Greetings good people.
Yes, I am back, well sort of, almost. I still have not been able to get my old computer repaired, and am still using a borrowed lap top. Fortunately, we acquired another computer since mine went down and I have full access to this computer, so, time for another rant.

Some of this will be going over old news. The most recent mass killing in the USA tops this post.
YES, the killings of those innocent children and the adults at the school in Connecticut was tragic. It is very shameful and should not have happened and we all would like that nothing like it ever again happens here in the USA.
At the same time, one has to stop and ask a serious question. What about all the innocent children who are killed on a daily basis due to the "war OF terror" being run by the White House, the five-sided-puzzle-palace, and the CIA? As an excellent article posted to the Counterpunch web site asked in its title;Do the Arabs cry for their children also? Of course they DO. They are human beings and to all of us humans, except the small percentage who have serious mental/emotional problems, all children are very precious. Any sane, rational human being with even the smallest amount of compassion for his/her fellow humans is saddened by the death of any child. However, according to the USA mass media (aka MSM), apparently it is only the children here in the USA who actually count as news worthy when they are killed by some crazed gunman. Can you say hypocrisy? YES, we can!
Enough! Enough of the USA as "holier than thou". That is old garbage and is totally bullshit. We, as a nation are not in any way any "better" than any other nation. We have our good points and bad points. We have good citizens and bad ones. No nation has a "lock" on human feelings of any sort. It is way past time for those of us who live in the USA to get over this total BS of American "exceptionalism". The USA is NOT the "indispensable" nation, no way, no how.
Of course if one subscribes to the same tired old garbage that was spewed by a former US Secretary of State; one Ms. Albright, one may "think"(??) that the deaths of innocent children in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Mali, etc are worth it. If so, please deposit your resignation from the human race at the door as you exit.
This brings me to the newest/latest country to get introduced to the war OF terror; Mali. Of course when mentioning Mali, one seems to need to include Algeria as the newest NATO/Africom war includes Algeria along with Mali as recent events have shown.
And here the world thought that France had given up on the "Napolean complex" of the departed Sarko. Well, Mr. Hollande has shown us all that he also knows how to "get things done" militarily at least. Poor Mali, and also, poor Algeria. Mali as the "center" of this newest imperial war site. Algeria, for having given permission to French aircraft to overfly Algerian air space to bomb "rebel" targets in Mali.
Of course the Anglo-French-American war is now focused on Mali because of the natural resources in that nation. Hey, China was looking to make a deal there no doubt. China is or has been, making many deals throughout the African continent. I believe the term used for such is "soft power". Financial deals ARE much softer than military ones, true enough. Of course the US/NATO/EU "must" stop China at all cost. After all, how else are "we" to even try to stay even with China and its economy? And don't forget that the USA is quite beholden to China whcih owns a substantial amount of US Treasury notes. I believe it is something on the order of one Trillion dollars worth. If that is an incorrect figure, let me know.
See, if "we" can get to the resources of Arfica before China does, why "we" might be in charge and could even call the tune as to the price for said resources. See how this all plays out, or so they hope, for the "too big to jail" banksters? Yep, never count Wall Street out of potential porfits. No sir, by the gods, they will fight tooth and claw for the merest scraps of obscene profits to the very last drop of our blood. What? Did you think they might fight their own battles? LOL, now, if you did, you need education, FAST. And in a hurry. No my friends, the banksters NEVER do the actual fighting, that is why they have us working class and poor folks around. Geez, ain't we so very "fortunate"? Yeah, sure we are.
In my opinion, it seems that the US of A cannot make enough enemies fast enough. Just look at the countries where we have been quite "successful" at making ever more new enemies; Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Libya, Palestine (long term),Iran(ongoing since 1979), and now Mali, and most likely Algeria. The list keeps getting longer by the day it seems. And yet, "we" claim to be a "peace loving" nation. Why, we even claim that the US of A is a nation of laws and that we have "justice for all".  You know, if this wasn't so damn laughably sad, it might almost be funny in an ironic sort of way.
In my humble opinion, this is what we get when we go into countries where we do NOT have the faintest beginning of an understanding of the culture. My wifes' family is a very close one, they really do care about each other even to the level of cousins and children of cousins. No big deal one might say, most every family was like that at some time and many still are, the rub is; in places like Afghanistan, her family could be seen as less than normal. In some cultures, such as Afghanistan seems to be, they carry familia ties even further "down the line" as it were. Kill my third cousin, twice removed, and I, as an Afghan, may decide that you are now MY enemy on a very personal level. Yeah, one could say that they take family very seriously in other cultures. "We" get in big time trouble by going to such countries and NOT having any sort of understanding of their culture. Hey, most Americans may not get terribly upset if a third cousin, twice removed dies, hell, we may never have known that person. Not so in some cultures, even if they were not very close, they are blood kin and that is all that matters to them.  I am NOT saying or trying to imply that such a culture is any "better" than the culture of America, just that we need to have some idea of the culture of the country where we try to impose our vaklues. Our values may be totally at odds with their culture. How many of us who are not Muslims would like to have Sharia law imposed on us by foreign troops? I'd venture to say, none of us would like that one damn bit, and rightly so. Why then, do "we" expect the Afghans to "eat up" and love our values? This is a very complicated deal and I cannot do even the most minimal justice to it no matter how long I rant about it. All I can do is to state the most obvious, that "we" as a nation, as a people, do NOT have much of an understanding of the cultures of foreign countries. We all should at least be minimally interested in them I think. Certainly our troops who are sent to such places ought to have at least a crash course in the proper etiquette/ethics of said nation before they depart for same. Or, am I the one who is totally out of line here? Quite possibly I AM off base with my suggestion, I don't know, but I DO think some basic understanding of the culture of the country the troops are sent to should be a given. Or, maybe "we" do not seriously want to win the "hearts and minds" in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, etc. After all, if "we" keep creating more and more enemies, then this war OF terror can just keep on going and going, and going, and going...........just like the "Energizer Bunny"(TM). Yeah, maybe that explains it. Just my guess. Any thoughts?
semper fi