Top 25 CENSORED stories of the year

ProjectCensored.org; Wisdom Quarterly

Project Censored 2013 is now available

  

Project Censored director Mickey Huff was recently interviewed for "Inside Story."  He discussed the ongoing problems of censorship and under-reporting in the US. Moreover, he highlighted some of 2012's most significant stories -- like the emerging police state, Fukushima, Occupy -- published in Censored 2013: Dispatches From the Media Revolution.

Censored 2013 focuses on the importance of independent journalism for democratic self-government. And it holds to account the corporate-owned ("mainstream") media for their failure to provide responsible and relevant news coverage.
  
The book has additional chapters of original analysis covering drones and targeted killing, “GuatánamoSpeak,” the democracy movement in Kashmir, corporate education “reform,” Iraq... 

Top 25 Censored Stories

1. Signs of an emerging Police State
2. Oceans in peril
3. Fukushima Nuclear disaster worse than anticipated
4. FBI agents responsible for majority of terrorist plots in US
5. First Federal Reserve audit reveals trillions loaned to banks
6. Small network of corporations run global economy
7. 2012: The International Year of Cooperatives
8. NATO War Crimes in Libya
9. Prison slavery in today’s USA
10. HR 347 would make many forms of non-violent protest illegal
11. Members of Congress grow wealthier despite recession
12. US joins forces with al-Qaeda in Syria
13. Education “reform” a Trojan Horse for privatization
14. Who are the Top 1 Percent and how do they earn a living?
15. Dangers of everyday technology
16. Sexual violence against soldiers on rise, under wraps
17. Students crushed by One Trillion dollars in student loans
18. Palestinian women prisoners shackled during childbirth
19. NY police PLANT drugs on innocents to meet arrest quotas
20. Stealing from public ed. to feed prison-industrial complex
21. Conservatives attack Post Office to break Union and privatize
22. Wachovia Bank laundered money for Latin drug cartels
23. US covers up [another] Afghan massacre
24. Alabama farmers look to replace migrants with prisoners
25. Evidence points to Guantánamo dry boarding

(Marc Pilisuk) The unjust foundations favoring the 1% over the 99% are everywhere. The Occupy Movement has found many targets among the corporate elite. The financial and extraction sectors have been clearly located (Phillips and Soeiro, 2012).  But one hard to find target is the behind-the-scenes force propelling us toward nuclear war...

• REPORT: Media Freedom Foundation Project Censored
• Project Censored Book Release Celebration Party
• VIDEO: California "Censored 2013" book release
• Occupying the Merchants of Death

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2012 Mayan meditation on Death

Dhr. Seven, Amber Dorrian, Xochitl, Wisdom Quarterly (COUNTDOWN CLOCK: -8)

Mayan meditator sits cross-legged in earth-witnessing gesture (news.discovery.com)

World knows (indianetzone)

Buddhism came to America long enough ago to affect the various empires that ruled what is now Mexico and Central America -- the Maya and Aztecs, possibly the Olmecs, Toltecs, and other predecessors as well. 

"Impossible! Preposterous!" those who have not read How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America  (Rick Fields, Shambhala) will say. But those who have read it will understand that the country Guatemala may derive from the name Gautama (the Buddha's surname) + mala (meditation beads, rosary). 

 

"Maya" (Mayans) comes from the Buddha's beautiful mother, Maya. The word literally means "illusion," a nod to her illusory/unreal/too-goo-t-be-true beauty. So much of our Western culture is doubly influenced by Buddhism without most of the Western world noticing. (Scholars in the past may well have discovered this, but they buried the finding to prop up Christendom and exaggerated the East-West divide).

Buddhism entered ancient Greece, the cradle of Western civilization, before going to China. 

 

What will 12-21-12 mean? A new cycle.

