The Buddha and Christ's Cheerleader

Well, I am honored to welcome the Dali Lama to the defeatist circle. D.L. Buddha, congratualtions. Next birthday party, bring the Yak butter.

Asked if he could stop Tibetan protesters from flouting Beijing’s deadline to surrender by midnight on Monday, the Dalai Lama, 72, replied swiftly: “I have no such power.”He said he had received a call on Saturday from Tibet. “‘Please don’t ask us to stop,’” was the caller’s request. The Dalai Lama promised he would not, even though he said he expected the Chinese authorities to put down the protests with force.“Now we really need miracle power,” he said, and then laughed. “But miracle seems unrealistic.”

While seeing my acupuncturist from Shanghai the other day, I made a comment about the strange news coming from China. Dr. Fang hadn't been paying attention. So, I gave her a summary and she was kind of stunned. Let me say that she's a petite and attractive 40 something Han Chinese from the Pu Dong district, married to a teacher of Phys Ed at the Crossroads of Opportunities version of Yale -- the local community college. So, even before the latest disaster, she focused on what the Chinese government will consider most important, the Olympics. "I hope nothing disrupts the Olympics. It is a big event." I smiled and agreed, but said, "there are a lot of moving parts."

Well, you don't want to get too direct with someone you really like who is sticking acupuncture needles in you.

Still, the contrast between this guy and our guy really is interesting. He's the religious figure and he doesn't think he can call on "miracle power" or that he can say something and things will play out the way he wants. Our guy, Christ's cheerleader, whose knowledge of Christianity is probably primarily based on his Midland-Odessa bible studies with the local Babbits and what he vaguely remembers from Sunday School when Barbara would drive him out of the bathroom where he was jerking off and drinking the Romilar and into the car thinks that God is actively running the SUUUURRRRGGGEEE and that he can say something should be that way, and it will be that way. So, the Buddhist monk is living in the reality based world, and the leader of the world's technological and economic center is still doing the faith-based thing. I guess he's doing the "It's always darkest before dawn!" thing. Yeah, it is -- but when dawn is unscheduled, it can rapidly get darker.

OK, Crusader AXE, what do you think is going to happen? Well, I love Dr Fang, and she just got back from a Spring Festival trip home to help her mother. So, I think she probably spoke for the bulk of Chinese opinion when she said that she hopes nothing disrupts the games. Since China's leadership seems in crisis to channel Mao via the medium of Montgomery Burns, look for Tianamen 2.0 coming to a screen near you soon. Nothing will be allowed to disrupt the games. Can't drink the water, can't breathe the air, can't bathe in the water, can't guarantee the purity of the food, can't guarantee the safety or construction of the venues -- Nothing can be allowed to disrupt the games. If they have to wipe out Tibetan and Urghurs and half the ethnic minorities to do it, nothing will be allowed to disrupt the games. Ah, so what will the world do? Boycott? China will bristle and NOTHING WILL BE ALLOWED TO DISRUPT THE GAMES! Economic sanctions? China has lots of reserves and makes the Soviets in 1980 look like Lichtenstein in terms of economic clout. NOTHING WILL BE ALLOWED to disrupt the games.

Comments

[tom truthful]

Like the hopeful idiot that I am, I actually fired off a short missive to the NYTimes Editor Supreme of Letters, explainining to them how "our guy" could enhance his legacy by leading Western nations in a boycott of the Beijing games.
Should have checked here first (Msr. IOZ had not posted the link however.)
Sadly, despite the ongoing repression in Tibet, NOTHING WILL BE ALLOWED....
Thanks for the YouTube footage.
"Tianamen 2.0" sounds about right.

[TGGP]

I don't know, Christopher Hitchens told me the Dalai Lama was a reactionary oppressor of the people.

[Comatose]

Acupuncture is total bunk. At least as silly as the Dalai Lama.

[Crusader AXE of the Lost Causes]

Acupuncture makes me feel better. I have arthritis, disk issues, and a variety of problems resulting largely from spending most of my adult life protecting your right to consider it bunk. Most things are. However, this works for me, along with some aspects of chiropractic and most of western medicine. I think the need for a pill and an expensive test to treat things that might be treated successfully other ways is a choice. So, in an effort to be more tolerant of ignorant opinions, fuck you.

[Comatose]

Oh, really. Yeah, America has long been threatened by the nefarious forces of totalitarian acupuncturists. Many poor souls around the world must remain silent on the subject of acupuncture for fear of persecution or death. Thank the lord there are selfless, brave men like you to preserve my right to medical opinions. What a perverse bastardization of the old "troops protect your freedom of speech, so shut up" meme.

It may not be nice to criticize something you appear to benefit from, but it is not ignorant:

"ScienceDaily (May 4, 2005) — Migraine patients who received true acupuncture had no decrease in headaches as compared with those who received sham acupuncture treatment, according to a study in the May 4 issue of JAMA."

"Sham acupuncture" is poking people entirely at random. On the other hand, both the "real" and sham acupuncture worked better than nothing at all. So I guess you should keep up the treatments, but you might as well get your paperboy to administer them.