Girl who would be King of North Korea

(The Untold by Tony) N. Korea's first lady scandal: Why did Kim keep her?

Trump tried to CENSOR late night comedian

Pres. Trump was so upset by late night TV show comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s jokes about him that he ordered his White House staff to tell Disney Corporation to CENSOR him.

(Jimmy Kimmel Live) Feb. 27, 2023. #Kimmel. Hollywood has had crazy weather over the weekend, a Rolling Stone magazine article came out over the weekend headlined “Trump White House pressured Disney to censor Jimmy Kimmel,” we go through the many nicknames Kimmel has given Donny over the years to see what could have possibly gotten under Trump's skin and made him so hurt and angry, the whole thing is especially hypocritical coming from someone who claims to be a bigly anti-censorship defender of free speech, we can really start to feel the Hollywood buzz and excitement for the Oscars in two weeks, we have three of the sexiest men alive on the show tonight, Adidas has over $500 million worth of backstock Kznye Ye West's "Yeezys" that they don’t know what to do with, our local weather reporters in Los Angeles got very excited about the snow over the weekend, and since even the mundane moments of daily life can be stressful, we are grateful that there is help from where God intended us to get it, a little plastic bottle (T-quill-a, an over-the-counter temporary antidepressant that addicts millions every year).

A look inside: Fun in North Korea (video)

DW (German PBS, March 1, 2020); CC Liu, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

A look at life inside North Korea

American propaganda makes us fear tiny country

Are people in North Korea allowed to laugh, dance, and marry? This documentary provides unique insights on everyday life in the East Asian country, which most Americans (subject to Western propaganda and little else) associate with dictatorship, military parades, and nuclear missile tests.

Perhaps no other country in the world is as mysterious as North Korea (except perhaps Buddhist Bhutan). In the West it’s known as the last Stalinist dictatorship, the land of Dictator Kim Jong Un, bombastic military parades, and nuclear missile tests.

Kim Jong Il is a dictator and a nut.

It is actually quite difficult to look beyond the political and examine the daily life of 25 million North Koreans. Are they allowed to laugh, dance, and marry? What do they eat? Where do they go on holiday? These simple questions are difficult to answer given the isolation of the population from the rest of the world.

The filmmakers behind Have Fun in Pyongyang (p'yong-yang), the capital of the country, visited people who have lived in the isolated mountainous nation for three generations. Over eight years, they visited North Korea 40 times to attend festivals and harvest ceremonies, visit factories, and listen to singing contests, in the process catching surprising, fascinating, and bizarre glimpses of everyday life.

The documentary gives an insight into North Korean life and helps us understand how the impoverished, isolated country has survived the end of the Cold War, the famine of the 1990s that cost hundreds of thousands their lives, and the never-ending diplomatic and military conflicts.

DW Documentary brings knowledge beyond the headlines from German broadcasters and international production companies. Meet intriguing people, travel to distant lands, get a look behind the complexities of daily life, and build a deeper understanding of current affairs and global events.

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Republican says Trump risks starting "WW III"

Eds., Wisdom Quarterly; The New Yorker; The New York Times via vice.com

"This town's not big enough for both these haircuts!" (New Yorker)

I'm so sick of that dotard that  I may stop bluffing and do something. People are behind me.

The only guy worse than Li'l Rocket Man is Republican Senator Bob Corker!

 

Republican senator says Trump risks starting "World War III"

Tennessee US Senator Bob Corker warned the president's behavior was in danger of putting the US "on the path to World War III." The head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said the White House was turning into "an adult day care center" and later explained he was genuinely troubled that administration staff appeared to spend each day "trying to contain" Trump.

—The New York Times

North Koreans stage anti-Trump rally (AP)

Buddhism is everywhere in South Korea (audio)

PRI's The World (April 25, 2017); Crystal Quintero, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

In South Korea, pretty much everything is a little bit Buddhist, including politics

Their last president was impeached. As voters get ready to pick a new leader on May 9th, Korean Buddhists say now's the time to pray for peace and national healing. [If not, 25 million northerners could come rushing in to destabilize the puppet economy controlled by Washington DC].

