Utterances of the Rich and Famous

Gee, you know, when I'm 75 years old I hope people pay as much attention to what I say, and discuss my pronouncements as much as they are discussing those of Pat Robertson. (I don't want to say too much about this, however. I'm afraid he will start praying that I die.) But to me he really seems like a silly old man, maybe a throwback to the Old Testament prophets. I don't think his utterances deserve this kind of attention.

In some ways the coverage of Pat Robertson is like when the cable networks covered that JetBlue plane circling the airport for hours, burning fuel because its landing gear had malfunctioned. Many people stayed glued to the TV, obviously prepared to see a plane crash. Similarly, people now are glued to the Pat Robertson story. Maybe he'll say something else controversial and we can talk about that for weeks. Of course he is rich, and he does have a following, so who knows? I guess he is at least as newsworthy as a plane crash. And in some ways he is more entertaining than Al Franken.

For those of you who just have to read more about Pat Robertson, there are articles at CNN, The Washington Post, Fox News, and background in Wikipedia.