No internal democracy

As expected, Sonia Gandhi is set to be re-elected Congress president with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the party’s top brass cutting across generations backing her candidature for the top organisational post.
A total of 89 nominations were filed from different states and Union minister Oscar Fernandes, who is chairman of All India Congress Committee’s central election authority, said that till Wednesday nominations in favour of Gandhi alone had been received. [All nominations so far name Sonia]

Do you think anyone will file a nomination against her? That would be the end of his career in the Congress Party. This has an uncanny similarity to the way Saddam Hussein was elected as well.

Iraq declared Saddam Hussein the winner Wednesday with 100 percent of the votes in a referendum in which he was the sole candidate, perpetuating his two-decade reign and prompting bursts of celebratory gunfire in Baghdad’s streets.[Iraq declares Saddam election winner]

I am not equating Sonia with Saddam. One is a mass murderer and the other is a naturalized Indian trying to make a living in India. But when it comes to elections, Congress Party members and Iraqis ruled by Saddam have the same right. Vote for the supreme leader or else. Coming to think of it, how many parties in democratic India have internal democracy?

Do you have a monkey mind?

Did you say you lacked motivation to go for a Yoga class.

No, a San Francisco community center is offering naked yoga, where bare essentials means just that: Men and women are completely nude during the 90- minute class.

If you think, it is all about ogling, here is some news for you

The class is about the challenge of yoga, and about the challenge of accepting — and even revering — one’s own body. “It’s not a sexual experience,” said Rob Kandell, the center’s business manager. “It’s a heart-opening experience.”

I don’t know if you want your “heart” to open in a Yoga class where women outnumber men. But then

“As we begin to disrobe, start to notice how you clothe this temple, this body, this thing you own, your home,” Medland said. “As you take off your clothes, there’s a level of precision, of consciousness, in the way you fold your clothes. We’re honoring the preciousness, the sacredness, the delicateness of the body.”
The first movements involved stretching arms above the head. Medland, as naked as the rest of the class, faced the group, arms over her head, her patter providing a point of focus for any student distracted by self- consciousness. [Doing it in the altogether is what makes this yoga practice altogether free from distractions (with pictures)]

new Carl’s Jr ad and many people who were distracted by self-consciousness crashed the website. If you have a monkey mind and want to bring it to focus, if naked yoga cannot help, then nothing else can.

There goes the bridge

Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today said that Kashmir, which was earlier considered a bone of contention between India and Pakistan, will now serve as a bridge between the two countries.[Kashmir will serve as a bridge between India and Pakistan: Mufti]

The reception on the terrorist handsets seem to be poor now. They heard the word bridge and knew they had to do something with it and did what they knew best.

Militants have blown up a bridge on the route to holy cave shrine of Amarnath in Pahalgam area of Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir, official sources said here today.Bridge no. 2 at Chandanwari, 15 km from Pahalgam, was blown up by using an Improvised Explosive Device late Monday night, the sources said.Chandanwari is the first halting station for the pilgrims en route to the holy cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas.The annual Amarnath yatra is expected to begin next month. Last year, three lakh devotees went on the pilgrimage. [Militants blow up bridge on Amarnath yatra route]

As Robert of JihadWatch asks, What was that again about respect for sacred things?. And guess how many Hindus rioted following this ?

More Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions

Terracota figurines of Mother Godess has been found in three locations in Tamil Nadu, of which one has been dated to pre-Christian era and the others to 8-9th century AD.

Archaeologists estimate that the two figurines found at Andipatti belong to 8th to 12th century A.D. They also found three potsherds with Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions there.
One reads “kan narpo” and department epigraphists date it between 4th and 5th century A.D. The other two Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions, written on pot lids, read: “… aa th tha… ” and “…ku ma… ” They may belong to an earlier period.

