The tattoo in question, via farm4.static.flickr.com

Sports site TSN reports that:

“English welterweight Dan (The Outlaw) Hardy’s stomach tattoo was airbrushed out of the UFC 111 fight poster because it is ‘anti-Chinese government stuff,’ according to UFC president Dana White.

‘”I’m trying to get into China,” he told fans at a question-and-answer session Tuesday. ‘I don’t need anti-Chinese government stuff on my fighters.’

“Hardy, however, says the tattoo — the fighter’s favourite — is a Tibetan Buddhist prayer written in Sanskrit.

‘”It’s basically just like a prayer for focus,’ Hardy said. ‘It keeps me walking the path that I should be walking without veering off and distracting myself.’

“Apprised of that explanation, White said: ‘That’s not what I heard.’

[...] “‘I heard that it was anti-Chinese government, so I ripped that thing off it. I’m not going to put him on a poster with anti-Chinese government writing on it when we’re trying to get into China. . . . I don’t know what this stuff means, so I’ve got to be safe.’

But, as the MMA site Bloody Elbow (nice name, that) points out:

“The tattoo is the well known Buddhist mantra “Om mani padme hum” which has no political significance in relation to China.”

Well, not quite no political significance.  While the tattoo isn’t an overt anti-China statement, China sure is sensitive to hearing about Tibetan Buddhism. Some, like Robert Thurman, would even go so far as to say that the Chinese government is trying ‘re trying to, um, airbrush it away.

Looks like it’s official: California’s avuncular and sometimes controversial Jerry Brown (who was famously — and, I think it can be said, unfairly — skewered for pushing a form of “Zen fascism” in California Uber Alles, the classic song by Bay Area punk godfathers Dead Kennedys) will be running to be his state’s governor again, CNN reports today. He’d held the position from 1975 to 1983, and is currently the state’s attorney general.

This quote from a new ABC News post gives a sense of Brown’s Buddhist background and how it informs his work:

“I’ve done a lot of things. I’ve lived in Mexico for several months. I’ve lived all over South America. What else have I done? I took Linda Ronstadt to Africa once. I went to Calcutta and worked in an orphanage with Mother Theresa. I went to Japan and practiced zen meditation for six months.

“The essence of that is you meditate not on all of your achievements but on the essential emptiness,” Brown said. “That is pretty big for a politician. There are no politicians with a sense of their own personal emptiness — even though most of them are rather empty.”

Via the TimesOnline: “Burma’s military government is contemplating the release of the country’s democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, at the end of the year, but only after the anticipated date of national elections, according to reports from Rangoon.”

Meanwhile, as the Times writes, “Supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi are unconvinced. They say they will be ordering the flying pigs.” (And with good reason; the Burmese junta is quite skilled at saying one thing and doing another.) At any rate, this will be one to watch; more here!

[Jan 7 update: Ethan Nichtern taped an NPR segment for "Tell Me More." Listen here.]

“What is the truth about Buddhism?” teased CNN Newsroom anchor Rick Sanchez, today at 3:15. Later in the program, he did his best to present the Buddhist perspective by way of an interview with The Interdependence Project’s Ethan Nichtern.

This was overdue. Anyone who’s been on Shambhala SunSpace in the past couple of days knows that Buddhists have plenty to say about this controversy. Nichtern was there to talk up Buddhism’s inherent capacity for providing redemption — exactly the same quality that Hume so infamously said was missing from the faith. He did well — but it was clear from the get that it wasn’t going to be easy:

“As a Christian,” Sanchez said in his lead-in, “I think that [Hume's suggestion that Tiger Woods convert from Buddhism to Christianity] is a fine one.”

To be fair, Sanchez also admitted: “I really don’t know much about Buddhism [but] I’d love to.” This interview with Nichtern was a good opportunity to do just that, he said, thanks to Brit Hume. (Indeed, Hume’s remarks are valuable if only because it thrusts Buddhism into the popular culture, and creates dialogue.)

Nichtern explained Buddhism to Sanchez as being ” a system of meditation techniques and psychological teachings” coupled with an “ethical system” that amounds to “a process for greater awareness and understanding.” This greater awareness and understanding, reasoned Nichtern, is the redemption that Hume sees as missing from (or at least inadequate in) the Buddhist faith.

Sanchez asked Nichtern to compare Buddhism and Christianity, but Ethan didn’t take the bait: “A whole half of my extended family is Christian. [...] I know a lot of great Christians and Buddhists, and a lot of confused Buddhists and Christians.”

The segment closed with Sanchez asking Nichtern: “Is Buddhism a good place to look for redemption or forgiveness? Is that what it offers?”

“I think it definitely does,” replied Nichtern. “Especially meditation — [which is] a great way to become more in touch with your own mind and heart… and to work on those.” He went on to stress that practices like insight meditation or loving-kindness practice are often practiced by, and are helpful to, Christians. And that was that. Segment over.

Though Sanchez did come back from the break to take a look at responses to the segment from CNN’s “Twitter board.” These included comments like “Buddhism sounds very accepting…” to “Don’t Buddhists believe in [reincarnation]? I don’t want to become a tree. Trees become toilet paper. That’s sad.”

