Entries Tagged 'News' ↓

Wow.

I suppose that's not a complete surprise, the man is 71 and has done nothing but travel around the world constantly for nearly 50 years. There are some important things to note, however, for the confused:

The Dalai Lama is both the religious leader of Buddhism as well as the political leader of Tibet. He is retiring from the latter. He cannot retire from the former, as the position is to believed to be one of reincarnation. You can't stop being the Dalai Lama, in that sense. You can, however, hand over the political reigns of the Tibetan cause.

If anybody's ever wondered about the state of Tibet inside of China, read the article. The successor to the Dalai Lama is supposedly chosen by the #2 man, the Panchen Lama (similar to "vice president", I'd guess). So what do the Chinese do? They kidnapped the Panchen Lama (who disappeared over 10 years ago) and put their own man in his place. So when the time comes to appoint a new leader of Tibet, the Chinese have rigged the system so that they'll be able to decide who gets the position. China's always made it very clear that they don't do the whole freedom of religion thing. It's actually quite sad that in our lifetime we've already seen a Dalai Lama who spent nearly his entire life outside of the country he rules, and may soon see the appointment of a successor who has never been there to begin with. If the Chinese have their way, there will eventually be no more Tibet to go home to.

Ok, well, there's certainly room to be a little conflicted on this story about a deathrow inmate's desire that his last meal be given to the homeless. He wanted a vegetarian pizza delivered to "any homeless person nearby." The problem is that the prison said they wouldn't honor the request because they "don't donate to charity."

Well that apparently pissed off more people than just me, because $1200 worth of pizza was delivered to local homeless shelters by members of the community. Good for them. I particularly like the quote from one of the workers at the shelter who said that his reaction was, quote, "Wow, Jesus!"

At the top I said "much to be conflicted about" because let's face it, the guy (who has now been executed) did kill a cop. So it's not like he's a nice, upstanding member of society. And if, for his last meal, he'd said "Screw you, go give it to the homeless for all I care" then I would see the prison's position. But that's apparently not how it happened. So just because this guy is a bad guy, why punish him by depriving the homeless of food?

This news story actually worked out for the best, since the prison's rules require that a last meal be worth at most $20. Thus far it looks like close to 100x that much has been donated.

BoingBoing has this very linkable story about a man with no arms and only one leg escaping the police. If I cared about Digg.com I would say "dugg for" the following things:

• Deliberate use of "out run" in a story about a one-legged man.
• His name is "Wiley". Gotta be a headline in there someplace, like "Wily Wiley Escapes Police" or something.
• Quote from his "longtime acquaintance" who calls him "The worst person I've ever met." Nice friend.
• He's wanted for "kicking a state trooper and attacking his wife headfirst." Quick! Somebody quote the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail! But seriously, folks, after the one-legged man had kicked the state trooper wouldn't he, you know, have fallen down? How much momentum could he really get behind the kick? And just how fast was he able to get back up that the troopers didn't just pig pile on top of him?

Be sure to check out the comments on the original post, too. Not just for the number of times somebody says, "What, this guy again???" (apparently he is a regular feature?), but for the absolutely atrocious spelling and grammar used.

Ok, somebody explain to me the logic of this decision. A Tennessee man scheduled for execution said that he did not want his final meal, and they should order a pizza and give it to a homeless person. It's unclear from the story whether he had a specific person in mind or was just saying it generically. The prison, however, won't do it. "The taxpayers don't give us permission to donate to charity," is the quote.

Lame. I always thought it had more to do with "last wish". He wants a pizza given to a homeless person. It's not like the prison itself is deciding to take his meal from him and give it to charity. It's what the guy wants. I don't understand the logic of that at all.

The new Pope has made it official – unbaptized babies who die still get to go to Heaven. This has been a theological debate for decades, and basically the primary reason for the whole concept of Limbo, a place between Heaven and Hell. Here's the deal: unbaptized babies still have original sin, and thus if they die, they can't get into Heaven. That's sort of the whole point of baptism to begin with. But nobody wants to believe that newborn babies have done anything to deserve a straight ticket to Hell, either. The official document now says that "grace has priority over sin, and the exclusion of innocent babies from heaven does not seem to reflect Christ's special love for children."

Oh my, the anti-Catholic folks are going to have a field day with "Christ's special love for children."

Listen: Kurt Vonnegut died. That sucks. I just wrote about him a few weeks ago.

It's impossible to compare Vonnegut to any other writer. Read one thing he's written, any single one, and you'll want to go out and get your hands on everything else. Perhaps his most famous was Slaughterhouse Five, a war story with the simple twist that its hero, Billy Pilgrim, "has come unstuck in time." Or maybe it was Cat's Cradle and its examination of the fictional religion Bokononism. Breakfast of Champions? Harrison Bergeron? Sirens of Titan, Player Piano? I can't pick a favorite. I may have to go up into my box in the attic and get them all out again.

BoingBoing.net is keeping track of all the tributes that are going up.

Po-tee-wheet?

I'd been alerted to this Citigroup news a few weeks ago. A friend of ours from playgroup works for them and was told that although he'd be safe, to prepare for some rough times. I remember when Scudder/DeutscheBank had their layoffs, I was told that I was safe as well. And I was, right up until they turned the lights off. But I eventually lost my job just like everybody else.

Oh, well. I wish him luck. Now I've got to figure out how to get the other 17,000 to BUY MY BOOK! I write from experience :).