Luxury retailer Christian Dior has pulled advertisements featuring Sharon Stone from stores across China after the actress suggested the country's earthquake was "bad karma" for Beijing's policies in Tibet.
At least 68,000 people died in the May 12 quake in southwest China, which came months after unrest in Tibet that sparked an international outcry over Beijing's handling of the predominantly Buddhist region, which Communist troops entered in 1950.
"Due to some customer reaction we have decided to pull her image from all of the department stores and from all of China," Christian Dior China said in a statement.
Questions: Does this demonstrate the endless vapidity of Hollywood stars who rule the world like the dinosaurs once did? Or Sharon Stone's firm grasp of karmic understanding? The power of the market responding to new signals by punishing those who disappoint or dismay consumers? The power of a government that oversees the people who produce a ton of luxury goods sold in the West? Do Buddhists simply get what they deserve in every situation? Why was Buddhism so popular for a while among Westerners (Zen Archery, Hesse's Siddartha, Gary Snyder, "Karma Chameleon," and all that)? Do Theravada Buddhists emit less karma than than Mahayana believers (actual mileage may vary)?
Sharon Stone at Wikipedia here.
Wow, seems "Freedom of Speech" just doesnt carry any weight
anymore. What has this pathetic country come to?
JJ
http;//www.Privacy-Center.net
Uh, it doesn't look like it has anything to do with freedom of speech. If Christian Dior is feeling the fallout from what their spokesperson says, they have ever right to pull the ads.
I'm not shallow like all the rest of you western Christians! I'm spiritual because I'm a Buddhist!
Why was Buddhism so popular for a while among
Westerners
Because of Lowell's own Jack Kerouac, of course.
Her continuing inability to distinguish Chinese PEASANTS from
the policy makers does not surprise me at all.
This is just the Chinese/Hollywood version of "little Eichmans" as
far as I'm concerned.
I bet Christian Dior wouldn't have this problem if they'd gone with Pat Robertson instead of Sharon Stone.
Buddhism is still "popular" among westerners, it's just become more mainstream so that you don't notice it anymore. It's like saying that the Internet isn't popular anymore because you don't see articles in Time magazine talking about this wonderful, new-fangled thing called the "information superhighway."
Question: Does this demonstrate the endless vapidity of
Hollywood stars who rule the world like the dinosaurs once did? Or
Sharon Stone's firm grasp of karmic understanding?
Answer: The latter. Plus Sharon is much smarter, and prettier too,
than anybody working at reason! So there!
Jack,
Plugging your site is great and all (I haven't visited it) but I
think you need to read the article, really.
I also believe in karma. And I believe that the Chinese have much better karma coming their way for their quick disaster response, which puts the mighty United States and its response to disasters to shame.
See also Cracked's excellent "What is the Monkeysphere?" for another perspective on tragedy on the other side of the world.
Fucking hippies have distorted Buddhism in the western
world.
Karma is the natural law of cause and effect. It is cold and
impersonal, and it's not moral. It is not some cosmic equivalent of
Santa Claus.
Congrats to Nick Gillespie for finding the first attractive image of Sharon Stone since "Total Recall."
I'm never surprised when the entertainment media like the
Washington Post and the NYT report on celebs' blatherings as if
they mattered, but it's a tad disappointing to see Reason do
it.
-jcr
Where's her karmic retribution for Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold? I'll believe in karma when she pays for that.
Maybe Sharon thinks those kids were being selfish. After all, by
being born they ensure that their younger siblings, especially
their little sisters, will die of exposure under China's population
control policies.
Selfish little tykes insisting on living. Like the goddamn
Americans who want to have rising standards of living and a
technological civilization even though Gore, Sharon, and Hollywood
tell them it is selfish and god is going to wash them away in the
Flood!
Nick,
Re: the adam smith link.
The discussion on the original that the linked is commenting on
instead of the linked piece is much more interesting. You should
have linked it instead.
Sharon Stone pulled a reverend Phelps! X bad thing happened because of Y thing that I don't agree with. Also, God hates fags!
Karma: What goes around comes around.
Not karma: Plate tectonics.
Any questions?
Got to say that was my first reaction when I heard of the quake.
I believe that for every effect there was first a cause (or causes). Yet, I don't believe in the idea that there's some simple and solipsistic relationship between whatever one does and whatever happens to him or her later. Okay, I guess the santa claus remark said it better.
ed | May 29, 2008, 9:46am | #
Karma: What goes around comes around.
Not karma: Plate tectonics.
Any questions?
Well, I think Stone's "theory" is the first led to the second.
