If Americans and their corporations eagerly (greedily?) exchange handshakes, credits, customers, and weapons systems with totalitarian tyrannies why should we whine when we're nearly ensnared in one ourselves?
I mean if censorship is okay with LinkedIn why not CNN, and our own government unlawful decrees. The departure of morality in America has left us barren of virtue and truth. Providing we comply with what our censors tell us is ethical, we'll do just fine; not do what we want, say what we like, but compliant we shall be, or death shall be our penalty from a remorseless government and its obedient citizens.
Many of you'll remember when Red Chinese imports consisted of woven reeded baskets, and trinkets. Under corporate socialist lobbying, our very own government ushered in slave labor, job losses here, and mucho dineros - and taxpayer loans - for the corporate socialists.
Yet we still regard ourselves as "patriots" for American independence. Tell that to the refugees from Red China, North Korea, and many others.
from Epoch Times: LinkedIn Connects With Beijing, Censors Falun Gong
By Lauren Mack
I mean if censorship is okay with LinkedIn why not CNN, and our own government unlawful decrees. The departure of morality in America has left us barren of virtue and truth. Providing we comply with what our censors tell us is ethical, we'll do just fine; not do what we want, say what we like, but compliant we shall be, or death shall be our penalty from a remorseless government and its obedient citizens.
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| U.S. anti-Communist literature of the 1950s, specifically addressing the entertainment industry. Americans at the time correctly recognized betrayal was coming from traitors within. Nothing's changed. |
Many of you'll remember when Red Chinese imports consisted of woven reeded baskets, and trinkets. Under corporate socialist lobbying, our very own government ushered in slave labor, job losses here, and mucho dineros - and taxpayer loans - for the corporate socialists.
Yet we still regard ourselves as "patriots" for American independence. Tell that to the refugees from Red China, North Korea, and many others.
from Epoch Times: LinkedIn Connects With Beijing, Censors Falun Gong
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| LinkedIn confessed in June to having blocked in China information users posted about the Tiananmen Square massacre. |
By Lauren Mack
Falun Gong practitioners protest in Parliament Square over the persecution of their spiritual discipline by the Chinese Communist Party July 20, 2009 in London. The protesters claim that Falun Gong members have been persecuted by torture and intimidation.
With over 70 million followers worldwide, Falun Gong is a popular Chinese spiritual movement that is banned in China. What Is Falun Gong?
Falun Gong (法輪功, Fǎlún Gōng), also called Falun Dafa, is a movement that combines physical exercises with spiritual beliefs. Falun Gong literally means 'practice of the wheel of law.'
Practitioners do a variety of breathing, qigong movements, and meditation as well as profess the philosophy dictated by Li Hongzhi (李洪志), the founder of Falun Gong. While the physical and spiritual beliefs are influenced by Buddhism and Taoism, the main belief in Falun Gong is upholding the three tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance (真, zhēn, 善, shàn, 忍, rěn).
When and Where Did Falun Gong Start?
Falun Gong originated in China in 1992 and was founded by Li Hongzhi (李洪志), a qigong master. Li gave his first sermon on Falun Gong May 13, 1992 in Changchun, Jilin Province, China. It was during a time when qigong was a trend in China. What attracted many people to Falun Gong was that it was free, had health benefits, promoted Chinese culture, boosted morale, and anyone could do it.
At first, the Chinese government embraced the new movement which promoted improving one's health physically and mentally at no financial cost. However, when membership started increasing, the Communist Party became nervous because the group's popularity spread so fast and Li's books became best sellers. Many Communist Party members were also practitioners of Falun Gong. The group was viewed as a threat to the Communist Party because of the non-governmental group's huge number of followers and its spiritual teachings.
Newspaper began writing articles critical of Falun Gong in the mid-1990s. Practitioners fought back with peaceful protests including 10,000 practitioners who peacefully gathered in Beijing. It was the largest protest since the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square. President Jiang Zemin and Party officials decided Falun Gong needed to be suppressed and in 1999, the Chinese government banned the practice of Falun Gong.
Since 1999, Falun Gong followers have alleged that the Chinese government has arrested, threatened, abused and persecuted them. Falun Gong has since spread to over 70 countries worldwide particularly in Chinese communities in the United States. Falun Gong practitioners routinely stage displays of their exercises in public parks and public demonstrations of the torture and re-education inflicted on believers inside China.
Falun Gong supporters have set up a vigorous education campaign inside and outside China that includes sending faxes and e-mails in China, distributing pamphlets, books, and DVDs, and establishing media outlets to spread their message. The Epoch Times newspaper, >a href="http://english.ntdtv.com/">New Tang Dynasty television, and Sound of Hope radio station are all pro-Falun Gong media outlets founded by the movement's faithful.
What Do People Who Follow Falun Gong Believe?
Falun Gong consists of moral teachings, ethical behavior and physical exercises. Zhuan Falun (轉法輪) is a text written by Li that outlines the movement's beliefs.
The belief system of Falun Gong takes elements from Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and East Asian mysticism. Falun Gong's main tenets are truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, which are believed to be the fundamentals needed to tell right from wrong. Buddhist principles of karma, virtue, enlightenment and samsara are larger themes in the framework of Falun Gong's belief system. Beliefs about the universe and the human mind-body connection to it are also part of movement's beliefs.
Aside from the moral teachings, ethical behavior is also stressed. Practitioners cannot smoke, do drugs, gamble, drink, have premarital sex, be homosexual, or kill living things. They must also keep their jobs and secular connection with the world.
Believers are also required to perform physical exercises often (ideally daily). The exercises consist of five slow qigong movements, four standing and one sitting. Followers of Falun Gong believe doing the exercises in combination with adherence to the moral and ethical belief system will cure the body of any diseases it may have and bring a person closer to enlightenment. The exercises can be done in a group or alone anywhere as there are no houses of worship or set times to perform these exercises.
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