Pres. Obama moves for WAR on Iraq (video)

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; DemocracyNow.org

I don't care about 4.5 thousand patriot GIs, what do I care about 1.4 million civilians? (DK)

OO-RAH, woo-hoo, yes! We get to go back to kill a new generation of kids and Hajjis!

Not so fast, NY Times, propagand of record. It's not over till it's over. And it ain't over.

.

We Meant Well in Iraq (look inside)

WASHINGTON DC (WQ/AP/FOX/LIP) President Barack S. Obama says the U.S. is prepared to take targeted military actions [more "smart" bombs, "precision" bombing runs, and "surgical" strikes?] in Iraq if they would help fight a growing threat from extremist militants. He also says the U.S. is ready to send as many as 300 military "advisers" [a euphemism for special forces soldier] to Iraq.

Obama is offering an update to U.S. operations in Iraq, where "al-Qaeda-inspired" militants have sparked instability. He says the United States is forming joint operations centers in Baghdad and northern Iraq.

But Obama emphasizes that American combat troops would not be returning to Iraq [unless they do, which will be decided later].

See how they love me in Orange County? I'm The Decider now. Forget Dick Cheney!

 

Obama says the U.S. has increased its intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance [spying and exploiting of assets, and war-as-usual] operations in Iraq to better understand the threats to Baghdad. [Having traded blood for oil, we have more blood to trade so we have to protect the refineries innocent people of Iraq.]


Extended: see Minute 1:40 when Megyn Kelly begins her surprise attack on the former VP

Megyn cannibalizes Right Dick

(Occupy Democrats) Dick Cheney was blamed for the CURRENT crisis in Iraq on the rightwing haven FOX News of all places. During an interview with mouthpiece Megyn "Reagan" Kelly (The Kelly File) where Dick attempted to pin the blame on his relative Pres. Obama.
 

Shoot me in the face, Meg?

Cheney attempted to absolve the previous three Bush administrations of any responsibility for Iraq's disarray saying that they went into the country for good reasons, which we turned out to be deliberate lies used as pretexts for imperial invasions and US war crimes. Dick claims the results were "positive." Lip News looks at Cheney's deflection in this Lip clip with Mark Sovel and Lissette Padilla. See Megyn Kelly's full interview with the Cheneys.

 .

A Buddhist in Congress tries to stop this War

Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez (DemocracyNow.org); Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

I will say anything to get elected and reelected. But I do what the MIC directs me to.

.

That was wishful thinking by the NYT

Buddhist Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (Democrat, Hawaii) on Thursday said that she will stop President Obama, who unilaterally announced the deployment of up to 300 military "advisers" [that's what we called boots on the ground in our war on Vietnam] to Iraq.
 
He is using expanded executive war powers applicable to Iraq and Afghanistan (AUMF) invented using the 9/11 pretext and Patriot Act, which means he can make initial moves without declaring war or asking Congress for permission before sinking the country in yet another war. (Of course, we never left Iraq, and we have no plans to leave Afghanistan; all we are going to do is change the name of "soldiers" to "advisors," "contractors," "experts," and "investors."
 

What Bush/Cheney started Obama intensifies.

The president, face, and mouthpiece for the MIC (military-industrial complex) left open the possibility of U.S. airstrikes against Sunni Muslim "militants" who are said to have taken back large parts of their country. Democracy Now! goes to Capitol Hill to speak to Democratic Buddhist Rep. Colleen Hanabusa of Hawaii, who successfully introduced an amendment that passed by UNANIMOUS consent this week to prevent the deployment of U.S. troops to Iraq without congressional approval. More

Thanks to whistleblower Pfc. Chelsea Bradley Manning we now have no doubt about the truth: The preemptive Iraq War, the illegal invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, the "Global War on Fear (Terror)," and the NSA's massive spying ring were all founded on lies.

"The Untold History of the U.S." (video)"

Pfc. Sandoval, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; Oliver Stone, Showtime, RT.com

(Episode 3: "The Bomb") "The Untold History of the United States"

Narrated by Oliver Stone, this series of one-hour episodes features human events that at the time went un- or under- reported, yet they crucially shaped the United States' unique and complex history of, what Dr. Martin Luther King was to call, "The greatest purveyor of violence in the world," namely the United States. In a recent poll more than 60% of people worldwide view the USA as the greatest source of terrorism and violence. Might the CIA be responsible for this reputation, or are the Obama, Bush-Cheney, and Nixon administrations largely responsible for it?

