Our party is in free fall. How do we attract more minorities to the conservative movement? I have a brilliant idea!
Ramesh Ponnuru, I pray you did not have a hand in this. I ask you to meditate upon this to ask yourself if this is truly the path to Nirvana and out of the ocean of suffering. The slanted eyes were a nice touch.
at no other time in history have conservative publications, high-brow no less, participated so willingly in what is quite transparently a rope-a-dope political maneuver.
the buck teeth and slaty eyes are a nice tojo-esque touch. what charming, high-brow satire! I bow down at your intellectual subtlety and cleverness oh national review overlords.
uh… for those too young to remember, rope-a-dope was a strategy to tire the opponent out. ali took great punishment but wore foreman out. one needs great fortitude and skill t owithstand the onslaught. But THIS isnt strategy. more like autoerotic asphyxiation.
lets settle on this
I guess in alot of her speeches she refers to herself as “wise Latina”
So I can see the humor in that.
I aint going to hate on it.
NRO is going down the drain. Once upon a time, it used to be a readable publication that argues its points quite well, whether or not you agreed with them. The arguments used to be precise and clinical, not emotional and hysterical. Once upon a time. Now it’s pushing out crap like a Fox & Friends fanboy/fangirl. Even by its own relaxed standards for excellence, Mark Krikorian has taken it to a new low: how to pronounce Sotomayor’s name the “English” way. I strongly suspect that some baboons from TPM and Huffington Post have infiltrated The Corner and NR/NRO, to destroy their remaining credibility from the inside. It’s impossible for any self-respecting conservative to really be that foolish. Heartless, maybe. Brainless, no way.
Therefore, Ramesh Ponnuru and Mark Krikorian are far-left liberal TPM stooges who have infiltrated NRO to destroy its credibility.
Yeah, she called herself a wise latina… but whats with her sitting as Buddha, that too a East Asian version of Buddha. The context doesn’t make any sense. Maybe they were going for the Latinos, the South Asians and East Asians in one shot. Wonder why they didn’t make her darker and appealed to the African Americans as well.
And Manju: awesome link, it does seem that way for the republicans these days!!
but whats with her sitting as Buddha, that too a East Asian version of Buddha
but most people imagine buddha as east asian.
Most people? Do you mean Americans? He doesn’t look East Asian to these folks, here, or here or here or here or even here.
Do you mean Americans?
yes. i’m not aware that national review has a big non-american subscription base (seeing as it is focused on american politics).
Not to dwell on this too long, since either way its out of context for a Latina….. I don’t believe most Americans associate Buddha to East Asia. In any case, even if Buddha is imagined by Americans as East Asian, why is she wearing saffron robes, which definitely have a South Asian association.
I agree with pingpong that NR has gone downhill pretty steeply. The same is true IMO of The New Republic. I bet it has something to do with the rise of blogs–I read Andrew Sullivan’s blog, for example, but no longer read NR or TNR.
why is she wearing saffron robes
most common buddhist robe color. nearly universal among the therevada i think.
and for the record, it was intended as a reference to the buddha according to NR’s editor.
also, this is not the first national review asian caricature cover controversy. i do recall john o’sullivan, the editor at the time, going on CNN and accusing those who were accusing him of insensitivity of insensitivity. it was really weird.
How do y’all get “Buddha” out of this pick? Is Sonia Buddhist? Isn’t it just meant to be a general yogi/rishi type charicature?
i honestly didn’t get the offense when i saw this, though i wacked NR earlier because they’ve bean saying some other stupid shit(like don’t pronounce sotomayer’s name properly). somehow, i guess being american, i’m more attuned to caricatures of blacks, but there’s a long history and and completely different context there that justifies a very different sensitivity level…one that i doesn’t easily transfer onto asians or hispanics.
but boy, the progressive blogesphere is gong ape shit over this. they’re like speechless as if its so obvious. i think they think NR confused stereotypes, mistaking a Latino for a Buddhist in a sort of they all look alike way. i think NR just wanted to portray her as wise so they mashed up cultures. and wise is a positive stereotype right? isn’t that allowed? so i decided to seek the opinion of a real Indian.
Manju: look at this Manju’s Mommy: Oh yes, a lotus, she’s praying like we do… Manju: they’re saying its racist, what do yo think? Manju’s Mommy: No, it’s not racist. (now, I was about to report back victoriously that the people have spoken, but i deiced to continue with the interview) Manju: But what do you think of it, is it nice? Manju’s Mommy: No, its not nice, they’re making fun of the Indian.
there you have it, form someone with street cred.
buddha was wise.
Buddha is associated with east asian culture more than south asian culture.Nepalese will be mad if you said Buddha was born in India.
I thought they were saying she was sexy and funny, what with the off-shoulder dress and the Jay Leno chin.
You say that after the behavior of movement conservatives over the past 8 years, and their continuing spectacular implosion?
Never mind the Hindu nationalists. They try to appropriate everything from Taj Mahal to Buddha.
