Shit for Pat

In the wake of one of the worst natural disasters in history Pat Robertson, televangalist, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, 1988 US Presidential hopeful, host of the 700 Club (we even have ourselves an Indian version of the show ‘Ek Nayi Zindagi’ (a new life) on Star Plus),  and sociopath dropped the following pearls of wisdom:

“Something happened a long time ago in Haiti … they were under the heel of the French, uh, you know, Napoleon the third and whatever … and they got together and swore a pact to the devil, they said, we will serve you, if you get us free from the Prince. True story.”

He basically implied that Haiti deserved the earthquake because of their pact with the devil.

My Question is: Ummmmm….What?

Now on a somewhat related level–“True Story”. Really? Now unless you’re Miley Cyrus or some asshole in a frat house bragging about your threesome with Megan Fox and Jennifer Love Hewitt, no one who uses the words “True” and “Story” in rapid succession should be taken seriously.

Pat Robertson apart from the above descriptors was the guy who claimed in  James Randi’s ‘Faith Healers’ that some Protestant denominations of Christianity are home to the spirit of the Anti-Christ. He also, apparently prayed Hurricane Felix (1995) and Gloria (1985) away from the coasts of his home-state, Virginia and diverted them (with the power of his prayers of course) to New York, New England, parts of Canada and in the case of Hurricane Felix- the Caribbean, Nicaragua and Honduras  all areas,  which he obviously did not consider worth praying for. He is also the same wonderful man who claimed that feminism was “socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians,”according to a Washington Post. (I burned a bra, kissed a girl, stirred a cauldron AND I liked it.) He also observed very astutely in 1999 that Scotland was a “dark land”  (where) ” you can’t believe how strong the homosexuals are.” This also explains why, during my trip there I NEVER got hit on, or my ass pinched or hooted at, even once.

Just going on the basis of the above let’s just you and me make this crazy off hand assumption, and let the assumption be that..oh I don’t know…that he’s bat-shit insane.

So coming back to my original question: Ummmm….what?

Or to elaborate:

Why is it that the American media insists on harping on stupid quotes from crazies with a megaphone?

Huffington Post huffed and puffed till the house came down, reddit (a fantastic community of internet users that I’m addicted to), jumped on the band wagon , TPM-that had the only somewhat decent write up on it and even the Haitian Ambassador thought it was important enough to address in a recent episode of Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC platform. (The video is titled “Haitian ambassador shames Pat Robertson.” Pat Robertson knows what shame is? Amazing.).

My mother, purveyor of the finest cliches (“Tough times don’t last”, she’ll say mysteriously when I’m complaining about something, to which I promptly mumble “but tough people do”) does have a point when she tells me this.

“Nothing hurts more than the lack of acknowledgment.”

And it’s  true. Nothing hurts more than no acknowledgment from the party/person that you are directing your rant/annoyance towards. (I confess that I’ve used that tactic a whole lot, and I’ve had it used on me a whole lot more.)

So here’s my suggestion: IGNORE HIM. (Unfortunately WordPress does not allow for font size increases mid-post because I’m not averse to mid-post font size increases to obnoxious levels when it comes to putting out something like this.)

Just to recap, Pat Robertson is also the crazy old man who predicted on that world would be coming to an end in Oct/Nov 1982. He predicted in 2007, that there would be terror-style mass killings in USA. (When it didn’t happen, he attributed it to the power of  his prayers).

I’m so sorry, but a doomsday prediction puts you in crazy crack-ass-retard category. I know he’s doling it out, so what blows my mind, is the fact that were still listening.  If the media stopped giving attention to all the craaaazzzyy antics of the Glen Becks, Sarah Palins, and Pat Robertsons, they would wither away and die, because attention is what they thrive on (“The world is going to end in 1982…. naah….jk lol!”). And the more attention we give them, the more they’re encouraged to come up with crazier and crazier shit to fill up air time, boost ratings and piss us off. The media in turn, by making news stories out of them, ends up validating this nonsense. and it’s our fault as well, we’re pandering to this shit by tuning in, and very simply by acknowledging this moron. It’s embarrassing to have to be a part of the same race as those toady-looking folks from The O.C anyway, and then you add freaking Pat Robertson to the mix.

In the meantime stories like Citibank’s bid to remove all charges on any donations made to Haiti via credit card (this one too, just went up at 10:00 A.M today) and Google and Skype are offering free calls to anyone in Haiti are not getting the coverage they deserve.

And I do realize that, by simply making this post, I’m calling attention to where it does not deserve to be called. But I’ve made a pact with myself now, a media black out for Pat Robertson-any story that has his name on it, I’m going to ignore, any T.V show that makes reference to his name, I’m going to not watch. I’m done with turning my ear and giving my advertising dollar/rupee towards any moron on a soapbox.

Or as Jon Stewart put it so eloquently in his one sentence response to Pat Robertson’s remark –“Shut your pie hole old man.”