Pat Robertson in a Yarmulke

The bird flu outbreak in southern Israel is God's punishment for the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank disengagement, National Jewish Front Chairman Baruch Marzel says.

"You were punished by God and now you'll have to ask for the forgiveness of Gush Katif residents," Marzel wrote in a letter to southern residents whose communities were affected by bird flu.

You know, I don't mean to be a wet blanket, but all these guys saying, "This is God's punishment for that" have got me thinking about how they undersell God. When one looks at God's judgments in the past, there's one thing that stands out: none of them could ever be confused with anything else. If 1500 naked Venezuelans were torched by fire from the sky, then you might be able to make the case that God felt compelled to get involved.

Sodom, Noah's flood, hundred-pound hailstones falling on fleeing armies... when the wrath of God is revealed in natural events, it's usually quite a spectacle - you know, like in Ghostbusters:

Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies. Rivers and seas boiling.

Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness. Earthquakes, volcanoes...

Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave.

Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria.

All this talk about the wrath of God taking the form of chickens with runny noses... I just don't see it.