Another Queer Jewish Buddhist

What do Sarah Palin and Osama bin Laden have in common? Jihad!

Today's New York Times, finally catching up to YouTube, wrote about Sarah Palin's church and their belief in "Spiritual warfare:"

"Palin has had long associations with religious leaders who practice a particularly assertive and urgent brand of Pentecostalism known as “spiritual warfare.” Its adherents believe that demonic forces can colonize specific geographic areas and individuals, and that “spiritual warriors” must “battle” them to assert God’s control, using prayer and evangelism."

And just what is the definition of Jihad?

The word jihad is a noun meaning 'inner struggle' Jihad appears frequently in the Qu'ran and common usage as the idiomatic expression 'striving in the way of Allah (al-jihad fi sabil Allah).'

 Of course, there are those fundamentalists who turn jihad outward and see their enemies everywhere but within. Seems like Sarah Palin and Osama Bin Laden have a lot in common.

The interesting thing to note about the phrase "striving in the way of Allah (al-jihad fi sabil Allah)," is that it is rather congruent with with meaning of the word "yisrael," or for English speakers, israel, which means "one who struggles with G!d" and in some ways less the name of a nation or group of tribes than a spiritual state of being within a particular tradition.

Unfortunately, I don't believe Governor Palin understands or cares about the inner struggle. Her comments about the "real Amerca" suggests she believe there are those of us who live in a geographic area controlled by demonic forces  — New York is nice as a backdrop for using the Trade Center attack to publicize one's shallow definition of patriotism but for Palin, all those who live here, including those who died in the attack, are simply Satan's little helpers. And of course that certainly includes queer jewish buddhists.

So, we have basically established that Osama bin Laden is an Islamic terrorist, and since Palin, as one who clearly won't brand those who bomb abortion clinics as terrorists, is obviously a Christian terrorist or at least a sympathizer.

So let's take a brief pause for a moment of wisdom:

"We are each different. Yet we each have the opportunity to become free from egoistic thinking. There is no separate so-called Buddhism. There is no separate so-called Christianity. There is no separate so-called Judaism. It doesn't matter what you call yourself. When you walk in the rain you get wet. When you walk in the snow, you get cold. This is true for all people whether they call themselves Buddhist, Christian, Jew or Muslim.

People get into all kinds of arguments concerning religions. Sometimes there are even wars over religions. In these situations, all religions are like a finger pointing to the beauty of the moon. In all religions we need to look beyond the finger and see the beauty of the moon. Then we can live in harmony and help each other. We can share our wisdom and compassion."

-Sense Koshin Ogui
in his book of essays
Zen Shin Talks

Not very Buddhist to say so, but I have a finger for Governor Palin. And a moon.

Scrotalitarianism: Keeping your balls (not the german underwear) clean and fresh.

Yes, now men don't have to feel left out of when feminine hygiene ads run on TV. Manjunk promises fight odor causing bacteria that impede your sex life. Of course, you can be the auteur and create the TV commercial — Manjunk is sponsoring a video contest for the best ad, with winners getting a tropical vacation where no doubt, it will be hot and humid, so that product use will be essential. Unless of course, you are of the opinion that the fresh fragrance of a sweaty crotch is a turn on.

My favorite visual on the MJ website is the eye, looking through what can only be described as a gloryhole. You can't make this stuff up and if only for this reason alone I would include it in my ongoing Queer Product Watch. I imagine if you work for a client like this, you can sure have a lot of fun. Unless you use the product. 

Then there is the ad campaign for Balls underwear, which can be seen at their site. It features famous men, in scenes we recognize, except for the fact they are only wearing the undies. My favorite is the one of Errol Flynn, who was one of the sexiest men ever to grace the silver screen, in his signature role of Robin Hood. It's a very silly campaign, but I still love this ad. And I don't believe for a minute that Errol Flynn would be caught dead with Manjunk under those brief. He might be caught dead with an underage girl in a hotel room, which in fact he was, since when he died his girlfriend was 17. But Manjunk? I think not. 
 

Random drag in advertising: Renault

Please explain to me how this spot sells the car to its target market.

The Bamboo Sukkah

Up to the NY Botanical Garden today with friends Lou & Danyal to see the Henry Moore sculptures on a glorious autumn day. So glorious that the roses were still in wild profusion in the rose garden. The sculptures were fun, for a bit, but a little Moore goes a long way.

