Police are good except... (cartoons)

Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; PasadenaWeekly.com; LA Times; JimmyDoreComedy.com; Stephanie McMillan; SCPR

"Don't worry, folks!" Police can do whatever they are allowed to get away with (McMillan)

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CHP outlines possible charges against officer in senseless freeway beating of helpless, elderly woman

Obey me, obey me, obey me...or else!

(Frank Stoltze/SCPR) The case, which has attracted national attention, sparked angry outrage from civil rights activists who called it a clear case of excessive use of force

Ex-L.A. sheriff's deputy arrested for child pornography
Robert J. Lopez (latimes.com, Aug. 21, 2014)
Former deputy Lorne Reed [who allegedly committed sexual crimes against children while working as an L.A. sheriff's deputy] was arrested. He is accused of using the Internet to distribute child pornography.
 

Maybe he was just shopping at Amer App?

A former sheriff's deputy was arrested on suspicion of circulating child pornography, authorities said Wednesday night.

Lorne Reed, 32, was taken into custody after authorities with a multiagency task force served a search warrant Wednesday at his Santa Fe Springs home, according to the LAPD. Reed's two children were home at the time [Daddy, why are your co-workers taking you away in handcuffs?] and were turned over to the county's Department of Children and Family Services. [Daddy, why are the bad men taking us away, too?!]

Hi, Officer Friendly! - Hey, kids, wanna be in movies?

LAPD officials said an investigation was launched in April after Reed was suspected of using the Internet to share child pornography. The task force includes local police and federal agents who investigate allegations against people who use the Internet to contact children or share child porn.
 
Officer Reed [was likely asked and agreed to resign] from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in February 2013, an agency spokeswoman said. But she had no additional details [or at least none that she wanted to disclose] regarding the resignation. Reed was being held in lieu of $20,000 at the LAPD's Metro Jail Division. More

Riots in Ferguson as distrust of police grows
André Coleman (Breaking Points, Pasadena Weekly, 8/21/14); edited by Wisdom Quarterly

As "rioting" continued for a second week in Ferguson, Missouri, and a recent ACLU report released two weeks ago is making the militarization of police a national concern, the mother of an unarmed black teenager who was murdered by Pasadena police criticized the arms buildup. And she is calling for an end to the targeting of blacks and Latinos by law enforcement agencies.

In Ferguson, located about 12 miles northwest of St. Louis, demonstrations broke out on Aug. 10 after six-year veteran police Officer Darren Wilson shot unarmed Michael Brown, 18. According to a witness, Brown had his hands in the air when he was [executed] by Wilson.

Strange Fruit in Ferguson, Missouri (thenation.com)

(telesurtv.net/english) - For many politicians, Ferguson isn't happening (thenation.com)

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According to famed forensic pathologist Michael Baden, who was working for Brown family to try to get an objective autopsy [untainted by a police cover up, which he was kept from completing because he was DENIED clothing to analyze and tissue samples for independent forensic tests], the teenager was shot six times -- twice in the head and four times in the arm [possibly in a surrendering or self-defensive posture], with one of those shots entering the top his skull. The Justice Department is planning to conduct a third autopsy on the youth. More
 

South Pasadena shooting plot: Students "wanted to kill as many people as possible"

[But because they're white and affluent, we'll try to let them off on significantly lesser charges; the poor scamps have been through enough already!]

(SCPR/AP) Police said Tuesday that two teenage students, one 17 and one 16, “confirmed very cold-heartedly in the investigation” that they were planning a shooting at the school.

• Mike Brown: Clashes in Ferguson as Nat'l Guard arrives
• L.A. to pay $5M to family of man killed by police downtown
• U.S. police [claim to] come under gunfire, arrest 31 in Missouri racial unrest
• Reporter’s death galvanizes anger, little action

• Wildfire near Yosemite threatens 500 structures
• VIDEO: Man shot to death by police in St. Louis
• 8 homes destroyed, 1,500 threatened by wildfire

Soren "Wildfire Weenies." Only someone else can prevent forest fires (JenSorensen.com)

• PHOTOS: [Due to the mass killing of sharks -- 100 million a year -- for shark fin soup and other shortsighted endeavors] Blue jellyfish are washing up on beaches by the billions

A Voice From Within

Carl Kozlowski (Arts, Pasadena Weekly, 8/21/14)

(jimmydorecomedy.com)

Comedian, Pacifica Radio host, [our friend], and Pasadena-based author Jimmy Dore uses humor to inspire people to activism. (He came to tell jokes at Occupy L.A. and for U.S. soldiers abroad).

 

There are lots of things about this country that annoy comedian Jimmy Dore.

One is how fat cats always get richer and pay fewer taxes while leaving regular folks holding the bag. Another is how the government pleads poverty when the time comes to repair America’s infrastructure, yet can bail out Wall Street bankers to the tune of $2 billion a week.

