American Buddhist Net

Over the course of the last few weeks I have heard the following comments:

“I have had so many evening meetings lately, I haven’t eaten dinner with my family in 6 weeks.”

“I have gotten only 12 hours of sleep in the last 3 days.”

“I spent 35 hours working on my son’s science fair project last week.”

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WASHINGTON — In a giant auction, the federal government has agreed to sell for pennies on the dollar most of the 120,000 formaldehyde-tainted trailers it bought nearly five years ago for Hurricane Katrina victims. But the sale of the units, perhaps the most visible symbol of the government's bungled response to the hurricane, has triggered a new round of charges that it is endangering future buyers for years to come.

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It's a haiku: Big storm, trailers, sold. ABN

BEIJING — One of China’s top Internet regulators warned bluntly on Friday that any move by Google to stop censoring its Chinese search engine would be “irresponsible” and would draw a response from Beijing.

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This issue is a big deal and this particular case is also a big deal, though not as big as the issue itself which, simply stated, is Internet freedom or not. The Chinese model of a closed and restricted Internet is horrible. I hope they utterly and completely fail. I hope Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Europe also fail in their short-sighted and cowardly attempts at censorship. Right now, the USA is the only major voice in the world supporting an open, uncensored Internet. Americans should be paying attention to world trends and domestic ones and never allow anyone to abridge our freedom of speech. Do not give an inch on this matter because all of world history stands in the balance. ABN

The Federal Communications Commission is proposing an ambitious 10-year plan that will reimagine the nation’s media and technology priorities by establishing high-speed Internet as the country’s dominant communication network.

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This is a must-read and something we have to pay attention to. From what I see in this short piece, the plan looks very good. The devil will come in details that grant too much power to corporations or that permit censorship. ABN

Tarpley makes some good points, but he is missing the crucial point that we have to take sides--either an open Internet or a closed one. For now, the US is far more supportive of an open Internet than China. The Obama administration seems to have made this position clear. I hope they stick to it. An open Internet is BOTH in the best interests of the USA and the world. IF the US abuses the principle of an open Internet, which they may very well do, I will oppose that 100%. But let's wait for that to happen before we oppose it. As for the partnership between Google and the NSA, same difference--it comes down to which side is more pro-open Internet. Yes, it's all dirty politics but there is no way to avoid that, so the US is the best bet again. I do not see anything worth supporting in the Chinese position. I am putting my money on the USA on this one. ABN

Jesse Ventura on AlJazeera w/ Riz Khan (part 2)

WASHINGTON — A complete Tibetan Buddhist shrine room, including a silver Buddha, gem-encrusted adornments and silk scroll paintings, goes on display for the first time in Washington on Saturday.

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TACOMA, Wash. — A 47-year-old woman in Washington state has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for raping her 8-year-old daughter adopted from China.

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The FBI says that the anthrax case is closed, and that they have proved that Dr. Bruce Ivins did it.

But Congress is not convinced.

On March 3, 2010, Representative Holt called for a new investigation:

Last week, [Congressman Holt] succeeded in including language in the 2010 Intelligence Authorization Bill that would require the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community to examine the possibility of a foreign connection to the 2001 anthrax attacks.

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Ventura: ‘You’re not allowed to ask’ about 9/11

FAIRMONT, W.Va. (AP) - Prosecutors in West Virginia have dropped a misdemeanor charge that accused an FBI security guard of spying on girls as they tried on prom gowns at a Fairmont mall.

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by Gavan McCormack

For a country in which ultra-nationalism was for so long a problem, the weakness of nationalism in contemporary Japan is puzzling. Six and a half decades after the war ended, Japan still clings to the apron of its former conqueror. Government and opinion leaders want Japan to remain occupied, and are determined at all costs to avoid offence to the occupiers. US forces still occupy lands they then took by force, especially in Okinawa, while the Government of Japan insists they stay and pays them generously to do so. Furthermore, despite successive revelations of the deception and lies (the secret agreements) that have characterized the Ampo relationship, one does not hear any public voice calling for a public inquiry into it.2 Instead, on all sides one hears only talk of "deepening" it. In particular, the US insists the Futenma Marine Air Station on Okinawa must be replaced by a new military complex at Henoko, and with few exceptions politicians and pundits throughout the country nod their heads.

