China Warns US To Stop Global Inflation

June 1, 2008

Elaine Meinel Supkis

The head of the Bank of China, Zhou, is warning the US central bankers that they are causing global inflation. Not speculators. Of course, this news is from Xinhua News and is not being broadcast across the planet. Dead silence in the West. This is because the G7 central bankers are trying to pop all the blame for this banking collapse on home owners in California or Las Vegas, not themselves. To produce more liquidity so they can flood the planet with more Funny Money™, the biggest banking houses are lending money to hedge funds so they can buy up loans from these same banks! This is crazy, of course. And will make the banking collapse worse. But they don't care. They are desperate to move these Alliance-Boots out of the shoe store and into the streets so they can make more and more and more loans. Which we don't need. These loans are only so people can line their pockets. And the Labour Party in England is going bankrupt, too. And UBS is telling its executives to avoid arrest in the US.

Fed's rate cuts "add to inflationary pressure"

The U.S. Federal Reserve's interest rate cuts have helped increase liquidity, but have also led to rising prices in commodities, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, said on Friday.

The central bank governor said this has affected the anti-inflation policies of emerging markets.

Zhou was speaking at a conference following the release of a report by the Commission on Growth and Development, an international organization that focuses on policy consultation in emerging markets, and provides reference for aid programs.

"The U.S. Fed has significantly reduced interest rates on the other hand, global commodity market prices have risen. A lot of developing countries are now suffering from rising inflation," Zhou said.

The Chinese, as I keep on saying, are very angry with the US now. The demands that China raise the value of the yuan have died down in the West only because Japan is demanding the US make the dollar strong. So it is rising against the yen and the carry trade is slowly resuming. All the bankers in the West know that the banking crisis didn't start because a few home owners in Stockton, California couldn't pay their monthly interest payments on their Mini McMansions. They know it started instantaneously with the sudden drop of the dollar against the yen. When the yen strengthened, the entire liquidity cycle in the West was disrupted. Suddenly there was no more 'liquidity'!

Now that the status quo has been partially restored, we are back in the same box we fell out of last summer. The US is again flooding the world with Funny Money™. And when interest rates were artificially dropped below the rate of real inflation, a flood of this useless currency has poured over the planet causing inflation in all countries trading with the US including Japan. Basically, at this international forum, China is blaming the US for global inflation. And this means the US must change or else. Of course, the Fed will say, 'So what?' But this is dumb. The #1 sinkhole for excess US dollars is the FOREX reserves of China's central bank. They are weighing when to take some retaliatory actions.

From the Telegraph News in London:

Perhaps the most intriguing parallel, though, is the crude attempt at self-preservation made by the investment trusts in 1929 and the banks now.

In the great crash, investment trusts with vast cross-holdings in each other tried to stem their collapse by buying up their own stock in what the economist JK Galbraith in his book, The Great Crash 1929, described as an act of "fiscal self-immolation". At the time, "support of the stock of one's own company seemed a bold, imaginative and effective course," Galbraith wrote, but ultimately the trusts were just "swindling themselves".

Modern economists have compared the trusts' actions with what the banks are now doing. "They seem to be just papering over the cracks," says Brendan Brown, chief economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities.

To free their books of the estimated $1,000bn (£505bn) of sub-prime assets and $340bn of leveraged loans banks have been left carrying since the credit markets shut down last year, lenders are offering to sell these damaged assets cut-price and - crucially - are willing to lend investors the money to buy them. In other words, the banks are providing new debt for the old debt they no longer want.

At first glance, as with the investment trusts, the arrangement seems little more than trickery - recycling a bank's own funds back into its own assets. As one senior industry expert described it: "It is like walking through a hall of mirrors in a fairground. There are far fewer people who really understand it than profess to understand it. Even the central bankers don't know where all the risk is ending up."

