleared. This may be controversial but universities and international foundations that fund visiting scholar programs must do more than review academic references. Otherwise, as in Colorado, state legislation may require them to do so.

Student performance. Conduct exit interviews with undergraduate and graduate students who drop out. And if a student's grades drop unexpectedly,
seek to understand why.

Research funding. Do what universities do best: encourage deep thinking, serious discourse and rigorous research on the causes of and responses to terrorism. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has funded several terrorism research centres at major universities. More needs to be done.

In implementing these common sense measures, there must be no witch hunts, no unreasonable curtailing of academic freedom and no reduction in the global exchange of ideas.

Academics who oppose their countries' policies are not to be branded as unpatriotic. Educational and cultural exchanges with the Muslim world must be expanded, not curtailed, not to win hearts and minds but to develop a shared understanding.

But no university can be an ivory tower in the war on terror. We know that many suicide bombers are well-educated. Civic duty demands that professors and administrators be vigilant and be prepared to do their fair share for the greater good.

John Quelch is senior associate dean of Harvard Business School.

posted by: tompson on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



"I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces should 'take him out.' And 'take him out' can be a number of things, including kidnapping..."

Or, for that matter, dinner and a movie. "Pat obviously just meant "That Hugo Chavez; such a nice boy - but so shy! He should get out more. Maybe some of you Delta boys should get in touch - introduce him to some nice girl. Why not Lucy? She cooks! And her father is a lawyer!"

This reminds me of "Let him have it, Chris!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Bentley

posted by: ajay on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]



Pat, do us all a favor and do it yourself.

posted by: Lord on 08.24.05 at 12:04 AM [permalink]






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