(RT/MOX News) "I've always regarded the CIA as a 

criminal organization" - Oliver Stone

• Pacifica Free Speech Radio: Oliver Stone Pack (book, DVD)
  
• VIDEO: I think it's embarrassing" - WikiLeaks' Julian Assange responds to Obama's big NSA Reforms speech

Afghan landslides kill 2,100 (video)

Wisdom Quarterly; Reuters; AP; Hashmat Kaktash, Shashank Bengali (latimes.com)

 

Landslides bury thousands (Ahmad Zubair/AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan - Hundreds of people are dead or missing after landslides in remote northeastern Afghanistan buried a village under as much as 60 feet of mud and rocks, officials said Friday.

 

The United Nations said at least 350 people had been killed in Badakhshan, a rugged province between Tajikistan and Pakistan [formerly Gandhara, India]. Shah Waliullah Adeeb, the provincial governor, said about 2,500 people were trapped under the landslides, which occurred Friday afternoon after several days of heavy rain.

Afghan Greco Indian (Gandhara) Buddhas

It was one of the worst natural disasters in recent memory in Afghanistan, where spring rainfall and snowmelt make the mountainous northeast susceptible to flash floods and mudslides. U.N. officials said more Afghans had been killed in natural disasters in the last seven days than in all of 2013.

 

Say no to war (codepink.org)

A search-and-rescue effort was underway and eight people had been found, according to Afghan news agencies. Afghan soldiers and police who reached the village were hampered by the scale of the landslides, Adeeb said.

 

World's greatest Buddhist temple site

"We found that it's impossible to rescue those people even...with machinery. They are covered in about 20 meters of dirt," he said in a telephone interview.

 

The first landslide crushed about 300 homes, he said, and when several hundred people arrived to try to rescue those buried, they were hit by a second slide.

 

President Obama said the United States was ready to assist with the rescue effort [presumably by signing secret executive orders to send in swarms of deadly armed drones to euthanize Afghans during rescue efforts, thereby putting them out of our misery and allowing JSOC to continue our U.S. war of aggression and occupation]. More

New botanic garden celebrates native conifers, plants  

Condoleezza Rice backs out of graduation speech amid protests

War? Landslide? Who cares? We're rich.

Bush Administration unindicted co-conspirator and war criminal Condi Rice's choice not to speak at Rutgers Univ. makes her just the latest public figure embroiled in a commencement spat.

Commencement fiasco, Black will speak at Pasadena college

 

The reality of life in Afghanistan after illegal US invasion and occupation (RAWA.org)

The Most Evil Man in the World

Wisdom Quarterly; PerezHilton.com

You leave my reptile alone! He's a good boy!

What do these men have in common? God-Kings? Retiring from political life to lead a more spiritual existence? No, they were painted by an infantilized madman. And that man, we maintain, is the very face of evil. He's no mover or shaker, no architect of his own rise, no brilliant tactician or orator -- but instead the mouthpiece of a thousand points of light, the New World Order's answer to the gramophone, a Hitler to Rove's Goebbels. You know who.

The First Precept: abstain from killing (sutra)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Abbot Thanissaro, Metta Forest Monastery, San Diego, California, "Getting the Message" from Purity of Heart

Man viciously attacked by bull after lightly taunting the animal and gently inserting knives into its back while attempting to slaughter him for the crowd's blood lust and amusement (Gustavo Cuevas/i.cdn.turner.com)

 

You'd kill her, but would you -- y'know -- her?

"What is unskillful (unwholesome, karmically unprofitable)?

1. Taking life (killing) is unskillful,
2. taking what is not given... 
3. sexual misconduct... 
4. perjury...
5. abusive speech...
6. divisiveness... 
7. idle chatter is unskillful. 
8. Greed... 
9. ill will... 
10. wrong view is unskillful.

