Just to show you that we Buddhists can also get into the Yuletide spirit:
Ripped off from here and here, respectively.
Oh, and the merry men who run the green tea plantations in Boseong are in a holiday mood as well.
Pic taken from here.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
38 Comments
Merry Christmas, Robert.
That’s one of the things I like about Buddhism… an open-minded ecumenical streak.
Brian
Have a Merry Marmot Christmas.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas.
I just read this in the NY Times and maybe thought it would be an interesting read. It’s about a Korean American who played a key role in coming up with Bush administration’s war on terror (including restrictions of basic rights for suspected terrorists). This guy is a complete opposite to Robert Kim - a loyal Bush supporter. For fifth columnists this can’t be possible.
“Mr. Yoo’s belief in the wide inherent powers of the president as commander in chief was strongly shared by one of the most influential legal voices in the administration’s policy debates on terrorism, David S. Addington, then the counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney. Documents and interviews suggest that those views have been part of the legal arguments underpinning not only coercive interrogation and the prosecution of terrorism suspects before military tribunals but also the eavesdropping program.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12.....EUNfEf84dQ
??? ????? ????? ???? ??? ???? ????????!
(pure guesswork)
Merry Christmas to you and yours Marmot.
Merry Christmas to the Marmots, and a Happy and Joyous New Year!
Merry Christmas Robert… & many thanks….
I may sound a bit narrow-minded, but I must say it. The true reason for the season is the eternal life in Jesus Christ. And, it is open to all who wish to receive it.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone!
Merry Christmas to you and the Marmotess, Robert.
Kimbob’s article will be hard to reach with that long URL — go to http://tinyurl.com/8dzh5 instead. TinyURL works great for situations like this.
Kimbob,
I read about him before. He seems to be a great guy. And, I support him 100%.
I do not understand this yapping about interrogation techniques and the president having too much power. Hey, the building fell, people, and many innocent people who did not have to die have died.
Interrogations are done only on the possible terrorists. Someone who has something to hide. Beat them up. Play the old school. Get anything and everything out of the target. The information gleaned can save thousands of lives!
Beat them up. Use psychology. Use torture.
I don’t understand McCain’s bs. He was a former soldier and he doesn’t understand the importance of getting information? He is just playing politics; he wants to get votes from PC crowd.
I am from the old school. Beat them up!
Robert,Hope you and the “staff” at the Marmot’s Hole have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Charlie,
The KimcheeGI
Merry Christmas Marmot.
Happy Holidays! ^.^
– Jodi
Happy Yesu-nim Oshinal, Marmot and Marmot readers.
Merry Christmas, and Health, Peace, Happiness Prosperity for the Year 4339
to Robert and family and all my fellow Marmot readers… all of you…
Could you imagine a Christian church or Islamic mosque celebrating Buddhist holidays?
I hope some of Jesus’ teachings come through to people so busy buying and receiving gifts. You know, like “love thy enemy”, “turn the other cheek”, and other wise words.
The true reason for the season is the eternal life in Jesus Christ
…
Beat them up. Use psychology. Use torture.
- baduk
A devout Christian like baduk preaching violence on Christmas day. What blasphemy! Maybe he sould read the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Christmas sermon.
I pray to Buddha for his soul!
Happy Holidays!
Merry Christmas and sincere best wishes for each and every commenter here.
G Travan: check out http://www.thegodmovie.com/ . it’s a fun little anti-god “movie” that goes a little bit far with too many assumptions towards the end, but fun none-the-less. it mentions how a true christian is all about “Beat them up. Use psychology. Use torture” … baduk is not only a devout christian but also one of the few remaining real ones too
but no offense to baduk, i know it’s all in good fun.
merry christmas to everyone, as well has happy hanukkah, merry kwanza, and most importantly muslim christmas http://www.imbermedia.net/user.....blog/?p=36 which is my personal fav as i celebrated a similar christmas today eating korean food and going digital camera shopping with a friend here in okinawa. I also got serenaded as i do daily by the neighbor kid too. it was the same as always, but today with a santa hat. http://www.imbermedia.net/user.....blog/?p=50
if i left anyone out in my attempt to cover all the main year end religious holidays i’m sorry, i didn’t mean it.
have a good one guys.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
“I do not understand this yapping about interrogation techniques and the president having too much power.”
Agree with you there, Baduk. You can’t be a nice guy to fanatics. President Bush is doing a great job protecting America.
Regarding the first picture, are they going to paint that gate or will it remain au naturel?
Although I do like the Tanchong colors of many traditional buildings, I like this gate the way it is.
Merry Christmas everybody. I wish all of you the most holiday cheer possible.