Moreover, Alexander the Great created a united Indo-Greco empire that included parts of northwestern India as a Hellenistic realm (Bactria, Scythia, Sogdiana, Parthia, etc.). This occasioned a great cultural exchange, East (India and beyond) and West (now called Central Asia but once ancient Greece), planting many of the precious ideas we take as uniquely Greek contributions:

Democracy and the atomic theory, which the Buddha taught as the Monastic Order's Disciplinary Code (the parliamentary procedures regulating the Sangha) and kalapas or the theory that qualitatively different elementary particles form the basis of materiality. That is only the beginning.

 

"Do not let craving for pleasure distract you from meditation or the Path. Free yourself instead from both pleasure and pain" (H-K-D/flickr.com).

 
All of this may seem impossibly difficult to accept. But it is in line with the Buddha's claim that there are Four Imponderables, the first of which is the extent of the influence of a samma-sam-buddha (a supremely awakened teacher of liberation from all suffering). 

The Mahayana message -- having formed in India and been imported by China, which sent missionaries to the holy land to gather more of this marvelous Dharma -- took Eastern teachings attributed to "the Light of the East" out into the world.

But by this time the Dharma was already successfully being supplanted by Brahmanism (later folded into Hinduism) ideas the Buddha had troubled himself greatly to correct. 

Therefore, Mahayana Buddhism, early Christianity, and modern Hinduism have a great deal in common. It is not coincidence. They all took and blended the historical Buddha's message combining it with Vedantic Brahmanism and Mithraism (Zoroastrianism of Thus Spake Zarathustra fame).

Meditation
Okay. That's the backdrop. Now the question is, How to meditate? There is an old-timey Southern Christian saying: "Everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die."

How can we enter the new without leaving behind the old? 

The New Age awaits. And we ourselves are ready to go. But, oh, the baggage! Let go, let go, let go, repeating "letting go" is not letting go. We CANNOT let go as a simple act of will. However, here is something we can do, something the Buddha recommended.

Star Trek's Spock, the West's idea of exotic Eastern "cool" (anhedonia)

 

Spock and Modernism (Age of Intuition)

It was a brilliant realization Siddhartha had under the Bodhi tree. Why not reflect on the unsavory aspects of the things we are attached to that hold us behind? All things have multiple aspects, savory and unsavory, a flipside, a hidden danger. We struggle to keep the pleasant in mind, fall into depression not being able to ignore the unpleasant. But there is a better way, even better than Spock-like dispassion. Let's look at the repulsive (asubha) with a view to letting the mind/heart shake itself free of all bonds.
  

WARNING: Foul! Not suitable for any age! Meditators only!

 
Lust, Lust, Lust

"Lust, lust,lust!"

What are we attached to? Bodies? Lust for form, beauty, sensuality? Most of us are attached to something as basic as this.
 
(A recent scientific study found that Americans like Sex, Alcohol, and other distracting pleasures best. Science can be fun if this constitutes a study. Of course, pleasant distractions are no solution).

Pleasure is fun, and we've had tons of fun, not only in this life but in countless lives before this. The pain has been enormous. At some time it gets to feeling pointless and unprofitable. Things can happen so that great suffering comes our way, we forget what we've learned, and we swirl out of control on a downward spiral. That is a danger during the good times.

(death skull/tumblr.com)

Becoming a partial "saint" (stream entry and beyond) in Buddhism is not the end of pleasure. Sakka, ruler of the devas, lives in the Sense Sphere space world enjoying a great deal of sensual pleasure. And yet, for all that, he is destined for complete freedom (nirvana) without ever being reborn below the human plane. Why? He is a stream-enterer assured of complete enlightenment within seven lives.

Reflecting on the 32 parts of the body instantly cures craving and pining for sensual lusts. (The way to bring lust back is unwise reflection on the attractive aspects of bodies, but neglect and carelessness also work very well). 

Moreover, reflecting on the inevitability of death -- or better yet contemplating the death that is happening right now and cannot be stopped or slowed down, which is the knowing-and-seeing of anicca or "radical impermanence" -- has a wonderful healing effect: 

For a moment, maybe only an instant, the mind/heart lets go!

