Blog doesn't really work if the blogger does not post regularly and someone who read it does not send in a comment from time to time.  Haven't posted since Mid-August.  

Since the last post, USA President Obama has won the Noble Peace prize and intensified and extended the war in Afghanistan.  Reminds me of the endless wars in the novel "1984".  Endless War was foreshadowed by USA WW II hero President Eisenhower when he warned the US public about the power and threat of the military-industrial complex that feeds off of war.  It has been going on for decades now and always for " good reason(s)" and with the same outcomes:  Some corporations and their stakeholders get richer, some people get more powerful and others less powerful, some people die or are permanently injured either physically or emotionally. some suffering people see their lives improve at least marginally after the killing calms down, and the local/regional status quo changes temporarily. This is overly simple but descriptive.

There is no doubt that the al Qaedah sociopaths are a threat to normal natural human life anywhere in the world.  They get legitimacy by masquerading as devote Muslims and recruit from the huge pool of alienated people who have been limited and damaged by social, economic, religious, and political systems where they live that are designed to perpetuate the privileged position of the existing Elite.  The coming huge threat is political terrorist groups linking up with economic terrorist groups such as the Drug Lords. 

The Taliban are just another group of men using religion to impose by force their version of what life and relationships should be on those around them.  Interesting that it always seems to include subjugating women one way or the other.  Why are men so afraid of the power of women (tell me)?  We in USA have our versions of the Taliban-- the politically activist fundamentalist Christian Cults whose power and influence far exceed their numbers as they manipulate, and are manipulated by, the right-wing representatives of USA elite establishment. This is of course an over-simplification. If only it were this simple. 

Feeling a little angry and alienated myself despite the advantages I have been given and strive to earn.  Humans have this god-like ability to create heaven or hell in their world, their relationships, and in their minds. The conditions outside the mind start in the mind.  Once we know this, there are lighted paths through the mind-created fog but hard to see because we are too busy with thoughts, actions, habits, etc., to look.

And, the lighted path once seen is harder to stay on.