Evening Update: SunSpace reader Jigme pointed me to a new WTOP interview with Hume from earlier this evening. The newsman doesn’t seem to slag Buddhism as he did in his first controversial statement, but he does “ramp up his pitch of the superiority of Christianity,” as USA Today puts it.

Hume also argues that it’s his Christian faith that has left him open to attack from those who misunderstand him: “Suppose I’d said that what Tiger needed to do was to deepen his practice of the Buddhist faith. You think we’d be discussing this today?”

Here’s a link to the audio. (Opens in new window.) Also, for those wondering what The Daily Show had to say in Tuesday night’s 11pm show:

The Daily Show pretty much led off with the Hume story. Correspondent Aasif Mandvi (a seemingly out-of-nowhere great) expressed sympathy for Hume, saying that he felt bad that Hume received negative messages in response to his comments via, as Mandvi described it, “the Internet — where, as far as I know, only nice things are said.” Mandvi, identifying himself as a practitioner of Islam, went on in his mock sympathy: “I forgot how hard it is to be Christian — because it’s so easy to be Muslim.”

That statement was then followed by a montage of clips of FOX News hosts and talking heads mocking Indians, suggesting that all young Muslim men should be strip-searched (at airports, one presumes), and generally, as Mandvi put it, “shitting on Hindus.”

As for The Colbert Report: Stephen Colbert’s go-to Buddhist, Lama Surya Das, did not appear (as I’d imagined he’d would). In fact, no mention of the Hume controversy took place. Instead, Colbert focused the bulk of his show on a post-Christmas-plane-bombing-attempt segment called “Nightmare of Terror: The Crapification of the American Pantscape.”

Great title, Stephen. But no coverage? What gives? A fella could use all the laughs he can get.

Contact with a FOX publicist made earlier this evening confirmed that Brit Hume had now spoken on FOX’s The O’Reilly Factor about his recent comment regarding Tiger Woods, Christianity, and what Hume seems to see as an inferiority in Buddhism.

Here’s the video:

Note the question at the 50-second mark to learn which faith O’Reilly thinks is the one being denigrated here.

Pat Buchanan, on the other hand, has more or less conceded that Buddhism was in fact being denigrated, but seems to think that that’s okay because “there are not a lot of Buddhists watching FOX.” (TPM has a nice wrap-up.)

Via PR Newswire:

Borrowing the Zen practices of minimalism and focus, [St. Louis Tea Part movement co-founder Bill] Hennessy helps conservatives channel their anger and concern into positive steps toward reclaiming liberty.

“After the 2008 elections, I realized that shouting alone was useless. I also realized that we on the right were fighting too many battles at once. So I started to write myself a letter, and that letter turned into this book.”

Zen Conservative, the new book by St. Louis Tea Party leader Bill Hennessy, targets the millions of Americans who are fed up with government growth, regulatory intrusion, and unfathomable borrowing and spending in Washington, DC. But rather than just ratcheting up the volume, Hennessy’s “Zen Conservatism” aims toward effectiveness. The book advances the 5-2-1 method Hennessy has used to help the St. Louis Tea Party stay focused, engaged, and effective in issues like the proposed takeover of healthcare, the cap and trade tax scheme, and the undue influence of Andy Stern’s SEIU union.

Well, this sure isn’t my cup of tea. But if it’s yours, here’s the website.

Again with the “Zen President” thing. This via Scott Whitlock of NewsBusters:

Good Morning America co-host Diane Sawyer on Tuesday helped promote an upcoming HBO documentary on Barack Obama and allowed producer Ed Norton to gush over the “zen” presidential campaign of the Democratic candidate. Sawyer breathlessly teased the program as “the Obamas behind closed doors. The grandmother who raised him and the man you’ve never seen.”

[...] Norton was impressed with the “calm,” “no-drama Obama.” The actor continued, “And in a weird way, when you look behind the curtain with that team, they are really zen. It’s amazing how zen they are.”

So, this is the new issue of the National Review, depicting Sonia Sotomayor on its cover as a pseudo-cartoon Buddha.

Um… why?

And the Horse is not the only one asking. See here. And here.

Do the Old Boys at the NR not know the difference between an Hispanic and an Asian? Or is this like the treatment that Obama’s gotten in the past? (One example, here.)

Either way… No one’s put her on such a pedestal. It’s just weird.

Sheesh.

The Washington Post reports:

Mercedez Marquez, a woman President Obama has appointed to a prominent federal housing position, is being mocked by conservative bloggers for paying a Zen buddhist [sic] priest thousands of dollars from her post at the Los Angeles Housing Department.

Ms. Marquez was quoted by the Los Angeles Times in 2007 supporting paying Norma Wong $18,819 for ‘management training that includes teaching breathing with sphincter control, learning “how to stand” and playing with wooden sticks.”

Um, someone who did a few years of Zen training with a truly fine teacher, I don’t know what the heck Marquez and Wong (who is apparently an instructor at the Institute of Zen Studies) are talking about here.

Anyone?

And a note to The Media: if you report on this in a way that reduces “Zen” to anything like “sphincter control” and “playing with wooden sticks,” YOU’RE NOT DOING YOUR JOB.