you say "either", i say "what the fuck?"

i've been trying to keep a level and fair and balanced head about all this nonsense that has lead to mayhem and death in cairo and benghazi. i get it why the emotions are high--we here in america have been complicit in decades of economic rape and murderous destabilization of middle eastern and near east asian countries (if you're ever in hades, say hey to our very best friend, hosni, and, while we're at it, ever stop to wonder how many of those afghani kalishnikov's were purchased by us for the mujahedeen to party with? and, not for nothing, but i'm betting there are more than a few dead mexicans likewise shot with assault rifles we sent to the drug lords there, but let's try to keep this roughly focused on the intersection of the first-mentioned continents...) and you know there are plenty of chickens still to come home to roost. people are fed up with us and our "more civilized than thou" brand of geopolitics, and have no trouble recognizing us for who we are, behind the buttons controlling all those oil tankers and assassination drones. to them it's not about "who started it", but "an eye for an eye", and they're seeing blood in every one of theirs.

but i've got to say, it's sobering as hell to try to figure out how to proceed now that the lid on this pressure cooker of frustration has been cocked askew, and all the steam is let loose.

the point that the neo-cons have in all this, and the quote that has me ready to consider the realpolitik of our remaining options here, is from indonesia today. indonesia is the largest-populated muslim state in the world, and no stranger to sectarian violence. (don't go dancing in bali). their most prominent muslim clerics have been, from the get-go, advocating civilized restraint even in the face of the hottest of anti-american emotions.   (that's good, right?)  but it is still emanating from their most fetid cesspools of savage barbarism (the word "barbarism" chosen on purpose because it is both literally applicable, and important to the succeeding point) that the existence of a piece of film on a continent literally half a world away is "an act of barbarism that cannot go unpunished".  (a direct quote from one of their lunatic fringe sects).

what.

the.

fuck.

barbarism??? assassinating consular employees and diplomats is ok, but coexisting in the world with any one particularly irresponsible and juvenile attention whore (or two) and their totally bizarre insistence on yanking the tiger's tail is a call for armageddon???

these are clearly people with whom it can't be reasoned. to them, "barbarism" is insulting someone's religion, though, fair to say, not just anyone's religion, but only THEIR religion. (this is my new ultimate dictionary definition of "asshole"). murdering the innocent (expressly forbidden as perhaps the number one taboo in that same religion they are ape shit that someone is dissing) is cool. but make a crack about some guy in a 2000 year old piece of parchment, and here's inigo montoya? (or, perhaps more literally appropriate, tony montana...)

this is gone so far off into insanity that there are obviously to me zero diplomatic solutions. in this i hate the neo-cons, because it's the showdown they've dreamed of and longed for their entire twisted "my religion or no religion" lives, and cornered us into have to live out. (prophesy? or perpetration?) and now people are killed and more will be killed and there is no reasoning with the forces that are spiraling out of control because a couple of world-class juvenile attention whores with a hate agenda of their own are smart enough to recognize the only group of fanatics on the planet more bizarre and extreme than they are, and want to tweak their noses.

i have no solutions. i have contempt for both sides that have forced this fight on all of the rest of us. and i have only this to say:

what the fuck.

edited to add:  the sudanese branch of insanity incorporated just bombed the german consulate there.   we here in america have this bizarre notion that it's always all about us--it amazes me how selfishly naive and short-sighted so many of us can be.  this is about civilization and those others who don't believe in it wanting to tear it all down.  this is about we human beings who are growing (albeit extremely slowly) to realize that someday, SOMEDAY we won't have to study war no more, and that it's purely wrong and evil to kill over an insult (and badly conceived ones at that), in opposition to those violent, destructive animals who can't build a building, yet won't hesitate to tear down anyone else's who can.