What's going on?

Wow.....Pat Robertson as usual....

It's people like Pat Robertson who make me ashamed to call myself a Virginian.

Oh my. That's an awful thing to say. Not to mention Haiti rebelled against the real Napoleon, not Napoleon III. I wonder where he got that load of nonsense, assuming the old fart didn't just make it up.

I just saw a thing on TV about Haitian children eating cookies made of dirt so that they at least have something in their stomachs. A disaster like this is the last thing they need there.

@Invictus: He probably did make it up, that's how they holy roll.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, it really is the last thing they need.

Who is this guy? I read his name in "Issues and Controversies" a few days ago, and I was wondering what denomination that guy could be. What does he believe that would possess him to say, "This may be a blessing in disguise."?

Haha what would "possess" him indeed.

Yeah... holy crap. That's just nuts. Sucks to be that lady on the left, if she has a brain in her head she's thinking "oh my God I can't believe he's saying these things and I'm associated with them now!!"

Toussaint L'ouverture a devil worshiper? Whatever. He was a liberator and a hero.

this guy makes me laugh, wow, good stuff, why i hate extremists

@Thucydides: "Toussaint L'ouverture a devil worshiper? Whatever. He was a liberator and a hero." - Not if you're a white redneck from the south, he wasn't. I imagine ol' Pat thinks he had a forked tail and horns.

he's spelling out an early retirement hahaha... ah.. XD devil worshippers.. "Napoleon III or whatever" - the way he said it.. that was rich...

I suppose he's one of those that thinks slavery had a "civilizing" effect on blacks. Whew.

And I'm white from the south, often with a redneck. I guess I'm not a redneck though because I count Toussaint L'ouverture among some of my most admired leaders from military history alongside Belisarius, Taejo Yi Seong-gye, Chandragupta and Alexander.

To be fair to the guy I believe we must go to his website to see what he says about it. http://patrobertson.com/pressreleases/haiti.asp

It doesn't say anything about him saying "blessing in disguise" on his website. I guess he didn't have the foresight to see the words' damaging powers.

A bit from a different point of view here: Haiti was an unjust, cruel society under French rule, which is what led them to rebel, but after the successful rebellion they went right back to their cruel, injustice, except toward different people. If they hadn't rebelled there is a least a decent possibility that the French would have eventually let them rule themselves and set up a less corrupt government within the country, which would have led to a better standard of living in the past and now. So in a sense, Toussaint L'ouverture, though definitely not a devil worshiper, was both a liberator and a piece in the downfall of Haiti as it is today.

@pfranklin51 - that's the thing about hindsite versus a vision of the future. Hindsight is 20/20 but the future is unclear. Toussaint L'ouverture had no way of knowing the end result would be just as bad. He was just trying to improve the status quo.

I seem to remember that Toussaint L'ouverture was kidnapped pretty early on in Haiti's history and died in France, so he can't really be blamed for the subsequent history. Like Lincoln, he died before he could ruin his own legacy.

I did a paper on Lyndon Johnson this semester, and I talked quite a bit about his invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965. One of the source books was a combo Haiti-DR and it was stunning just skimming over the terrific summary of Haitian history. They embody every stereotype of an unstable, corrupt little tin-pot American republic. I think only one guy gave up power peacefully in the whole 19th century and many presidents (or emperors or kings) ruled only for months.

It's always sucked to live in Haiti, from slavery to the present day. An earthquake which kills tens of thousands of people and destroys the capital can never be a blessing in disguise. It was just about the only thing that could make things significantly worse, even by Haitian standards.

To be fair, Pat Robertson probably thinks Haiti's like the Bahamas and will just cheerfully build everything back up before tourist season starts again. At least, I hope that's what he thinks.

I'm guessing Pat robertson is an iquvelent to Glen Beck... But a religous figure?

On this subject I must say thank you Toussaint L'Overture, for the Louisiana Purchase.

Denis, sort of. Check out his wikipedia page. Unfortunately, though, I think Pat Robertson is completely sincere with the crazy things he says (where Glen Beck is just a ratings whore).

Pat Robertson says some messed up things. Alot of Christians think he's a wack so at least its not like all Christians are beliving everythign he says

I certainly hope not. Even if you think Toussaint l'Overture was a devil worhipper (I imagine he was into the voodoo stuff) when would it ever cross your mind God would punish the poor population for sins of a distant past?

Before I read this thread I didn't even know of the disaster in Haiti. Instead of rambling about possible blessings or curses let's pray for those in need, whose home is destroyed, who have lost their family, who are hurt and hungry.

i second that Ursa.

though i did know about the disaster.

During the 2004 presidential election, there were people that said they got their national news from the 700 Club, ie Pat Robertson. How scary is that?

extremely scary i ignore just about everything that man says. the things i don't ignore i wonder how the hell he came up with those things

one place that a lot of people i know are donating is yele.org, a group started some years ago by wycleff jean, the musician.

Yeah, dj, you can just text to a number and you can donate $5. It's added on to your phone bill.