T.S. Sridhar, Special Commissioner, said the 12 trenches dug at Andipatti in Chengam taluq of Tiruvannamalai district yielded a cornucopia of artefacts.
They included a figurine of Goddess Durga, a bull, coarse red ware, black and red ware, a few pieces of Roman pottery, terracotta beads, spindle whorls, iron knife and nails, copper objects, an incomplete well, bangles made of conch shell with beautiful designs, human torso made of terracotta and so on.
“On the basis of the unearthed antiquities, it can be deduced that Andipatti was inhabited by humans from the 1st century B.C. to 12th century A.D. Andipatti was a megalithic site. The discovery of spindle whorls and iron objects shows the industrial activity in the area,” he said.
The Mother Goddess cult is one of the earliest cults in India. It was prevalent during the Harappan period (circa 3,500 B.C.). It was a fertility cult. Mother Goddess figurines have been found in several places in Tamil Nadu such as Adichanallur near Tirunelveli, Melaperumballam near Poompuhar and Poluvaampatti near Coimbatore. All of them are made of terracotta. If the figurine is depicted in the nude, it “definitely signifies a fertility cult,” said an archaeologist.
Fifteen trenches were dug at Modur in Palacode taluq of Dharmapuri district. They yielded spectacular objects such as celts, polishing and grinding stones, hammers made of stones and cylindrical pestles belonging to the Neolithic period. The megalithic objects found were black and red ware, grey ware and red slipped ware. Artefacts such as terracotta figurines, decorative potsherds, spindle whorls, shell bangles, well-crafted smoking pipes and graffiti potsherds belonged to the historical period after 1st century A.D. [ Mother Goddess figurines found in Tamil Nadu]

The Brahmi script was initially thought to be bought to the South by Jain and Buddhist monks in 3rd century BC, but later discoveries refined the date to Buddha’s time. From this news, it looks like the Brahmi script was in use till the 5th century AD. The Wikipedia entry on Tamil says that the language was initially written in Brahmi, then moved to the Grantha script into the current vattezhuthu script sometime between the 6th and 10th centuries AD.

Where are you all hiding ?

The alleged desecration of Koran story resulted in the death of many Muslims and the reaction has been violent, verbally, in United States

Instead of sending Mr. McClellan out to flog Newsweek, President Bush should have said: “Let me say first to all Muslims that desecrating anyone’s holy book is utterly wrong. These allegations will be investigated, and any such behavior will be punished. That is how we Americans intend to look in the mirror. But we think the Arab-Muslim world must also look in the mirror when it comes to how it has been behaving toward an even worse crime than the desecration of God’s words, and that is the desecration of God’s creations. In reaction to an unsubstantiated Newsweek story, Muslims killed 16 other Muslims in Afghanistan in rioting, and no one has raised a peep – as if it were a totally logical reaction. That is wrong.[The Best P.R.: Straight Talk]

and Jeff Jacoby has more

No one recalled, for example, that American Catholics lashed out in violent rampages in 1989, after photographer Andres Serrano’s ”Piss Christ” — a photograph of a crucifix submerged in urine — was included in an exhibition subsidized by the National Endowment for the Arts. Or that they rioted in 1992 when singer Sinead O’Connor, appearing on ”Saturday Night Live,” ripped up a photograph of Pope John Paul II.
There was no reminder that Jewish communities erupted in lethal violence in 2000, after Arabs demolished Joseph’s Tomb, torching the ancient shrine and murdering a young rabbi who tried to save a Torah. And nobody noted that Buddhists went on a killing spree in 2001 in response to the destruction of two priceless, 1,500-year-old statues of Buddha by the Taliban government in Afghanistan.
Of course, there was a good reason all these bloody protests went unremembered in the coverage of the Newsweek affair: They never occurred.
Christians, Jews, and Buddhists don’t lash out in homicidal rage when their religion is insulted. They don’t call for holy war and riot in the streets. It would be unthinkable for a mainstream priest, rabbi, or lama to demand that a blasphemer be slain. But when Reuters reported what Mohammad Hanif, the imam of a Muslim seminary in Pakistan, said about the alleged Koran-flushers — ”They should be hung. They should be killed in public so that no one can dare to insult Islam and its sacred symbols” — was any reader surprised?[Why Islam is disrespected]

What about those Indians who were holding candles in Marina Beach during the invasion of Iraq, sooo concerned about civilian deaths due to the bombing ? What happened to the Booker Prize winner who wrote pages and pages against the war and the secular Rediff columnist who surfaces only when Maoists are in trouble ? If you are for peace, shouldn’t you be holding candlelight vigils and holding protest campaigns against the terrorists ?

