Brussels suffers terrorist attack.

Courtesy of the BBC: 

At least 26 people have been killed and many seriously injured in terrorist attacks at Brussels international airport and a city metro station. 

Twin blasts hit Zaventem airport at 07:00 GMT, killing 11 and injuring 81, Belgium's health minister said. 

Another explosion struck Maelbeek metro station an hour later. Brussels transport officials say 15 people were killed and 55 injured, 10 seriously. 

Belgium has now raised its terrorism threat to its highest level. 

The attacks come four days after Salah Abdeslam, the main fugitive in the Paris attacks, was seized in Brussels.

Actually now I am hearing that the number of dead has now reached at least 31. And the number may grow as more information comes to light.

What a terrible thing to wake up to today.

And just another reminder of how important it is to choose a leader here in the US who understands the world as it is, as has a plan for how to deal with all of the challenges that we face moving forward.

Donald Trump for instance has the perfect solution to the problem, courtesy of Wonkette:

I would close up our borders until we figure out what is going on. Look at Brussels. Look at Paris. Look at so many cities that were great cities. Paris is almost as bad … Paris is no longer the beautiful City Of Lights. Paris has got a lot of problems … All you have to do is speak to the people who live there. […] We have to be smart in the United States. When people come in, we’re taking in people without real documentation, we don’t know where they’re coming from, we don’t know where they’re from, who they are. You look at it from any standpoint, they could be ISIS. They could be ISIS-related. And we just don’t learn. … Brussels is an amazing example. Brussels was an absolutely crime-free city, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. And now you look at it, it’s a disaster. […] 

Frankly, those countries better get smart fast, because they’re just disintegrating. I have friends who live in Brussels, they say the place is literally disintegrating. 

In my opinion, this is just the beginning. It will get worse and worse because we are lax and we are foolish. … At this point, we cannot allow these people to come into the country. We are allowing thousands and thousands of people to come into our country, and we don’t even know where they come from and who they are. We have to be very careful. We’re not babies. We can’t do this anymore. We can’t have these attacks anymore. We can’t have World Trade Centers anymore and planes flying into the Pentagon. 

Wow there really is no problem for which Donald Trump does not think that racism and xenophobia are the solution.

And let me remind everybody that the very existence of ISIS, or Daesh if you prefer, is the direct result of another narrow minded idiot who declared war on Muslims without good reason.

Gee I think he was a Republican as well. What a coincidence.

Just being exposed to Buddhism makes you a better person.

The return of Bathroom Buddha

Courtesy of PsyPost:  

Researchers from Belgium and Taiwan have found that being exposed to Buddhist concepts can lead to increased prosocial behavioral intentions and undermine prejudice towards others. 

Buddhism contains a variety of teachings and practices – such as meditation – intended to help individuals develop a more open-minded and compassionate personality. Unlike the three dominant monotheistic religions, it does not draw a sharp line between believers and unbelievers. 

In three separate experiments of 355 individuals, the researchers found that being exposed to words related to Buddhism could “automatically activate prosociality and tolerance, in particular among people with socio-cognitive open-mindedness.” 

The study adds to a growing body of research about priming, a phenomenon in which merely being exposed to certain words or concepts changes the way people think or behave. It was published in the April issue of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

The article goes on to suggest that Westerners simply exposed to words associated with Buddhism like "Dharma" or "Nirvana" resulted in a less negative attitude towards others.

Then there's this:

Westerners with a Christian background also scored higher on measures of prosociality after being exposed to Buddhist concepts. Surprisingly, participants did not score higher on measures of prosociality after being exposed to Christian concepts.

I can't say I find this particularly surprising. 

I was exposed to Buddhist concepts as a young boy, and they had a dramatic impact on how I saw the world. Ultimately I think it had a hand in making me a better person.

It kind of makes one wonder how different the world might be if Buddhism and Taoism were the two most prominent religions.

Belgium to charge Church of Scientology with fraud and extortion. Well that's a start!

"Goddammit Belgium!"

Courtesy of RT.com:

 After a long lasting legal battle Belgium prosecutors demand to label the Church of Scientology as a criminal organization and charge it and its leaders with extortion, fraud, privacy breaches, and the illegal practice of medicine. 

The subpoenas have been sent to the scientologists, the local financial newspaper De Tijd reported. 

The charges against the Church of Scientology stem from employment contracts issued to recruit volunteers and members allegedly breaching the country's strict employment laws. In Belgium as in some other countries Scientology is not recognized as a faith. 

In 2008 the Belgium Labor Mediation Service complained about number of labor contracts, prompting an investigation. 

A judge then ordered raids on Scientology premises where police allegedly “managed to seize a wealth of evidence,” that the organization had spied on and extorted money from its members, the Flanders News reported. 

Belgian authorities have been legally battling Scientologists since 2007, when the country tried to label the movement as a cult. Around the same time Belgian prosecutors ruled that the Belgian Church of Scientology, plus Scientology's Office of Human Rights and their 12 members, should be charged with extortion, fraud, organized crime, illegal medical practice. 

They were accused of practicing medicine without a license and violating privacy laws.

God I love this!

Now since they are going after false faiths that lie to the congregations and make impossible claims to in order to extort, who's next? I mean Belgium's not going to just stop there are they?

Oh, but of course they are. As if the crazy belief system embraced by Scientologists is REALLY any crazier than the one embraced by the adherents of any number of different faiths.

Oh well, baby steps. Perhaps someday we'll ALL finally get there.