American Sniper (Hero)?

American Sniper the movie

I just read an account of why a woman would not go and see this movie. and I agree that it is not for me either. Some of my friends who are past the age of ignorant teen hood said that in the showing of this movie that everyone in the theater stood up and cheered. Some wanted to go see it again. I pity their thought processes.

The woman who refused to see it was a Gold Star daughter, in that her father was killed in Vietnam.
I used to argue for the government side in that conflict, and my husband who had served four years in the Navy during the Vietnamese war, argued against our involvement.
Later I realized that he had the truth of the matter, so turned my thinking around and signed every petition against the war in Iraq that I could find.

The Japanese thought that using guns to fight was dishonorable, as it created a distance between factions, and the only way to fight was up close and personal with a sword.
Sadly even that Samurai thinking is wrong also. We should not be killing people with swords, guns, or stand off drones.
Making movies that get people to applaud shows off our inhumanity in so many ways.
The only good thing that came out of our country’s involvement in Vietnam is that it brought so many fine people to this country in search of a better life, and gave me an awesome daughter in law and grandson.
After I came to my senses about the whole Vietnam war, I told my husband that there would be unforeseen consequences on the karmic level of our involvement. I was right.

Bully

Bully

Or Junipero Serra, the least likely saint.

The Catholics have done it again, by announcing they want to elevate the Franciscan priest Junipero Serra to saint status.
The guy went out to old California, went on a building spree until the whole west coast belonged to the Catholic Church, and died in the traces.
He had his thugs round up the native tribes, who were just trying to make a living out of gathering acorns and fishing, chasing and trapping rabbits, and have an occasional elk roast.

All this bucolic and low key life changed when all the tribes were forced to do hard farm labor. They were brainwashed, blackmailed, whipped into obedience and starved if they did not bow down to the foreign make believe god.

I do not know what their religious philosophy was or even if they needed one, but following a religion that held to symbolic cannibalism probably was not their first or even second choice.
They had no choice, being run over by outlandish men from thousands of miles away that could blow them up with gun powdered projectiles and bring out the bullwhip for minor infractions.
Thus were civilizations and languages destroyed. The man Junipero should be up on crimes against humanity instead of elevation to sainthood.
But then those penis holders with the funny hats in Rome try these scams every once in a while.

Letteer to my grandson

Abortion, that touchy subject.
My Dear Grandson,
When you are older perhaps the newspapers will not be full of mean spirited people who want to regress us to a Medieval status, and the law of the land giving women the right to choose what they do with their own bodies will no longer be a bone of contention.
I wonder what law enforcers would say about a group of people who wanted to take away the right of unions to assemble, vote, and negotiate wages and benefits?
I would think that once a law has been settled by our Supreme Court, then there would be no further action against it.
Since this law benefits women and therefore all of society it is hard to see why this is now happening.
Perhaps it is a loss of power thing. Religious zealots come out of the woodwork when they think they can get attention for their crackpot theories, and sense that mass communications will give them a chance to put down the “little woman, and keep her in her place- at home in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant”.
This will be difficult when half the people in colleges are female, and a good percentage of the laborers in the country are also women.
Our economics show that even the crimes rate goes down when there are abortions available to women at risk in poor communities. (See Freakenomics)
While the Roe v. Wade law will not go down any time soon, it is still very annoying to see these assholes out marching against the law and putting up false premises that a zygote has all the rights of “personhood”.
Not all zygotes are created equal. Some go down the drain after one or two weeks of fertilization. Some get a little larger and then produce no heartbeat.
Who are these religious nuts to say that only they have the right to determine if a woman can choose to not have an unplanned pregnancy? That is just one of the reasons that we have the separation of church and state rule. When theocracies rule, women’s rights are total crap. (See Islam in Saudi Arabia). 1/25/15.

The continued religious scamming

Just when I think the stink dies down and we can get a rest from the frummery and flim flam disguised as religion, here comes another one.

Bully

Or Junipero Serra, the least likely saint.

The Catholics have done it again, by announcing they want to elevate the Franciscan priest Junipero Serra to saint status.
The guy went out to old California, went on a building spree until the whole west coast belonged to the Catholic Church, and died in the traces.
He had his thugs round up the native tribes, who were just trying to make a living out of gathering acorns and fishing, chasing and trapping rabbits, and have an occasional elk roast.