"These (ten) things are unskillful... What is skillful (wholesome, karmically profitable)? Refraining

1. from taking life...
2. from taking what is not given...
3. from sexual misconduct...
4. from perjury...
5. from abusive speech...
6. from divisiveness...
7. from idle chatter...
8. from covetousness... 
9. from ill will... 
10. from wrong view is skillful. 

"These things are skillful." — MN 9

• AUDIO: "I want to kill!" (This American Life)

The result of our cruelty rarely comes so quickly.

Killing is NEVER skillful. Stealing... holding a wrong view is never skillful. When asked if there were any killing he approved of, the Buddha answered that there was only one: anger.

[That is to say, one should destroy the root motivation, the underlying intention -- which is aversion -- to harm or destroy living beings.]

 

In no recorded instance did the Buddha approve of killing any living being. Once when a Buddhist monk went to an executioner and told the man to kill his victims compassionately -- that is, with one blow, rather than torturing them by multiple strikes -- the Buddha expelled that monk from the Order (Sangha) on the grounds that even the recommendation to kill compassionately is nevertheless a recommendation to kill -- something this Dharma never condones.

• [Similarly, according to the monastic rules (vinaya), if one eats meat from an animal one sees, hears, or so much as suspects was killed for one's benefit, or to make an offering to one, is a violation on the grounds that it is tacit approval of killing. Moreover, if one recommends or speaks in praise of abortion or suicide or euthanasia, and life is taken as a result, one is guilty of killing and expelled from the Order. Why? Killing is weighty karma, very bad karma, and the Buddha went to great lengths to make this known. In ancient India he was known as a karma-vadin, a teacher of the consequences of physical, verbal, and mental action.]

Kill. Kill. Kill. And make us rich (BBC).

If a monastic were ever physically attacked, the Buddha allowed for that person to strike back in self-defense, but never with the intention of killing an assailant. 

 

As the Buddha taught monastics, "Even if highway robbers were to dismember one savagely, limb by limb, with a two-handled saw, anyone who would allow one's heart to become hateful and angry on account of it would not be following my Teaching. Even then one should train oneself: 

Even reviled dictator could act kindly (iln).

"'Our minds will not be affected, and we will not give vent to hateful words. Instead, we will remain sympathetic, with a mind/heart full of compassion [perhaps for the results they will one day face for their karma], and free of hate. 

"'We will pervade even these bandits with a consciousness imbued with good will. And beginning with them we will continue to pervade the world in all quarters with a consciousness imbued with good will -- abundant, expansive, immeasurable, free from hostility, and free from ill will.' That is how one should train oneself." — ("The Parable of the Saw," MN 21)

The Parable of the Saw

Acharya Buddharakkhita (Positive Response) edited by Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha, Gandhara/Afghanistan (Boonlieng/flickr)

"Meditators, even if bandits were to savagely sever you, limb by limb, with a double-handled saw, even then, whoever harbors ill will at heart would not be upholding my Teaching. 

"Meditators, even in such a situation, train yourselves: 'Neither shall our minds be affected by this, nor for this matter shall we give vent to hateful words, but we shall remain full of concern and pity (mudita, sympathy, compassion), with a mind of love (mettā, friendliness), and we shall not give in to hatred. On the contrary, we shall live projecting thoughts (feelings) of universal love to those very persons, making them as well as the whole world the objects of our thoughts of universal love -- thoughts that have grown great, exalted, and measureless. 

"We shall dwell radiating these thoughts void of hostility and ill will.' It is in this way, meditators, that one should train oneself.

 

"Meditators, if one should keep this instruction on the Parable of the Saw constantly in mind, do you see any mode of speech, subtle or gross, that you could not endure?"

 

"No, venerable sir."

 

"Therefore, meditators, one should keep this instruction on the Parable of the Saw constantly in mind. That will conduce to the well-being and happiness of all for long indeed."

 

That is what the Blessed One said. Delighted, those meditators acclaimed the Teaching (Dharma) of the Blessed One.

• COMMENTARY: How could the Buddha say such a pie-in-the-sky thing? First, when one realizes that ultimately there is no self, no ego, nothing to cling to, it is possible to behave in a universal way. But more down to earth, this instruction follows the Buddha's advice to his disciples to endure the abusive speech of others. Why should they endure it? The Buddha says one should even endure being painfully tortured and murdered without becoming angry -- which only harms the angry one. This being the case, keeping this instruction in mind, how hard would it be to endure mere words? It would be easy, the audience responds. Therefore, keep this instruction in mind.