But most of Dore’s contempt is for the media. While he is best known as a nationally headlining club comedian with two acclaimed Comedy Central specials, Dore has earned the right to criticize the media because he is now part of it.

As the host of “The Jimmy Dore Show” each week on KPFK 90.7 FM and Pacifica radio stations nationwide, and as a member of the highly popular Web-based political commentary series “The Young Turks,” Dore has shown that he has a freewheeling political instinct that owes loyalty to nothing but the truth.

He’s now collected his views into a bitingly funny book called Your Country Is Just Not That Into You, which the Pasadena resident will discuss and sign at 7:00 pm next Thursday at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena. 

“The media used to be the watchdogs, but they’ve been bought by the people they’re supposed to be investigating,” says Dore.

“NBC didn’t give you the facts about Iraq because they’re owned by defense contractors. You’ll never get the truth, just false equivalency, saying there are two sides to every story like global warming [or Israel's oppression of the remaining civilian ghettos of "Palestine" painted as a fight between two roughly equal professional militaries]. I say there are not two sides to the truth. Don’t give us talking points. Give us the truth.” More

"Science Friday" coming live to Pasadena

CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; ScienceFriday.com; KPCC 89.3 FM (scpr.org)

KPCC FM presents Science Friday LIVE in Pasadena at Caltech's Beckman Auditorium!

 

KPCC presents Science Friday LIVE: Science of the Silver Screen

Join host Science Friday host Ira Flatow and KPCC FM's own Sanden Totten as Science Friday comes to Caltech's Beckman Auditorium this summer for a thought-provoking evening of science news and entertainment in front of a live audience.

 

A veteran NPR science correspondent and award-winning journalist, Flatow will discuss current science topics with local experts and welcome audience questions. The entire show will be taped for a subsequent national broadcast.

 

Science Friday is a trusted source for science news with an entertaining flair. Started as a radio show by host and executive producer Ira Flatow, Science Friday now also produces award-winning digital videos and original Web content covering everything from octopus camouflage to cooking on Mars. He (and Flora Lichtman) call it “brain fun” for curious people. More

Host Ira Flatow loves the weird (and Flora)

Science Friday is broadcast locally in Los Angeles and Orange County on KPCC (89.3 FM), Fridays from 9:00-11:00 pm.
 

This will be a 90-minute program with no intermission. Purchase tickets here or by contacting the Box Office directly at (626) 395-4652, M-F, 9:00 am-4:00 pm. 

• Wednesday, Aug. 27, 7:30-9:00 pm
• Beckman Auditorium
• Caltech (California Institute of Technology) 
• 332 S. Michigan Ave., Pasadena, CA 91125

Desktop Diaries: Prof. Tim White This office is not short on artifacts.

Engineering in Service of a Dark Art A biologist takes shadow puppetry to the next level.

DIY Summer Hacks, From the Pool to the Grill Try your hand at homemade sunscreen, water bottle rockets, and “cooler corn.”

Desktop Diaries: Jill Tarter “People have described my office as an eight-year-old’s daydream,” says SETI scientist Jill Tarter.

Living Large in 140 Square Feet Chris Tack made seven unloading trips to Goodwill before moving into the tiny home he and his wife Malissa designed and built.

Coffee’s Natural Creamer What’s that frothy stuff that sits on top of an espresso?

Rolling Out Bamboo Bicycles Valid Cycles makes handcrafted bamboo bikes in Woodinville, Washington.

Comet Shines Light on Sun Dynamics

Comet Lovejoy grazed the sun’s corona and lived to tell the tale. Its tail movements were the most telling. More

VAS: Buddhist "Rains Retreat" period begins

Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Abbot Dhammarama, Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara LENT/VAS 2014

How shall I spend the rainy season, hopping around or meditating? (onebigphoto.com)

On Sunday, July 13, 2014 from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm, the Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara (LABV) temple will celebrate the commencement of the Rains Retreat period, often called "Buddhist Lent."

It is a period of intensive practice for monastics and a time when lay practitioners visit temples, monasteries, and pagodas to hear the Dharma (Teachings), engage in devotional activities, meditate, and establish their ties with monastics.

LABV will have weekly Dharma talks open to all on Sundays followed by Sri Lankan island cuisine. Many visiting monastics will deliver sermons, hold question and answer sessions, and be available to clarify points of controversy and uncertainty regarding the Buddha's teachings.
 

Sunday is the Super Moon of the ancient month of Asala. The lunar observance for those dressed in white includes an all-day virtue (sila) program where visitors are invited to observe the Eight Precepts for the day according to ancient Indian tradition from at least the time of the Buddha.

