Stuff below the fold

The problem with getting rid of dictators is that they might face justice.
Tanonoka Joseph Whande discusses why Mugabe is refusing to leave power.


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Formerspook discusses the new "recommendations" for more "diversity" in the military...

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China may have grabbed 90 percent of "rare earth metals", but Popsci points out that an alternative might be just to reopen the mines in the US.

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The Smithsonian magazine has an article on Andrew Jackson's terrible war against the Cherokee.

But before you start an "ain't it awful" tirade, remember part of it was payback for the Yamasee war and similar wars against the settlers.

and it didn't stop there, as the Texan-Cherokee war showed.

They also fought against the Osage; and more HERE.

and then there was the Slave revolt of 1842...

one of the ironies is that a lot of Oklahoma Indians, including the Cherokee, owned slaves, so that if you work in the IHS, you might treat not only "blond" Indians (from intermarriage) but black ones, since their slaves were given benefits too. PDF HERE gives some of this history.

Article on the Native American involvement in the US Civil war HERE. Native Americans fought on both sides.
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The Romans had "Ancestor worship", and the equivalent of our "day of the dead" in mid February, where they decorated tombs and left food there.

Actually, I dislike the use of the word "worship" for such practices....it's really only deep reverence for the ancestors, whose spirits still have ties to us, similar to Catholics and the saints:
We distinguish deep reverence from the worship of God, which is of a different nature even if the outside actions are the same.
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and the important Pinoy news of the day:

Eat Bulaga! stays with Kapuso network.

more HERE.