The Dalai Lama, Hollywood’s favourite spiritual icon, has offered his 14 million Buddhist followers an intriguing referendum: should he forgo reincarnation, or should he be reborn while still alive? With the Chinese occupiers of Tibet looking to hijack the succession process for the next Dalai Lama by ‘finding’ a pliant candidate for the position, the exiled Tibetan leader is planning to either end a 600-year tradition by shunning rebirth, or else will choose his next incarnation while still alive.
Meanwhile.ÂÂ
Venezuela threatened Wednesday to expel a U.S. Embassy official for allegedly conspiring to defeat a referendum championed by President Hugo Chavez, accusing the diplomat of plotting to sway public opinion.The allegation comes ahead of a fiercely contested referendum on reforms that would allow Chavez indefinite re-election and help him establish a socialist state in Venezuela. Sunday’s vote has generated large pro- and anti-Chavez rallies and Chavez kept the rhetoric high on Wednesday by repeating his charge that Washington is plotting to kill him.In Caracas, Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro showed state television a document that he claimed was written by the unnamed embassy official and was to have been sent to the CIA as part of a plan to help ensure that Venezuelans vote against the proposed constitutional overhaul.”It’s a script from the CIA to try to generate a block of opinion among Venezuelans that would give a sure victory to the ‘No’ vote,” said Maduro. “We will investigate and if it’s that way, we’ll remove this person from here as a persona non grata.”  ÂÂ
Well, that would be so cool, if it were true!  We can dream, can’t we?ÂÂ
“….the exiled Tibetan leader is planning to either end a 600-year tradition by shunning rebirth, or else will choose his next incarnation while still alive.”
I got nothing against the ‘Lama, I caddied for him a few years ago, you know. But how exactly do you incarnate while still alive? Can I do the same thing and point my credit card bills to THAT kid?
I gather it takes a bit of a knack but apparently it can be done.
yeah good point. What are we looking at there? 9 or 10 times in the last 20-30 years.
â€ÂIt’s a script from the CIA to try to generate a block of opinion among Venezuelans that would give a sure victory to the ‘No’ vote,†said Maduro. “We will investigate and if it’s that way, we’ll remove this person from here as a persona non grata.â€Â
…waiting for the Progg outrage over the mistreatment of CIA agents…
Script from the CIA? More like a script from Robert Redford.
I’d vote for ‘rebirth while alive’-
I mean, c’mon, rebirth while alive means better special effects, more dramatic content, a chance to get to know the family and the kid that’s about to become the next Dalai Lama rather than doing some half-assed ‘Star Man’ ball of light thing.
I’m thinking along the lines of ‘Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’ with the Dalai Lama as Willie and the Chocolate Factory as being occupied by Chinese Communist troops, requiring the Lama to have fled the factory and now he needs to get in touch with his followers by other means.
We could use ‘The Golden Child’ as a template for the final action scene, but with better special effects. That last scene took an otherwise good movie and sucked the magic right out of it.
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Incarnating while still alive would probably complicate one’s taxes, I’d think. Oh, I forgot: he’s a walking non-profit.
This diplomat expulsion from Venezuela thing is completely trumped up. What are the chances that somebody from Foggy Bottom or The Company would actually be working to actually advance our Chimperialist foreign policy? Totally unrealistic.
I want to know why CITGO is still allowed to do business in this country? Every dollar goes directly into shit for brains chavez’s pocket. And why haven’t we shut the Venezuelan embassy down and kicked chavez’s minions out? WHY, WHY, WHY?
Because Hugo is buying votes here in the US.
If the Dalai Lama reincarnates while still alive, does Spackler still get total consciousness?
I thought the “nefarious plot memo” went out of style just after WWI…
Big hitter, the ‘Lama. Long.