Smoke and mirrors. This is certainly true. I remember when Bush Sr. talked about this mirror/smoke business. Then he discovered that people WANT smoke and mirrors, he and his son rode to power on vapid illusions. The problem with this is, when one crashes head first into the mirrors, the shattering glass cuts us up and we bleed to death. Notice how the central bankers 'don't know where all the risk is ending up.' They better contact Mr. Zhou. Indeed, this is why we are in trouble. The central bankers feeding global inflation and global speculative bubbles think that this is all very mysterious. They have no idea their actions have consequences. They even claim they drive their monetary motor buses around the globe and can't see through the windshield! Well, some of us can see.

Perhaps we are dogs that figured out how to roll down the windows and stick our heads out.

The Telegraph:

The incentive for private equity is clear. The debt in the Alliance Boots case, for example, is being sold at 91 per cent of face value and the interest rate is being lowered. The UBS sub-prime sale is even more extreme. Having written the assets down to $15bn, BlackRock is enjoying a 32 per cent discount. If the debt or assets perform, there is a large potential upside.

The banks hope to benefit in four ways. The first is through capital relief. UBS may be providing $11.25bn of the $15bn BlackRock is paying for the sub-prime assets, but it does mean the Swiss bank is insured against the first $3.75bn of deterioration in the portfolio. With Alliance Boots, the banks are lending the private equity buyers just 80 per cent of the purchase price of the debt.

Because the banks can argue that this is a genuine transfer of risk, they can reduce the amount of capital the rules require them to set against the assets. UBS says that the move will provide 0.2-0.25 percentage points of capital relief - lifting its tier one ratio, a key measure of financial strength, above the current 10.5 per cent.

So, banks are lending hedge funds money to buy debts that were piled on businesses in order to drive up the value of those stocks? This is yet another snake eating its tail situation. The 'haircuts' these bankers are getting is more like scalping. Skin and all. The main thing here is to preserve the original useless loans and keep them paying some interest! The Allianz-Boots deal struck me as totally silly when hedge funds and bankers put it together in the first place. The amount was ridiculously huge and the thing it was being dumped on was not very strong. It was just in time for a global inflation/recession and is now doubtful that consumers can float this expensive boat. Many businesses fell into this quagmire. This is why increasing liquidity is like pouring more tar into the La Brea Tar Pits while mastodons battle saber tooth tigers.

Cotton-Price Swings Disrupt Farmer Sales, Spark Probe by CFTC

Unusual swings in cotton prices that disrupted farmer sales in March are now the target of an investigation by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, two people familiar with the probe said.

Results of the investigation may be released as soon as June 3, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the probe hasn't been made public. The Washington-based commission, which also is examining potentially improper trading in oil markets, began the cotton inquiry after seeing unusual gaps between futures and spot prices, the people said.
*snip*
``The market is broken, it's out of whack, and someone has to step in and bring relief,'' William Dunavant Jr., chairman of cotton merchant Dunavant Enterprises Inc., said at the April hearing.

The wide gap between spot prices and futures increased costs for cotton traders who use the contracts on ICE to hedge their risk, said Haldenby of Plains Cotton, which represents growers on 3.5 million planted acres in 41 Texas counties.

Suddenly bubbles are popping up in all commodity markets like bubbly champagne on New Year's Eve. The authorities are now trying hard to scare the hell hounds and pirates who are merely taking advantage of endless Funny Money™ being pumped into the banking system via the Fed's new open windows to the Outer Darkness. Everywhere we look, we see some commodity after another suddenly shoot upwards and then just as swiftly, crashing. Some of the more obscure commodity markets in rare metals have seen several cases similar to the cotton, rice, wheat, oil and gold cases that are more famous. The point is, this is an ongoing process of translating the Treasuries picked up at this free window....another $225 billion will be offered this month alone...and trying to turn it into instant profits. The only way this can be done is in the commodity markets.

Labour cash crisis could bankrupt party leaders

Senior officials in the Labour party, including Gordon Brown, could become personally liable for millions of pounds in debt unless new donors can be found within weeks, the Guardian has learned.

