In a link from RavingAtheist.com, I found an interesting artile on Tibet and the Dalai Lama. Romantic notions about the “peaceful” and “harmonious” nature of Tibetan Buddhist monastic life should be tested against reality. The Lithang Monastery in eastern Tibet was where a major rebellion against Chinese rule erupted in 1956. Beijing tried to levy taxes on its trade and wealth. The monastery housed 5000 monks and operated 113 “satellite” monasteries, all supported by the labour of the peasants. Chris Mullin, writing in the Far Eastern Economic Review in 1975, described Lithang’s monks as “not monks in the Western sense …

At Gweilo Diaries I found a link to a somewhat interesting slideshow that’s supposed to depict how (some) “Iranian women are modifying and eroding the strict religious dress rules” in an age when “the ruling righ[t]-wing conservatives are considering the introduction of a unified ‘National Dress’ (Lebaas-e Melli) for women.” Therefore I’m sticking this under “politica” in my category system. So there.

Saddening thoughts on democracy, economics, and the future, all via a webpage that usually cheers me up, Arts & Letters Daily. First, if you’re looking for rhyme and reason in the way people vote, don’t. Studies show not only that many, many voters don’t understand the main issues, and have no real opinions, but that the weather actually affects how this type of person votes. The weather. I’m not joking, but you can read the article by Louis Menand to see for yourself. Second, Cornel West says that we face three major problems: plutocratic, imperial forces are imposing free-market fundamentalism, …

A group of angry women lynched a man accused of rape as he was being escorted into a courthouse in the city of Nagpur in the central Indian State of Maharashtra. Well, if they got the right guy, I can’t say I see any problem with this. Maybe it’ll cause the next guy to think twice before doing the same. via Katolik Shinja.

But this audio essay on one of the pics from Abu Ghraib is worth a listen, I think.

I have no energy to devote to following the Korean medal-related whining going on. I’ve been only barely aware of the Olympics going on, with no TV and having been so busy the last week or so. But most of the Koreabloggers are on top of it: I think the collection of links is perhaps most extensive at Ruminations in Korea. Me, I’m much more interested in the election campaign going on in America. Like how it’s well-known that Bush’s people are orchestrating a Swift Boat campaign that is based on outright lies. (See the NYT graphic for damning evidence …

I shouldn’t be surprised, I suppose. Ritu posted this, by the way.

I found the link to this recent Paul Krugman Op-Ed column over on Julie’s Ill-Sorted Ephemera, and column is

Now it’s not just politics. You can’t choose what to wear on a plane. Why don’t they start issuing standardized paper outfits to all travelers at the airport gate?

In an article at The Chronicle titled Waking Up From the American Dream, Sasha Abramsky worries that the rest of the world is losing faith in the American Dream. In many ways, the Iraq war is merely a pretext for a deeper discontent with how America has seemed to fashion a new global society, a new economic, military, and political order in the decade and a half since the end of the cold war. America may only be riding the crest of a wave of modernization that, in all likelihood, would have emerged without its guiding hand. But add to …