Why Hasn't Pat Robertson Been Confined?

There are only two possible explanations for the things he says -- he is intentionally defrauding millions of deluded believers, or he is insane. Either way, he should be taken off the street, just like any other madman shouting in the public square.

"Robertson said God spoke to him during his annual [!?] one-on-one prayer retreat with the Almighty." Who could say such a thing and not have their competence questioned? Instead, it is the subject of "serious" news reporting:

The TV preacher claims the Lord told him to expect a terrorist attack on the United States by the end of 2007 that will result in "mass killing." "I'm not necessarily saying it's going to be nuclear," Robertson said yesterday . . . . "The Lord didn't say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that," said the 76-year-old preacher and one-time presidential candidate.

Oh, that's nice. Not "necessarily" nuclear. Com'on folks. Let's pretend that there is an all-powerful, permanent, invisible man in the sky, who decided that he had an important message for humanity. Would he pass that message through a dumb fuck like Robertson -- I mean, there's the pope (maybe not much better), but what about King Carl (Sweden), or the UN, or why wouldn't he just take over all the airways everywhere and broadcast his message.

And let's not get started on the caring, loving god of the christians, who revels in blood, gore and unleashing evil:

"God said he's going to restrain the evil, but he isn't necessarily going to restrain it in the beginning," Robertson said.

Why is this guy walking around free -- On November 7, 1999, on his TV show, he supported armed rebellion against the United States:

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to say this very clearly. If the people of the United States of America . . . decide that they're not going to allow the Supreme Court to dominate their lives . . . . [t]hey are not going to be able to overturn the will of a hundred million American people. And I think the time has come that we throw off the shackles of this dictatorship that's been imposed upon us. We had a war in 1776 that set us free . . . . And I think the time has come that we do that.

But no one raised a voice to question his sanity, or his patriotism, even Newt Gingrich was silent. And then, of course, there was his big hit -- god made 9/11 happen to punish us for hurting god's feelings. This is the same christianista who advocated assassination:

[Y]ou could send a squad in to take out somebody like Osama bin Laden, or to take out the head of North Korea, but isn't it better to do something like that, to take out Milosevic, to take out Saddam Hussein, rather than to spend billions of dollars on a war that harms innocent civilians and destroys the infrastructure of a country?

(I guess George wasn't listening to that last part.) But, at least Robertson is enlightened on equal rights for women:

The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians.

Oh. Nevermind, then.

(Photo credit: El Nuevo Cojo Ilustrado Media LLC)