The party has five weeks to find £7.45m to pay off loans to banks and wealthy donors recruited by Lord Levy, Tony Blair's former chief fundraiser, or become insolvent. A further £6.2m will have to be repaid by Christmas - making £13.65m in all. The sum amounts to two-thirds of the party's annual income from donations.
*snip*
The Co-operative bank, whose £2.61m loan is due to be repaid on June 30, has told the party it wants its money back, even though it is getting 7% interest. The bank has asked the unions to offer loans to Labour so the party can pay its debt, but some are refusing to do this. Paul Kenny, the GMB's general secretary, has told the Co-operative bank it will refuse to help unless the bank withdraws its de-recognition of the union, which represents staff at Co-operative Funeral Services.

Three other loans are due to be repaid on June 30 and July 1. They are a £1.54m loan from Unity Trust bank, also at 7%; a £1m loan at 6.75% from Nigel Morris, founder of the Capital One financial group, and £2.3m from Sir David Garrard, a property developer. He had already extended the loan by 15 months from April 2007.

England is dropping interest rates but the guys lending money in the open markets are raising rates just like in the US. New World Order Labour has been a total disaster. The unions are abandoning this sinking ship and Tony Blair is totally working for the New World Order and proof of this is his quixotic missions in the Middle East on behalf of Zionists. No political party should last more than 100 years. The US is a good case in point. Kill off all the parties.

UBS tells unit staff to avoid US visits

The Swiss bank has also made lawyers available to the more than 50 bankers involved, many of whom have left UBS since it decided last November to wind down its cross-border private banking business for US ­customers.

The move follows the recent indictment of one of the unit's former senior executives, Bradley Birkenfeld, who US authorities have accused of helping a billionaire client evade taxes. Mr Birkenfeld has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers have made no public statement on the matter.

And here it is: bankers as outlaws? As I say periodically, arrest them all!

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Comments

[Al]

To paraphrase someone whose name I don't remember - I oppose torture but in the case of bankers would make an exception.

Waterboard the MF's.

[Michael]

"This is why increasing liquidity is like pouring more tar into the La Brea Tar Pits while mastodons battel sabre tooth tigers."
Elaine, you definitely win the Pulitzer Prize for Metaphor, and the Nobel Prize for Analogy!

The U.S. copper mining company Asarco (which has gone bankrupt) is being purchased by the Indian company Vedanta Resources. HOW IN THE HELL CAN ANY COPPER MINING COMPANY GO BANKRUPT WHEN THE PRICE OF COPPER HAS BEEN SKYROCKETING FOR YEARS???

It's easy and it's the American Way - you just BORROW more money than you have the cash flow to pay back and WASTE what you borrowed, rather than investing it properly in your production process. We need to stop blaming foreigners and the government and admit that American business - industry as well as finance - has taken us to the edge of destruction and is pushing us off.

[B.A.]

Copper mine going bankrupt? Surprising indeed. So basically Michael, more than some conspiracy, what explains America's predicament is the extension of Wall Street's mentality and motivations to all levels of power: Fed, Government, press...and industry. Finance has become the only way to make a (quick) profit.
Little wonder the want to nuke Iran for opening a non dollar commodities market.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Wow. I once did projects for Anaconda Copper back in the seventies! Staying in business is more like falling off a log unless there are coups!

This is what bubbles do: they up the ante and break the bank. And this piles on too much Funny Money™ onto solvent, good entities!

And thanks for the praise, Michael. Sometimes I think I am nuttier than a squirrel at the circus.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

And I just changed the way I format the site. If anyone wishes to give feedback, please feel free!

[Al]

colored-in linked passages looks good.

[Gary]

Our American economy is like that silly little town in Arizona
called Tombstone. The mines had paid out years ago and
no-one had tinkled on the keys of the piano at the cathouse
in years. The town fathers got desperate and looked for a way out
Bingo ! Shoot out reenactments behind the saloon. Ten a day. You can set your watch by them and eat your mushy Klondike Bar and watch Doc Holliday get shot for the 500,000th time.

Even this gig is getting harder as the family and kids are having a rough time filling the tank and driving out from Tuscon.