Facts: 1. Gautama Buddha was born in present day Nepal. 2. His movement was against institutionalized apartheid and racism in religion, much of which still exists today. 3. There are more Buddhists in East Asia than all of the subcontinent.
well, the “hindu nationalists” and most others who say that would be right about buddha. siddhartha was born in modern day nepal, but spent a majority of his life in modern day bihar. the holiest sites of buddhism are in india, not nepal or east asia.
more to the point, buddhism borrows heavily from indian philosophy just as jainism does. it is quite fair to consider these religions to be logical additions to hinduism. secondly, while buddhism as a religion has officially more adherents in east asia, the two religions’ (buddhism and jainism) effect on india and hinduism is undeniable—vegetarianism, some of the biggest empires in india, even india’s national emblem today. while buddhism was the more aggressive strain politically, the more ascetic jainism and the bhakti movement have had a bigger influence in removing/reducing caste influences.
Where did this statement that Buddhism was designed to cleanse Hinduism of apartheid, casteism, … come from? Is it merely left-wing intellectuals writing a history of Hinduism that buttresses their own agenda?
Where did this statement that Buddhism was designed to cleanse Hinduism of apartheid, casteism, … come from? Is it merely left-wing intellectuals writing a history of Hinduism that buttresses their own agenda?
Really cackles
Ofcourse, Buddhism was only meant as a ‘logical addition’ to Hinduism X-)
Taj Mahal was Tejo Mahalaya. Vedic chants are modeled on fourier series. Casteism/Racism is actually scientific because it ensures job security and no takeovers (Actual words of Sri Sri Sudarshan Der RSS Fuhrer) Everybody who disagrees is Left Wing propagandist. Sieg Heil!
The operating word here is “self-respecting”, not the DC-based clowns we’ve had for the last 8 years who pandered to their hysterical base at the slightest opportunity. There are still a few thinking conservatives around who retain their dignity — off the top of my head, Mitch Daniels comes to mind. One may or may not agree with everything that he supports, but at least he can support or attack a policy (like cap-and-trade) without descending to name-calling and personal attacks like Rush Limbaugh or Dick Cheney or anyone on Fox. The country always needs some thinking people on each side of a debate who can dispassionately analyze proposed fiscal and government policy; the shrieking homophobes and religious nuts only hurt the conservatives, much like how (some) liberals are embarrassed by MoveOn.org and Keith Olbermann’s fanboy antics.
They would have been better off having a cover feature on her favorite food. Her unwise eating habits are definitely not something she shares with Buddha
as the really wise man once said, “when you don’t have logic, go for volume”.
Yes, Buddha was wise but so are many people in all cultures. More than offensive, I don’t get the point of showing a Latina as Buddha to make a point about her self-declared wisdom. If Americans think Buddha is East Asian, do they also think of Buddha whenever they hear “wise”?
Weird cover, in my opinion. Would make sense for a Asian guy in Asia. Not for a Latina in the US.
In some Hindu sects Buddha is not held too highly because they say, “he rejected the Vedas”.
Jainism is also not considered “vedic” by many vedaphiles.
Still, its obvious that both Jainism and Buddhism have Hinduism, or more accurately YOGA as their roots.
To the commenter that said the Bhakti movement did a lot to dismantle caste or fight against its injustice, the Bhakti movement came AFTER Buddhism. So if Buddha did dismantle the caste system at some level, he would have done it BEFORE the Bhakti movement and perhpas the later Bhakti movement took some inspiration from his example?
However, in my studies of the Bhakti movement coming out of 16th century Bengal, caste was only dismantled at the spiritual level, but they functioned withing the caste system on a social level and followed the protocols. Meaning, spiritually all were considered equal but when they dealt with society at large, they followed the customs.
You can find many examples of this in the biographies of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (founder of Bengal’s Bhakti movement) that were written in the 16th and 17th centuries. He was a brahmin by caste and followed the societal protocols while embracing everyone on a spiritual level.
“well, the “hindu nationalists” and most others who say that would be right about buddha. siddhartha was born in modern day nepal, but spent a majority of his life in modern day bihar. the holiest sites of buddhism are in india, not nepal or east asia.”
what happened to Buddhism in India then -kicked all the way to Sri Lanka?
Adi Shankara logged in to the game server, recaptured the flag from the Buddhists, and screamed “w00t! What now, bitches?”.
She has that in common with the Buddha … he finally died of eating some contaminated pork not uncommon for a person in his time and place. Maybe this is a cautionary tale for Sotomayor :).
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?????
You’ve shattered my image of Buddha forever!
Exotic my ass. That’s just a hot dog. The intestines form the casing, and the tongue, hooves, ears, eyes, and snout are all ground together to make the filling, with snout mucus and eyeball liquid as binding agents.
I’m beginning to think that this Sotomayor may be guilty of exotifying herself to make herself seem less plain. In truth she may be as plain bread as John Roberts.
The Buddha’s last meal was a dish called sÅ«kara maddava, and nobody knows what that is exactly. SÅ«kara is “pig”, so there’s speculation that sÅ«kara maddava might be some sort of pork food, or some sort of plant food that was associated with pigs in some way, such as truffles. The Buddha was apparently not a strict vegetarian during his lifetime.
been there, done that.