Paraphrasing baduk for a 1930s retrofit:
“I do not understand this yapping about interrogation techniques and the president having too much power. Hey, the REICHSTAG BURNT DOWN, people, and many innocent people who did not have to die have died.
“Interrogations are done only on the possible terrorists. Someone who has something to hide. Beat them up. Play the old school. Get anything and everything out of the target. The information gleaned can save thousands of lives!
“Beat them up. Use psychology. Use torture.
“SIEG HEIL!”
americaninbusan
I used to tell people I didn’t celebrate Christmas because I was Buddhist–now even that excuse is gone! Jingle Bell Rock! Happy Holidays to the Marmot’s Hole and all its denizens.
Confirmed dead, almost 3000.
http://www.september11victims......s_list.htm
I knew you guys would attack me for my faith and my pro-defense stance. Well, three thousand dead! And, America still does not get it.
Jesus told the way of salvation. However, if I walk out of the church and some neighborhood goons threaten me with a knife, I will fight the SOB. I will not give him my wallet so that he can go and buy another fix. Being a Christian does not mean being a wimp. On the contrary, because of my faith, I will fight against evil in this world, even if that fight bring me death.
It is like the movie, “High Noon”.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044706/plotsummary
Most media types are like the town folks in the movie. They hide and they run, saying “Somebody help me”.
Soldiers understand. They have to protect civilians and defend the country from enemy attacks. Three thousand civilian casualties. Never again!
Let me tell you something. If the US did not attack Iraq, there could have been 2nd, 3rd, or 4th attack on the US soil, just as bad or even worse than the 9/11.
What would Jesus do?
He’d open a can of whup-ass, that’s what he’d do!
Yeah, right. My Man Christ was a turn the other cheek sort of fellow, Baduk. When the Romans came for him, he submitted. I’m not saying that we should submit to terrorists, but beating and torturing are not the way of Christ.
And, um, do you really believe Saddam Hussein was in on it with Osama?
Kushibo,
According to you, a christian nation should not even have an army, navy or air force. Jehovha’s witness sect will go for that. Not me.
It is OK to defend oneself. I believe God allows that. Protestant theologians struggled with this question for centuries. Their conclusion - it is OK.
Beating and torturing of “possible” terrorists. Why not? These are not a normal citizens. These are thugs. They have done something against the US and that is why they are in the prison!
Saddam was bad-mouthing the US. He actually joined up with EU nations to disrupt the oil supply to the US. Why not hit the enemy before he hits? Why wait for another 9/11?
Some Americans are so messed up with VietNam that they are against any military action, even after three thousand people died. Three thousand! Not three hundred.
Do you know how much media persecution an army officer gets if he killed off a village of three hundred people? Here an enemy attacks the US and kills three thousand people. And, you want to protect Hussein who are openly belligerant toward the US?
I believe in a Domino-like regional effect. If the US had stopped at Afganistan, Iraq could have been more bold in its actions against the US. It may have hit the US through Osama. Or, through some other Middle Eastern organization. We hit these organizations first and that may be why they disappeared.
We have gone to where the terrorists lived. (Bush’s words)
I have only one question to ask: Did the Iraq campaign raise or lower the threat level?
Did it raise or lower? Anwer before proceeding.
When the Iraq war started, many of these ninnies were saying that the Iraq war will make more Islam attacks on the US. Was that the outcome? No.
I sincerely believe the Iraq campaign lowered and almost floored the threat level. That is why we have the peace that we enjoy right now.
The 9/11 happened. Three thousand people died. The terrorists could have done it again and again. Iraq campaign showed the US was not a weak nation. Moslam terrorists got the message.
It could have gone the exactly opposite. The US does not retaliate. Moslam feels it can win against the US. More attacks!
Where were the doves when the Twin Tower fell? Right before the 9/11, I am sure that the same jerks were saying that Moslam would never attack the US.
I have only one question to ask: Did the Iraq campaign raise or lower the threat level?
Did it raise or lower? Anwer before proceeding.
It raised the threat to Americans and their interests, both home and abroad.
When the Iraq war started, many of these ninnies were saying that the Iraq war will make more Islam attacks on the US. Was that the outcome? No.
What about Americans and their allies killed in Bali, Spain, London?
This does not even include the hundreds (by now thousands?) of US personnel (not to mention allies and innocent Iraqis) who have been killed or seriously injured in the Middle East as a direct result of creating an opportunity for al Qaeda wannabes to kill their enemies in an under-controlled Iraq.
Terror attacks have not stopped. And now with every single death of an Iraqi in the war to remove Saddam Hussein there is potential among surviving family and friends for more people to hate the US so much that they will do whatever to inflict harm on Americans.
