Thursday, May 27, 2004

The Hate America Crowd To the list of lefty-communist partisans (e.g. Paul O'Neill, Richard Clarke, Joseph Wilson, Kevin Phillips, and John Dean) who hate our president, we may now add Tom Clancy. Not even Richard Perle believes anymore. Why does he want to give aid and comfort to the terrorists? [Links via Cursor.] 12:37:17 PM    comment [] Is Bush the Anti-Buddha? Allan Hunt Badiner, writing for AlterNet, argues yes: When George W. Bush mouths the word "compassion" chills dart up my spine. Anyone paying attention can easily see how the actions of the Bush regime reflect a distinct lack of empathy and understanding. This is an administration bent on blatant paybacks to friends and contributors at everyone else's expense. Its single truth: What is good for extractive profits is good for the country. Trees and caribou don't contribute cash so Bush's environmental policy opens majestic old growth forests for commercial logging and protected wilderness areas for domestic oil exploration. His foreign policy confuses justice with punishment, disagreement with treachery, and cultural differences with evil. He willingly risks escalating and perpetuating a continuous cycle of global violence. However, this may not be a bad thing. First -- and I have often wondered about this -- Bush may bring in his wake a great political awakening in America. This opens the possibility that the consequence of our long suffering in the realm of the Bush regime will be a complacent body politic that wakes up. The bold and unrepentant corroding of the core principles of justice, fairness and personal liberty that made this nation great, could make people feel an urgent need for a U-turn. The Bush years could be the threshold to another great society, an era of great compassion in which elected officials become representatives of the people again and restore the environment, reinvigorate social programs, and bring fairness and integrity back to government. Second, we may use Bush to refocus ourselves and turn the nation to a new era of Wisdom, Compassion and Peace: Bush may be the closest we can come to an anti-Buddha: a global poster-boy for profound ignorance. We can use him in our visualizations. We can breath in his confusion and breath out to him our clarity. We can also get out on the campaign trail for candidates who more closely represent that first precept: Do no harm. Sit and breathe contemplating this and see if you feel called to volunteer on voter-registration drives. [snip] Now my visualizations are of bearing witness to a panoply of devas and gods, the Boddhisatva Avalokitesvara, and countless rows of Buddha's and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time sitting in the clouds and celebrating Bush's retirement from the Oval Office and his safe return to Crawford, Texas. Then I close with two healing mantras in rapid succession: "May all beings be happy and free from suffering -- even Bush" "May all beings be happy -- and freed from Bush." I'll have to try that. [Thanks to CH.] 12:16:49 PM    comment []

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