It opts not to cling to the (partly) repulsive, the utterly futile, the insidiously painful.

Don't worry; ignorance and illusion quickly reassert themselves, and we can know something full well in the mind without being affected in the heart: We just ignore until we forget, and the veil comes over our eyes us again. So this is a very safe meditation. 

The only way to get it to work permanently is to develop neighborhood-concentration or full-absorption (jhana) first followed by insight-practice (vipassana) based on the at purifying-intensifying meditative foundation.

A beautiful death? (Zemotion.Deviantart.com/Zhangjingna.com)

Reflecting on Death
(10 Mindful Recollections, Path of Purification, VII)

(KenLeePhotography.com)

''Recollection of death, developed and frequently practiced, yields great reward, great blessing, has deathlessness (nirvana) as its goal and object. But how may such recollection be developed?

"As soon as the day declines, or as the night vanishes and the day is breaking, the meditator reflects: 'Truly, there are many possibilities for me to die: I may be bitten by a snake or stung by a scorpion or a centipede, and thereby lose my life. This would be an obstacle for me. Or I may stumble and fall to the ground, or food eaten may not agree with me; or bile, phlegm, and piercing bodily gases may become disturbed, or people or ghosts may attack me, and I may lose my life. This would be an obstacle for me.' Then one has to consider: 'Are there still to be found in me unsubdued harmful, unwholesome things which, if I should die today or tonight, might lead me to suffering?' If one understands that this is the case, one should use the utmost resolution, energy, effort, endeavor, steadfastness, diligence, attentiveness, and clear-mindedness in order to overcome these harmful, unwholesome things" (A VIII, 74). More

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Burma's amazing ethnic Karen people

Wisdom Quarterly; Harry Ignatius Marshall, "The Karen People of Burma: A Study in Anthropology and Ethnology" (a Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook, No.: 0800061h.html)

From Scandinavia to Southeast Asia with love: working with the Karen on the Burma-Thailand border. "I am very fortunate to work with these fantastic people!" (Line Ramstad)

 

Page: Meet Burma's dictator.

We are American Buddhists. We love Burma and ALL the people of Burma, a fraction of which is not Buddhist. Some of the loveliest are the Karen. We are American Buddhists. We do not stand idly by while Dictator Than Shwe and his military regime run the country into the ground then sell it out to the highest bidder (which used to be a Chinese relative of Gen. Shwe but is now US Sec'y of State Hillary Clinton). Burma's monastic-led Saffron Revolution was against this criminal military regime. Revolutions, however, started long before and continue to be waged by ethnic minority rebels fighting for their lives and separate identities, like the desperate Rohingya.
 

The gorgeous, animist Karen (phototravelasia)

MOUNTAINS OF BURMA - To many a visitor to Burma, who views the country from the deck of an Irrawaddy River streamer or from the window of a railway carriage, there appears to be little difference between [Sino-Tibetan speaking ethnic Burmese tribes] THE KAREN and the Burman.

This is not strange, for many individuals of the non-Burman tribes wear the Burmese costume and speak the Burmese language, and they present no markedly different characteristics in feature or color of skin.

I have often heard the remark that "there is no difference between the Burman and the Karen." It is doubtless because the Government of Burma recognizes that there is a difference in the tribal characteristics, customs, and religion that it has adopted the wise policy of publishing a series of complete studies, of which this purports to be one, of these various peoples.

Karen in the mountain jungle (karen.org.au)

If the reader will have the patience to read these pages, it is hoped that he will realize that, though the Karen have lived for generations in the closest proximity to the Burmese, they preserve their own racial traits, which are quite distinct from those of their more volatile neighbors with whom they have had little in common.
 

This work deals more particularly with the Sgaw branch of the Karen people. My own experience has been more intimate with this tribe, though I have known many of the other groups. This circumstance, together with the fact that the Bwe and Taungthu peoples have already been described in the Upper Burma Gazetteer...

