[Free Ben Hur!]

It's such a scary world in 2014. It seems way worse today than at the height of the cold war with the doomsday clock at 3 minutes and Reagan swinging his imperialistic dick around all over the world.

The difference now is that the US have a much reduced ability to influence these events and every despotic leader and crack pot regime knows it. No one, outside of certain elements in the US, should be in anyway surprised that this kind of radical group has filled the power void in Iraq. People with any historical perspective and even a basic understanding of the peoples (tribes) of the region could see the only outcome of the war in Iraq being civil war.

These latest outrages of female circumcision and persecution of Christians, and other non-Muslims, are pieces of a larger package of crimes against humanity they will follow through on. I just don't see a practical solution to dealing with them. The Americans couldn't establish even basic rule of law and institutions after years of occupation and a trillion dollars spent. You know the world is in a pretty bad place when Saddam is a preferable option to keep some degree of stability in the region. Meanwhile Iran sits back and drinks it all in, laughing at the fact that the US have done all the heavy lifting for them. I suppose the wild card in all of this is Israeli nukes.

For the first time in my life I have real trepidation going to a news site or turning on the TV because there is so much brutality going on in so many places. The degree of lawlessness appears to be escalating. Scary times.