Went to a lecture tonight given by Rick Santorum at Stanford. My mother-in-law invited me. So I said: “Why not?”

Last I heard about Santorum was during those days when the Christian fundamentalists we’re pushing for a Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. I remember Santorum being quoted comparing gay sex with bestiality in his arguments against gay marriage. So heading to the lecture tonight, my expectations for this particular fellow were rather low.

But he exceeded my low expectations. In fact, I was impressed by him. I mean, having served as a “hatchet” guy for the reactionaries in Congress, I was surprised to learn that, since he was booted out of the Senate in 2006, Santorum has spent his time boning up on history, and engaging his intellectual enemies. Quite admirable of him.

Made me feel even better about America than before. I mean, here was a true believer of the reactionaries. A genuine fire-breathing asshole. And yet, in person, he comes across as nothing but a passionate, well-read, harmless goober, with a certain charm. If that’s a “bad” guy in America circa 2009, then this is one great country.

Well, this is all by way of saying that, boy, this dude seems to be missing something huge. It’s like this huge thing is sitting in his blind spot. He reads, and reads, and reads. He talks, and talks, and talks. He listens, and listens, and listens. And yet this huge thing is still in his blind spot.

Why can’t he see it? I think the reason for it is his own personal fundamentalism. I suspect that that aspect of him blinds him to the most obvious things.

Let me back up. Mr. Santorum’s biggest concern is that radical fundamentalist Islamic types will get hold of one or more nuclear bombs and detonate them in our cities, and/or that of our allies. Tonight, he spoke for two hours, in great depth, about the historical antecedents of this threat.

His concern in this regard boils down to Iran, and the crazy fundamentalists who run that country. He says that these people look toward the “end of times” for the second coming of the prophet. He fears that these people want to get the bomb, to hasten the end of times, and thereby bring on the prophet. Kind of like taking Prozac to force happiness out of our brains, rather than just sitting around and waiting for happiness to come along by itself.

Well, if that’s his concern, here’s the thing. In two hours of speaking on this issue rather intelligently, he never so much as mentioned the word “Pakistan”. And that’s amazing. Because if “Islamofasicts getting the bomb” is your biggest fear, then Pakistan is your country. It’s top of the list. Here’s a few reasons why:

• unlike Iran, which is trying to get the bomb, Pakistan already has dozens of them, and has tested 7, so we know they work
• Pakistan’s “father of the bomb”, some guy named Khan, already passed the secrets of the bomb on to North Korea and Libya, and he sometimes sounds like one of those crazy Islamic fundamentalists
• the ISI (Pakistani intelligence), who have some role in safe-keeping the Pakistani bombs, have funded Islamic fundamentalist groups, including Al Qaeda, including on 9/11 (ISI wired funds to Mohammed Ata shortly before 9/11)
• when we chased Bin Laden, Zawahiri and their fellow travelers out of Afghanistan, to where did they flee? Pakistan, baby!
• when we routed the Taliban from Afghanistan and installed Karsai in Kandahar, to where did the Taliban flee to lick its wounds and re-group? Pakistan, baby!
• when Benazir Bhutto was getting ready to take over from Musharaf as Pakistani premier, who wacked her? The Islamic fundamentalist wackos from Pakistan, baby!
• when Mumbai exploded in a brazen attack recently, who did it? The Islamic fundamentalist wackos from Pakistan, baby!

It goes on, and on, and on. All you need to do is look at Pakistan. And if the bomb makes you nervous, then Pakistan keeps you up at night.

Yet Rick Santorum stood up at a lectern tonight, “teaching” the audience about the history of Islam, and how that history led up to the dangers of present-day Iran, and its pursuit of the bomb.

Why, in two hours, did he not so much as even mention Pakistan? I think the reason is because he’s blind. He’s a Christian fundamentalist. He is horrified by the Islamic fundamentalists because they look just like him, only different. I mean, Santorum went on about how wacky it is that the Islamic fundamentalist believes that God (Allah) wrote the Koran, in Arabic, through Muhammad’s right hand.

He only hinted at his own similarly wacky belief: Namely, that while God didn’t actually write the Bible word-for-word, He did “inspire” John and Luke and Mark, et al, to write it. The point is, that just like the wacky Islamic fundamentalist believes that the Koran is the Word of God, wacky Christian fundamentalists like Santorum believe that the Bible is the Word of God.

Now if you’re someone like me who believes that “God” is just short hand for people throwing up their hands saying “I have no clue!”, both fundamentalists look very similar to me, thus similarly wacky.

IMHO, it is precisely because Santorum is so much like the very people he fears most that he has a blind spot for the greatest danger. This is what fear does to the human brain. It closes off part of the visual field, so we miss some stuff. Usually, the it’s biggest stuff right in front of our noses.

Like, for Rick Santorum, Pakistan.