Pat the Saber RattlerPat Robertson made my day, actually my week, by declaring a Fatwah against the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez.
He said today: I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces should 'take him out.' 'Take him out' could be a number of things including kidnapping. There are a number of ways of taking out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted by the AP, but that happens all the time.
But on Tuesday, on his own program, he said: 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. 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.
Naturally some folks are saying his cheese slid off his cracker, but as a longtime occasional watcher of the 700 Club I can assure you that Pat's cheese slid off onto the Formica a LONG time ago. That's what made him fun to watch back in the 80s - back then I would turn to the 700 Club for a daily dose of what I once called "Fundamentalist Dada."
With all the attention paid to this sentiment, however, I also have no doubt a good many dumbasses in this country will pick up Pat's cudgel, with little idea of what's behind it in the first place, and wield it, sounding the war cry. Remember the Maine!
Uncle Dave Lewis
(Should I really be signing my name to something like this?)