poke salad annie

I like this one! I mean a person usually has to be reading William Blake in a hospice to experience something like this!

WOW! Thanks for the good news!

I've wondered about that possible course of action. What would that do to the currency restructuring?

I've kept trying to make sense of the last paragraph. Am I misunderstanding? Does this imply that part of their 60 billion reserve is in the government budget?

"make the presentation consistent w strong demand" That bit sounds real promising!!!

Thanks! This helps me put it in better perspective. Not there yet...I guess I've started believing in the 'it's all done' rhetoric and took the no dinars for oil claim as a done deal too. I've read a lot of news posts and several threads. But until recently I haven't paid attention to names and personalities much. So I'm sorry if I'm asking an obvious question. What do you make of the repeated claims that Iraqi news is smoke?

Not sure Hamels. But if this rumor or opinion is true, it's of major, global importance. If it's not true, it's obviously intended as a demoralizing and strong arming effort to make us afraid. Either way, this opinion piece raises some interesting questions about our addiction to Arab petro products. They can use oil to bankrupt us completely (we haven't seen the worst of that!), but maybe articles like this will wake more Americans up to our life and death need to find alternatives to oil!

Thanks Maggie! But I'm saying countless human lives, on an international scale, DEPEND on the dollar! The reason why China dropping us is so crucial is because they buy so much of our debt. So many DOLLARS. But they use lots of those dollars to buy OIL! It is Iran's policy that will make the dollar undesirable to China etc... Don't underestimate the global interconnections. As regards our own banking system, I agree. Nixon should have never taken us off the gold standard. But I have enough faith in this country to believe that any process involving a return to asset backed dollars will result in our again having one of the strongest currencies on earth. Oil is valuable to the extent it's irreplaceable. MMMMMM We'll see about that. America will wind up helping the whole world (again) and remain strong!

Why do people blame you Keep for being able to read the article? How do people get an oil for dinars intention from this? Much less such an interpretation from someone who says they read Arabic? Could someone explain???? I would love for this to mean dinars are valuable for oil purchases! Our investment turns on this!!!

I gave you a plus on that one Tyron! And I do know that Muslims and Jews are siblings with one Father. It is not right that there be anything but love between us. But we obviously need to work on that! As regards the political rat's nest,I'm certainly willing to consider your links and information. But you seem to have overemphasized the importance of my post on weapons to my reasons for my opinions. An individual or a faction or a sect or a country might be our enemies without having nuclear weapons. In fact I think 'real' countries might be more loathe to use such MAD weapons than an extremist fringe. I will follow your lead and learn more. For now, please consider that an attack on the dollar will potentially lead to more human deprivation and suffering on a global scale than the Iraqi wars to date. After all we feed a lot of the world. What will happen as OUR infrastructure collapses. Do you think our agricultural system will be making shipping wheat to Africa a priority when our own people are hungry in the streets? This tiger has a long tail!

You seem to be saying that this article is more misdirection. The opening sentence is "Iraq will not use the dinar in the sales of oil citizen -.." because "market speculators will buy the dinar to sell to countries dealing with the country's oil.." You go on to say we'll make a lot of money when the US needs dinar to buy oil. This article implies that Iraq is planning on refusing to buy back dinars with oil. And we all know a big part of this investment depends on just that. At the end of your comment you imply that Iraq is saying in this article that they WILL take dinars for oil.But this article is stating just the opposite! Let's hope this is more smoke and misdirection, because with Iran planning on refusing dollars, such a move by Iraq would be catastrophic for us.

You see it too. Do you think it's a coincidence that Arabs own most of our media?

I agree that the situation in Israel is untenable. It is not my intention to get into who's right after an endless chain of wrongs. We may never agree on that. But I know we agree that it was Europe's legacy of hate that led to the Jewish holocaust, not any legacy of hatred on the part of the Muslims. Their hatred came after Europe decided it was too ashamed to look at the surviving Jews and dumped them in the mideast. The current situation is not because of what happened last century. It is happening now. But how can you not understand the hostile intent of an Iranian attack on the dollar? I have to repeat that an imperfect ally that shares our beliefs and goals is worth having as an ally in a part of the world that hates our culture. We're not perfect either. But I'm certain that we're preferable to Iran at this time.

Thanks everyone! Mine are 10!!!!!

