Just days after the New York State Senate approved marriage equality, Pat Robertson declared that America may not survive since it has now "embraced homosexuality," while leaders of the right-wing Tea Party Nation warned about the "queering of America" and compared gay people to drug addicts.
With the right wing becoming more radical by the day, is it any wonder that GOP presidential candidates Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry have pledged to support a witch-hunt commission to investigate pro-equality leaders like you and me?
Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern even went so far as to call homosexuality "more dangerous" than terrorism. But what people like Kern refuse to accept is that there's a fundamental shift underway that you and I have seen coming. We're at a tipping point in our culture and the right knows they're losing ? so they're lashing out.
Pat & Falwell also claimed gays caused 911. It was 40 years ago when I discovered gays were no threat to anyone except possibly the sexually uncertain. It certainly seems to upset the teabaggers.
Then there's that annoying phonelink to God Pat's claiming to get guidance from...........
But seeing that statement in a big, bold headline just makes you realize how dumb some people must be!
For those not in the know, Pat Robertson recently came out with his economic predictions for 2009 based on his annual conference call with the Almighty. Apparently, this is a regular thing that dates back to the 1980s.
And to think that CNBC or Bloomberg didn?t pick this story up right away. Shouldn?t any information being beamed down from Heaven through a shady TV evangelist like good ol? Pat be worthy of a breaking news alert?
Maybe they were hoping Ms. Cleo would lend him a few unused numbers since she got busted for making similar claims.
Pat?s Predictions for 2009
If my sarcasm didn?t give it away, I?m not much of a follower of Robertson and his band of merry prophets. In fact, this is the first I?ve ever heard of Pat Robertson?s New Year?s predictions.
I would laugh if having God on speed dial wasn?t so ridiculous.
I don?t believe this is any way for a so called Christian to behave, but it?s not like Pat would do anything cheesy or borderline unethical. He wouldn?t pitch his own energy drink, call for the assassination of foreign leader, or live off the donations of others while getting a tax break? right?
Either way, here are a few of his predictions:
The economy will recover as early as April.
People will welcome socialism under Obama.
The U.S. will have less power in the world.
The dollar will go down dramatically.
There will be hyperinflation.
Oil will hit $300 per barrel.
Gold will hit $1500 per ounce.
Russia will attempt to gain control of the Middle East.
Israel will remain in a crisis like state.
Islam?s hold in the world will weaken because it is a ?religion of hate?.
I?m not a big believer in any faith or widespread religion (other than the church of football), so perhaps I?m looking at this from a strictly business like perspective. Maybe that?s the reason why I can see it?s a load of BS and it?s just one more financial guy making his bets on the financial markets.
Robertson?s sales pitch
This one is seemingly well disguised since it?s cloaked in the kindness and generosity of the Christian faith, but he?s using three common techniques all good salesmen (particularly clergymen) rely upon:
He?s creating demand for his product when you didn?t know you needed it.
He?s attempting to change your opinion by saying his product is better by making a convincing argument.
He?s slamming his competition.
In this case, it?s my belief he?s offering some financial advice to help his followers to make a few bucks and gain some free publicity. After all, rich followers give more donations.
But his outspoken belief that Islam is a religion of hate and outright criticism of his greatest competitor is a classic sales tactic. It?s not like old school Christians have ever said that their religion is #1, and everything else is just a waste of time.
Pat?s gotten a few right lately!
In the interest of fairness, it should be noted that Pat did make a few correct calls in 2008. He did predict oil would hit $150 per barrel (high was $147/barrel), gold would hit $1000 per ounce, and we would enter a recession.
However, many finance experts, and even the ones who usually get the calls wrong were saying all three of these things. What most folks don?t understand is that salesmen like Robertson say a lot of stupid and random things, and they occasionally get a few right.
If you get 3 out of 10 right during your baseball career, they usually induct you to the Hall of Fame.
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On MSNBC, Haiti?s ambassador to the US, Raymond Joseph, slammed the televangelist for the comment, explaining that the Haitian slave revolt Robertson claimed was a ?pact to the devil? enabled the United States and Latin America to prosper.