All this bucolic and low key life changed when all the tribes were forced to do hard farm labor. They were brainwashed, blackmailed, whipped into obedience and starved if they did not bow down to the foreign make believe god.

I do not know what their religious philosophy was or even if they needed one, but following a religion that held to symbolic cannibalism probably was not their first or even second choice.
They had no choice, being run over by outlandish men from thousands of miles away that could blow them up with gun powdered projectiles and bring out the bullwhip for minor infractions.
Thus were civilizations and languages destroyed. The man Junipero should be up on crimes against humanity instead of elevation to sainthood.
But then those penis holders with the funny hats in Rome try these scams every once in a while.

After insanity

News flash- finally a revelation about those kids who “went to heaven and came back”. All a big hoax folks!
Books are being pulled from bookstore shelves, and I hope to see more of the same for past “best sellers”.
Here is my essay on why all religious works should be placed in the fiction shelves.

After insanity
1/16/15

The definition of insanity is described as a person performing the same actions while expecting a different outcome.
According to this definition anyone who follows the dictates of any religion is acting insanely.
They pray for impossible miracles and outcomes. When the prayers inevitably fail, it is never the system that failed, only the petitioner. Or the ritual was not performed correctly, the phase of the moon was wrong, or there were too many distractions from evil women.
Millions of people adhere to different versions of their gods; some build great temples that last for thousands of years. Other religions use military power to spread their version over the maps of the world.
Recently the clash of the versions have produced more bloodshed, but nothing to compare to the carnage that happened in the early European Crusades, or the 1948 clash during the Partition of India. In that case, millions moved across the continent to preserve their own version of which religion was correct.
This belief in an invisible, unresponsive, absent and altogether uncaring deity has caused more grief and death than all the wars in modern times put together.
The ironic point of modern days is that religions are losing members, churches are being sold off, pyramids are turned into tourist attractions, and collections taken up to keep the great cathedrals of Europe standing.
How can otherwise rational beings think that the world is only 6,000 years old? How can we rely on absent invisible entities to direct our lives?
The answer is that we get lied to and brainwashed from the time we are infants. Catholics teach all manner of silly things, prevent women from partaking fully in modern life, and prey on little children for sexual purposes. Keeping the truth hidden from the gullible members is a full time job, and when the lid is raised on the nasty under life of priests and bishops, it is a shock to those True Believers.
This happens in quite a few Christian sects. Sexual crimes seem to flourish, as the men are brainwashed to feel that they are so elevated and special that they can rape their own daughters and get away with it.
The Islamic tradition is not too far behind in heinous actions against all others, and is especially hard on their own womenfolk.
The rise of mass communications, money from oil countries, and proliferation of munitions have produced a rash of religious firefights throughout Africa and Europe.
The tinder to set off the fires of protest and counter protest is easy to find. First some paper mocks a religious leader, and then there are murders. Then another religious leader (the Pope) claims that it is not good to make fun of his religion, even though he is at the center of one of the most despicable religions in the world, that lets priests prey on little children, keeps women from having more than second hand status and no say over their own bodies.
We are faced with the world devolving into opposite camps, with each religion claiming to be the best and only true version of gods and heavens.
To one who does not believe in any of their gods, it is all so pointless and sad.
What would they do if it were proved beyond doubt that there never was any basis for their religion in real life?
How does anybody know for certain that what is taught in catechism and the madrassas is true?
Those old time “prophets” and religious leaders back in the Middle Eastern deserts were surely tin pot tyrants smoking a bit of hashish or magic mushrooms to come up with some of the bizarre scribbling known as their holy books. Holy mackerel is more like it!
There is no evidence that there is any overarching intelligence that sets the universe to spinning, the galaxies to singing or the sparrow supported in his flight.
First of all, the universe is way too large for that to be even possible. When you consider that the Hubble telescope is showing us galaxies that shone billions of years in the past, and are now probably extinct, how can we even think that any one invisible, unresponsive, and wholly imaginary entity is listening to our daily pleadings for Peace, rain, or the location of our car keys?
Still, the ignorant masses swarm to see the “rock star” Pope, the Islamic man on the street claims that Islam will never lose, and the suicide bombers line up to take their turn at a chance for eternal rewards from the 72 virgins. The men get the virgins, and the women get eternal Outer Darkness, mirroring the messed up earthly religion in the underworld.
They will not be surprised when they die, as there is nothing to be seen, heard or tasted when they are dead. And no -all dogs do not go to heaven. Nothing and nobody goes anywhere and comes back to report.
Such a big lie, such a waste of time.
P.S. Josef Goebbels was right.

