Yes.
"Is Paul Craig Roberts insane."
I think he has some serious mental issues. Let's look at the facts:
1. Back in the eighties, he was a well-regarded economist, government official, and journalist.
2. In the nineties, he wrote some truly brilliant stuff, but already, he was lobbing off-the-wall accusations.
3. In the last few years, he has been blaming the Israeli government for everything. He has no evidence for his claims. He sounds like a classic paranoiac.
4. Twice in the last year, he has gone six weeks without writing a column. On other occasions, he has put out four columns in a week. This past week, he's already written four columns for Antiwar.com. When he puts out a lot of columns in a week, he sounds the most unhinged.
5. He never makes public appearances anymore.
I'm no psychiatrist, but I think Roberts is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. According to Healthsquare.com, here are the symptoms, followed by my comments:
-Confusion (hard to say)
-Inability to make decisions (doesn't write books anymore, and he used to be a pretty prolific writer.)
-Hallucinations (been claiming to know for sure that the U.S. was going to set off a nuclear bomb and blame it on terrorists)
-Changes in eating or sleeping habits, energy level, or weight (could explain the long periods without writing a column)
-Delusions (See hallucinations)
-Nervousness (Hard to say)
-Strange statements or behavior (Absolutely--read a bunch of his columns)
-Withdrawal from friends, work, or school (no longer makes personal appearances. Other columnists don't ever mention seeing or talking with him.)
-Neglect of personal hygiene (don't know)
-Anger (extreme)
-Indifference to the opinions of others (he dismisses most other opinions in his column)
-A tendency to argue (extreme)
-A conviction that you are better than others, or that people are out to get you (he displays both, big time)
I hope he gets help. He was a great man once, and he was the man who wrote the Kemp-Roth bill that saved the U.S. economy.