Jozef,
How does the possible poor construction of many public buildings in
the PRC fit into that?
The following information and advice is provided free of charge
to Sharon Stone, Pat Robertson and other arrogant shallow thinkers
who believe that cosmic justice somehow intervenes in the affairs
of the planet.
In the next decade the earth will experience Killer earthquakes,
devastating hurricanes/typhoons/cyclones*, horrific volcanic
eruptions, tragic droughts, random tornados and crop destroying
floods and pestilence.
These events have nothing to do with how the victims treated their
neighbors, which deity they did or didn't worship, which political
party they supported or who was having sex with who. These events
have been occuring theroughout the history of the planet and show
no signs of abating in the future.
Praying, sacrificing fatted ferrets, throwing spilled salt over
your shoulder and tithing to your local house of worship will not
change a damned thing.
Get over your egotism. It's not about you, it's not about the
victims. They're called natural disasters becasuse the are (write
this down so you don't forget) NATURAL.
* Pet peeve: Why the hell do tropical storms have different names
dependent on the ocean that spawns them?
searching for reasons to care... please stand by.
.
.
.
.
.
.
no reasons to care found.
"Why was Buddhism so popular for a while among
Westerners."
It still is. There are far more whites than Asians in my local
sanga.
Her continuing inability to distinguish Chinese PEASANTS
from the policy makers does not surprise me at all.
The govt is the people and the people are the govt to a leftist
like Stone - her stance makes perfect sense if you adopt her warped
premise.
These events have nothing to do with how the victims treated
their neighbors, which deity they did or didn't worship, which
political party they supported or who was having sex with
who.
Of course not.
As Jack Van Impe explains, they're the signs of the coming
apocalypse.
What's in the news this week, Rexella?
There are far more whites than Asians in my local
sanga.
Someday America is going to be the center of Buddhism, much like
Africa will be the center of Christianity.
You do realize that Myanmar also had the devastating floods shortly after the govt's beating up/disappearing/killing all those Buddhist monks? I dunno, it seems that ol' Siddharta's all fed up with passive resistance. You mess with the Buddha, you get the horns. Or, at least the people you rule do.
Karma: What goes around comes around.
Not karma: Plate tectonics.
Perhaps "plate tectonics" is just a band-aid explanation we throw
at it because we don't understand karma.
Actually, going by the "natural law of cause and effect" definition, plate tectonics would be karma. But ed's joke is based on the hippie definition, and I didn't want to ruin it like I have now. Sorry ed.
Karma: What goes around comes around.
Not karma: Plate tectonics.
Any questions?
Well, I think Stone's "theory" is the first led to the
second.
Ah, I see. Rather like how God created evolution. Part science,
part batshit craziness.
This Westerner will stick with his father's and grandfather's irrational metaphysics, thank you very much.
Congrats to Nick Gillespie for finding the first attractive image of Sharon Stone since "Total Recall."
"Finding?" I thought he took the picture.
Let us, for a moment, ponder Michael Jordan. I don't know whether
he's a paragon of virtue -- probably not. But he does seem to have
picked up the clue that if you would like people to pelt you with
large wads of cash, part of your job is to: Keep. Your. Mouth.
Shut.
In other words, he's accepted payment for his waiver of the First
Amendment. Clever man.
It's particularly sad that after many evangelical leaders have
shot their mouths off about Katrina, September 11, AIDS, etc. being
God's Wrath, that people who have a microphone stuck in their face
haven't learned that these statements are ignorant, cruel, and
self-parodying.
Especially, in this case, since karma applies to the individual,
not the collective. It's dispassionate, so it doesn't smite
whomever happens to be pissing Sharon Stone off. Karma is more a
Hindu precept than a Buddhist one, and -- in my opinion -- it is
de-emphasized in Mahayana Buddhism. Mahayana tends toward, "don't
worry about your eternal cycle of karma; look for opportunities for
compassion here and now."
Personal note: I was brought to Buddhism through
Libertarianism.
Finally, for Ms. Stone to point out her friendship to His Holiness
the Dalai Lama -- a completely remarkable individual, deserving the
title "Ocean of Compassion" -- and then to imply that she was
saying on his behalf, "and to those parents in Sichuan whose only
child had a school dropped on them, I would like to say 'Neener
neener neener' "... well, it's just really sad.
Incredibly, she's managed to make both Western Civilization and
Eastern Philosophy look like horseshit. Such is the power of
celebrity.
This is all just karmic payback for Sharon because she never slept with me back in the day.
That's a crude bit of Photoshopping between her legs. That or she's squeezing a cardboard diamond between her karmic mounds.
That picture is creepy.