We have a simulation of an economy. Six Flags over Manufacturing Land ! Disneyland combined with Wall St. We've abandoned reality so long,for our media simulation, we don't seem to know how to think seriously anymore, let alone, have real
feelings independent of what's stimulated out of us by the media
machine--like Pavlovs dogs.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Gary, I grew up in Tucson. That place is very cheap oil dependent. If the oil gets difficult and ditto, the water, it is a long march out. I left Tucson when it was only 80,000 people.

Today, it is over a million. When my great grandfather came there, it was a tiny cowtown. The railroad was being built [he was in the cavalry at Ft. Lowell].

[GK]

Look everyone at the big, bad Chinese Currency, there, over there!!

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/988623.html

The euro is certainly a strong and important currency, and has been flexing its muscles against the dollar in recent years.

But even the powerful euro has had a hard time competing with what has become probably the strongest currency in the world since the beginning of 2008: the Israeli shekel.

The figures speak for themselves: Since the start of the year, the shekel has strengthened against the euro by 9%.

[Carli]

Question: When the rest of the world no longer supports using the US dollar as the world's fiat currency, and the U.S. can no longer support Israel financially, through AID and grants, and militarily due to it's bankruptcy, who will?

[GK]

As the wealth of the USA is being siphoned off shore and capital manufacturing assets transported at break neck speed overseas, I can't seem to think of another country that could possibly be financially strong enough to be cultivated for support.

This whole geopolitical thingy is just too complex to figer out.

http://www.wzo.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=537

At first sight, it is difficult to imagine two nations more different to each other than China and Israel. China is four hundred times Israel’s size and two hundred times its population. One is the heart of Asia; the other a bridge between West and East. However, China and Israel have many characteristics in common. Here follow seven similarities.

The principal trait is their long history. Both nations span at least four millennia, being the nations on earth who claim such continuous national identity.

Secondly, these long national identities were recently redefined, almost simultaneously: modern Israel in 1948, modern China in 1949. In both countries national minorities constitute roughly 10% of the population.

[calvino]

Not a commentary passes by where you do not take a swipe at Israel. Hatred runs both ways, as much as you hate the Jews, so you are hated by them.

[CK]

Oh ye little and comman man, ye go forth and labour mightily for long hours in a cubicle and earn a few drachmas,
a thief comes by and steals some of them ... the thief buys luxurious food and drink. A banker comes by and steals some more of your drachmas and buys a distillery because the demand for luxurious drink has increased. A bureaucrat comes by and steals the all but one of your remaining drachmas, which are them democratically redistrubuted some to the banker and some to the thief as they are in need of money to keep buying the drink and paying for the raw materials for the distillery; and since the bankers and thieves outnumber you, it is only democratically proper that you be the one whose earnings are re-distributed.
Then the ruler comes by and trims your one remaining coin because the ruler has the divine right to decrease the value of your labour by trimming the coins you traded your labour for.
Finally an officer of the law comes by and arrests you for vagrancy because you have nothing of value in your wallet.
It can be proven econometrically that you can short circuit this process by not working for coin in the first place.
However: while this will frustrate the thief, and discomfort the banker, it will please the bureaucrat as you will be seen as a potential client for his services, unfortunately it will anger the king mightily. The king will send uniformed and well armed thieves to you and they will inform you that since you would not work for the trimmed drachma you will now work for long hours in the distillery for nothing.
You are now a drafted part of the National Corps of Involuntary Labour.
Here endeth the first lesson in Political Economics 1.
You, oh mighty common man will do this willingly because if you don't, the evil Chinese over the water will be the ones wearing the foam finger and chanting "We're number One".
Here endeth the last lesson in Political Economics 1.

[Hans Blink]

Not a commentary passes by where you do not take a swipe at Israel. Hatred runs both ways, as much as you hate the Jews, so you are hated by them.

The best comment I have read on your site maestra!

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

I was Mrs. Levy for many years. I am of several communities. The tragedy of the Jewish people is, they are outsiders outside of Israel but in Israel they are oppressors and have decided to become demonic, grasping for glory and power and wealth.

