Uh, okay.

If China names Tibet as terrorist, they can waterboard you guys.

I know you linked to them, but you can't expect Salonistas to actually read something from the National Review.

Direct quotes from the Dalai Lama:

“President Bush. I met him personally and liked him very much. He was honest and straightforward, and that is very important. I may not have agreed with all his policies, but I thought he was very honest and a very good leader.”

“I love him”, said the Dalai Lama of President Bush, “but as far as his policies are concerned, I have reservations.”

... and I'm having some bad thoughts right now ...

fixed

bet·ter (bet′ər)

adjective

1. compar. of good

2. Incapable of critical thinking,

3. Most likely believes what he or she is told

4. Obeys authority without question.

5. Keeps contrary opinions to him or her self

Before drawing conclusions,I would want to read exactly what the Dali Lama said rather than what jay Whats-his-name said the Dali Lama said.

Jay Nordlinger's conflating "admiring" with "I choose to see only the positive." Shoot, the Dalai Lama doesn't say anything bad about the Chinese, or about the fly swimming in his tea. And it's not exactly news that the better a person is, the less time they spend being snarky and shallow. Can't Nordlinger see that much of the criticism of Bush has nothing to do with snark or shallowness, but is anguished thoughtfulness?

This is why I am an apatheist.

At first, it seemed as if that entire quote was attributable to the Dalai Lama. I'm much relieved to see that it's just someone taking the Dalai's sunny disposition and stretching it to fit their agenda.

Close call on the karma front. Because I am a BAD person in this regard.

It is well known that the Dalai Lama and W have the same birthday (July 6), which I suspect is the underlying mystical reason for the former's mysterious admiration of the latter. Alas, I, too, have that birthday, something I was once proud to share with Messrs. Lama and Stallone, but I then became ultimately morbidly embarrassed to have any link whatsoever with the "snarky and narrow" Mr. Bush, if only a day with the sun in the second decanate of Cancer.

Wasn't it the New York film critic Pauline Kael who is (probably falsely) said to have questioned Nixon's 1972 landslide win by noting that it was impossible because everyone she knew had voted for McGovern?

Anyways...

Everyone knows "our" God (that's Jeebus, for you heathens) is bigger than the Dolly Llama.

I hate George W. Bush with the white hot heat of a thousand suns. Granted, there are moments when I pity the poor deluded bastard; but then I think about his contemptable stumble into the halls of power, dragged to the presidency by puppet strings so long they were being pulled by people who had been dead for years and a new and different hatred comes to light.

Fuck George W. Bush and everything that he allowed to happen to my country on his watch.

That said, I do not want to meet the son of a bitch vile enough for the Dalai Lama to dislike.

then I will NEVER be a good person. And I'm okay with that.

You are awesome.

Well, I suppose they should be pals, they were both born to lead.

I thought Obama supporters were supposed to be the cultists?

Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know?

this is why I am an apatheist.

One who doesn't care if god exists?

Hmmm . . . I think I like it.

Maybe they know something about tyranny because their government uses practices like waterboarding and warrentless wiretapping...just a thought.

but they should not expect respect if they are not qualified to judge others.

"Most of the people I admire most, admire the 43rd president. (Please note that I said "most of the people," not "all of the people.") This is particularly true of those who know something about tyranny, and the need to resist it..."

Simply replace "resist" with "embrace", and I think you have a statement that is perfectly consistent and sensible in this context.

He was however, an incredibly stupid and ignorant person, who surrounded himself with bad people.

You give a monkey a gun, monkey goes on a shooting spree, it is not all the monkey's fault, if you see what I mean

I have only the kindest feelings for GWB the person. I simply disagree with about 99% of his politics, 95% of his world view, and his spoiled-frat-boy personality.

F the dalai lama...

gwb is a bad bad man.

It's a shame they took this "endorsement" out of context. I was there and while speaking about Bush’s foreign policies, the Dalai Lama said that he disagreed with some of them, but he liked Bush on a personal level.

“I love him as a human being... very straightforward, very sweet. But not a great leader or political person...”

This was at his Berkeley appearance 4/25.

Jay Nordlinger = Prize Idiot

It just gets stranger, and stranger, doesn't it?

Most of the world's great douchenozzles...write for the National Review.

. . . someone who considers the question of the existence of gods as neither meaningful nor relevant to his or her life; nor to human affairs.

Right on.

Has anybody told the Dali Llama that Bush is no longer president and that he doesn't need to suck up anymore?

As others have pointed out, I think it's hilarious that someone would actually promote a personal endorsement from the head of a world religion based on the creed that every sentient being has good in them -- even the lowest and my vile among us. It reminds me of my favorite bumper sticker: Jesus Loves You -- everyone else thinks you're an asshole.

And did some cretin in this forum actual make a reference to Buddhism as a cult? I must have misunderstood. Nobody who reads Salon, after all, could be so incredibly naive and ignorant.