Having a high IQ does not mean you won't say stupid stuff on a
recurring basis.
no one expects it
the spanish inquisition
not same as karma
That's a really bizarre photo. The socks and shoes... the bodyless chicken pose... the out of proportion head... the oddly colored digital merkin... she looks like a character from Yellow Submarine or a Terry Gilliam animation.
Let us, for a moment, ponder Michael Jordan. I don't know
whether he's a paragon of virtue -- probably not. But he does seem
to have picked up the clue that if you would like people to pelt
you with large wads of cash, part of your job is to: Keep. Your.
Mouth. Shut.
Republicans buy sneakers too.
Anybody see the crazy/tense Sharon Stone/Garry Shandling extra
on the Not Just The Best of the Larry Sanders Show DVD?
Apparently they were an item at one time. (And the Larry Sanders
Show was the best TV evah.)
Actually, Sharon may have stumbled upon something. One of the key beliefs of traditional Chinese Confucian culture was that China's rulers held power only with the Mandate of Heaven. When the rulers displeased Heaven, they would lose this mandate as evidenced by severe natural disasters like floods and earthquakes. Dynastic changes often followed such disasters because the people believed the dynasty was no longer legitimate as it had lost the mandate. The anti-regime fallout that may occur due to thousands of parents' anger about the deaths of their children because of Communist Party corruption that led to substandard school construction could show the truth of Sharon's observation,albeit not exactly for the reason she stated
Claiming that earthquakes result from "bad karma" is philosophically indistinguishable from claiming that plagues are a punishment from God.
It's probably been said above already, but
When Hagee et al says Katrina was a punishment from god, he is an
asshole.
When Stone says the earthquake is a punishment from Karma, she is
an asshole.
This has nothing to do with Christianity nor Buddhism, it has to do
with assholism.
Does the insurance industry still refer to these catastrophes as "an act of God?" Could that finding be used as legal proof of the existance of God?
That picture is ample illustration why Sharon Stone is not on my
"A" List of doable women.
Matter of fact, I wouldn't do her with Edwin's chota.
And yes, it certainly is bad karma. God, er, ah, the Big K kills
68,000 innocent Chinese because the Chinese government sucks
Edwin's chota, which I would not do Sharon Stone with.
I really detest that woman.
This Westerner will stick with his father's and
grandfather's irrational metaphysics, thank you very
much.
Y'know, that's the kind of thinking that lets Europe slide into
decay. This is America! We don't need to be constrained by outmoded
irrational metaphysics of the Old World! It's a newer and more
entrepreneurial american century! Create your own irrational
metaphysics, like great American L. Ron Hubbard.
Anybody see the crazy/tense Sharon Stone/Garry Shandling
extra on the Not Just The Best of the Larry Sanders Show DVD?
Apparently they were an item at one time.
Proof positive that it's a very good thing to get your own TV
show.
Yeah, I know, she's got that scary wacko ice queen thing going on.
But I always thought she was one of the most beautiful women to
ever walk the planet. Each to their own, I guess.
"Someday America is going to be the center of Buddhism, much
like Africa will be the center of Christianity."
One of the things that initially attracted me to Buddhism is that
it does not require a belief in a deity. I need spirituality but
not a requirement to believe in a being that I have no evidence of.
This may be one reason it is becoming more popular in the West.
People are becoming more "secular" only in the sense that they want
evidence for what believe in. They are not, for the most part,
rejecting the entire concept of spirituality or the notion that
some concepts and beliefs are sacred.
Personally, I'm quite happy being a bad Catholic.
Sure, Chris Potter can tell me that it doesn't make sense to think
I'm a Catholic and disagree with a great deal of what the Vatican
says, but you know what? Chris and I believe that those little
white wafers transform into the Body of Christ every Sunday, but in
a manner that makes it impossible for anyone to tell the
difference.
So there's a certain amount of "being ok with stuff that doesn't
make sense" built into the system.
Libertarian Librarian - I am with you on that, and I'll add that
Buddhism's more secular spirituality is based on common sense
observations of the real world. (It is after all a philosophy, not
a religion as such.)
Another appeal for modern thinkers: Buddhism ENCOURAGES you to
question and doubt its teachings and investigate things for
yourself, making it much more compatible with a libertarian
society.
Well, if ANYBODY would know about giant gashes, in the earth or otherwise, it would be Sharon Stone.
Collective reward/punishment is a key element in Western
thought.
Adam eats the apple (big crime there!) and the entire human race
suffers. Pharoah won't let the Israelites go, so every first born
in Egypt must be killed. Because the Babylonians conquered the
Jews, Psalm 137 blesses anyone who smashes a Babylonian toddler
against the rocks.
