Court bans punk "Pussy Riot" video

Wisdom Quarterly; Reuters; AFP

Punk band "Pussy Riot" (L-R) Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alyokhina, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova sit in glass-walled Moscow court cage, 10-10-12 (Reuters/Maxim Shemetov).

  

Vlad the impertinent dictator will ruin country

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court ruled on Thursday [Nov. 29, 2012] that video footage of the Pussy Riot punk group protesting against President Vladimir Putin in a church was "extremist" and should be removed from websites. (See it below with lyrics).

The demonstration last February offended many Russian Orthodox Christians. But Putin has been criticized by U.S. and European leaders over what they saw as disproportionate jail sentences imposed on three Pussy Riot members. Their trial was also seen by Putin's critics as part of a clampdown on dissent.

(AFP) Putin reoccupied Kremlin after a crushing election victory that
Russian and foreign observers said was skewed in his favor from the start.

The Moscow court said it had based its ruling on conclusions by a panel of experts who studied the video, showing band members in colorful mini-skirts and ski masks dancing in front of the altar of Moscow's main Russian Orthodox cathedral.

Judge Marina Musimovich said the footage "has elements of extremism; in particular there are words and actions which humiliate various social groups based on their religion." More

PUNK PRAYER lyrics: Saint Maria [Kwan Yin], Virgin, Drive away Putin/Drive away! Drive away Putin!//Black robe, golden epaulettes/All parishioners are crawling and bowing/The ghost of freedom is in heaven/Gay pride sent to Siberia in chains//The head of the KGB is their chief saint/Leads protesters to prison under escort/In order not to offend the Holy/Women have to give birth and to love//Holy shit, shit, Lord's shit!/Holy shit, shit, Lord's shit!//Saint Maria, Virgin, become a feminist/Become a feminist, Become a feminist//Church praises the rotten dictators/The cross-bearer procession of black limousines/In school you are going to meet with a teacher-preacher/Go to class -- bring him money!//Patriarch [Kirill] Gundyaev believes in Putin/Bitch, you better believe in God/Belt of the Virgin is no substitute for mass-meetings/In protest of our Ever-Virgin Mary!//Saint Maria, Virgin, Drive away Putin/Drive away! Drive away Putin!

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Canada seeks to restrict religious freedom

Barbara Lamb; Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly

Anyone can be imprisoned, tormented, and deprived of humanity (ULC/themonastery.org)

  
As Buddhist practitioners some of us volunteer serving a prison community (mutually supportive sangha). We have seen how spiritual practice can transform lives and lead to real rehabilitation.

Unfortunately, the Canadian Public Safety Minister, Vic Toews, is cancelling the contracts of all part-time, non-Christian chaplains in federal penitentiaries -- with the expectation that the spiritual guidance of prisoners of all faiths will be provided by full-time chaplains, who are predominantly Christian. 

  

Overcrowding (Paul Holt Ministries)

This means that thousands of prisoners will be denied spiritual support grounded in their own tradition and practice. Please consider signing the following petition, which calls on Vic Toews and Prime Minister Stephen Harper to reverse the decision and uphold the rights of citizens behind bars.

Please forward this petition through social networks (email, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Help make this issue visible to many more who believe religious freedom is one cornerstone of a democratic society. PETITION

• Freedom of Religions for Canadian Prisoners (upaya.org)
• Does Canada have a problem with non-Christian chaplains?

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Comics make everything better (cartoon)

Cartoonist David Horsey (latimes.com) and others; P.B. Law (buddhisthumor.org)

(Thetandd.com) With the shooting in Aurora, Colorado, inside a packed movie theater showing “The Dark Knight Rises,” questions are being raised as to whether there is any connection between the killings and the movie’s plot and the character of Batman -- in which a masked villain leads a murderous crew into a packed football stadium and wages an attack involving guns and explosives. More
   

Animation: Buddhist/Christian conversation

There are many types of Buddhists and there are many types of Christians. This is only a conversation between two individuals. (It's comedic).

  

What Makes You Not a Buddhist?

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

"Some people think that stringent rules and virtuous deeds are the essence of Buddhism, but these are only a small component of Buddha's skillful and abundant methods. He knew that not everyone is able to understand ultimate truths right from the start. It is difficult for many of us to process concepts such as 'hell is merely the perception of your own aggression,' let alone the concept of emptiness. Buddha doesn't want Jack to be caught in a personal 'hell,' but he can't tell Jack to work with his perceptions and aggression either because Jack is an idiot. So for Jack's sake, Buddha teaches that there is an external hell and that in order to avoid going there and being boiled in molten iron, Jack must stop entertaining his non-virtuous, negative actions and emotions. Such teachings pervade the Buddhist milieu; very often we see hell realms painted on the walls of Buddhist temples, complete with burning bodies and terrifying gorges of frigid water. These images can be taken literally or figuratively, depending on the capacity of the student. Those with superior faculties know that the source of everyday hell, our suffering, stems from our own perceptions. They know that there is no judgment day and there is no judge. Buddha's final aim is to make Jack understand, like these superior students, that there is no hell realm apart from his own aggression and ignorance. By temporarily minimizing his negative actions, Jack is diverted from becoming more entangled with his perceptions, misgivings, and paranoia." More

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Asian-Americans and Religion (Pew Forum)

Leslie Berestein Rojas (MultiAmerican.SCPR.org); Pew Forum

One-in-seven Americans are now Buddhists. Most in the US are fluid and searching.

