2009 March 09 « Rev. Danny Fisher

March 9, 2009

Ravenna Michalsen’s Visit to Duke University

Ravenna Michalsen (center) and the author (second from left) with members of the Buddhist Community at Duke in Durham, NC. This photo, which comes to us via B.C.D. treasurer Shian-Ling Keng (second from right), was taken by a kindly member of the staff at Toast Paninoteca.
Ravenna Michalsen, the Buddhist singer-songwriter whom I have interviewed here at this blog and profiled for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, visited nearby Duke University last weekend at the invitation of the Buddhist Community at Duke. I was very pleased to be able spend some time with my old friend, get to know the vibrant community of practitioners at the university, and attend a concert offered by Ravenna in Goodson Chapel.

My mother and cousin Cilloran also came to the concert, and I was delighted to have the chance to introduce them to Ravenna and her music. If you’re not familiar with Ravenna and her work, I’d encourage you to get acquainted via her website or her Myspace page.

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March 9, 2009

Flippin’ Dharma-Burgers

I found another Dharma-Burger to share with the awesome Rod Meade Sperry over at The Worst Horse. Check it out right here.

March 9, 2009

Tibet News (3.8.09)

Photo by Tibet Will Be Free.
[This post has been updated as of 1:15 a.m. EST on 3.9.09.]

Here are the Tibet-related headlines for today:

The Agence France-Presse reports that over 1,000 people gathered in London this weekend for “a demonstration against Chinese rule in Tibet ahead of next week’s 50th anniversary of a failed uprising which prompted the Dalai Lama’s exile.” (The photo above shows some of those demonstrators.)

The Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports that His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in an interview with Taiwan’s Formosa TV, said that he is in “very good” physical condition and reiterated that it is up to the Tibetan people to decide “if there should be the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama.”

The Telegraph reports on the Tibetan Youth Congress, Students for a Free Tibet, and other exile groups who think that His Holiness is “too soft” in his dealings with the Chinese.

The Associated Press continues to report on China’s tightening security in the run up to the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising in Lhasa.

As part of this coverage, the AP tells us that Chinese authorities detained a nun and another woman in Ganzi, Sichuan Province, for handing out leaflets “calling for religious freedom, the release of prisoners and respect for human rights for all Tibetans.”

And this via Barbara O’Brien over at Barbara’s Buddhism Blog: According to a report in the Times Online, Chinese authorities are planning to detail 109 Buddhist monks from the Quinghai Province’s Lutsang Monastery and subject them to “political reeducation.”

The Far Eastern Economic Review reports on human rights violations in Tibet, and focuses on one egregious case in particular.

March 9, 2009

Burma News (3.8.09)

“Handlers sit on elephants waiting to go through a medical check-up at the Pho Kyar in central [Burma].” Photo by the Agence France-Presse.
Here are the Burma headlines for today:

The Agence France-Presse notes that eco-tourists are steering clear of Burma’s elephant camps (the image above is from one of the them), and reflects on Burma’s dying tourist industry. They write, “Tourist arrivals to Myanmar have been dropping since a bloody 2007 crackdown on anti-junta protests, while last year’s cyclone and pressure from pro-democracy groups overseas to boycott the country also deter holiday-makers.”

The Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports that the junta’s leader Senior General Than Shwe presided over the consecration of a new Buddhist pagoda (or, stupa) in the junta-determined capital of Naypyitaw. The general and his wife donated a Buddha tooth relic for the pagoda to be built around. The ceremony was attended by 583 monks, and other junta leaders.

Variety reports that film festival darling Burma VJ has found a distributor in Oscilloscope Laboratories, the New York-based film company founded by Beastie Boy, director, and Tibet activist Adam Yauch. To read my previous posts about the film, follow this link.

March 9, 2009

Tell Congress to Impeach Judge Jay Bybee

This from CREDO Action:

When presidents and federal judges take office, they must swear to support and defend the Constitution. But federal judge Jay Bybee worked long and hard to undermine the Bill of Rights – and to make sure that President George W. Bush could do the same.

On March 2, the Justice Department released a series of legal memos, some authored by Jay Bybee, that gave the Bush Administration legal cover to wiretap Americans without court approval, to send prisoners overseas where they were likely to be tortured, to use U.S. military forces for domestic purposes, and a number of other actions that previously would have been considered unconstitutional.

For his service, Bybee was rewarded by the Bush administration with a federal judgeship. CREDO worked to oppose that nomination, but only 19 senators sided with us, and Bybee was overwhelmingly confirmed. Now that we know the extent of the crimes he authorized – the extent to which he worked against our own Constitution – Bybee must be impeached.

The House Judiciary Committee should begin impeachment hearings immediately to learn the full scope of Bybee’s successful campaign to undermine the Constitution — then they should vote to impeach him.

The Bush administration didn’t bother to repudiate the Bybee memos until five days before President Obama took office.

Sign the petition here.

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