This is the focus point, Jerusalem is the focus point for the Apocalypse. I don't want this thing to happen. The Jews shouldn't want this to happen.

So why the hell are they all hanging out and praising HAGEE? He wants the Apocalypse! Good grief!

It is too tragic. I don't want this. I want my family safe, I hate Nazis. But Zionists are partaking of the same forces that fed Hitler.

[Gary]

Israel is a political entity and does NOT
represent the Jewish race. Many Jews are
horribly depressed over this situation in the Middle East. Jews like Noam Chomsky,Howard Zinn,Norman Solomon,Naomi Klein, on and on. History is nothing but
reversibility and irony and its a horrible
irony that a persecuted people can end up
being the persecutors. This new role will end up diminishing the creativity,humor,and progressiveness of this once fabulous group of people.

[calvino]

Indeed many people who call themselves liberal, which I only consider a meaningless label, pine for the minstrel days of the Jews, the laughable clowns like Woody Allen, completely unthreatening to everyone except himself. As many Jews lament the existence of the state of Israel, others are happy to have a country and be a normal nation of people. If you attack the nation, you attack the majority who are now expressing themselves as an independent polity, the form of organization of all ethinic groups since feudalism expired. The oppressed becomes the oppressor - save the pithy aphorisms for charming conversation. Israel and the Jews have no desire to be praised or noted for their exceptionalism or brilliance. This is steel fist couched in a velvet glove. The Arabs hate the Jews, and the Jews hate those that hate them. If you want to take that right of self preservation away, admit that you hate Jews. That is a legitimate intellectual position and one that can be countenanced. However espousing inimical positions while professing friendship is fiendish. Being born to Jews does not entitle Noam Chomsky to the rights of the community. In Talmudic times, he would have been simply exiled. In modern times, he is an enemy, someone who made his career by actively working against his identity, and the larger community.

[don]

Elaine: your site updates are the best, I dont care if it looks like the Red Light district,
the information you post is the best!

[Oops]

Why is it such a difficult concept to grasp? I do not agree with many of the policies of the present day Israeli government. I do not hate the Jewish people because of these policies. I do not agree with present day U.S. foreign policy. I do not hate Americans because of these policies. Criticism of a government policy should not translate into a hatred of the people connected to these policies by geography or DNA. I can only hope that the Jewish people and American people will open their eyes and minds to criticism. I can't remember reading anything on this site that was a criticism of a religion or a race.
Criticism of policies should be fair game. I am not anti-Semitic nor anti-American because I disgree with actions taken by leaders and rulers of these governments. I can't speak for Elaine, but I have read nothing on this site that indicates to me that she is anti-Semitic or anti-American either. Only critical of actions taken by the rulers of these governments.

[calvino]

The Israelis have opened their eyes to buses and coffee shops blowing up.. However thanks for the wonderful recapitulation of my fourth grade civics class OOPS. It was difficult to understand until you explained it.

[DeVaul]

The Abnaki's of this world want to portray Elaine as an anti-semite (remember: Palestinians are not semites. They don't exist. Only Jews exist.) because she will not look away from the horrible religious dictatorship they have made for themselves in the Middle East.

Any Jews, such as Noam Chomsky, etc., who oppose Israeli policies are referred to as "self-hating Jews".

The Zionist movement does not recognized the existence of other semites and any Jews who critize it are considered insane.

That should tell you all you need to know about Zionism.

And if having a "normal" state means barbed wire, walls, guard towers and ghettos, then Hitler's Third Reich was a "normal" state and hence, free from criticism.

[Buffalo Ken]

Wow - some incredible conversation. I wonder if anyone is listening?

[calvino]

I said Jew hater. Do not change the discourse. The prefix anti always associates with histamine or perhaps the podes. Antisemite - do not know what that is, having never met a semite, nor anti, in person. But keep dragging your cliches out on the carpet, maybe they will stick to something. This tell me everything I need to know about your post.