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The US Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether vitriolic anti-gay protesters who picket the funerals of US soldiers are protected by free speech laws.

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A former Transportation Security Administration contractor is being charged in Colorado for allegedly injecting malicious code into a government network used for screening airport security workers and others.

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CANNABIS CULTURE - Ex-narcotics officer Barry Cooper is fuming over a police raid on his home and plans to sue the officers and officials involved for $30 million, calling their conduct "obvious retaliation" for a sting operation he pulled on Texas police for his show KopBusters.

"We are going to sue every Williamson County officer involved in the raid, the judges who signed my warrants, the sheriffs department, and the jail for false imprisonment," Cooper told Cannabis Culture. "According to my lawyers, it will be about $30 million."

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Barry and Candi Cooper speak out about their arrest

...The West Covina Buddhist Temple is offering a lecture series called "Buddhism and Christianity" by Baptist Missionary Dickson Yagi at 7 p.m. Tuesday [March 16].

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The American Civil Liberties Union sued state prison officials and a private company Thursday, claiming violence is so rampant at the Idaho Correctional Center that it's known as "gladiator school" among inmates.

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COLUMBIA, S.C. — Neighbors were chagrined last week when the police here found the body of a 75-year-old woman who had frozen to death, alone in her house, during unexpectedly frigid weather.

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Well-worth reading this story. ABN

New York (CNN) -- The WTC Captive Insurance Co. announced settlements Thursday with more than 10,000 plaintiffs who claimed sickness or injuries after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The settlements could total up to $657 million.

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IN the wake of the Congressional hearings on the Toyota recalls, we have heard various proposals for countering unintended acceleration in automobiles.

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...National Surveys on Drug Use and Health show a rate of lifetime inhalant use among 12 year olds of 6.9 percent, compared to a rate of 5.1 percent for nonmedical use of prescription type drugs; a rate of 1.4 percent for marijuana; a rate of 0.7 percent for use of hallucinogens; and a 0.1 rate for cocaine use.

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UTICA — A Buddhist temple finally received permission this week to erect a religious statue on its North Utica property.

The city’s Zoning Board of Appeals at its Tuesday meeting granted an area variance to the Dau Trang Minh Dang Quang Temple on Riverside Drive, putting an end to an issue that has been the subject of much debate in recent months.

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Be sure to read ABN's blog on this issue here. Robyn

...“These sexualized images are all commercially driven. The younger the demographic advertisers target, the more they can create cradle-to-grave consumers.” (And gone-to-early-grave parents.) Tweens were already the “most powerful consumer group since the baby boom" -- a $335 billion market -- in 2004. By 2007, according to Durham, the tween market had reached $700 billion worldwide.

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Kemp said Ivins repeatedly denied that he sent the letters or that he developed the deadly anthrax spores. And Kemp cited Ivins' fellow scientists, who insisted he was incapable of making such a high-grade, dried anthrax with the equipment available at his workplace at the Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases in Frederick, Md.

"There's not one shred of evidence to show he did it," Kemp said.

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Henry Judy, the pastor of Life Point Church in Bonita Springs, is being accused by parishioners of bilking them out of $60,000.

Judy could not be reached for comment, but the Lee County Sheriff’s Office is investigating.

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SALT LAKE CITY — Nearly two decades after vets began returning from the Middle East complaining of Gulf War Syndrome, the federal government has yet to formally accept that their vague jumble of symptoms constitutes a legitimate illness. Here, at the Society of Toxicology annual meeting, yesterday, researchers rolled out a host of brain images — various types of magnetic-resonance scans and brain-wave measurements — that they say graphically and unambiguously depict Gulf War Syndrome.

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A school in America has decided to cancel its prom dance after a lesbian student demanded she be able to attend with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo.

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DETROIT | Detroit, the very symbol of American industrial might for most of the 20th century, is drawing up a radical renewal plan that calls for turning large swaths of this now-blighted, rusted-out city back into the fields and farmland that existed before the automobile.

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