An Impossible Job
posted by CS | 4:02 PM 
That is Pat Robertson's spokesperson.
Robertson said that he had personally prayed about a year ago with Sharon, whom he called “a very tender-hearted man and a good friend." He said he was sad to see Sharon in this condition.Smart girl, that Angell. Smarter still if she looks for another job. Poor Angell has been through this many times before.
Robertson also said that in the Bible, the prophet Joel “makes it very clear that God has enmity against those who ‘divide my land.’”
“God considers this land to be his,” Robertson said. “You read the Bible and he says ‘this is my land’, and for any prime minister of Israel who decides he is going to carve it up and give it away, God says ‘no’, this is mine.”
Robertson spokeswoman Angell Watts did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.
"Rev. Robertson’s remarks, as reported to me, are deeply troubling. The thrust of his remarks is that Prime Minister Sharon’s life-threatening illness is a punishment for the disengagement from Gaza. No person can know God's reasons for human illnesses or calamities," a statement issued by Weinreb said.I have to concur with Weinreb. Robertson is a one-man televised wrecking ball, laying waste to the efforts of many to bring the mere Gospel of Jesus Christ to the receptive. He has done good work. His ill-reasoned diatribes in recent years indicate that in his current role as an assumed spokesperson for evangelical Christians, he is a severe liability. I'd suggest he quietly remove himself from the public eye and ask God where his talents and gifts might best be used.
6 Comments:
Solozso: Tu Padre, Penza Fantastic!
Michael Corleone: Es . . . Staccosi.
protag - i generally can decipher your pithy commentary, but i'm at a loss this time. babelfish can't make heads or (fish)tails of it.
Of course, it's from The Godfather, Part I, the scene where Michael Corleone and Virgil Solozzo are in the restaurant talking in Italian.
I think the conversation goes something like: "Your father, he's lost his mind!", then Michael in deadpan fashion says "He's old fashioned" or "He's stubborn".
The conversation from the movie was literally unscripted. The official Godfather script says only "fast paced Italian." I couldn't find any internet effort to translate the conversation from Italian. I'm not an Italian expert by any means, so I'm open to correction.
Protag - my friend Scott may be able to translate. He's spent several months in Sicily as part of his research. I'll ask.
from Scott, via e-mail:
Your associate gives a a pretty good translation, I guess. I might say more along the lines..."Your father, he thinks in a world of his own".... [reply] "He is disconnected" (a secondary use of the verb --staccare-- is to disconnect); here in the sense of "disconnected from the way things have come to be." So, "old-fashioned" will indeed work, I suppose; but, of course, one can be old-fashioned without being disconnected in the sense given here.
again from Scott via e-mail:
I popped in a DVD of The Godfather to try to confirm the conversation in question (yes, I've been sucked in to this mystery), and your associate has misunderstood the words spoken here; and so my original assessment (based on the Sicilian words on the site you forwarded) is clearly wrong.
The exchange in question between Solozzo and Michael goes something like this:
S: "Your father, he thinks in an old-fashioned way" (the operative word here is "antica", NOT "fantastica")
M: "Yes, I understand these things" (this is NOT "es Staccosi", but a Sicilian contraction, I think, of "questi cosi"--Michael's jaw, you'll remember, is broken, and this part is not so clear)
Feel free to post this response, with the understanding that it is not authoritative.
Post a Comment
<< Home