Yes indeed! Very worrying. By attacking the dollar Iran is only making it more likely that some moron will decide it's possible to 'win.' The whole world has changed. It is now possible for a couple of people to end it! But by the same token, maybe we can use our clever tools to help make peace instead. You'd think we would have learned something in the past several thousand years. Like what is and is not worth fighting for.

I do hear you. It is not my intention to reopen the whole who did what to whom since 1948 on the West bank. Israel is so far outnumbered that of course her only hope for survival is to make peace with her neighbors. But those same neighbors know that they don't have to make peace at all. They can just bury her. And they have repeatedly stated that that is their intention. Let's understand Israel in contet. Of course Israel is behaving in paranoid ways. She really has enemies. But all of Israel's significant, internal social problems, that must be solved, do not change the fact that Iran is a deadly threat to THIS country. And Israel is our strongest ally in THAT region. And, hey Maggie, I support THIS country!

I totally agree with you!n That's the irony! You seem to have missed my point. I am totally supportive of our country. I might vote for a different leader, but I don't hate him. But he did lie to his Jewish constituency about his intentions towards Israel and that is a betrayal. I should be free to recognize that as a citizen without being accused of treason. We are not perfect, but the west is the most humanely evolved culture on the planet at this time. Enemies who want to teach us to hate ourselves have nothing but worse transgressions to point to in their own cultures. It is in the support of a humanistic world that we have to resist cultures that openly embrace fatalistic attitudes towards the unacceptable, and instead, like he Judeo-Christian tradition, emphasize free will and the power to improve things. Jews, Christians and Muslims all worship the same God. But Islam has embraced fatalism and we see where that has gotten them in terms of what they find acceptable. While we can and should embrace our commonalities and brotherhood before our shared Father, we should never abandon the spiritual and human strengths we've learned in our own cultural evolution that has taken us in a different religious vector than our desert kinsmen.

How do I read the date? I may have some.

I've recently started noticing who posts articles. I just wanted to thank you for all your time and work on this. You consistently post important and on-going news articles and links. Thanks again!

Thanks for being there. Of course Iran is a nightmare waiting to happen so far as Israel or our interests in the region are concerned. I assure you Jewish-Americans are very aware of the threat of Iran and the betrayals of Obama. If this article is more than just propaganda intended to demoralize us, I don't see how we can let them do this. I want peace too, but not peace at any cost.

I think I understand your reaction. But I believe you might look deeper into what's behind your own words. Islam is taking hold because spiritually starving people find it an alternative to ego centered materialism. Loose living and godlessness followed by a puritanical backlash of ultra-conservatism. The pattern repeats endlessly. As you've noticed yourself in your reference to Luther. And it doesn't much matter which religions or cultures are involved. Sparta and Greece. That human pattern is found all over the world and all through time. But look deeper and you'll find that the major media are now owned by Arabs. An obvious shift in editorial bias has been taking place for many years. We are being encouraged to hate our own culture, hate the Judeo-Christian heritage and favor mideast culture, favor Islam. So when you see articles about our controlled media, take it with a grain of salt when they claim the government or the banks are the ones doing the controlling. It's more complicated than that. You obviously love your grandchildren. I'm sure you can realize that no matter what our country's errors and challenges you might prefer them to grow up as free Americans rather than financial and cultural dependents on Iran. We can't allow this. Not because we're the biggest gorilla and we decide where to sleep, but because of that ethics and morality button you mentioned. Morality requires that we stop those people from destroying the 'West.' Look at their civilizations over the past thousand years. To gage the morality of a culture look at how they treat their weakest. How do Islamic nations measure up in their treatment of women, the standards in their prisons and mental hospitals, their treatment of the elderly? I'll take the good ol' USA any day. How and why is protecting our closest ally in the region from an anti-humanist government like Iran a bad thing?

Thanks! Interesting info!

They are a hundred times worse than US Congress IMHO! Of course we're not perfect, and our reps have much to answer for, but to put them in the same basket as Iraqi politicians is to take a distorted self-hating view of our country and culture. Iraq can learn a lot about the give and take of the democratic process from our congress. Don't expect most folks here to buy into selling America short..

IMHO a healthy government should be open to criticism from within and without its borders. But the self-hatred of the 'West,' is something being propagated by those sworn to destroy us. And for my own part, I believe that includes powerful factions in the mideast. I refuse to accept that because we're not perfect, we have no right to recognize corruption and malice in others. At least we have the right to state opinions without being afraid of being pulled from our beds in the middle of the night to discuss those opinions in a jail cell.