Joseph argued that the Haitian slave revolt allowed the United States to make the Louisiana Purchase for just $15 million, and that it allowed Simon Bolivar to ?deliver Gran Colombia and the rest of South America.?
?What pact the Haitians made with the devil has helped the United States become what it is,? Joseph said.
1. He called the world to come to an end in 1982. As if we haven?t seen this one come and go throughout history.
He said that Orlando would be struck with a hurricane, tornado or meteor in 1998 because Disney World flew a few flags with Gay Rights symbols (e.g. rainbows) on them, which of course flew in the face of God. More like Pat was afraid they would corrupt the American image of Mickey Mouse and turn him into a flaming homo. I?m sure Mickey, Donald and Goofy are only pals.
He called for Hugo Chavez?s assassination because he spread communist and Muslim influences throughout the world. Oh no, new ideas might warp our fragile little minds!
He claimed that George W. Bush would win the 2004 Presidential Election in a blowout. Maybe my senility is in question, but wasn?t that the closest election in U.S. history?
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Personally, I think the guy has lost any credibility at all. In fact, I feel somewhat ambivalent even acknowledging the existence of a shady character that operates on the extreme fringes. But yet, it?s sad to think a guy like this has an audience at all, and might actually have some real influence over people?s lives.
Much less, some poor fool might actually put his life savings into investments that this guy has hyped as God?s Will, when it?s really just a sad old man listening to the voices in his head or making up incredulous statements to get more press.
If anyone has a more outlandish way to make money in the stock market, I would ask you leave a comment
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I'll believe corporations are persons when Texas executes one.: LBJ's Ghost
If he didn't have the HC provided by the government, he probably wouldn't be alive today. He probably would be un-insurable, at any cost, because of his PE condition. He would probably have been dropped by the third heart attack. That's reality and as Ed says, he should be used as the poster boy for the argument for reform. They should be using him as an example of a person who would not be able to get insurance despite any amount of money he has. They should find a citizen(s) with a similar health problem who can't find anyone to insure them and use them as a comparison.
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As James Ridgeway emphasizes for Mother Jones, over a million people receiving unemployment benefits ran out of financial rope on March 1 thanks to Sen. Jim Bunning?s (R-KY) self-righteousness. As a result of bizarre Senate procedural rules, Bunning?s sole ?no? vote was enough to stop a bill that would have extended unemployment benefits for those who are out of work. Of course, Bunning had plenty of moral support from his fellow Republicans. Ridgeway highlights a Think Progress post on Rep. Dean Heller?s (R-NV) preposterous argument that it is time for the government to cut off unemployment benefits, since there are so many bums.
It?s clear that America?s Founding Fathers must have made a pact with the Devil. How else to explain the curse America is so obviously under today? I want to go even farther than Pat Robertson and tell it like it really is! The list is as endless as we have fringe crazies, who turn out to not be so ?fringe? given they now are the Republican just-say-no obstructionist Party. Yes, we seem cursed all right!
Where's the Compassion?
In Arkansas, Billy Roper figured that made for a pretty amusing joke. So the former high school teacher and current head of the neo-Nazi White Revolution group today announced a food drive he called "Nutrition for Neutering." "Yes," Roper's White Revolution website said, "you can get started on the ground floor with this charitable effort to provide one can of nonperishable food to each and every Haitian citizen affected by the earthquake who agrees to be sterilized." To Limbaugh, President Obama, in calling for Americans to open their hearts and their wallets to the plight of the Haitians, is interested in nothing but political gain. "This will play right into Obama's hands," Limbaugh said on his Wednesday radio show. "He's humanitarian, compassionate. They'll use this to burnish their, shall we say, 'credibility' with the black community - in the both light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country." Anyway, Haiti "has been run by dictators and communists." It produces "zilch, zero, nada." And Obama is asking "people who have lost their jobs because of his policies to donate."
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I'll believe corporations are persons when Texas executes one.: LBJ's Ghost
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