[SEX] THE GUEST-CHAMBER AND CLUB-ROOM

Rebels in Burma (moreintelligentlife.com)

In the earlier days among the Karen of the hills the "blaw" was an important feature of village life....It is the guest and club-room reserved in the central part of the village-house. Strangers coming in for a visit or passing by on their journey are entertained here. Such a convenience was quite necessary in the days when the taboo of the "Bgha" feast was strictly observed and no outsider was allowed to enter the family-rooms.

My party and I have been entertained in the "blaw" of villages in the Pegu Hills on the Tharrawaddy side, while on tour.

Gautama Buddha (N.A./flickr.com)

In one village, which had adopted some Buddhist practices, along one side of the guest-room extended a high shelf upon which stood a small image of Gautama Buddha, with the usual offerings of paper flage and wilted leaves and flowers.

At the back of the room was the raised dais on which I spread my bed, but I was prevented from enjoying a good night's rest by the number of other occupants. My cook prepared my meals at the little fireplace in the middle of the room. The villagers sat about and visited with us. When meal-time came the women and girls brought in their generous supplies of food, consisting of two large trays piled high with snow-white steaming rice, besides smaller trays and bowls filled with several kinds of curry, "ngape" water, and vegetables.

The visitors were expected to eat something from every dish. While the meal was in progress the hosts withdrew, except one or two elders, the women returning afterwards to clear away the dishes and uneaten food with the polite remark that their guests had eaten very little. Many shared in receiving us, and we were spared the embarrassment, not to say the danger according to our belief, of violating the taboo that prevented our being entertained at the time by family in their own quarters.

Burmese migrant worker rallies in Thailand holding up a sign that reads: "Mother Aung San Suu Kyi, Be Happy," May 31, 2012 (Wason Wanichakorn/AP/In Focus/TheAtlantic.com)

 
Besides serving as a guest-chamber, the "blaw" has another important use, namely, as the gathering-place for the young men of the village. When a boy becomes a youth ("hpo tha hkwa taw"), he is expected to spend his leisure time in his parents' room, working and eating with them, as seems to be the custom. When evening comes, he repairs to the "blaw" to be with his fellows and to sleep there.

This is a custom that is common among the Kachins of Burma and many other tribes of the Orient. Among the Kachins the "blaw" is a place of license.
  
The Brecs also allow a great deal of liberty to their young people, and evidently advantage of it is taken by them. But among the Sgaw Karens, at any rate, the girls remain with their mothers. There is no common room for the girls, or any place where both youths and maidens may meet for restrained intercourse.
 

No doubt among the Karen the use of the "blaw" as a club-room is for the purpose of keeping the young men together and separating them from the young women, thus preventing offense of the "by na," which would bring a curse upon the soil and damage to the crops.

(Gereb/flickriver.com)

It has never been possible for parents to prevent all social intercourse between young people of the opposite sexes. In fact, it has hardly ever been attempted.

As is shown elsewhere in this volume, there are occasions among the Karen when the sexes mingle, for example on fishing expeditions and at marriages, funerals, etc. If, however, a youth desires to visit a maiden, etiquette prescribes the way: he must take his harp ("t' na"), appear before her house, and serenade her. Sitting down, he sings to the accompaniment of his instrument.

If she replies to his request to be permitted to visit with her, she does so on the jew's-harp ("t' xe"), answering him in verse. He then mounts the ladder and they visit together, either singing over "htas" already familiar to them or, if skilled in improvising, putting their own thoughts into rhyme. If too long an interval should elapse without the sound of either instrument, the elders would very likely put in an appearance to find out the reason.

Love runs in two directions (Line Ramstad)

The precept on indolence is full of moralizing. It condemns laziness and enjoins hard work in order to obtain paddy [raw rice]. It teaches the people to do their work with cheerfulness and gladness, as also thoroughly and well. "We love happiness," says the precept, "and our greatest happiness is to clear our fields and build our houses.
 