"Almost Asian" is a hilarious look at dealing with adult-onset identity issues

Gut-level good looks, sexual attraction (video)

Kathleen McAuliffe (Big Think, facebook.com 19-17); Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

This is the real s: sexual attraction is shaped by gut bacteria, infectious diseases, and parasites.

This is "your" brain?

Behind our sexual impulses -- whom  we feel attracted to and why -- complex biological interactions help determine our emotions, our obsessions, and our revulsions... This Is Your Brain on Parasites: How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behavior and Shape Society.

"From start to finish, [McAuliffe] spins a consistently engrossing tale of invasive creatures that can alter your behavior and outlook, depress your cognitive functioning, and even make you more violent or sexually aggressive."

- Heather Havrilesky, Book Forum 

This is Your Brain on Parasites

Kim Kardashian-West: beauty or parasite?

These tiny organisms can only live inside another animal, and as author  McAuliffe reveals, they have many evolutionary motives for manipulating our behavior as their host.
 

Far more often than appreciated, these puppeteers orchestrate the interplay between predator and prey.

With astonishing precision, parasites can coax rats to approach cats, spiders to transform the patterns of their webs, and fish to draw the attention of birds that then swoop down to feast on them.

 

Humans are hardly immune to the profound influence of parasites. Organisms we pick up from our own pets are strongly suspected of changing our personality traits and contributing to recklessness, impulsivity -- even suicide.
 

Parasite Rex: Inside Bizarre World of Nature...

Microbes in our guts affect our emotions and the very wiring of our brains. Germs that cause colds and flu may alter our behavior even before symptoms become apparent.

Parasites influence our species on the cultural level, too.

McAuliffe documents a subconscious fear of contagion that impacts virtually every aspect of our lives, from our sexual attractions and social circles to our morals and political views.
 

Drawing on a huge body of research, she argues that our dread of contamination is an evolved defense against parasites -- and it is often a double-edged sword. The horror and revulsion we feel when we come in contact with people who appear diseased or dirty helped pave the way for civilization.
 

But it may also be the basis for major divisions in societies that persist to this day.

In the tradition of Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel and Neil Shubin’s Your Inner Fish, this book  s both a journey into cutting-edge science and a revelatory examination of what it means to be human. More

• Tantric sex with Psalm Isadora (mindbodygreen.com)

Kim, Kali, Kwan-yin, Kumari, Mary K (video)

Ashley Wells, Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; Sonia Narang ("The World," PRI.org, 6-18-14); KFIam640.com; Christian Today; New York Daily News

The new Madonna and Child, Kim Kardashian and North West, June '14 (hiphollywood.com)

Holy cow! Kim Yin Kardashian is now a goddess deified by American artist Hannah Kunkle

Kim, Kwan Yin, the Virg Yin as manifestations of the Goddess (Hannah Kunkle/Splash/KFI)

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Kim as black as Kali, bad tan (guyism.com)

US artist Hannah Kunkle's digital paintings feature reality TV star Kim Kardashian (Mrs. Kanye West) as various religious icons.

They were featured in an exhibition entitled "The Passion of Kim Kardashian" that opened in Brooklyn. Kunkle, 23, admits she is "strangely fascinated" by Kardashian.

Kanye and Kim, the FUTURE couple

"It's art. It's supposed to be wild and, not offensive, but prying," she told a US newspaper after various religious leaders slammed her work.
 

Father Michael Perry of Our Lady of Refuge Church in Flatbush, Brooklyn told the New York Daily News the show was "dumb and stupid." Kardashian is also portrayed as the Hindu goddess Kali, Jesus the Christ, Catholic nuns, Joan of Arc, and a Satanic priestess [like Mary Kay but selling Khroma]. More

We've just about had it with Kardashian-West, just about, but the West needs goddesses, too

Kim Kardashian Satanic high priestess with her own altar (animalnewyork.com)

Satanic priestess: Kim drops in on Kanye at Bonnaroo 2014 in seductive top (Daily Mail)

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I'm still a young hybrid (M-C)

The artist explains why she did it: "I think she is almost a patron saint of pop culture," Kunkle told the Daily News.