Continuing Bios for Dalai Lamas

Analysis
Concerning the discovery and election of a new Dalai Lama, the old method of choosing a name out of a jar seemed to work very well. There was no spirituality involved, only politics.
The 11th and 12th Dalai Lamas did not last too long, so I will skip over to the 13th.
This one was different in that he lasted a long time, had a lot of political unrest to deal with, and did not have to go through the lottery process to be named The Ocean of Wisdom.
A committee usually chose three boys, and then names were drawn. Tupden Gyatso was simply chosen.
The biggest problem of his reign besides the British pushing in and invading twice was the buildup of corruption in the monasteries.
He had to issue a decree against worldliness which included rules that the monks were breaking wholesale.
The list includes No Smoking! No Drinking! No summer picnics! No Singing and Dancing with the peasants for fun! No sneaking out at night without proper identification!
In other words those little monks would take off their distinctive robes and put on civilian clothes and go into the local brothels.
Money was a problem too, as the head monks of the monasteries usually came from rich and aristocratic families and diverted so much food stuffs for their personal bank accounts that the poor serf monks had to go out and beg in the countryside.
By 1931, the problems were still rather severe, so the Dalai Lama issued another stern warning
They were not to drink, gamble, take part in drunken brawls, work out as seasonal laborers, but spend all their time meditating and studying scriptures.
He also saw that the Chinese Communists were starting to be a problem and warned against them.
In 1933 he died probably of heart failure, having been the longest surviving Dalai Lama since the 8th.
He assumed power over the government when he was 20, and stayed on his throne for 38 years. During that time he suffered having to go into exile twice,
He remained interested in lifelong learning and had tutors to teach him Urdu, Chinese, Mongolian and English. His interests ran to modern science, law, economics, astronomy, and geography. He was interested in medicine and was said to know enough to treat the ill.
He also had time to write.
He had five books to his credit, but we don’t know how extensive they were.
They dealt with history of his monasteries and religious matters.
When the funeral ceremonies were begun, he had a huge outpouring of donations so that his monument could be covered in gold.
Once more the administrators had to go and search for the next Dalai, and I have heard several versions of this story.
One source said that there were 16 different candidates.
This source, written by native Chinese, states that there were three search teams.
How this information made it up the ladder to the top officials depends on how much money was paid in bribes I suspect.
Everyone in the country knew that once a boy was chosen, his family was on easy street for the rest of their lives. The parents got large pieces of property, herds of sheep, bolts of cloth, silver, gifts of jewelry, and the other siblings got jobs in monasteries and education paid for.
Here is my take on how a new “soul boy” is chosen.
The clerks in office have a stake in finding a suitable young boy who they can train up and influence. Job security is paramount.
They mount an expedition to a place in a small town or country farm, make up some “signs” like visions in a lake reflection, or flight of birds, and then set out to find a suitable candidate.

In the case of our present Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, the retinue of officials rode out to the family farm and presented them with certain articles of personal nature and asked the four year old to choose which one was “his”.
The trick here is that they all were personal articles of the previous Dalai Lama, and there was no way that it could have been an impartial choice.
Show a child a brightly painted picture, beads, walking stick, bowl and prayer wheel, and what happens?
He says” Yes that is mine!” Any one article, even a cup would have sufficed, and since they were all items belonging to the former Dalai, no one could lose.
The officials keep their jobs, the family gets the jackpot, and all of Tibet gets to party.
The present Dalai disclaimed any memory of what happened on that day of Sorting, as he was only 4.
When I pointed this out to an expert, with the additional statement from the lama that he was nothing extraordinary, my expert said that this is the story that is for the public,
In other words the whole establishment of Buddhism in Tibet and now India is lying to us.
Well, I knew that long ago when I studied Buddhism in 1962. There are just so many defects to this religion especially in the matter of reincarnation.
For one, the numbers do not add up. If you were the reincarnation of a former person, then the billions of people alive today had a life in the past. There are not that many bodies in the past to support this claim.
The theory of remembering your past life has been proved at least to my satisfaction to be a hoax. Let’s face it- if you can’t bear the thought of fading to black when you die, having some other explanation helps get you through the night.
And that is what all religions rely on for their power.
Seeing behind the curtain, whether it is called Hinduism, Islam, Christianity or the Order of the Flying Spaghetti Monster will free you to make your own life.