Everything is in the earth. Work hard with the hoe to dig it out, and one can buy drums and silver and other things. It is better to work for wealth than to obtain it by raids and forays." This saying overlooks neither the spiritual nor material reward of labor.

The precept on helping the poor, as well as those on fornication and adultery, contain references to famine, indicating that periods of extreme dearth of food must have been of frequent occurrence among the Karen. Fornication and adultery are dreadful sins because, among other reasons, they produce bad crops and scarcity of game. In times of famine the rich should help the poor...

Karen flee gunfire, mortars (DailyMail.co.uk)

The presence of certain birth-marks on the children of Mongolian parents has been thought by some scientists to be an important criterion for distinguishing members of that race.[3-3] The Karen infants certainly have these blue patches on the back and buttocks. Sometimes they are so indistinct as to be hardly noticeable... The Karen explanation for them is that they are the stains of leaves, on which the spirits of the children sat or laid down to rest in the course of their long and wearisome journey from their former abode.
    
These marks are thought to show that the children having them will be strong, and mothers are glad to see them on their offspring. Perhaps they reason that if the baby spirit was able to stand the long journey necessary to come to the birth, it will endure the longer journey of this human existence.

I have noticed a few cases of homosexuals among the Karen, though they do not seem to be as common as among the Burmese. These individuals, who assume more or less the dress and customs of the [other] sexes, have been known to contract unions with the same sex to live as husband and wife. The cases I found have all been on the plains. More
  

 

Felicity Huffman gives voice to the "Burma: It Can't Wait" campaign

• PHOTO GALLERY: Changing Face of Burma
• Karen people website (karen.org) 
• Burmese escape fighting on Thai border 
• Buddhist temples burned (Burma/Bangladesh) 
• Karen refugees fleeing to Thailand
• Meet Burma's Opposition
• Burma: It Can't Wait (petition)

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"Stripper Poll" predicts election results

Wisdom Quarterly; US.myspace.com/Power106; FitsNews.com

Strippers who work poles are the best source of predictive poll results (fitsnews.com)

   

Capitalism (Chad Chowe/online.WSJ.com)

Exit polls, entrance poles, polls of likely voters, polls of voters with cell phones but no land line... Who better to ask whom to vote for than pole dancers?

  

Pick a candidate, any candidate. You get a choice between the two sides of the same one. There is no third option, unless you're trying to make a statement. And WQ is.

  

So next time we get our turn again, right?

Who do strippers want if they are let out of the club to vote (which is their legal right with two hours of pay)? They are overwhelmingly for B.S. Obama. But throughout the Bible Belt, strippers working among older white businessmen say they are for Bishop Romney.

MIC told me in advance, but I didn't believe it.

How the the ballot measures breakdown? "What's that?" strippers ask. Would you like to know what's in food you buy? Yes. Then vote yes on 37 in California. Or, you know, read that newspaper thingy they said. It explains things in needlessly misleading language.

"Why would it be misleading?" Because democracy is the worst form of government... except for all the others. We should really give it a try someday. There's no time for this (s)election, but maybe next time.

• NPR poll finds presidential race too close to call
• The Last PEW Poll on Eve of Election (NPR)

RESULTS
What do the strippers predict? Obama may not win, but he will be the president (of the corporation) for another four years. Even if the Electoral College or Supreme Court has to hand him the crown Bush-style, he will be king. Strippers have spoken. Bishop Rmoney never really had a chance, even with rampant voter suppression. (This is carried out in various ways but it is most egregious with racial minorities being given "provisional" ballots that count for next to nothing). This is why no authentic Republican was allowed to run. Monsanto, Inc. is likely to prevail in its deception on labeling its genetically modified foodstuffs as per MIC agreement. Libertarian Gary Johnson will ride marijuana to the top in Colorado. California will see through sex trafficking ballot measure that tried to overreach for the police state.

