April 18, 2010 archive

Docudharma Times Sunday April 18




Sunday’s Headlines:

Iraq’s Maliki makes case for holding on to post

Marking the day 40 years ago when the green revolution began

USA

W.Va. mine disaster calls attention to revolving door between industry, government

Is Homeland Security Wary About Reporting on Right-Wing Extremists?

Europe

Warning that air travel chaos will continue as eruption intensifies

‘Saviour of Santo Stefano’: One man’s crusade to save southern Italy’s ancient villages

Middle East

Israel warns Syria over Hezbollah attacks

10 Years After a Mea Culpa, No Hint of a ‘Me, Too’

Asia

Tension rises in Kandahar ahead of Nato summer offensive

Hello, children – I’m your 12-year-old headmistress

Africa

Welcome to your World Cup HQ, Mr Capello. It may not be ready on time

Zimbabwe’s 30th birthday: how did Robert Mugabe turn hope into misery?

Latin America

Ecuadorean threat to oil giants

Late Night Karaoke

Open Thread

The New Dr. Who is FABULOUS! 20200417 With Poll!

I have been watching the season premier of Dr. Who, and Smith is brilliant in the role.  He has the energy of Tom Baker, and the passion for the role.  Not as snappy of a dresser, but that is OK.

I have fallen in love with Amy, his new companion.  She is just dishonest enough to be extremely resourceful.  She is played by the hauntingly beautiful Karen Sheila Gillam, just 22 years of age.

How To Start A Movement In 3 Minutes And Be The Next Messiah

Tormented by corruption? Feeling Overwhelmed? Depressed? Frustrated? Fed up to f’ing here with the state of the world?  Bedeviled with angst?

Have a great idea? The best idea ever hatched in a human mind in all of recorded history? You’ve been to the mountaintop and he spoke to you and only you, man?

Are you the one the world has been waiting for all these millenia?

Are you Morpheus, man? Have you got THE ANSWER? The WAY?

The ONE TRUE PATH to world peace and justice for all but you’ve also had it up to f’ing here with all the morans in the world who are simply far too thick and obtuse to know what’s good for them and to comprehend your unique brand of genius and won’t get off their fat lazy asses and follow you?

Do you have a movement you’d like to start that you know in your heart will sweep the world like a planet scouring tsunami brushing all in it’s path aside if only you could find your first follower?

Here’s your one chance for a free lesson in becoming the next messiah. Grab this incredible opportunity while it’s hot. It may never present itself to you again.

Boots outside the box

There are moments I keep going back to.  One is the run-up to Bush’s invasion of Iraq.  The demonstrations were incredible, propelled at electronic velocity through the internet and into the streets around the world.  Per Wikipedia:

“According to the French academic Dominique ReyniĆ©, between January 3 and April 12, 2003, 36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 protests against the Iraq war.”

And where are the snows of yesteryear?  Same place as the demonstrations.

From time to time, I’ve talked about the “we,” and the question of how the blogosphere can be transformed — or not transformed — into so-called boots on the ground.  I’ve answered the question, how do WE stop fascism, with, first we have to develop the we.  When bold proclamators expound that WE must do this, WE must do that, WE must bend the politicians and their running dog lackeys to our progressive will, I’ve responded with, “Who is the WE?”

But I suspect that there’s some smart-ass out there saying, hey, you keep asking the same damn question, how about YOU giving us an answer?  No, I’m not now announcing that I’ve come up with the answer to who is WE.  Would that I were.  But I do want to give it a bit of a rassle.  See where it goes.

Thrangu Monastery Lament

Photobucket

Earth shakes in grief,

Water floods in tears

Air rises, too high

Fire bows down in blue sorrow

Space holds all in grace

Thrangu Monastery!

In famous province

of Tibet, in Kham

In Kahm of great fame

Where minds were made

to fly like gorgeous birds

without boundaries,

in stainless space!

Thrangu Monastery!

I have never seen you

or walked your halls

where the students and teachers

look simple and not

civilized in the Western view,

just wearing funny robes

and calling themselves

monks and lamas

sounds like a farm.

Thrangu Monastery!

How many have sat

and taken in the blessings

of the treasures,

endless phenomena of

offerings with

artistic expression

the least of their beauty!

Thrangu Monastery!

I bow in grief and reverence

To your sorrow, may all

who are wounded be completely healed,

May all who have died be liberated,

May all who are bereft receive

Unlimited compassion.

I wrote this poem

At the request

of my

flowing tears.

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Burqa bombers kill 41 at Pakistan camp

by Lehaz Ali, AFP

Sat Apr 17, 10:24 am ET

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – Two suicide bombers dressed in burqas struck a crowd of displaced people collecting aid handouts, killing at least 41 and wounding more than 60 on Saturday at a camp in northwest Pakistan.

The bombers struck minutes apart in the Kacha Pukha camp on the outskirts of the garrison city of Kohat, a registration centre for people fleeing Taliban violence and Pakistani army operations close to the Afghan border.

The attacks underscored the grave threat posed by extremists despite stepped-up Pakistani offensives and a significant increase in US drone attacks targeting Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked commanders in the nearby tribal belt.

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