Soft Borders: Not a good idea

A battle between U.S. forces and insurgents in eastern Afghanistan spilled across the border into Pakistan during the weekend, and witnesses said U.S. rocket fire killed five Pakistani tribesmen.
U.S. attack helicopters opened fire in Lawara Mandai, a Pakistani border town in the North Waziristan tribal region, as U.S. forces pursued insurgents after what the U.S. military called an ambush by guerrillas, officials and residents said.
Although Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf quietly allows U.S. “hot pursuit” missions when guerrillas cross from Afghanistan into Pakistan, opposition groups have denounced the incursions as illegal attacks on sovereign Pakistani territory.[U.S. tracks insurgents to Pakistan, killing 12]

Aah, this is why Musharraf rejected the idea of soft borders.

Terrorists get religious approval

Religious leaders in Pakistan have described the suicide attacks by Muslim freedom fighters in Kashmir as “justified”, but “not justified” if waged within Pakistan.

The religious leaders said that such attacks were also justified if carried out by Muslim freedom fighters in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan.
They said that in those countries where Jehad is being waged the suicide attacks are justified, but such attacks are prohibited where Jehad has not started even if it is a non-Islamic country.
The statement from as many as 40 religious parties in Pakistan has come as a response to the recent `fatwa’ issued by a section of clerics saying that suicide attacks were forbidden in Islam.[Pakistani Muslim clerics: suicide attacks in Kashmir OK]

At this point Crown Prince Abdullah picked up the phone and called Musharraf and said, “These people are hijacking Islam and using it for murdering innocent Indians.As the guardian of Islam’s most holy sites I cannot tolerate this and we have to put an end to such nonsense. Indians, as you know are friends of ours. They have been supporting us and also their unwavering support for the Palestinian issue even puts Palestinians to shame. Their minister recently carried some vehicles personally. If this is not commitment, I don’t know what is.
Sadly, none of that happened.

The weight lifter

A plot of land meant for Palestinian Embassy here has also been gifted to the PLA, he said. India has earlier also been giving assistance to Palestinian people and Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed himself carried vehicles and medicines there last year. [India gives Rs 65 crore aid to Palestine link via What? come again…]

If the honorable minister is able to carry vehicles all by himself, we should send him for the next Olympics for weight lifting.

I support Stem Cell research, but will veto any bill

In South Korea

Just a few years ago, Michigan State University scientist Jose Cibelli was considered the leading expert on cloning human embryos to treat and study disease. Now, there’s no debate that the cloning king is Hwang Woo-suk of Seoul National University.
On Thursday, Hwang announced yet again that he had successfully cloned human embryos, this time extracting stem cells from embryos created using the DNA of sick and injured patients. It was the second time in a little more than a year that Hwang had successfully cloned. He remains the only acknowledged scientist to have done so.[S. Korea Takes Lead in Stem Cell Research]

In United Kingdom

Scientists hailed on Friday the announcement that British researchers have succeeded in creating the country’s first — and the world’s second — cloned embryo, a breakthrough that keeps Britain at the forefront of the fast-moving, potentially revolutionary field. [Scientists Hail Creation of Cloned Embryo]

In United States

“I am a strong supporter of stem cell research, but I’ve made very clear to Congress that the use of federal taxpayer money to promote science that destroys life in order to save life, I am against this,” said Bush, speaking in the Oval Office during a brief joint appearance with the Danish prime minister, Anders Rasmussen, by his side. Therefore, if the bill does that, I will veto it.“[Bush threatens stem cell veto]

But here in California, voters passed Proposition 71, which allows the state to fund stem cell research and the headquaters for the new agency will be San Francisco. Thank God, I don’t live in Kansas.