• Mitt Romney's role as Mormon bishop shows his extremist religious beliefs

6:00 pm DemocracyNow! national election special
9:00 pm KPFA/KPFK statewide election special
10:00 pm (Spanish election) Informe en español
11:00 pm KPFA/KPFK special: News Team

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Can RAP Music Fans be Buddhists? (video)

Boo and Tee tag team interview (edited by Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Seven), Wisdom Quarterly

Artistic inked rendition of Boo and Tee (tattoo art by Erika Doyon/StudioArtease)

    

The Godfather of Soul James Brown

"Yeah we #1/Boo the color of mayonnaise/Tee the color of Akon/Trippin like a purpa haze/Got our tie we on/[Rap] her under the table/But babe she won."

  

The question arises around the campus offices of Wisdom Quarterly: Can someone be a Buddhist AND a hip hop gangsta-rap music fan?
 

What would Sid do? (weeklyvolcano.com)

"Of course," one might answer, "anyone who listens to the Beastie Boys might be both!" But "Brass Monkey" or even "So What Cha Want" is not what most people mean by "rap" nowadays. That's vintage hip hop. And it is now the gangsta rap genre that appears to be dominating the limelight and sucking all the air out of the room. Can those fans be Buddhists? We have already seen Buddhists in metal and punk genres.
 
WARNING: May trigger epileptic seizures. Explicit language! Earworm content.

  

There are far more US White and Brown rap fans than Blacks (not as a proportion but in total numbers). Boo and Tee are White-Latino, which makes sense in our increasingly blended Amerika, which manages to remain racist. They point out that rap superstars Cypress Hill happily combined the efforts of a Mexican (B'Real), Afro-American (Sen Dog), and Scandinavian (DJ Muggs), and whose final member (Bobo) had previously recorded and performed with the Beastie Boys.

"Latin Thugs" ft. Tego Calderon combines horns, beats, gang-violence

This popular sub-genre seems to glorify alcohol abuse, drug consumption and/or sales, "partying," casual sex, violence, sexism, gang banging, hyper-masculinity, false bravado, grotesque/comical conspicuous consumption ("bling") celebrating capitalism, and other realities of American society -- particularly the leisurely life of suburban denizens attempting to imitate their imaginary version of day-to-day urban survival.

On one extreme Tyga may be all about Rack City b-tches, but J. Cole likes the easygoing island version on "Can't Get Enough." Both appear to be obsessing.
 

Kanye West is much to blame in this regard with No. 1 hits alongside 2 Chainz, Katy Perry, JZ, and a whole stable of up-and-coming rappers -- and making Tadolf Swiftler cry by stealing her limelight that time.

QUESTION: Tee, are there any songs that you feel demonstrate this penchant of modern rap music to excess and heedlessness with regard to the Five Basic Precepts?

The original pompadour, hips, and showmanship

TEE: F@#% yeah, like, Kendrick Lamar, "Swimming Pools (Drank)." Y'know, White Man stole the Black Man's music. Called it rock 'n roll. Same thing happening here. They invent it; The Man reinvents it and cashes in. Elvis vs. James Brown, Eminem vs DMX. So who got more RAP IQ points than we do?

WARNING: Alcoholic themes, profanity.

QUESTION: Same question, Boo?

BOO: Sure 'nuff, totally, like "Bottoms Up" by Trey Songz featuring Nicki Minaj [ignores the precepts].
 
QUESTION: And you two are "Buddhists"?

BOO: Yeah. I guess.
TEE: Yes, I am.

Cartoon simulation of Tee rapping ("Family Guy")

QUESTION: How do you reconcile the two endeavors?

BOO: What do you mean?
TEE: I feel you, but it can be done. It's easy with Zen Buddhism. I don't drink anymore, but some Zen monks drink. What's up with that? Sake and sh-t...
BOO: Oh, they go. I'm in recovery. I mean, I still clean the screen. That's medicine. But I quit everything else. The Dharma keeps me in check, meditating. Keeps my head straight.
TEE: Think of it like this. Hey-Zeus [the Judeo-Christian Godman Issa] was preaching to who? The pimps and hoes, not the temple folk, right?
BOO: It's the new "rock 'n roll," grand concerts, big stadium arena shows, same as seeing Lennon or Zeppelin.
  