Bios of the Dalai Lamas

Bios of Dalai Lamas
The modern picture that the Tibetan Buddhists give of their Dalai Lama is one of a jolly, compassionate and peaceful religious man, revered as holy by millions.
It was not always thus.
In 1546 a child named Sonam Gyatso was declared a “soul boy” or the reincarnation of a former leading monk. This child was trained in the monastery at Drepung. He was ordained as a full monk at age 22 in 1562.
Sonam Gyatso went on to preach in Inner Mongolia and converted those nomads to the Yellow Hats, a sect of Buddhism.

He had the backing of the Altan Khan and was bestowed the title of Dalai Lama from the Altan Khan.
The title was the first bestowed by a ruler, and he was known as the third Dalai Lama.
The first two were nominated posthumously.
Since there was much influence between the Yellow Hats and the Mongolian leaders, when those leaders sent troops into Tibet, and monetarily supported three large monasteries there, the Chinese government became concerned.
While this Dalai Lama was out of the country the other sect of Buddhism designated White Sect or the White Hats, started attacking one another. Just a matter of politics.
In 1589 Yonten Gyatso was born and identified by the Mongols as being the soul boy of the 3rd Dalai Lama. How they determined this was not explained, but I have my theories.
Since Yonten was the great grandson of Alten Khan, he had the support of the third Dalai Lamas’ private treasurer, and his tutor.
This was the only Dalai Lama that was not of Tibetan origin, being born in Mongolia.
He had the support of the three great monasteries in Tibet, who all were full of Yellow Hats. No surprise there.
The delegates did have a long discussion before they voted for approval, so it was not just a rubber stamp process.
In 1616 Yonten Gyatso died in a monastery, age 28, having lived in Tibet for only 14 years.
During this time the White faction became hostile to the Yellow faction, and the Emperor in Beijing bestowed high status on two more factions the Red and the Black.
So now we have four different colored hats fighting for the top spot.
In 1617 the fifth Dalai Lama was born, named Lozang Gyatso.
In 1637 he was initiated into the full monkhood by the Panchen Lama of the Drepung monastery, one of the three great ones.
The White hats continued to war against the Yellow Hats so in 1641 the Dalai Lama asked for military help from the Mongolian Khan. The Kahn led his army into Tibet and put an end to the White Hats in that region, and turned over all political power to the Yellow Hats. The Yellow Hats then proceeded to confiscate all property of their enemies and divided up the swag between the three large Yellow Hat monasteries.
This is the standard procedure of warfare in any continent.
By 1733 statistics showed that the Dalai Lama alone had the profit of 302,560 monks working at 327 monasteries.
Over all 640,000 serfs were working for all monasteries owned by the religious heads.
The fifth Dalai Lama was the one who moved his regime to Lhasa, and had the Potala Palace constructed.
To cement up the power of the Dalai Lama he was hosted by the Emperor in Beijing and gifted with gold, silver, a large quantity of jewels, jade articles and horses. During his visit the Dalai Lama stayed in a yellow palace built expressly for his comfort.
After the Dalai returned to Tibet he had built thirteen new monasteries with the gold and silver presented to him by the Emperor Qing.
In 1682 the fifth Dalai Lama died in the Potala Palace at the age of 66.
His subordinates kept his death secret for 15 years in order to inspire the workers to complete the work on the palace.
Conspiracy entered into the politics of spirituality. The head man in the palace, Sangye, wanted to hold on to power for a while longer, so always claimed that the Dalai Lama was deep into meditation and not to be disturbed.
In the meantime the next Dalai Lama had already been “found” and when he was 15 Tsangyang Gyatso was enthroned in 1697 at the Potala Palace.
This one was known as the Playboy Lama, as he had no head for figures, declined to pay attention to any matters of governing, or meditation. He just liked the good life of wine, women, and song.
For these supposed transgressions the underlings demanded that he go to Beijing under escort to answer for his crimes. So sad, on the way he died, with conflicting accounts of what really happened.