The biblical prophets seldom curse kings by name, but instead curse
entire nations, as if even the women and children must be punished
for the transgressions of the ruling elite.
Anti-semetics may condemn ancient Jewish thought, but do so only in
terms of repeating the same error, by holding Jews alive today
guilty for an alleged crime on the part of a handful of leaders
that supposedly occured two thousand years ago. Hello, can you get
more abstract in your collectivism than that?
Then along came Communists, who eschewed the Bible entirely -- and
proceeded to judge individuals on the basis of the alleged sins of
their economic class.
Anyone who thinks that the Western Mind is drawn toward
individualism and away from collectivism should pay special
attention to the moralizing statements of US Civil War
leaders.
Affirmative action, reparations for slavery, reparations for the
Holocaust, Hillary Clinton's declaration that Iran will be
'obliterated' if it attacks Israel -- we're always looking for some
way to judge and punish people collectively rather than
individually.
Sharon Stone's outlook is simply a product of our society's
infatuation with collective judgment. That she dresses it up with
reference to 'karma' -- a term relating to individual reward and
punishment -- shows that like much of trendy Hollywood, she is
eager to pretend that she has attained to Eastern Enlightenment.
But underneath is still the fundamentalist biblical worldview of Us
vs. Them.
she's managed to make both Western Civilization and Eastern Philosophy look like horseshit
That happened long before Sharon Stone.
Karma, yeah, I did her. As for Sharon Stone, karma has more to do with gravity and silly cone.
Stone is an idiot. She's also a piss-poor actress (who has built
her entire career on showing her hoohah in that one godawful
movie), and a shameless narcissist. Remember, China is getting
karmic payback for dissing the Dalai Lama, "who's a personal
friend of mine..."
Yup...it's all about Sharon Stone...
Is she a good actress, good looking? Debatable, depending on your preferance. As an actress should she be allowed to vent her views? She is human and it IS her opinion...When we raise our kids we tell them after they hit,kick,bite another child not to do it, as the other child might just do it back...you know the treat others how you want to be treated? Natural disasters happen all over the world, to differant religions, good people and bad. But some say if you mistreat people(s) you'll get your retribution.
Sharon Stone's comment about Katrina.
News Reporter: Did you hear know about the typhoon in New
Orleans?
Stone: Of cause I have. You know, it's very interesting about that
since first, I'm not happy about the way USA treats the Iraqis
because I think anyone should not be unkind to anyone else. And so
I am being very concerned the election of the next president,
because we had not being nice to Saddam Hussein, who is a good
friend of mine. And Katrina typhoon ,and all the stuff happened,
and I thought, is that Karma? When you're not nice that the bad
things happen. And then I got a letter from the Iraqi Foundation
that they want to go and be helpful. This made me cry. And they
asked me if I will write a quote to that, and I said I would that
it was a big lesson to me, that sometimes you have to learn to put
your face down and be a dog to the person who aren't nice to you.
And that is a big lesson to me.
May 29 (Bloomberg) -- LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, the
world's largest luxury-goods maker, urged its model Sharon Stone to
clarify remarks suggesting a May 12 earthquake may have been
``karma'' for China's policies on Tibet.
``If there is a possibility of putting things in the right
perspective, coming from the heart, I think that is the best thing
to do,'' Group Managing Director Antonio Belloni said at a
luxury-goods conference in Tokyo today. The comments from Stone,
who appears in advertisements for LVMH's Christian Dior cosmetics
and perfumes, were ``unfortunate,'' he added.
``If she doesn't agree, I think we have to acknowledge she doesn't
agree and detach us from her,'' Belloni said.
Eat at Panda Express for a good cause!(Everywhere)
http://www.pandaexpress.com/px/2008/ChinaReli...
China Earthquake Relief Fund
$1 from every 3-entrée Plate purchase at Panda Express will be
donated to China Earthquake relief efforts. The $800,000 target
amount will be donated to the American Red Cross and Tzu-Chi
Foundation. This fundraising effort will take place at over 1000
Panda Express restaurants in 36 states.
Panda Inn will donate $1 from every item ordered from the Chef's
Entrée Menu.
Relief Efforts
The American Red Cross mission is to improve the lives of
vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity. For more
information about this organization, go to www.redcross.org .
The Tzu Chi Foundation a compassion relief organization dedicated
to helping all people. Panda partnered with Tzu Chi in 2005 to
rebuild homes after the Asian Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina in New
Orleans. For more information about this organization, go to
www.us.tzuchi.org .
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