Rev. Danny Fisher

On last week’s episode of PBS’ Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, Lucky Severson filed a terrific report about the “fighting monks” of China’s Shaolin Temple, and the connection between the martial art of kung fu and Ch’an Buddhism. Among the interviewees are Professor Robert Sharf of the Center for Buddhist Studies at the University of California at Berkeley and Shi Guolin (pictured in a screen capture from the program)–the master who is considered to be next in line to become abbot of the Shaolin Temple in China. Watch or read the report here.

This from Amnesty International:

Our chance to learn from, fix and never repeat the policies that brought us torture, illegal detention, Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib is passing us by. President Obama has already issued orders to close Guantanamo Bay and end torture. Though the orders are a major step in the right direction, they don’t tell us how the world’s most powerful democracy chose to renounce human rights and the rule of law. Show Washington that the public wants our nation to take responsibility for past mistakes and that we do have the stomach for a full investigation. We’re working directly with a group of champions in Congress and will ask them to take your comments, and read them aloud on the floor of the Senate and House.

Add your name to Amnesty’s petition here.

Here’s the latest on Burma:

Via Wikimedia Commons.
SEAArch – The Southeast Asian Archaeology Blog reports that Preah Vihear, the ancient temple site and location of a tense standoff between Thailand and Cambodia for the past several months, will reopen today. To see my past posts on the Preah Vihear situation, follow this link.

Tell the California State Supreme Court not to let Ken Starr and the Prop 8 Legal Defense Fund nullify the 18,000 same-sex marriages conducted between May and November of 2008 here.