2/22: Burning Valentines

I should have used yesterday's pic today and today's pic yesterday. But anyway; here we see an activist of the army of the Hindu god Shiva. On Valentine's Day, they burned greeting cards as a protest, saying that the holiday is an insult to the Hindu culture.

In the US, Pat Buchanan is the army of Shiva, going on TV to plug his book which says that our culture is doomed to disappear through similar foreign intrusions.

In a way, then, Mr. Buchanan is useful. As countries around the world complain about the exportation of American culture, we can point to him and say "Look! We have the same kinds of complaint from wackos in our country. They're complaining about YOUR culture. We just put them on TV, then on the ballot, allow them to get their 1%, and the problem goes away."

Cultural change is inevitable. No movement could stop it; it is bigger than all of us. The best approach is to push for the bits that are important to yourself, and as for the rest of it, just don't worry. It doesn't concern you.

Dubya speaking in China

I don't see how V-Day is an insult to Hindu culture. Can anyone fill me in?

Those are UT's words, I think.

The direct quotes published in the press may more accurately describe the protest.

I remember one night my Dad came over and we watched TV before the November election. Pat Buchanan was speaking at the time. I left the room, and when I came back he was falling over laughing; he wanted to vote for Buchanan simply to watch him fulfill his campaign promises on TV.

"We're gonna tell the United Nations to get out of our country, and if they don't want to, we'll send a thousand Marines to help them pack."

Pat Buchanan is a schmuck. I will never get over the embarassment of being in the same species as him.

Don't worry about it, dham'.

I personally do not consider him an example of our species...

'Homo sapiens' literally means 'enlightened man', and he is obviously in no way enlightened....

Pat would be the first to tell you he isn't one of them HOMO SAPIENS.

NIc..why here? Its a great quote na dlal but i don't see the relevence. The Irony of bush saying that is jsut delicious though - don't you love the way you can preach one thing to those evil commie places while terrorising "dissidents" at home?

Bah, its called globalisation, we've been nicking bits of eastern culture for centuaries, cultre change, get over it.
Sad thing is - this comes down once again to religious fundamentalism. What can i say?

it's actually...

if the radiance of a thousand suns
were to burst at once into the sky,
that would be like the splendor of the mighty one...
i am become death
the shatterer of worlds.

Oppenheimer said "destroyer". And I'm sure the original wasn't in English anyway, leaving plenty of room for translation differences.

As far as I can tell, there is debate about whether he said "shatterer" or "destroyer". Regardless, what he said is immaterial - he didn't make it up. Of course the original isn't in English, but from what I've read, it translates most directly into "shatterer". Whatever. That wasn't the whole point of the post. The other was that it's not "I have become" - it's "I am become."

No point in arguing it though.