What got me, no surprise, was the exhibit of chrysanthemums, done in cooperation with Shinjuku Gyoen. The amazing blooms trained in rows like so many Japanese schoolchildren was a flashback to my autumn days in Tokyo. And then we saw the Sogetsu Sukkah. No, it isn't really a sukkah. But many Sogetsu ikebana masters like to make large arrangements with bamboo. The last head of the school, the late Hiroshi Teshigahara (also film director, whose Woman in the Dunes was an existentialist masterpiece) loved to make large, sculptural arrangements with bamboo. And this one, by Tetsunori Kawana, is clearly in that tradition. Standing under the tangle of a roof, held up by simple poles, I realized you could see just enough sky for this roof to be right for a sukkah. All the installation needed were bamboo blinds hung on the sides to serve as walls. And maybe tatami mats for dinner on the floor.

This could be an ongoing theme: best penis quote of the day!

The ongoing Chinese food scandals have now rocked the U.K. sex toy market. Seems that melamine in dangerous levels has been found in a chocolate flavoring used to make the sucking all the sweeter. A spokesman for the British Food Standards Agency, in alerting the nation to this clear and present danger, said:

"We’ve never had to put out an alert before on 'willy spread' – chocolate-flavoured or otherwise."

Even better, Ann Summers, the owner of the  sex toy chain (and of course, chains are sex toys) gave me even more of a laugh with this quote:

"As a responsible retailer we have tested all of our chocolates and even before the FSA alert was issued had taken all relevant steps to remove the chocolate willy spread product that could be affected by this issue."

Just how are they testing the willy spread? And do they need help?

Sexy Underwear Advertising, Minus the Sexy Underwear: More Cute Butts

Somehow I don't think a straight guy will feel compelled to pull something out of this guy's butt crack, however cute it may be. That said, this "interactive" print ad for Styx underwear, with the USP that the fabric won't automatically give you a wedgie, is pretty attention getting. The question is for the media buy in Vogue, where one wonders if, as in perfume ads, there is an added fragrance to the card. Ahem.



As it is so often, courtesy of Adsoftheworld.com

qwerty oops! wild keyboards from cio magazine

Esther Schindler has written a great story about some wild keyboards over at CIO Magazine, starting with the de rigueur Steampunk keyboard, which inspires my consumerist lust. However, there are some other hot new items, including the Bluetooth virtual keyboard, which is not only wireless, but really, keyboardless, since the letters are projected onto a surface. Then there is the hyper-ergonomic kinesis keyboard. All, however, are qwerty keyboards except for the Optimus Maximus, which uses an LCD display that can be customized for each key, making it useful for any language or symbol set, or enabling you to position the keys exactly where you want them: qwerty, dvorak, abcd or your own invention. As long as I can use my typewriter keyboard software — which mimics the sound of using an old Remington and available free from alphaomega software — as I hit the keys, I am happy.

Best Sentence in a blog today: "Phantom penises were first observed in 1951."

Okay, this is from a blog entry about a story in New Scientist about men who have had sexual reassignment surgery to become women, and then still experience the sensation of having an erection, despite the fact that there's no penis to be erect. The phenomenon has clearly been written about by scientists before, though only recently have they been able to solve the problem, if indeed it is a problem. Then again, since it is reported that the sensation of having a phantom erection can last for hours, which would send you to the hospital if it were happening to a real live penis attached to you (as the makers of Viagra warn) I suppose this is equally problematic.

A few months back I read an amazing story about phantom limb pain in The New Yorker that was a fascinating exploration of how the brain perceives reality. The implications for Vipassana meditation, where one is taught to observe sensation and its connection to mental contents is something that deeper minds than mine should consider. The people who suffered  phantom limb pain in this story were cured simply by using a mirror to fool the brain about the existence of the lost limb. This clearly wouldn't work for phantom penises though, since we don't have symmetrical penises on each side of our bodies. At least I haven't met any men who do, though I'm sure they'd prove rather popular downtown.

Me, I'm still laughing about that sentence, and the idea of observing phantom penises. And wondering about whether I will ever have the sensation of a phantom foreskin.... Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts and minds of men...the phantom penis knows...

Use the Force, Moses...

Is G!d a person — a being with a personality — or an impersonal force? Looking at Jewish scripture, where G!d is given quite a personality, one would assume Jews would answer that indeed G!d is a being with whom one can have a relationship. Not so according to a Pew Forum poll from June of this year. As you can see from the graph above, 50% of Jews defined the Divine as an impersonal force. The total however only adds up to 75%, leaving me wonder what the other Jews answered. Or what the other choices were.

The interesting thing to note is that just below the Jews are the Buddhists, 40% of those who answered said impersonal force. Less than the Jews. And 20% said a personality -- also less than the Jews, and on this answer, that was to be expected. That any Buddhists gave the "person" answer at all really disqualifies them as classic Buddhists. In fact, even the impersonal force answer isn't quite right, because it presupposes a being of some sort, which classical Buddhism does not accept. But in terms of available answers one can see from this graph, it comes closest.

Where do you fall on this graph? And what other answers do you think the poll ought to have reflected?