Sectarian Chauvinism

Buddhist monks light candles while chanting at Buddhamonthon. Photo by Pornchai Kittiwongsakul. I wanted a picture of a mob of monks rioting, but I couldn't find any. Yes, there's David Carradine, but he's only one guy,

Today's Bizzaro comic in the paper has a Buddhist monk haranging a group of his fellows with a bullhorn. He asks "What do we want?", and the group replies "Mindfulness". He asks "When do we want it?", and the group shouts "Now!", which reminded me of this story I read in Time magazine earlier this summer:

Straying From the Middle Way: Extremist Buddhist Monks Target Religious Minorities

These paywalls and copyright enthusiasts are cramping my style. Bizarro's website doesn't post his daily comics. I could have scanned my paper copy, but that would have meant more work, and who knows?, I might have gotten embroiled in copyright fight. The Time magazine story has a link to a longer story, but to get to it, you have to pay.

I tried to find a copy of Smuggler's Blues on YouTube yesterday, but Don Henley seems to have taken the ZZ Top route of issuing take down notices for each and every one of their recordings. Usually when you find a video where the audio has been removed there is a notice of alleged copyright infringement. Not the case for Smuggler's Blues, just no audio. I smell a conspiracy. Or maybe I just stepped in something yucky.

Sectarian Chauvinism indeed.

The Huffington Post has a story that is not behind a paywall.

I got the term "Sectarian Chauvinism" from the Time article. I have never heard it before. I think it means "jerk", or maybe "my stuff is better than your stuff, neener, neener, neener", or perhaps "die herectic scum".

Puffington Host

Every once in a while I find a well written article on the The Huffington Post, usually because of a link someone else provided. On the other hand, the Huff-Po gets a lot of flack from some sectors, we won't say who.
   The other day I was at loose ends, so I thought would take a look at the Huff-Po and see if there was anything interesting going on. Good lord, what a lot of drivel, it's like one step above Facebook. It might be on the same level as the Parade magazine that comes with your Sunday paper. Every once in a while Parade has something that interests me, but if I miss an issue I am not particularly concerned. Huff-Po is at least a couple of steps to the left of Parade. From what I saw the other day I am surprised I have ever found anything worth reading over there.

Industrial Architecture

Isle of Man Waste-to-Energy Plant

The headline on the story on the Huffington Post reads 99 Per Cent Of Sweden's Garbage Is Now Recycled, which sounds really great until you find out that they are recycling it by using it for fuel, which sounds a whole lot like the incinerators everyone used to use until we got fed up with choking on smog. Now incinerators were a bit primitive, their only purpose in life was to turn trash to ash. Any heat they generated was just another waste by-product to be disposed of as cheaply as possible, which meant sending it up the smoke stack with all the smoke. So we are making a little progress here in that we are trying to recover some of that energy and use it for something useful LIKE NOT BUYING OIL FROM SAUDI ARABIA*, which as you may know is the biggest source of problems on our planet. Supposedly we have developed some techniques for burning trash without generating as many nasty chemicals. CO2 is not one. You can bet that these plants are generating plenty of CO2.
    I went looking for some pictures of these super-efficient Swedish trash burners, but I didn't find much and what I found was pretty generic, industrial type installations. But other places in Europe are also getting into the act and some of their projects have a bit of, shall we say, flair, like the one shown above. Denmark in particular seems to be jumping in with both feet with these props that have escaped from a science fiction movie:

Incineration Line 6, a waste-to-energy incinerator/power plant in Roskilde, Denmark

They are planning on putting a ski slope on top of this one when they build it in Copenhagen. Also:  "It will emit its CO2 emissions – not as a continuous stream of smoke, oh no – but in sudden, bursting smoke rings."

*whether Saudi Arabia is a problem or not depends, I suppose, on whether you think slicing up your neighbors with swords is an acceptable pasttime. I mean it's kind of hard to argue with history. Killing your neighbors has been the world's most popular sport for zillions of years. Widespread peace and cooperation is kind of an anomaly.

Time Warner Cable Drops Current TV Upon Sale To Al Jazeera

Ed Anger Says

From Michael Calderone's story on the Huffington Post:

"Some media observers interpreted the move as motivated by politics."

Ya think?

"Al Jazeera English received awards and acclaim for its comprehensive coverage of the Arab Spring protests in 2011, yet it has still faced an uphill battle in gaining cable distribution in the U.S., likely due to lingering fears of anti-American programming raised in the George W. Bush years. The Bush administration condemned Al Jazeera for its Arabic-language network's coverage of the Iraq War and broadcasting of al Qaeda tapes, even targeting its headquarters in Baghdad during the Iraq War. Perceptions that the news organization, which is funded by Qatar's government, is anti-American continue even as U.S. political leaders such as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) have praised the network's reporting abroad."

I luvs me some stoopid people. Wait a minute, Calderone? Haven't I heard that name somewhere before?
The picture is from Weekly World News, which should tell you something. Inspired by Dustbury.

Update December 2022 replaced missing picture.