Shalom Chaim,
I am sorry for the long question but I think it's an interesting one. You are probably familiar with the chess champion Bobby Fischer. He is considered by most people to be the greatest chess player of all time, and was by all rights a true genius. Fischer was Jewish. But over the years, for reasons that were never understood, he became an anti-Semite. I don't mean like the "self-hating Jew" ACLU type anti-semites who say they're Jews but pursue policies that hurt their own people. I mean Fischer was like a true Nazi anti-semite. He completely denied being Jewish, even though he was undeniably a Jew by birth, and he publicly condemned the Jewish people as evil, filthy, and communist, and accused them of controlling America. He held firmly to these beliefs to his dying breath (last year.) Some who knew him have claimed that Fischer was, in fact, mentally ill and schizophrenic, and that this was the cause of his beliefs. My question is, if this were the case, would he be free of blame for what he has said, since it was the result of mental illness? Would G-d forgive him? At what point does mental illness override someone's genuine will? It is well known that there are mental illnesses which cause people to develop bizarre, paranoid and delusional beliefs, and in these cases, are people truly responsible for what they do or say? Is this all actually a lesson from G-d to teach us some kind of moral?
By the way I heard your interview with G. Gordon Liddy. Excellent job. Liddy might be the only talk show host who is a good person. Not only is he smart but he is rational, thoughtful, classy, and never loses his cool. I wish there were more conservatives like him, and not the obnoxious O'Reilly and Hannity types who just yell and blow hot air.