Smote vs. Whacked

At a political debate board I frequent, a poster observed that Ariel Sharon has been "knocked out" of office.

"Wow," says another correspondent, "You can't get much more disrespectful."

So where's the disrespect in simply referring to the fact that old Ariel has been knocked out of the political process? You can get a hell of a lot more disrespectful than that.

Want disrespect? This is a job for Pat Robertson!!

Media Matters reports that Rev. Pat said Sharon deserved the stroke.

Speaking of the fallen prime minister in the past tense, Rev. Pat said "Sharon was personally a very likeable person," but he also declared that "God has enmity against those who, quote, 'divide my land.' "

OK, it's all right to do it to the Red Sea, but don't try it on land. You'll piss God off. And Rev. Pat don't like it either.

It looks more and more like Sharon is in that state of existence where death would be a blessing for him. If he clings to life, it might cause the sort of problems the U.S. faced after President Wilson suffered a stroke during his second term and his wife became the de facto president of the U.S.

So, God "smote" Sharon. I guess that's ok. Rev. Pat knows he can get away with saying such things as long as he uses the King James style verbs.

I really like that word "smote." God smites, but the Mafia "whacks."

Now if Rev. Pat had said that God whacked Sharon, he might be in trouble.

As long as we're quoting here, what does God actually say about the promised land and people who intend to divide it? Does he really "have emnity" sufficient to cause him to "smite" such people?

Or did he say, "Make a fortune in real estate by learning how to subdivide large properties."