As reported here previously, the Asian Classics Input Project is doing great work making classic Buddhist texts available, in a searchable database, no less– they’re now on Release number 6 – check it out.

The junta claims weapons were found in Buddhist monasteries after the crackdown on the democratic protests Maybe they were and maybe they weren’t but no one believes the Bulldog and his clowns anyway.

The Dalai Lama spoke with the fine folks at the Ithaca Journal about his book, The Good Heart: A Buddhist Perspective on the teachings of Jesus. The DL will be visiting Ithaca soon.

- Philip Ryan, Web Editor

Bill Kristol, who is a vociferous supporter of the Surge and everything else the U.S. is doing so well in Iraq, says in the Washington Post that the U.S. ought to lean on China re: Burma. Fair enough. (China opposes U.N. sanctions against Myanmar and is widely perceived to be the regime’s biggest — or only — friend.) But then he goes on to wonder if “limited military actions, overt or covert” might be directed against the Myanmar junta. Would that be before or after we bomb Iranian nuclear facilities, I wonder?

The junta has appointed a deputy minister to be a liaison for Aung San Suu Kyi, but the Nobel Prize-winner, suspecting a cheap photo-op, wants no part of it.

Antara Dev Sen says India is not doing its part in supporting democracy in Burma, after doing so much and speaking out so loudly twenty years ago.  Meanwhile the New York Sun calls out ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) for not doing more.

Kate McGeown of the BBC has just returned from Burma. She tells us What Burma Wants from the World. The Toronto Star knows what the Burmese monks want: freedom and help.

- Philip Ryan, Webmaster