Really? So citing approvingly Chris Colin's calling the Dalai Lama "Ghandi meets PT Barnum, minus the elephants" is meant as . . . a compliment? It's a great description, but it's not meant to emphasize the Dalai Lama's "realness" nor his audience's critical thinking skills.
>
>
> (By the way, a similar attitude was evinced on this list toward
> Bernard-Henri Levy as a guest on Doug's show. The guy is funny, can
> turn a phrase, and he's not without something to say. ("God is dead but
> my hair is fabulous"--can you imagine O'Reilly saying something that
> funny? Or Rush? Come on!) But evidently being funnier than Chomsky and
> to the right of Michael Moore makes him--and Doug! (jeez!)--
> automatically supsect.)
>
> --nope, actually it's hard to imagine doug giving DL afree pass lik
> goodman or vandenheuvel...that;s the issue.
>
My point was that people on this list threw a fit when someone ideologically impure was being interviewed by Doug. As if it somehow cast _him_ in a bad light to even interview Levy--no matter how tough or not he was on him.
> Indeed, it's precisely because the Dalai Lama can reach such big
> audiences and make them feel good that some might say it's important
> for the left tot try and claim him as their own.
>
> --mother teresa made people feel good about themselves too...so did bob
> hope...big deal...
> ------------------------------
But don't you think that, given all the ra-ra America stuff that Hope did, and how much he was loved etc., that if someone like Doug interviewed him, asked him the "tough questions" (Why are you a stooge of imperialist warfare? Why make the troops laugh when their killing innocents?) and so on, that there would be very little good that would come from that for the left?
Let's say Doug _did_ interview the Dalai Lama and asked him all those tough questions that you want him to. I'm sure it would be great. The Dalai Lama squirms. He hedges, he fudges, he's inconsistent. Maybe he even gets mad and starts throwing things. What has changed? You really think that anyone who's listening to Doug's show who currently likes the Dalai Lama will stop doing so? Maybe so. But it's a lot more likely that people who are listening to Doug's show already feel the way you do about the Dalai Lama. And so, what has changed? The Dalai Lama--exposed as a sham! He's not peaceful at all! And his next appearance at Madison Square Garden is sold out.
Christian