This is unfamiliar territory for me, but what the hell. I've always wondered where the fascination with Tibet comes from. This has led me to criticize folks like Richard Gere (not a difficult task) and others in the West who, among all the other stuff going on in the world and injustices occurring in their own countries, have chosen Tibet to be their "issue". To be honest, I simply have not understood it.

This Op/Ed in the Boston Globe explains things, although the answers do not reflect well on Western Tibet groupies. According to the author:

Westerners, for hundreds of years, have been intrigued by Tibet as the most remote place on earth, "the roof of the world," a hidden and holy land where an esoteric form of Buddhism was practiced, producing miracles such as flying monks and the ability to sit naked in the snow and raise your body temperature by powers of concentration.

I don't know how accurate this is, but if the motivations of a significant percentage of  Tibet activists in the West are rooted in some weird fascination with spiritual hocus pocus, I'm disappointed.

I'm sure after this next bit someone is going to send me an outraged email, but I'll say it anyway: basing foreign policy opinions on some romantic spiritual notion is lame, just lame. I have the same negative feelings about Christian fundamentalists who are pro-Zionist based on Biblical prophesies – so at least I'm consistent.

OK, let the hate mail begin. Being a cold-hearted corporate lawyer type, I'm used to it.