The problem is that a lot of people who were not engaged or related to terrorism lost their lives in this elective war. I think it’s great that Saddam Hussein has been removed from power and Iraq can head toward being a democracy, but the bill for this action has not yet come due.
The two biggest terror attacks in U.S. history were both carried out by fanatics (er, misguided people) who believed in part that the U.S. had overstepped its role in Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia during and since Gulf War I.
I sincerely believe the Iraq campaign lowered and almost floored the threat level. That is why we have the peace that we enjoy right now.
Nearly 2000 Americans dead? How many of our allies dead? That is peace?
That’s an Orwellian outlook there, Mr. Baduk.
The 9/11 happened. Three thousand people died. The terrorists could have done it again and again.
That they haven’t done it again and again is not that they have been defeated but that we in the U.S. have made it more difficult. That would have happened with or without the second Iraq war.
Iraq campaign showed the US was not a weak nation. Moslam terrorists got the message.
That’s an awful lot of people that had to die (including nearly 2000 Americans) for a message that had already been delivered in Afghanistan.
It could have gone the exactly opposite. The US does not retaliate. Moslam feels it can win against the US. More attacks!
Baduk, the U.S. did retaliate, in Afghanistan. The message was clear. Instead we have muddied it by justifying an invasion of Iraq with talk of 9/11. America is not the avenger (as in Afghanistan), but as the out-of-control aggressor (quoting a Brit I met last year).
Where were the doves when the Twin Tower fell? Right before the 9/11, I am sure that the same jerks were saying that Moslam would never attack the US.
9/11 was the second Islamist attack on the Twin Towers, so who would say “they never would do that”?
many of these ninnies were saying that the Iraq war will make more Islam attacks on the US. Was that the outcome? No.
…
That is why we have the peace that we enjoy right now.
- baduk
No attacks have occurred in the US since the Iraq war, but that is partly because it is much easier to attack Americans in Iraq than in the US. That is an odd way of protecting Americans.
What about the 2100+ Americans attacked (and killed) in Iraq. Except for them, the London bombings, the Madrid bombings, and the daily suicide bombings in Iraq, the Iraq war has brought peace.
The situation in Iraq is so dangerous that Blair and Bush don’t even inform the Iraqi prime minister of their visits beforehand. No high official from the US or Britain dares put one foot outside an army base in Iraq. That’s how peaceful it is.
I guess if baduk can be a Christian without knowing anything about Christ, he can believe the Iraq war had something to do with fighting al-Qaeda.
Terrorism and Islamist fundamentalism are deadly real problems that need real solutions. Action-hero fantasies like the Iraq War are dangerously delusional. Spawning thousands of suicide bombers and al-Qaeda recruits in the only Arab country that didn’t have any is a dream come true for the Islamists. Their hope is not to have a peaceful, happy Muslim world. Anger and hatred are the most important resources for the terrorists. One can’t begin to measure the immense gift of violent hatred and fury the US has spawned by invading Iraq.
By going to war against Iraq, a land previously out of al-Qaeda’s reach, the US has played right into the terrorists’ hands, turning Baghdad into a war zone where any angry Muslim can get on-the-job training in terrorism. The Afghanistan campaign was about al-Qaeda, and succeeded in robbing the terrorists of their safe haven. I still haven’t heard a good explanation why the US invaded Iraq, from either proponents or opponents of the war.
“I still haven’t heard a good explanation why the US invaded Iraq, from either proponents or opponents of the war.”
Ask your congressman. The Iraqi campaign was overwehlmingly approved by the House and the Senate.
Did that something to do with kicking out nuclear inspectors? Flying into no-fly zone violating the cease-fire agreement? Was that something to do with Saddam openly threatening the US about more attacks?
How people conveniently forget! Selective memory! Look at the newscasts right before the war. Saddam was a threat, a big threat to the security of the US. Now you say that we had to wait and suffer another 9/11 before attacking Iraq? Another three thousand casualties?
You guys mention two thousand dead in Iraq. Those were soldiers, not civilians. There is difference.
Welcome to Marmot’s Hole, where a friendly Buddhist Christmas greeting degenerates into an argument over terrorism and going to war in Iraq.
Touch?, kushibo. Sorry for the Christmas ranting and degeneracy.
Merry Christmas, baduk, kushibo, and everybody!
Tarnation! Next thing you know, Christians will be celebrating such ungodly acts as the Feast of the Circumcision and rendering near saintly status to the likes of Barlaam and Josephat. Chuc Muon Noel!, as my neighbors used to say in Dien Khanh. We go into winter with Christmas, and come out of it with the Buddha’s Birthday.