In the meantime back at the palace a new Dalai Lama number 6 was installed but people did not accept him. Yeshe Gyatso lasted 11 years and was considered a sham by the Tibetan people.
In 1719 the Emperor Shengzu created the 7th Dalai Lama naming a young Living Buddha Kelzang Gyatso who was living in the Kumdum monastery . He was escorted to Lhasa by a military force of at least 20,000 men.
By 1727 the Emperor had to intervene again, as there was armed conflict between various factions in Tibet and the nepotism and corruption had risen to new heights under the youthful Dalai.
Over 15,000 men made up this expeditionary force. When they came to Lhasa the rebels had already been defeated and leaders were dealt with in a uniquely Chinese fashion.
The main leader was put to death by slicing ( I leave that to the reader’s imagination) the subordinates were beheaded along with their wives and children.
This brought the violent episodes to an end, but the Chinese maintained thousands of “peace keepers” in the area long afterward. By 1734 the local militia had been trained up well enough to block the mountain passes to deter the “barbarians” from the west, so that the Chinese contingent could be withdrawn and savings incurred. The price of hay must have been too high for any more government intervention.
In 1751 rules were drawn up by Beijing bureaucrats for the “Administration of Tibet”. It was a 13 point program for the streamlining of governing the whole country of Tibet, and did away with many wrongs but was in effect a “regime change”. Over staffing, private use of public funds, nepotism, homeland security, and illegal immigrants were some of the items dealt with.
Sounds very familiar.
A direct quote from The Biographies of the Dalai Lamas is as follows concerning the 7th Dalai Lama.
“Kelzan Gyatso never carried himself in a haughty matter although he held such an awe inspiring title as imperial preceptor. He was an accomplished theologian, but was always ready to learn from others. Even after he had achieved sublimity in spiritual cultivation, he remained respectful to religious discipline in whatever he did. Rich as he was, with the wealth of all Tibet in his possession, he allowed himself only one change of clothes each year.”
He died at the Potala at age fifty.
The Emperor appointed a regent to act in the Dalai’s place before a new soul boy was discovered. That was the inception of regency in Tibet.
At the age of five, Jampal Gyatso was recognized as the new soul boy by the Emperor’s envoy Drangkya Hututku .
In 1781 by order of the Emperor young Jampal was ordained the 8th Dalai Lama, and took office with the help of a new regent Tsemonling.
In 1788 a new fracas arose between the Gurka region (modern day Nepal) and Tibet over taxes. Through many betrayals and fights over money and inheritances, the Chinese government once more was drawn into an invasion of Tibet to prop up the rulers. All told, the Emperor sent a total of 17,000 troops at the cost of one fourth of government revenue. That means the taxes went up for the Chinese once again to support a foreign war.
In 1807 Lungtok Gyatso was recognized as the new soul boy. His coronation took place in 1808.This 9th Dalai Lama did not last long, and died during the British intervention of the area. By 1815 the search was on for a new soul boy to replace the Dalai Lama and continue the tradition.
The 10th Dalai Lama was found in the Kham region and led to the enrichment of his parents. Tsutrim Gyatso became the Head Lama at twenty two after long years of study in the monastery, but died suddenly in the Palace before he even began to rule.
During this time not much happened inside or nearby Tibet, except that neighbor regions started distancing themselves from the Beijing regime. The result was that the Qing emperor did not send help when asked against local Gurhka incursions, and the British had another chance to intervene.
The British at this time was actively engaged in the Great Game, so well covered in the literature of Rudyard Kipling. They had spies all over the place and were vying for control of Northern India and Pakistan with Great Mother Russia.
Without this outside interest, Tibet would have remained in a primitive and medieval state for many more years.
To be continued.