  

A month after a Pew Research Center report on Asians becoming the nation’s fastest-growing immigrant group faced criticism for downplaying Asian Americans’ diversity, Pew has come back with a new report that focuses on the diversity of their religious beliefs.

   

While it does not address the socioeconomic and educational diversity and disparities that critics pointed out in the last month, the report from the Pew Forum on Religious & Public Life does adjust some misperceptions, while revealing several facts that are not particularly well known beyond Asian American diasporas. Here’s [some]: 

• Asian Americans are neither predominantly Buddhist nor Hindu.
• In the United States, there are more Asian Americans who are Christian (42 percent) than any other religion.
• Many of these Christians are Filipinos, who are traditionally Catholic, and Koreans, many of whom are Protestant.
• The percentage of Buddhists (14 percent), Hindus (10 percent), and Muslims (4 percent) is small by comparison. 

Labels do not really tell us what people believe.

Still, as migration from Asia has increased, so has the the nation’s share of Buddhists and Hindus. 

   

Buddhists now account for one in seven Americans, according to the report, and counted together, the share of Americans who practice Buddhism and Hinduism is about the same as that of those practicing Judaism (about 2 percent).

  

At the same time, in contrast, a large share (26 percent) of Asian Americans consider themselves “unaffiliated,” that is, not practicing any particular religion. More

   

We have a choice, even if our choice is "none."

  

Asian Americans: A Mosaic of Faiths 

Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life (pewforum.org)

When it comes to religion, the Asian-American community is a study in contrasts, encompassing groups that run the gamut from highly religious to highly secular. A new survey report examines the Asian-American population from the angle of religious affiliation, highlighting the beliefs, practices and views of diverse faith groups. More

• The Dalai Lama's generosity in San Diego 
• Pew study says politics now divides Americans more than race
• Pew Poll: Trust In Government Hits Near-Historic Low
  New Pew report says one in five adults doesn't use the Internet

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"Zombies, Demons, and Fallen Angels" (video)

PIWarsVideo; PropheticInfoWars.com; SteveQuayle.com; HomelandSecurityUS.com

Three-part Hagmann and Hagmann Report (June 3, 2012), an interview with Steve Quayle. "The answer to fear is faith and understanding."

Zombies (telegraph.co.uk)

Steven Quayle is a wonderful researcher and broadcaster, but he is an unapologetic Christian, which makes some of his material off-putting. At times he starts thumping his Bible, quoting scripture, and focusing on Issa, Son of Zeus, a kind of Sakka. These are the idioms he uses and the prism he makes sense of the world with. It is worth tolerating. It may not be fully accurate, but it is a familiar language to Westerners. He very much believes in the End Times, 2012, the Rapture, and the coming catastrophe(s). He is a leading expert on giants and the "Brave New World Order" befalling our planet.

Part II and Part III

His book Long Walkers is based on a six fingered, red haired giant evacuated out of Afghanistan by the US military-industrial complex. The Illuminati, globalists, bankers, elitists, alien entities, and spirits all play a role in understanding what is going on in the world today and why. Much of it is due to mass deception, militarism, and PsyOps by clandestine agencies affiliated with the Pentagon, CIA, NSA, NSC, and even more secretive agencies.

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Pussy Riot: Punks Against Putin (video)

TheWorld.org; Guardian.co.uk; Wisdom Quarterly

Russia was never actually atheist. That was just an official position. Siberia is Buddhist as was the USSR in Central Asia (including the only indigenously Buddhist part of Europe: Kalmykia. But "Russians" are Christians who conquered neighboring lands for empire. It is a country of blue-eyed blondes. It tried to do the right thing and live communally. But corruption ruined it. Punks call out its new emperor, Putin, a KGB chief and uber-hypocrite to rival US leaders.

The all-female Russian punk band Pussy Riot ran afoul of the Kremlin with protest performances [in church]. Their impromptu show in one of Moscow’s holiest sanctuaries, the [Eastern Orthodox] Cathedral of Christ the Savior, was pretty wild. They sang their tune, “Holy Mother, Throw Putin Out!” The women were arrested in February and have been in jail since [after their video of the stunt garnered too much attention and they became a scapegoat for Putin’s dilemma].
   
Last week a judge ordered them to remain in custody to await their July trial. And if they’re eventually convicted, they face up to seven years in prison. The Moscow News Deputy Editor Natalia Antonova wrote in The Guardian last week that the women are “scapegoats for Russia’s political crisis.” She tells [TheWorld.org’s] anchor Marco Werman why: More 

• Pussy Riot are scapegoats for Russia's political crisis
• The World: Russia’s Anti-Putin All-Girl Punk Band
• Swedish fans bemused by topless protest (FEMEN)
• VIDEO: "The Invisible War" - U.S. military sexism
• PHOTOS: Topless protest in Ukraine for Swedish fans

VIDEO: FEMEN activists go topless chanting "F**k Euro!"

Italian: Miss Euro 2012 supporters paint their nude bodies

PHOTOS: Topless protest at Warsaw Stadium for Euro 2012

FEMEN, like many Europeans, is against the Euro system.

• Who is FEMEN? (Bikini Drill Team @ Occupy LA)

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