Hero 100 14k hooked nib pens for $49

Dave wrote:
"Keep religion out of politics" is only valid if "Keep politics out of
religion" is adhered to in an equally strict manner.

The important thing here is that anyone can buy anything imported from
any random country. Or not.

There is a rather long list of countries whose imports I won't buy, but
I don't choose to get into naming names. I generally prefer to buy
American, my fetish for French and Italian pens notwithstanding.

--
_Deirdre web: http://deirdre.net blog: http://deirdre.org/blog/
"Memes are a hoax! Pass it on!"

That is exactly it. Falun Gong can't "keep politics out of religion". That
is why its practice is being put to a stop in its country of origin.
Initially, the movement received encouragement from the government then
considered it to be a good practice. But things turn around when the
movement organized mass protest. This act naturally alarmed the government.
To have a clearer picture, we need to understand what the protest is all
about. It all started when a member of the Chinese Academy of Science wrote
a critical article published in a local paper. The article was so damaging
to the cause of the movement that it had to seek rectification. Protestors
throng the newspaper office and there was public disorder. Many were
arrested but about a week later 10,000 gathered at a central government
office in the area. That was the turning point and the crackdown began. To
make matters worst several practitioners doused themselves in gasoline and
set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square. Pictures and videos of that
flashed all over the world and shocked everyone who saw it. Of course,
supporters of the movement later denied that the incident was staged by
actual practitioners. But what happen after that is that most people began
to see it as a cult with deviationist teachings. One of the main concern is
that practitioners avoid conventional medicine that leaves illness untreated
and could result in death. The way I see it, this is an example of mass
delusion based on unsubstantiated believes and superstition. In many ways it
is like the Doomsday Cult but in a milder form.

This will be my last post on this subject. This has nothing to do with Hero
Pens nor this newsgroup for the matter.

--
Best regards,
Free Citizen
Rambling Snailer


"Dave" wrote in message
...
How can a relatively small cult (assuming the Chinese government's
analysis of cult vs. religion is correct) threaten the "social
stability" of a huge and religiously diverse country? Is Falun Gong a
guerilla group, organizing politically-motivated assassinations, calling
for civil war, etc.?

"Keep religion out of politics" is only valid if "Keep politics out of
religion" is adhered to in an equally strict manner.

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 11:32:21 +0800, "Free Citizen"
wrote:

And it is not easy to keep it
together. Without a doubt, there has been religious repression in the past
because the Communist government then saw how religion can be used as a
vehicle to derail the communist ideal.

Yeah, I guess the Tibetans agreed - it is hard to keep something
together when it shouldn't be together at all. As long as the
religions agree to report to the correct person in the PRC hierarchy,
they can be a completely free religion. Just not like most places mean
it. I think this is the Red Queen approach - religious freedom means
what she means it to mean and not one whit more.

And unless you have a high level USA security clearance, you are
working with a long out of date CIA fact book. Or the green book which
is about as useful as the last printed version of the Encyclopedia
Britannica.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

OK, but is ANYBODY impressed that Smokey Robinson is now 64 years old, and is
still as gorgeous as ever?

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 16:18:52 +0800, "Free Citizen"
wrote:

That is exactly it. Falun Gong can't "keep politics out of religion". That
is why its practice is being put to a stop in its country of origin.
Initially, the movement received encouragement from the government then
considered it to be a good practice. But things turn around when the
movement organized mass protest. This act naturally alarmed the government.

This tells you all you need to know about the Chinese government.

---
RJ

RJ writes:

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 16:18:52 +0800, "Free Citizen"
wrote:

That is exactly it. Falun Gong can't "keep politics out of
religion". That is why its practice is being put to a stop in its
country of origin. Initially, the movement received encouragement
from the government then considered it to be a good practice. But
things turn around when the movement organized mass protest. This
act naturally alarmed the government.

This tells you all you need to know about the Chinese government.

But not much about pens.