SEX: lessons from the man with two PENISES

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Caroline Bankoff (NY Mag)

The way to approach any subject is with a modicum of grace, aplomb, and discretion.

 

Last night, Reddit rang in 2014 with an Ask Me Anything featuring a man with two fully functioning, almost evenly sized penises. 

 

The subject, who went by the screen name DoubleDickDude and posted a couple of obligatory (and deeply NSFW) photos [BRACE YOURSELF BEFORE CLICKING] as proof, sounds as confident as you'd expect a dude with two dicks to be (very).

We luv'd screwin y'all, but this ain't about us!

And because the mostly single-dick-having population of Reddit was exactly as curious about this guy's life as you'd expect them to be (very), the questions went on for hours.

 

First, the basics: DoubleDickDude's condition is "Diphallia, [and it is] not an absorbed twin. It's not genetic or inherited." 

(Needless to say, it is very rare.) He identifies as bisexual and is currently "in a committed relationship with a man and a woman" who, he later explained, were "a couple before they mutually started dating me." More

Woman living with two vaginas


Hazel Jones, 27, has a one-in-a-million medical condition which led to her being born with two fully-formed vaginas. She is so at ease with her body that she goes to sex clubs with her husband. She told ITV1's This Morning hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield she was 18 when she was diagnosed with uterus didelphys.

Jones, of High Wycombe, Bucks, did not realize she was different until her periods started at 14. She said: "I told friends. They looked even more confused than me." She went to hospital four years later to learn the truth. She added: "I thought it was amazing."
 

Yin to yang: yonis, lingams are curious things

Jones told The Sun she and hubby Riki visited fetish clubs, explaining: "It shows how relaxed I am. My quirky condition does not make me shy or hold me back. In fact, it's something I celebrate."

"I have two holes, one to the left and one to the right," she explains. "They look like a little yin-yang symbol! The extra piece of flesh between them becomes more visible depending on how I position my body, and how turned on I am. Sometimes it's hidden by my labia. At other times, it stands proud by about a centimeter."

Her wombs "take turns" to have a period each month, and tampons didn't always work because sometimes she was inserting them into the wrong bleedin' vagina!"

The Internet Hates Women

Michel Martin (Tell Me More, NPR.org)

Porn and pop gossip aren't doing us any favors.

Anyone who posts something online runs the risk of getting negative feedback [from trolls]. But for some female writers, things are taken to an extreme level. Host Michel Martin talks with Amanda Hess about her article, "Why Women Aren't Welcome on the Internet." Writers Bridget Johnson and Mikki Kendall also discuss how they've handled the harassment and threats -- on and off line.

Amanda Hess (bio website Sex With Amanda Hess) in Pacific Standard magazine says: Women are subjected to a level of abuse that is, in fact, more pervasive and more vicious than that directed at men.

She says, in short, "We have been thinking about Internet harassment all wrong." And Amanda Hess is with us now from Southern California Public Radio (SCPR.org) in Pasadena. LISTEN (17:41)

Buddhism and Sex
Maurice O'Connell Walshe (Buddhist Publication Society)

The Buddha with knowledge and vision (Amrit Vismay/Oshodhara/flickr.com/WQ)

 
This is an age in which sexual matters are discussed with great openness. There are many who are puzzled to know what the Buddhist attitude towards sex is. And it is therefore to be hoped that the following guidelines may be found helpful towards an understanding.
 
It is, of course, true to say that Buddhism, in keeping with the principle of the Middle Way, would advocate neither extreme puritanism nor extreme permissiveness. But this, as a guiding principle without further specification, may not seem sufficiently helpful for most people.

• [NOTE: The "middle" in Middle Way is not a compromise, but seeing the deficiency in both extremes and avoiding them. This is clear when the Buddha declared that he found enlightenment after avoiding indulging in sensual extremes, which he had engaged in as a spoiled prince, and after avoiding indulging in severe austerities, which had had engaged in as a wandering ascetic searching for freedom from disappointment. See the Buddha's first sutra where he sets in motion the wheel of the Dharma by making this distinction.]

