Awesome, Charles, you made me almost spit my coffee on one of the beautiful women of California (thin, thin aptop, Ron Paul sticker).

obama lama ding dong. and bop shoo wop.

It is funny reading the NYT and the Seattle Times today. Very different perspectives. NYC has a visit from the Pope and a whole article on the logistics of communion in Yankee Stadium. The NYT has little coverage on the Dalai Lama visit to Seattle.

The difference in coverage and the difference in our cities was so striking. It makes me even happier that I live on the west coast and in Seattle.

Ah, Granola-land: Home of the nuts, fruits and flakes.

Charles, I read a similar sentiment to yours in the NYT on Thursday.
Dalai Lama Arrives for a Five-Day Conference in Seattle, Very Much His Kind of Town

I have a feeling the point of that entire post was so you could type Obama/lama...

Ah the Pope and the Dahli Lama, both leaders of religious cults based in falacy and both the absolute "god" chosen leader of their faiths.

Yeah, real believers in individual freedom, rights of all people (gay included). Theocrats (even eastern ones) are nut jobs and their followers are suffering mental illness.

This Mudede rant was totally worth it, if for no other reason, for the the last sentence.

@7 If you read the Dalai Lama's writings (especially sometihng like his commentary on the Heart Sutra) you'd realize that in Western terms he's an atheist. That's probably why he's so popular here. Or maybe it's the sunglasses.

And now for something completely different:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbwkkXGmFrI

Buddhists and Catholic believe very different things. Similarly, the Pope and the Dalai Lama, while both are religious leaders, say very different things. Perhaps the reason some liberals have a more favorable view of the Dalai Lama than they do of the Pope has something to do with the substance of what he is saying, and is not merely some misplaced fetishism for the Mysteries of the Orient, which seems to be today's fashionable contrarian criticism.

Claiming all religious leaders are cut from the same cloth would lead us us to the conclusion that Martin Luther King was no different than Pat Robertson, that Desmond Tutu was cut from the same cloth as Jim Jones.

Substance matters.

I saw a group of Buddhists in full garb leaving Quest Field on my way into Safeco last night and was amused that all of them were drinking Full Throttle energy drinks.

so whats all this about the lama being head of a theocracy where the serfs were treated like crap and were made to work for this monk goverment. anyway, it caught my attention when i read the interview yesterday or 2 days ago in the seattle times and a local chinese woman was talking about 2 sides of the story. didnt find much via google. im too lazy to do a deep search and im hungover. anybody know if there is any truth to this? just curious.

personally, he seems harmless enough and is cool to be all think peace and it will matearilize, but i think is goofy to adore this guy so much and how is he an atheist if he believes he is the 14th big shit who was reincarnated? sounds as hoky as hey zeus.

Stuff white people like.

@12,

I believe it is true. But as far as two sides of the story goes, plenty of former occupied nations chose some nasty forms of governance after they won independence. You can be sure that the English and the French tried to make similar arguments ("But they won't run their countries the right way!") against leaving colonies in Africa and Asia. It was and still is an inexcusable defense for occupation.

Charles, no mention of the fact that he owned slaves before leaving Tibet?

At least Seattle's pope was never in the Nazi Youth.

The Vatican would only be like Tibet, if the pope fled 50 years a go and then barely mentioned Tibet again, being far to concerned with impressing naive white people.

Didn't ANYONE hear him say that WIMMIN need to be leaders now? WIMMIN! Not Baracks, Not Obamas, Not Husseins, WIMMIN!

Fuck the Dalai Lama. He's a homophobic twat and I am still rankled to see the people that come out in droves for him.

I like it how Dan Savage gets a burr up his ass every time there's a story of some poor-ass ignorant Somali cab driver who won't drive someone with alcohol around town in Minnesota because it's a slippery slope to gay-bashing but this hippie bullshit still gets a free pass for being a few thousand years behind the times?

Chew on this.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_budd.htm

Again, fuck this hippie bullshit. While the Chinese have no business bulldozing Tibetans should a coddled holy man be given a free pass to spout this kind of nonsense rhetoric? No "these sex acts are unacceptable" hair-splitting can fly here if we hope to throw off the yoke of thousands of years of superstitious garbage.

Although they're a completely different sect and creed, I've made the same argument about Li Hongzhi's nutty Falun Gong and the fact that people have seemed to have given them a free pass for homophobia and race-baiting.

Again, fuck the Dalai Lama, and fuck you feel-good hippies who know what he's about and don't take a fucking stand.

All I know is the Dalai Lama can't write prescriptions, so to hell with him.

@19 All human beings are irrational, whether they're religious or anti-religion fanatics like the ones on Slog.

@16...he was living in a totalitarian dictatorship. Everybody was in the Hitler Youth you fucking pinhead. You want to criticize the man? Knock yourself out. But don't waste our time with this tired and wholly inaccurate argument.

and...This hero worship of the Dalai Lama makes me want to puke. For a bunch of smart progressives you really fell easily for this royal pig in robes. Too bad the Tibetans never had a chance to collectively rise up and chop off his head ala Louis XVI.

sorry....no nicotine this morning.

@22: no, I think I will. Considering the Catholic Church's history in regards to Judaism, I think a few cracks about their current leader's Hitler Youth past is the least I could do.

the dude is buff!

I'm a bit cynical about the Dalai Lama, but I think a lot of the criticism of him is overboard.

Yeah, he's nominally the head of a theocratic monarchy. On the other hand, he has lived abroad for a long time and from his public statements he's clearly a supporter of liberal democracy. He has often made statements questioning the idea that he is literally a reincarnation--in fact, his personal beliefs seem best characterized as religiously agnostic. He's made alliances with people from other faiths. He really has taken a stand for non-violence at a time when many influential Tibetans are supporting violent opposition to Chinese rule. He supports equal rights for gays and lesbians, which matters a hell of a lot more than his personally homophobic statements. I'd give the Pope some leeway too if he said that gay men creeped him out but that they should be full members of the church and of society.

Comparing the Dalai Lama with a religious leader (Benedict XIV) who's a retrograde full-on bigot even by the standards of many who share his faith (much less the rest of us) is absurd.