Pat Robertson's obsession with Hugo Chavez gets funnier and funnier. Now, he's saying that after 9/11 Chavez gave a million dollars to Osama bin Laden and that Chavez is trying to buy nuclear materials from Iran: (from here)

"The truth is, this man is setting up a Marxist-type dictatorship in Venezuela, he's trying to spread Marxism throughout South America, he's negotiating with the Iranians to get nuclear material and he also sent 1.2 million dollars in cash to Osama bin Laden right after 9/11," Robertson said.

"I apologized [for, I assume, calling for Chavez's head] and I said I will be praying for him, but one day we will be staring nuclear weapons and it won't be (Hurricane) Katrina facing New Orleans, it's going to be a Venezuelan nuke," Robertson said.

"So my suggestion was, isn't it a lot cheaper sometimes to deal with these problems before you have to have a big war," he added. Asked how he had obtained information on Chavez giving money to bin Laden, Robertson said: "Sources that came to me. That's what I was told."

I love "Sources that came to me." -- you know, Pat Robertson's extensive sources in the intelligence community that told him and no one else ... pure gold.

Anyway, on the subject of Robertson's apparent disdain for all forms of government to the left of the Libertarian Party, I wish just once someone would ask him something like, "Hey Pat, you know how you hate socialism and all, did you ever notice that that guy who founded the religion you're supposed to represent, was kind of, you know, a big fucking socialist?"

I'm not even just talking about the obvious stuff that everyone brings up like the time the rich guy asked Jesus what he should do the get eternal life and Jesus told him, "Give all your money to the poor and follow me.":

And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? 18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.

19 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, honor thy father and mother. 20 And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. 21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

22 And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.

The above is often commented on ... it immediately precedes Christ's well-known dictum "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Less well known, however, is that in the later books of the New Testament there are direct descriptions of the organization of the early Christian community that sound pretty damn socialistic. Take for instance this quote from Acts:

All that believed were together, and had all things in common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
(Acts 2:44-45)

Or this one, once again describing the community of the early Christians:

There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. There was a Levite, a native of Cyprus, Joseph, to whom the apostles gave the name Barnabas (which means "son of encouragement"). He sold a field that belonged to him, then brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.
(Acts 4:34-37)

"It was distributed to each as any had need" -- Someone should ask Pat Robertson if that reminds him of another famous quotation...

I've never understood why Christians of Robertson's ilk are hell-bent on taking every line of every weird old myth in the Old Testament literally but when it comes to the actual words of the founder of their religion and the material dealing with the structure of early Christian society, it's, "Well, you know, Jesus liked to talk in parables..."