In the first place, we must distinguish between the rules undertaken by Buddhist monastics for their own conduct, and any guiding principles for ordinary lay Buddhists. More

• AUDIO: Do physical compliments have a place in politics?
• Watch out Wine Country: WEED tourism is coming!
• South Sudan violence: "The stories they tell are horrible"
• Forget tweeting polar vortex: Phone fail in sub-zero temps
• MARS-1.com

Salute to the Military (sutra)

Ashley Wells, Pfc. Sandoval, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; Right Livelihood (ATI)

(BY) In this deleted "Family Guy" scene, football hero, ill-used "patriot," and friendly-fire victim Pat Tillman is doomed by his ignorance and hatred of 9/11 and craving for revenge. It was later revealed that he was posthumously exploited by the military for propaganda purposes.

Where are my heroes after raping and killing each other and our enemies? (Invisible War)

I'll kill you, you stupid &$#@%head! - Don't, I'm injured (Johnathan Hobin/In the Playroom)

  

Want to become a soldier? Reconsider

Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson version, "Discourse to Yodhajiva the Warrior" (SN 42.3)
Yodhajiva the headman went to see the [Buddha]. Having bowed, he sat respectfully to one side. While sitting there, he said to the Blessed One: "Venerable sir, I have heard that it has been passed down by the ancient teaching lineage of warriors (the kshatriya caste) that:

(David Swanson/War is a Lie)

"'When a warrior strives and exerts in battle, if others strike him down and slay him while he is striving and exerting in battle, with the breakup of the body, after death, that warrior is reborn in the company of light beings (devas) slain in battle.'

"What does the Blessed One have to say about that?"
 
"Enough, headman! Set that aside. Do not ask this question."
 
But a second time and a third time Yodhajiva the headman asked.

"Headman, apparently I have not been able to get by saying, 'Enough, headman! Set that aside. Do not ask this question.' So I will answer directly: When a warrior strives and exerts in battle, his mind is already seized, debased, and misdirected by the thought (intention): 'May these beings be struck down, slaughtered, annihilated, utterly destroyed! May they cease to exist!'

(TM) Stewie talks to the famous WW II veteran who did as ordered and

dropped an atomic bomb on the innocent civilians of Hiroshima, Japan

"Fight War, Not Wars" (tcdailyplanet.net)

"If others strike him down and slay him while he is striving and exerting in this way in battle, with the breakup of the body, after death, he is reborn in the hell called the realm of those slain in battle.

"But if he holds such a view as this:  'When a warrior strives and exerts in battle, if others strike him down and slay him while he is striving and exerting in battle, with the breakup of the body, after death, he is reborn in the company of light beings slain in battle,' that is his wrong view (miccha ditthi, the antithesis of right view).
 

Kill and keep killing till we tell you to stop!!

"I tell you, there are two destinations for a person with wrong view. Either one is destined for hell or the animal realm."
 
When this was said, Yodhajiva the headman burst into tears and sobbed. [The Buddha then said:] "That is what I could not get by you saying, 'Enough, headman! Set that aside. Do not ask me that.'"
 

"I am not crying, venerable sir, because of what the Blessed One said, but because I have been deceived, cheated, and fooled for a long time by that ancient teaching lineage of warriors."

(The View) Gov. Jesse Ventura outs government pro-war conspiracies

Part I: America's glorious "Invisible War" - women in the barracks

"... I don't think they [US military and politicians] are very honorable people. I know they were lying.... we feel that there could have been something else that happened to Pat [Tillman] but -- I mean, we can't prove it. Every bit of evidence has been destroyed. ... Rumsfeld, Abizaid, Myers, and Brown collectively said, 'I don't know, I don't recall, I don't remember' about 82 times, and no one on that panel pressed them. No one did their research." - Pat Tillman's mother Mary on CNN's "Larry King Live." Filmmaker Michael Moore also wants the truth.

• VIDEO: The Book of Enoch (read aloud)
• Gov. Ventura tells The View: Dick and Bush did 9/11!  
• VIDEO (Weibo): Fake, fun "alien" sighting in China
• Dr. Kaku on why America is great: our "secret weapon"