About two months ago, I ran a link to a Harper’s Magazine expos� on ‘The Family,’ a weird pseudo-society of conservative Christian movers and shakers. Reading the article was like peering into the inner workings of a paranoid delusional’s mind. The Family openly espouses praise for Hitler and Genghis Khan, and seeks to become remake the world in it’s image; all the while maintaining a secret society, behind-the-scenes unaccountability.

Well Alternet is running a follow-up story on the article, interviewing the author, Jeffrey Sharlet, editor of the web site Killing the Buddha. Read both articles and then think about what I said last week about our country becoming the conservative dystopia in The Handmaid’s Tale.

I don’t have anything against France or the French, but I am forced to question their aesthetic taste. First that bizarre fascination with all things Jerry Lewis and now this: Woody Allen is appearing in a series of commercials to promote French tourism. Who’s bright idea was that? The man is an embarrassment now, and his imprimatur on something is not exactly a ringing endorsement for most Americans.

Four years ago, the ancient kingdom of Bhutan became the last place on earth with television, much of it supplied by Rupert Murdoch’s Star TV. Within four years, the once peaceful people of Bhutan and suffering under new phenomena: drugs and alcohol addiction, thievery, fraud, murder. Coincidence? What is the reaction of a Buddhist populace that believes in the sanctity of all life when exposed to wanton sex and violence? Television has a remarkable capacity to inform and bring our world together, but far too often the Lidless Eye speaks to our basest pleasures, dulling our senses and lowering our resistance.