A Rose by any other name...

Ok, for your post breakfast enjoyment I have a little something to air out.

On our local news website this morning there was a report on more ‘inflammatory’ comments by Pat Robertson. Surprise. For the last few years he’s been doing what so many elderly and pre-elderly people do…he’s been speaking his mind.

The phenomena isn’t new, or strange, older people have been spouting inappropriate things in public without using their inside voice for hundreds of years. I’m of the belief that it’s the main reason the whole idea of senility came about, people unable to resolve in their minds that a person could just get to the point where they no longer care what people think of them and are fully willing to lay it all out in the open for all to hear.

Personally I think it’s hilarious. It’s the complete antithesis of Politically Correct, and therefore a good thing in my book.

In Pat Robertson’s case though, he’s got more than a few people in a restaurant listening to his unfiltered blurts. Not only is his normal viewing audience tuned in, but countless watch groups just waiting for something controversial to leave his lips. Well, this week they got something. His latest comments are again, surprise, about the Muslim world and the force he feels is in control of all the violence and hatred…the devil.

Let me preface my analysis of his comments with this: I am not a nut, religious or otherwise, I don’t think anyone should push any religion on anyone, and I think it’s important for people to say what they feel is the truth, even if it hurts. Being afraid to tell the truth has only ever gotten us as a people and a country into deep dog squeeze. Just look at Bill Clinton.

That being said, Pat’s comments went on to say that the sheer hatred and rage involved in the radical Islamic sects committing these violent acts around the world can only come from demonic power. After the show aired and his phones were slammed with calls from the media, his spokesperson pointed out a few things: He also talked about the non-radical Muslims and how they don’t stand up with the terrorists and doesn’t feel that the radicals speak for all Muslims.

Here’s where I take issue. This is a quote from one of Mr. Robertson’s detractors:

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, called Robertson's new comments "grossly irresponsible."

What is irresponsible about saying that a group of people bent on murdering any who oppose them, including women and children, is doing so because they’re evil? How is this wrong? Is it wrong because a section of this country doesn’t believe in God so therefore saying there is a devil, an ultimate force of evil and it is active in our world is somehow offensive?

Pardon my French, but that’s the biggest crock of bullshit I’ve heard in months. If more people stood up and spoke the truth, that people who kill indiscriminately with no remorse in order to dominate others are evil, we’d all be a lot less confused about what’s going on. This just shows how backwards some people in this country tend to think. They’re against the war on terror. They speak out against young men and women who, besides protecting their freedom and that of every man, woman and child in this country, are tasked with stopping these killers. Soldiers follow rules of engagement; rules like ‘if an enemy combatant is unarmed and not an immediate threat they are to be captured and incarcerated with in a humane fashion’. In other words, if they’re not trying to kill you at the moment, you can’t touch a hair on their squirrelly little heads. Whereas the terrorist book of ethics (I know, it’s a stretch) just says KILL. KILL KILL KILL and then KILL some more.

So please forgive me if you feel I’m a bit extreme because I agree with Pat Robertson on this one, but I see nothing wrong with calling a spade a spade.
*As a side not I looked up the origin of that saying (calling a spade a spade) and found something interesting.

Here’s the info:

Although the English language, and particularly American English, contains many examples of the influence of racism on popular speech, in this particular case there is ample evidence to prove the defendant phrase not guilty. "To call a spade a spade" not only predates slavery in North America by quite a bit but harks all the way back to the Ancient Greeks, occurring in the work of, among others, the playwright Aristophanes, and is still commonly heard in modern Greek. The original phrase seems to have been "to call a fig a fig; to call a kneading trough a kneading trough," applied to someone who spoke exceedingly frankly. Evidently, when the phrase was first translated from Greek in the Renaissance, the Greek word for "trough" was confused with the Greek for "spade," and thus the modern version was born. The "spade" referred to in the phrase, incidentally, was the digging implement, and not the black character on playing cards that underlies the racial epithet.