[Buffalo Ken]

calvino - who the hell are you talking to?

[Buffalo Ken]

I know others could have asked me this same question, but normally, you seem so rational. Thats all.

[calvino]

Talking to DeVaul. I am no more than insisting that words not be put in my mouth.
Antisemite is a nonsensical term given currency by the Czarist Interior Ministry as a joke. Calling anyone a semite was a gag all in itself, since Jews were colloquially referenced by the pejorative Zhid, or Yid. I choose my terms with a reason and straw man arguments will not be effective. Jew haters are jew haters.

[Oops]

Sorry Calvino. Just trying to make it simple. Obviously a waste of time.

[DeVaul]

He's talking to me.

I am not interested in your semantic games, calvino.

I AM interested in seeing that Israel repays the 50 billion plus that we have dumped on it since it took over Palestine. That money rightfully belongs in the Social Security Trust Fund for Americans and American Jews who do not pledge allegiance to Israel.

Does that make me a Jew-hater?

If Israel wants to be a Nazi state, that is their right as long as they do it on their own tab, and not mine.

Does Israel intend to repay what they "borrowed" from us?

[calvino]

The semantic games are yours Devaul. I said what I said very plainly. I did not know you had a tab running on Israel, or anywhere else except your local public house. I can not speak for what Israel will pay or not. The money we gave was in the form of foreign aid or military assistance. We do guarantee their debt, which is a big help. However this has cost us nothing, since Israel has not defaulted on debt. Foreign aid is not a tab, but a gift. Asking back for a gift is very bad style. You are revealing yourself badly, as well. Are you a Jew hater? You do seem to hold Israel and Nazi Germany as peers. Since Nazi Germany is the embodiment of evil in your tone, you do hate Jews. They hate you as well.

[DeVaul]

Yes, I know they hate me, calvino.

They shunned me for three years while I dated their daughter, who was not Jewish and had no desire to be Jewish (until her plan to let me die and run off with my sons failed).

This "Jew" then claimed to be a "born again Christian" along with her parents in court so as to steal all holidays from me and my family. She and her family then fled the state with my sons after bribing the judge and custodial evaluator (who was Jewish). Although she was unable to pass a single pychological test, she was "awarded" sole custody after payment was made.

She also had to move to a Jewish neighborhood in Ohio, marry a wealthy Jew, and then forcibly convert my sons to Jews, all of which she did as part of the deal she had with the custodial evaluator.

That was six years ago. I barely know my own sons now. I see them on 13 days a year.

It took me a long time to put all the pieces of the puzzle together and root out all the conspiracies and payments and "understandings". I still live under a set of neo-nazi laws and rulings designed for me (a former Deaf citizen) and demanded by my ex-wife and her family.

I could easily be a Jew-hater. I certainly have the right to be one after what they did to me, but I try not to be.

That, however, does not stop me from making comparisons between modern day Israel and other repressive regimes that are factual and accurate. In fact, I would do that even if no Jew had ever harmed me or my sons.

I would do it because it is true. Perhaps that is why Jews really hate me.

[calvino]

You are not speaking rationally Devaul. Bribing court magistrates? That's a heavy accusation, and something that happens, however very rarely. Your family's breakup is sad, yet I see nothing particularly jewish in it. Conflicts over children are everpresent. Your ex-wife does not seem to be a stable person, apart from her identity. If you presented this conspiratorial tone at the hearings, it counted against you in the disposition. I hope that you can be closer with your sons in the future. However investing them with a hatred of their identity would be harmful to them and I do not believe that is what you want for them.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Look, my own family is totally insane. All families are crazy as far as I am concerned.

Ethnic politics: I am a mongrel. I have many religions and tribal blood groups in my own body. They are all HUMAN. Humans are all one type. We all can interbreed.

Birds: slight differences in color, feather style and egg laying habits make for different SPECIES which cannot interbreed! WIth amphibians, small differences in times of mating or eating habits means no interbreeding!