Rains Retreat

According to the ancient Theravada Buddhist tradition, the Asalha Full Moon Day marks the beginning of the Vas (Vassana) Season. Supporters of the Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara will formally invite the resident monastics to observe Rains Retreat at 5:00 pm. Those observing the Eight Precepts earlier in the day are also invited to attend this auspicious and meritorious event.

There will be an opportunity to listen to the Dharma and practice meditation to enhance every practitioner's direct knowledge of the  Dharma and develop inner peace during the three months of this season. Weekly programs during this period will be:

• Dharma sermons,
• Sutra discussions,
• Meditation practice,
• Bodhi devotional ceremonies,
• Atavisi Buddha puja and more

Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara

920 N. Summit Ave., Pasadena. CA 91103

(626) 797-6144

But why?
Wisdom Quarterly wiki edit

Buddhist monks traversing Pongua Waterfalls in Vietnam (sun-surfer.com)

 
The three-lunar-month annual retreat observed by Theravada practitioners during the Indian rainy season is called Vassa between July and October. In English, it is often glossed as Rains Retreat or Buddhist Lent, the latter by analogy to the Catholic/Christian Lent (which Buddhism predates by at least five centuries). For the duration of monastics reside at one monastery rather than traveling around. In some monasteries, they dedicate this time to teaching the Dharma or to intensive meditation. Some lay Buddhists choose to observe the period by adopting more ascetic practices, such as giving up alcohol, meat, and smoking if they are already engaged in these harmful activities. It may casually be called "Buddhist Lent," others object to this terminology. It is, after all, more of an obligation for monastics than lay Buddhists. How long someone has been a monk or nun is actually calculated not by calendar years but by how many Rains Retreats one has successfully observed. Most Mahayana Buddhists do not observe it, though many Seon/Thien monastics in Korea and Vietnam observe an equivalent retreat of three months of intensive practice in one location, and in Tibetan Buddhism this period of intensive retreat is called Yarne.

Buddhism arrives in Sri Lanka! (Poson)

Bhante, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; SundayObserver.lk

While the ruler was hunting, Buddhism arrived in Sri Lanka with enlightened brother and sister missionaries, Mahinda and Sanghamitta, scions of India's Buddhist Emperor Asoka (sundayobserver.lk)

 

The full moon (poornima) Buddhist observance day (uposatha) is being celebrated in Pasadena today at the Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara under the brilliant "honey" moon.

Long ago the island of Sri Lanka -- Ceylon and Serendib -- was disputed territory, a Yakkha Kingdom, with frequent incursions by Hindu kings and the Tamil nation just miles away across the straits in India.
 

The Great Epic mentions the exploits of Rama and Sita being spirited away to its pleasant shores. Eventually Buddhist kings arose who settled the island claiming it for their own. More

• Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara
• 920 N. Summit Ave., Pasadena 91103

Vedda people, indigenous jungle aboriginals still hunting in Sri Lanka (lanka-holidays.com)

 
(W) According to the Mahavamsa, the "Great Chronicle," Prince Vijaya encountered the royalty of the Yakkhas. Great King Kalasena and Queen Gonda on the celebration of the marriage of their daughter, Princess Polamitta, in the Yakkha capital of Lankapura, conquered and subjugated them. Lankapura may have been in Arithra or Vijithapura (a fortress-city in ancient Sri Lanka). The Yakkhas thereafter served as loyal subjects with the Vijiyan Dynasty, and the Yakkha chieftain sat at an equal height to the Sri Lankan leaders on festival days. Today Yakkha refers to a vanishing and rarely seen aboriginal people dwelling in the jungle. See History of Sri Lanka
 

An island at war is no place for Dharma

(This history is disputed, and the longest civil war in Asia was fought over it, or in any case used as the pretext for a conflict that profited a few political and military leaders in spite of the fact that it killed so many and impoverished even more islanders. Tamil Hindu separatists were saying, "We've been here all along" or even "We were here first." And the Sinhalese Buddhist majority, many of them nationalists, said: "This is a Buddhist land with no room for separatists!" There would have been no need for a dispute had the majority not so poorly treated the large ethnic minority, pushing it to seek its own self-determined way. We saw the abuse with our own eyes, and while our sympathies lie with the Sinhalese nationalists, the Hindu Tamils have a legitimate gripe, and reparations need to be made for war crimes and atrocities by the state. Strangely, the same tension was playing out more than a thousand miles north in formerly Buddhist Kashmir, where Pakistan-inspired and very cruelly-mistreated Muslim separatists want only independence. India will not hear of it, nor will Pakistan. Both seek to usurp the Muslim-majority territory, like the other Kashmir to the west, and China looks on ready to pounce if either should fail: fertile ground for endless conflict).

The spiritual Plymouth Rock of Sri Lanka, Mahintale, where Buddhism landed, now the main focus of celebrations on the island (sundayobserver.lk).