WARNING: Explicit content, vulgarity, celebration of alcohol abuse, sexual situations!
  

The N-Word

King Kanye and Kim (perezhilton.com)

QUESTION: Ah, then there's the gratuitous "n-word." Exceeded in frequency only by the s- and b- and f-words.  It gets to be a bit much, no?

BOO: Yeah. But it's free speech.
TEE: Yeah. Who needs political speech when we could be cussing? I'm sure that's what Founding Fathers like John Footpenis had in mind.
BOO: *Laughing*

QUESTION: Then there's the whole Kim Kardashian connection, who seems to be a hybrid, more alien than human. Not only her but the Canadian cousins Justin Bieber, Avril Lavigne, Ryan Gosling, and Celine Dion, not to mention unrelated unnatural (supernatural) artists like Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj. [See below and "Sex and Justin Bieber."]

TEE: Blame Seacrest for that.
BOO: She's a st-pid h-. Kanye can't be blamed for that. He just capitalizing on her fame.
TEE: Yeah, and he's not even a baller [sports figure] except in the sense that he's a player [street guy who made it]!
BOO: He think he da new Sean "Puff Daddy Baby Jesus" Combs dating J-Lo. P!nk is embarrassing.

QUESTION: Is there a rap song that's not embarrassing?

TEE:  Totally! What about "Cashing Out" by Ca$h Out? It's like [the movie] "The Secret." Fake it till you make it. Anything by Minaj may be silly, but it's hella popular among White moms and their [pre-adolescent] daughters [and ABCNews' GMA].
BOO: Yeah, yeah, and that's not all. Plenty a artists drop great joints [release excellent songs]. Karmin? Kidding!
 
All ages. Child safe. Karmin does her best Nicki Minaj on "Suiper Bass."
 
QUESTION: Bottom line, Can a person be a hip hop (gangsta) rap fan and a Buddhist?

  

The Buddha comforts Kisa G

BOO: To be completely mindful is to be able to distinguish between what you like and what they want you to like. 

  

It's the same with being a punk and a Buddhist -- a movement based on chaos and anarchy and destruction going hand in hand with the centered, mindful, and ultimately serene approach of Buddhists?

To listen to rap and know -- despite all the violence and drugs involved in the culture and the explicit content of the lyrics -- is to distinguish and enjoy the music. What they [the rappers] say has no destructive impact on you. That's one Buddhist's bumbling rap. I don't know.

TEE: Damn, girl, straight up. Testify! Swerve! I just like the beat mostly. And 2 Chainz's preposterous imagination:


WARNING: Explicit content, vulgarity, sexual situations, and gratuitous violence!

WARNING: Light profanity, violent situations, drug use! Gangsta rap has something for everyone. This one's for suburban dads: "Boyz in the Hood" (Dynamite Hack).
   
WISDOM QUARTERLY: Thank you for the discourse and your exquisite decorum!

BOO: WTF?
TEE: Heh?

QUESTION: Boo, would you like to do a closing "rap" like Tee's opener?

BOO: You can hear me live at Get Lit's Open Mic (Wed., Oct. 17, 2012 @ Actor's Gang Theatre, 9070 Venice Bl., LA).

QUESTION: Would you mind coming back for a Part II?

TEE: Love to!
BOO: Love to!

We Are One

"Earthmen are easy!" (Travis Charest)

The only race is the human race -- but it extends into space. Hybrid devic beings like Kim Kardashian and other sex-crazed "stars" are the main attraction/distraction. Asuras, nagas, yakkhas, and devas (titans, reptilians, ogres, and dubious "angels" or fairies) make their contribution as Kanye contributes genes on behalf of the terrestrial humans. All hail the "king"!

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