"Bill De Blasio Will Meditate Your Parking Ticket Away," a headline on Gothamist says. Intriguing -- but thoroughly incorrect -- and full of mocking stereotypes (those solidified perceptions make for easy shorthand). 

The piece is actually about a story in The Village Voice about NYC mayoral candidate and City Council member Bill De Blasio. I don't live in NYC and don't know anything about him, so I don't know if the tone of the blog piece is appropriate. But I do know that the headline and some of the assertions aren't.

It says:

The nut: He had no problem trying to make parking tickets disappear for constituents, he wanted "transcendental meditation" to be included in school curriculum, and a good deal of de Blasio's records seem to be conveniently missing.

(For those of you who haven't attended journalism school, "the nut" refers to the "nut graph," or the paragraph the summarizes the story.) Just from that sentence, it's obvious that meditation and parking tickets are two separate things. He won't "meditate your parking tickets away."
And regarding "transcendental meditation:" Putting something in quotes like this is a subtle way of diminishing it, the equivalent of a wink, by questioning its legitimacy. Transcendental Meditation is  a trademarked name for a system of meditation that uses mantras.)

Then there's this:

And now, the cornerstone for what will be a mysterious direct-mailing campaign featuring de Blasio's face superimposed on Deepak Chopra's cross-legged body hitting a bong in the shape of a hammer and sickle:

De Blasio also has a mystical side. He wrote to then-New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein to extol the virtues of transcendental meditation, recommending that the discipline become part of the curriculum in city public schools. "The technique is strictly a mechanical, natural procedure that allows the mind and body to settle down to a deep state of rest," he wrote Klein.

TM has nothing to do with Deepak Chopra. It was developed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (and taught to people like the Beatles). Chopra studied TM, but broke with it in 1994. I don't where the bong comes in. I assume the hammer and sickle refer to his politics, not his meditation practice.

 Beyond that, though, meditation in schools is not an outrageous thing. It's happening in lots of places. Studies in British schools have found that it improves attention and reduces stress.
 reduces stress.
Gothamist makes it sound like a politician promoting meditation is a weird and suspect thing. Hmmm ... I wonder what Congressman Tim Ryan author of "A Mindful Nation: How a Simple Practice Can Help Us Reduce Stress, Improve Performance, and Recapture the American Spirit," would say? You can listen to his talks at IDP here.