Duddhism and the Wonders of Thailand (video)

Amber Dorrian, CC Liu, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly

Dude-ism: Path to Big Lebowski Enlightenment

(ABC) Inside the bathrobe-wearing, hard-drinking, real-life Church of The Latter Day Dude as conceived of in Buddhist Thailand
     

Bangkok and Bhutan's Religious Penises

Bangkoksightseeing.org

(alinavitenberg/flickr.com)

BANGKOK, Swissotel Nai Lert Park, Thailand - The Penis Shrine, which is no laughing matter for squeamish Westerners, is dedicated to the spirit of Chao Mae Tubtim -- a female tree spirit believed to live in the giant banyan there. 

  

A woman once came desperately trying in vain to get pregnant. Nine months after asking Chao Mae Tubtim for it, she gave birth to a healthy child. So as a way of showing gratitude, she came back with a huge, wooden penis carving. She told others about it, and now hundreds of women come to ask for fertility offering penises of all sizes and shapes. This symbol can be found all over Thailand. It is a talisman Thais call palad khik. More

• (Global Post) Approaching enormous penises (linga)? The last time that happened I was in Bhutan, the last of the Buddhist Himalayan kingdoms, where I reported on the Buddhism-inspired phallic imagery locals there paint on their houses to ward off evil spirits. Similar "phallic worship" rituals exist in Japan, as reported by GlobalPost in a story and photo essay on penis and vagina festivals. More

Thailand Travel: Fat Fong's, Bangkok

(World-cruise2010.com, EGW) Bangkok's world-famous red light district, named after a Chinese gangster kingpin and pronounced "Pat Pongs," is a mild marketplace by day and a frenzy of sexual expression for tourists by night.

• The "Face Bikinis" of China
• GOD and Isaac threaten GOP convention

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The Most Dangerous Man in America (videos)

Wisdom Quarterly

   

Bradley Manning protesters call out Pres. B.S. Obama (again)

(RTAmerica) The Occupy Movement in Oakland has a new target now: Obama. One hundred protesters occupied his campaign office calling for the release of US Army Pfc. Bradley Manning. They invaded the offices of the Obama re-election campaign in California and stayed inside for hours before being forced out by police. RT Correspondent Ramon Galindo brings the latest from LA.

The Most Dangerous Man in America

(Dogwoof) In 1971 a top military strategist working for the RAND Corporation named Daniel Ellsberg leaked a 7,000-page document known as the "Pentagon Papers" to the New York Times, which committed high crimes and misdemeanors that would get WikiLeak's Julian Assange torture and life imprisonment in America by leaking the classified information the public. Disenchanted with the nation's conduct in Vietnam (Cambodia, and Laos), Ellsberg believed the release of the top secret paper -- which outlined the "secret history" of its illegal war of aggression -- was crucial to educating the public about the government's lies and atrocities. This documentary chronicles the media and political frenzy that Ellsberg unleashed and traces the effect of the leak on public perception of both the US war on Vietnam and the White House (as well as revealing the existence of a "military-industrial complex" independent of the government).

The Organization of American States convened on Friday to discuss the case of Julian Assange, while the UK and Ecuador remain locked in a diplomatic battle. Ecuador's Pres. Correa has granted the founder of WikiLeaks asylum. But the problem for Assange is how to get safe passage from the Ecuadorian embassy in London to the airport. UK law endorsement officials are threatening the whistleblower. Eva Golinger, attorney and author, joins RT's Liz Wahl to discuss.

• Naked Prince Harry having sex - not in British media
• VIDEO: Royals gone wild, Prince Harry's sex romp
• "Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same"
• Molestation-by-teacher on the increase in LA 
• Apple Computer's secrets revealed during trial
• VIDEO: Cop beats white female motorist, goes to jail
• Black skateboarder brutalized in Venice, taken to jail
• VIDEO: Police injure 9 to murder Empire State suspect
• US mermaid (naiad), Diana Nyad, foiled by jellyfish
• Tips for slugs, deer from the "sport" of gardening
• Coming food crisis: Play for rain, plant more crops
• Female-man banned from breastfeeding in Canada
• FOX outs Osama bin Laden killer, an Army SEAL

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Cleaning the Ganges (audio)

TheStory.org (American Public Media); Wisdom Quarterly

Sacred but somehow polluted Ganges of India in the holy city of Varanasi (thestory.org)

 

Ganges river map (web.bryant.edu)

(APM) The Ganges River -- a 1,500-mile river that flows down from the Himalayas through Northern India -- is a place where people bathe, wash clothes, pray, and inter fortunate dead. It is also where waste lines pour out sewage every day making the sacred river very polluted. The Story producer Phoebe Judge travels to the holy Buddhist city of Varanasi (since the Buddha began his mission by delivering the first sermon in the scenic Deer Park of the suburb of Sarnath), where she meets people who live along the Ganges River and want to clean it up. PHOTOS

• LISTEN NOW

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