"She's everywhere." And in an April 2014 interview, she went beyond statements of admiration: "Kim Kardashian is God," she told VICE.

• Future goddess Honey Boo Boo is "a tiny, dimpled monster"
• VIDEO: Kim flashes lots of skin as she goes braless: Kim Kardashian stepped out in New York wearing another daring outfit and revealing [that she must be trying to become the new Madonna].
• The 5 Principles and 10 Commandments of Hinduism 
• What does it mean when one says I'm Shia or Sunni?
• Fun with fungi: the lurid bolete (wiki)
• FEMEN.org: Topless female activists

The Living Goddesses of Nepal

Sonia Narang (The World, PRI, 6-18-14); Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Along a busy thoroughfare near Kathmandu, Nepal, a passageway leads into a large, open-air courtyard. In the back corner, there’s a modest home with a red sign outside that simply reads, “Living Goddess.”

 

Kumari blessing at festival (Sonia Narang)

A narrow wooden staircase leads up to the second floor, where the goddess spends much of her childhood. She’s called a Kumari (Ku Mary), and she’s [adored] by Nepali Hindus and Buddhists, who believe she's the [embodiment] of the Hindu goddess Durga [with the power to kills one's demons].
 
In Nepal, this centuries-old tradition of choosing a young girl as a goddess continues to this day. Now, people from around the world flock here to get a glimpse of her.


 

Are there Himalayan pools in Nepal?

I got to know the mother of this Kumari after several visits to her house.
 
Her name is Shobha Bhajracharya. She has a full, round face with a sweet smile.
 
I ask her how she felt when her daughter Samita was chosen to be a Kumari a few years ago. She laughs shyly.
 

Kumari is so cool! Choose me! I can morph.

“I felt both happy and sad,” she says.

“On one hand, I felt happy because when your daughter becomes god, having a god in the home is a delightful thing.

But [on the other hand] I also got scared because I wasn’t sure if we would be able to follow all the rules.” More

Who is the Buddhist Goddess Kwan Yin?
ReligionFacts.com; edited by Wisdom Quarterly

Goddess Kwan Yin buddha-to-be with a  thousand arms (chinatourguide.com)

 
Kwan Yin (also Kuan and Guan Yin) is the bodhisattva of compassion. [A bodhisattva is a person who has vowed to develop the perfections to become a buddha].

I wear white! Goddess power!

She venerated by East Asian Buddhists [particularly in the very Hindu-influenced Mahayana school, having morphed from the Hindu god Avalokitesvara].

Commonly known as the "Goddess of Mercy," Kwan Yin is also revered by Chinese Taoists as an Immortal. The name Kwan Yin is short for Kuan Shih Yin (Guan Shi Yin), which means "Observing the Sounds of the World [One Who Hears the Cries of the World]."

Braless in Paris, France (M-C)

In Japanese, she is called Kannon, or more formally Kanzeon; the spelling Kwannon, resulting from an obsolete system of romanization, is sometimes also seen. In Korea, she is called Kwan-um or Kwan-se-um. In Vietnamese, she is called Quan Âm or Quan Thế Âm Bồ Tát [Kwan Yin Bodhisattva].

Kuan Yin is the Chinese name for the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. However, folk traditions in China and other East Asian countries have added many distinctive characteristics and legends [to the original Brahminical/Hindu legend]. Most notably, while Avalokitesvara can be depicted as either male or female, Kuan Yin is usually depicted as a young woman, whereas Avalokitesvara in other countries is usually depicted as a man.

My make up is optional! No, Kim!

Along with Buddhism, Kwan Yin's veneration was introduced into China as early as the 1st century CE, and reached Japan by way of Korea soon after Buddhism was first introduced into the country from the mid-7th century.
 
Representations of the bodhisattva in China prior to the Song Dynasty (960-1279) were masculine in appearance. Images which later displayed attributes of both genders are believed to be in accordance with the Lotus Sutra, where Avalokitesvara has the supernatural power of assuming any form required to relieve suffering and also has the power to grant children.
 