Maybe the RNC should look to make this their official anthem in their next meeting, without falling prey once more to Michael “Blingy” Steele’s brave stand against all this slammin’ and rammin’
Beans, beans, the magical fruit The more you eat, the more you empathize, The more you empathize, the more activisty you become The more activisty you become, mumble mumble textualism
My first reaction to the cover is Sotomayor is some Indian Guru (Wise = “Guru/Swami”). I didn’t get the Buddha thing without the knot of hair on top. The hair down thing reads more guru-ish than Buddha, for me.
Apart from the obvious things that are so wrong, the male body thing also puts me off. Can’t a woman be wise?
That was before Kathryn Jean Lopez (“K-Lo”, in honor of her ginormous ass) was made editor. She’s not exactly the brightest bulb of the bunch. I’m sure that after Rich Lowry explained the joke to her six or seven times, she thought that cover was a great idea. Or maybe he just told her a Snickers truck had overturned outside, and sent the issue off without her.
look, the inside dope is the right isn’t really upest over soto, the wise latine reverse racism non-withstanding. this is just gong thru the motions. a close reading of her ruling reveal she’s rather statist, maening not much judicial activism, tho it bodes ill for our dreams of overturning kelo. the wsj has and editorial about how she’s to the right of souter.
her racist ricci ruling is apparently just Judaical restraint, within the limits of what an appellate court can do (so i hear, not my opinion), and will likely be overturned by scotus. interestingly, her one case of activism is when she ruled in favor of a white cop who sent racist e-mails on first amendment grounds. even i question whether the First Amendment protects your right to distribute racist literature and hold a government job that gives you authority over the very people you believe should have no rights. but her instincts are right.
newt has walked back his rhetoric. even rush is having 2nd thoughts, realizing her wise latina comment could be construed as a desire to overturn roe, which is of course the authentic latina position. she may very well be the left’ss souter.
this is nothing compared to bork and thomas. she’ll slide right thru her confirmation, i predict
There was no Nepal then. The Licchavi kingdom was just another kingdom in that north-east region just as Kosala, Mithila etc… were. Sudhodhana, Buddha’s father might have been a Kosala king.
That was before Kathryn Jean Lopez (“K-Lo”, in honor of her ginormous ass) was made editor.
she’s the online editor. not the print edition editor.
25 · kola-nut-techie
lol! buddha trolls!!
The Sri Lankan Buddhists are divided by caste and every major order of monks is also so divided. they also have untouchables in Sri Lanka, as in Japan. the dominant shudra govigama caste has attained a sort of populist hegemony, due to sheer numbers.
The Buddha was a khattiya, he called his patha arya dharma, and in at least one pali sutta, he takes an almost racist stance in favor of khattiyas.
There is nothing offensive with the cover. Once again, an oversensitive politically correct dolt making hay out of nothing at all.
I thought Buddha was born in Taxila, in Pakistan? Or is that one of many Buddhas?
I thought Buddha was born in Taxila, in Pakistan
The Pakistani Education Minister should really redesign those textbooks 😉
Maybe it’s the snow in June that’s affecting my Canadian brain, but can someone south of the border explain to me why the ‘wise-Latina’ phrase is even remotely racist (or reverse-racist).
Are the slanted eyes a reference to East-Asian ethnicity? Because in real life, her eyes do look that way:
http://images.publicradio.org/content/2009/05/26/20090526_sotomayor_obama_33.jpg
After the passing of Siddhartha Gautama, in about 500 years, Buddhism had become an elite pastime, and enormously successful at mobilising resources. Punarjanmam and karma, and even heaven and hell for reward and punishment are Buddhist ideas and not to be found in the earliest Vedic commentaries, that are more cocerned with questions about the nature of experience. 10/9 history books that we have grown up on can be safely rid of their sections on Buddhism and will leave us a little wiser. Even in India some of the earlier leftist historians – Kosambi and Chattopadhyay – took a very dispassionate stance towards Buddhism. But later “historians” such as Romila Thapar (who knows English only) have helped sustain the myth of reformist Buddhism which is but a thinly veiled transplanted account of the Protestant Reformation.
badmash, the ‘wise latina’ comment (along with her ruling in a case involving white firefighters) are being called ‘racist’ because the Repubs (mainly white) think that she’s using her past and ethnicity to mold or affect her legal rulings; that as as judge, she should only be interpreting the law, not making it or ruling based on emotions or empathy. The fact that she mentions her ethnicity, in their minds, means that she could be biased in her decision making and that ‘gasp’ – her life experience as a poor minority could lead to a different mindset than all of the other 99% white, male supreme court justices of the past. Regardless of the fact that any look at her history as a judge would show that she has usually ruled more in line with their thinking when it comes to business and discrimination cases.
You have to remember, most who claim they are ‘colourblind’, usually are not people of colour and have not lived a life where they have had moments or experiences where they were defined, judged or affected by their colour. Those of colour cannot live a ‘colourblind’ life.
The only day we can ever say we are all colourblind is the day that these ‘first’ people of any ethnicity will no longer get any notice, because it truly will not matter what race anyone is, so it won’t be an issue to remind everyone of that fact or note it as history making.