ALL HUMANS CAN AND DO INTERBREED. What separates us is some tissue thinner than kleenex. We are all ONE TRIBE and ONE PEOPLE. The differences are intellectual, in the brain.

NOT GENETIC.

The refusal to love all other humans is what is the problem.

[Oops]

Well said Elaine.

[DeVaul]

Are you telling me that two boys born to a Quaker and an Irish Celt are "Jewish"?

Their Irish identity is somehow obliterated by the superiority of Judaism? How?

I never presented any conspiracy theory to the judge. The judge did not view me as a human being with equal rights, and said so. No conspiracy there.

Also, in Kentucky, bribing state court judges is legal, and the Kentucky Supreme Court said so after a lawyer I used to work for appealed the matter to that court after my divorce. All you have to do is get each member of your family and all your friends to send a $1,000 check made out in the judge's name directly to him in the mail at any time you want. Just write "donation" in the memo line. Perfectly legal.

But please, do tell me how it would be harmful to my sons if I interferred with their brand new Jewish identity? And if they ask about Celtic religious rituals that occured before they were Jewish, what do I tell them?

Do I tell them what my six year old son told me after his forced conversion: "there are no gods other than Jehova and all other religions are false." That is what my ex-wife and some Rabbi taught him.

But according to you, I "harmed" him when I explained to him that there are other religions and that it is ok to believe in other gods.

And how is my ex-wife stable in her identity when she is born a Quaker, claims to be a Christian in court, and then drops all pretense of Christianity to convert herself and my sons to Jews after marrying a Jew? Are all Jews this stable in their identities?

You are a strange bird, calvino. Your apologetic attitude towards wrongdoing by Jews is what causes people to hate them.

[Buffalo Ken]

This is all I want to say and it might be worthless (I'll acknowledge that up front).

Family matters lead to such strong emotions. These emotions are real and they are undeniably based on something.

My frustration just now is that it seems as if these family matters are spreading to the whole rest of humanity in an entirely unfair way. Most of us just want peace and harmony.

We need to start working together if we want anything to get any better. Moreover, the time is running short. Time is of the essence.

[calvino]

I apologize for no one, nor do I have the privilege to do so. You presume upon much when you think that the Jews owe you an apology. Finally, I told you not to turn the children against their own sense of self, whether it is of a Jew, Christian or Druid, does not matter. You either do not absorb what I say or willfully distort my words. Either way, it does not benefit the conversation.

Elaine, the differences are cultural. There is no need to broach genetics at this point. These cultural differences are enough to breed rabid hate in all parties now. I can not speak for the future, although I would hope that it changes for the better. "grasping for glory and power and wealth" is not demonic, it is the relish of life. It becomes disturbing when the rulers change the rules to their advantage in the middle of life.

[Oops]

Calvino's statement "grasping for glory and power and wealth" is "the relish of life" reveals much. Sadly, he is probably in the majority with these sentiments.

[Gary]

Dear John Calvin-o

" Being born to Jews does not entitle Noam Chomsky to the rights of the community. In Talmudic times, he would have been simply exiled"

Much like Jeremiah and most of the other
Old Testament prophets were exiled or
murdered, eh ?

[calvino]

Not exactly Gary, Jeremiah loved Israel and his jeremiads were a plea for cohesion in the face of a mortal threat. Chomsky hates Israel and wants to see it perish so as to aggrandize personal glory. This sort of quest for Judas glory, I do find loathsome, Oops.

[DeVaul]

I did not ask for an apology from you, calvino.

I asked that you answer some of my questions about how Jews think and not make apologies for what my ex-wife and her (now) Jewish family were doing to me and my sons.

And you also presume much by downplaying the suffering of others. I can empathize with the Palestinians, and others, because I am treated very much like them by Jehova's minions. They have no right to snatch my sons and brainwash them against me no matter what you say about "identities".

Your position that "might makes right" is the same position once taken by the Germans. We all saw where that led.

In my religion, we do not claim that some god told us to do this or to do that as an excuse for doing that which is patently wrong. My gods would not allow such nonsense.

