Going to Cuba (video)

Cary Harrison (KPFK/HeTravel.com); T&CN; Crystal Quintero, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

See Cuba while you can: Join fellow KPFK listeners May 14-21, 2017 (hetravel.com/go)

Classic American cars survive on the forbidden isle of Cuba due to US embargo (AP).

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Radio's Cary Harrison in front of Fidel Castro

Los Angeles Free Speech Radio station KPFK’s Cary Harrison, our favorite gay and socially-conscious bon vivant, invites you to experience this final Cuba voyage before new restrictions go into effect.

This one-time cruise to all three of Cuba’s historical ports is guaranteed to be a mind-blowing experience that will last a lifetime! We cruise on the intimate Adonia, operated for us in a unique partnership with the newest cruise line, Fathom Travel.

This will be the very last time Fathom runs this cruise, and we can only hold cabins until February 14. It is certainly a once in a lifetime opportunity you won’t want to miss: $3350... More

• VIDEO: Sex and Prostitution in Cuba
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  There's a law enforcement paradox to Backpage.com, labeled by officials as the largest U.S. internet prostitution ad provider. California prosecutors label the site an "online brothel" that rakes in millions of dollars from sex trafficking that often includes minors, want to shut it down and send its owners to jail.
   

Using the "Poop" Deck: Ship stuck at sea

Amber Dorrian, Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Larry Mantle, AirTalk (SCPR.org) UPDATED

A cruise on a Petri dish is like a boat in a bottle being used as a bedpan (wallmay.net)

 

Actual unintended nature sign in Europe

For passengers on the Carnival cruise ship Triumph, their trip can’t end soon enough. What was meant to be a fun vacation got cut short when the engine room caught on fire Sunday morning. Ever since then, the boat has been without electricity and dependent only on generators. 

Water and food have been limited, and passengers are reportedly urinating in bags [and pooping on the deck and in the halls and, presumably, vomiting over the rails]. 

Phuket, Thailand (KueC/flickr.com)

People have taken to sleeping on the boat’s deck to escape the stifling heat inside the cabins without air conditioning. 

  

Tensions are running high, and medical experts are concerned that Triumph is basically a Petri dish of disease and germs just floating in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. On the bright side, the end is in sight [except that a tug line just broke, so it is sitting stagnant again]. The ship is about 25 miles or so from Mobile, Alabama, where it is being sent to port. The only problem is that it is being pulled by a tugboat against the wind. More

COMMENTARY

Can you imagine taking a romantic cruise in southern climes? I can't. It's not the Ebola and salmonella infections, having the captain run you aground, or even the requisite vomiting and futile fulfillment-seeking. My problem is that the goal of modern cruise ship "travel" is nothing but sensual-distraction. I agree! The point is the ship, not where it's head to. Do this, do that, do anything to distract from everything happening in your life back on land. But we've brought the "land" aboard so you won't miss it. It's a land lover's delight. There's a chlorine/urine filled pool. There's a bar, a movie theater, a backed up toilet. We can't feel or see the water and sand, but we're sunburned. *Trill* Escapism? Give me adventure and/or spiritual tourism any day!

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Abandoning Ship (video)

GIGLIO, Italy - The central message of Buddhism is not "Every man for himself." Someone might have told that to the captain of the Titanic or the Italian cruise liner Costa Concordia.

The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, was arrested on Saturday and is being charged with the very serious crime of abandoning ship and lesser charges of multiple-manslaughter.

Do bodhisattvas say, "Women and children first?" Or is that just a normal consideration for compassionate human beings, particularly when they have caused the accident endangering others? See NYT for full story

Would benefiting others benefit me? Would sacrificing myself benefit others? Getting ahead on the backs of others is not getting ahead in the long run, although it often seems like it in the short term.

• More bodies found
  

In the Jamie Lee Curtis comedy "A Fish Called Wanda," the non-fish Wanda's tells off her Zen Buddhist boyfriend Otto, pointing out: "The central message of Buddhism is not 'Every man for himself'!"

Otto: Don't call me stupid!
Wanda: Oh, right! To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people! I've known sheep that could outwit you. I've worn dresses with higher IQs. But you think you're an intellectual, don't you, ape?
Otto: Apes don't read philosophy.
Wanda: Yes they do, Otto. They just don't understand it! Now let me correct you on a couple of things, okay? Aristotle was not Belgian. The central message of Buddhism is not "Every man for himself." And the London Underground is not a political movement. Those are all mistakes, Otto. I looked them up.

Tom Cruise was Japanese in Past Life

TomKat (bastianbalthazarbux)

During one program, Japan's future first lady Miyuki Hatoyama claimed she became friends with Hollywood actor Tom Cruise [the famous Scientologist, also thought by many to be more alien than human, who married Geisha Katie Holmes, and inexplicably named their daughter Suki] after meeting him in a previous incarnation.

(metro.co.uk)

"He was Japanese in his past life, and we were together so when I see him, I will say, 'Hi. It's been a long time,' and he will immediately understand," 66-year-old Miyuki explained.

Her husband, future Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, the grandson of a former prime minister, is expected to be confirmed as the country's next leader on September 16, 2009. His Democratic Party of Japan toppled the Liberal Democratic Party in last week's vote, ending an unbroken stint of more than 50 years in power. Source