I don't git it! - I'm "Kim Yin" now. (PH)

Because this bodhisattva is considered the personification of compassion and kindness [more like Princess Diana of Wales or the original Goddess DIANA, who now appears in the form of the Hunger Games' Jennifer Lawrence], a mother-goddess and patron of mothers and seamen, the representation in China was further interpreted in an all female form around the 12th century. In the modern period, Kuan Yin is most often represented as a beautiful, white-robed woman... More

 

Kwan Yin in Theravada Buddhist Thailand, Wat Plai Laem, Ko Samui (sandrobisaro.com)

But I want to be the All-American Goddess! Notice me! I'm Lindsay "The Luóhàn" Lohan!

  
NY to legalize medical marijuana
[Hey, Lindsay,] New York is poised to become the 23rd state to legalize medical marijuana, but smoking it will not be allowed under... [So why don't you move there?]

North Korea: Kim's son named new leader

(VIDEO) SEOUL, South Korea (AP/AFP) – North Korea told its diplomatic missions that Kim Jong Il's youngest son — who reportedly enjoys skiing and studied English, German, and French at a Swiss school — will be the nation's next leader, a South Korean lawmaker and newspapers said Tuesday. The secretive communist state sent the message about the 26-year-old son, Kim Jong-un, after the nation's May 25 nuclear test, which along with a series of missile tests has greatly raised tensions in the region, the Hankook Ilbo reported. More>>

• Slideshow: North Korea
• Video: South Korea worried about a new long-range missile (AFP)
• Video: Gates: N. Korea nukes a grave threat (AP)

Interactive: Timeline

• Key events involving North Korea's nuclear issues. AP's analysis

UN warns millions could starve in N. Korea

Kwang-Tae Kim (AP)

• Video: N Korea reactor seals "in place" BBC

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is shown in Pyongyang on 10/28/05, North Korea. South Korea said 10/20/08 it was business as usual in North Korea, despite media reports that Pyongyang was poised to make an announcement possibly concerning the health of its leader (AP Photo/Xinhua, Yao Dawei, File).

SEOUL, South Korea – The U.N. food agency has warned that millions of North Koreans could face starvation, but a South Korean official said Thursday that Seoul has not decided whether to respond to a request for food aid to the communist country.

Around 2.7 million people on North Korea's west coast will run out of food in October, the World Food Program said in a report released on Tuesday.

North Korea has relied on aid to help feed its 23 million people since natural disasters and mismanagement devastated its centrally controlled economy in the mid-1990s. Famine is believed to have killed 2 million people. The country's food shortage has worsened this year following devastating floods in 2007.

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South Koreans watch a TV news program at a railway station in Seoul in June that shows a graphic video of the destruction of a cooling tower at North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear complex. The top US nuclear envoy said he remained confident of learning how much plutonium North Korea had produced but added the next round of disarmament talks was unlikely to be held this month (AFP/File/Jung Yeon-Je). Previous 20 of 103 Next

The WFP also said the food shortages have especially affected urban households in areas with low industrial activity due to higher food prices, reductions in public food rations and lower employment.

The food shortage warning comes as the North has ratcheted up its hostile rhetoric against South Korea and its president amid fraying ties.

In August, the WFP asked South Korea to provide emergency aid to North Korea to help it avert a food crisis, but Seoul has not yet responded.

The South Korean government said it would not tie food aid to North Korea's nuclear disarmament, but it also said public opinion was a consideration in deciding whether to send aid.

On Thursday, Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyeon said no decision had yet been made.

South Korea has been a main aid donor to its impoverished northern neighbor, but public sentiment has worsened following the July shooting death of a South Korean tourist at a North Korean mountain resort.

North Korea had previously rejected South Korean offers of direct food aid in apparent anger over the new South Korean government's harder-line policy toward the North.

The North warned Seoul last week that it might cut any remaining ties between the neighbors if South Korea continues its policy of "reckless confrontation."

On Wednesday, South Korea denied it had taken a hard-line stance toward the North, calling that view "preconceived or biased."