[Gary]

Mr Calvin

Mr Chomsky lived in a kibbutz in Israel
when he was younger. All he wants Israel
to do, like myself with America, is to
live up to what it preaches--or has in a Constitution or Bill of Rights. Much like
Jeremiah did in his time. (I'm sure the
right wing at that time said he hated Israel)
BTW most of Jeremiahs rants were about
corruption and ill treatment of the poor.
A condition wide spread both in Israel AND
America at this moment.

None of us wants Israel to
perish for gods sake.We are afraid it will
if it keeps going the way it is.

Why didnt you fundamentalist Calvinist/Christians let Rabin and
Carter try to make peace ? Instead you
sabatoged potential for peace. Please dont reiterate
the right wing propaganda on this. Bantustans are not a prescription for "peace"
As well as bulldozing over olive groves of
farmers and "settling" their land by
fundamentalists. This is a prescription for
disaster for the Jewish people.

At worst, the hi-tech wall should've been
between the established borders settled in
'68.

Enough said. Bye.........

[rockpaperscizzors]

I have three treasures which I hold and keep. The first is mercy. For from mercy comes courage. The second is frugality. From which comes generosity to others. The third is humility. For from it comes leadership.
KCC: Strange treasures. How shall I keep them?
Poe: Keep them in your deeds, Grasshopper.
KCC: How may I walk a peaceful path, when the world is seldom peaceful?
Poe: Peace lies not in the world, Grasshopper. But in the man who walks the path.

[Buffalo Ken]

Time is of the essence.

And if we are going to continue on with these arguments, well then what will we get?

We won't get mercy.

Frugality will lead to no generosity.

Humility (although so important) will be of no utility.

I have no answers. I just want virtue and liberty.

I'm not sure I should post this. Perhaps I should delete it. But you know what, my life is short and what can it hurt.

We are just talking aren't we? Maybe, if we keep on talking, we can figure out a way to get out of this seeming mess.

I don't think it really is a mess. I think we have reached this moment for a reason.

I want Peace.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

BALANCE MATTERS. My moon, constellations and sun are all in Libra. I am very strongly for balancing books, balancing one's affairs, living a reasonable life that looks equally towards the future and the past. For we are always on the very center of the two counterweights in Libra's scales! "Now" is the center point between the two scales and it points either to the right or the left depending on what is on the two dishes on either side of the scale.

Ever since Pisces rose in the East on March 22 each year starting in the year 0 AD, we have seen a series of religions arise, some come from the older Aries era, a very short time frame for the constellation is the smallest of the Zodiac, Libra is nearly as short but is also long, long ago.

ALL existing human religions sprang out of the previous 6 Zodiac cycles of the Precession of the constellations...Abraham arose from the early city of Ur during the Taurian era, that being around 2,000 BC. The Moses invasion of Caanan was at the beginning of the Aries era in 1,800 BC. To give some perspective here, the dawn of the first civilizations were during the Virgo age at 12,000 BC. Then the dawn of the Nile culturewas in the Leonine age in 10,000 BC. Much of the Jewish mythology is from the previous two ages. Yet there are many gods and a huge amount of mythological religious systems that predate the earliest Jewish time frames.

The people who created the very first civilizations: their descendants are still here! And in Asia, in China in particular, the founders 12,000 years ago are still there!

The fanciful beliefs of most systems are due to a simple force: all wish to think Time began with them. And the Time in the Zodiac when they first conceive of themselves as 'chosen' is the Start of History. But if we move back along the Zodiac to when the stars of Libra rose in the East, we are at the time when the Lascaux cave paintings with all those amazing Ice Age animals! For there were no cities, not organizations, nothing but humans struggling to survive under truly hideous conditions.

Lions, cave bears, wooly rhinos, huge horned deer, rotund, merry horses with thick fur, leaping salmon, this was Eden. And the cave dwellers who shivered during the long, long winters would look up to the night sky and see the stars of the Scales and wonder what they meant.

And we should all be humble about this! For the quest to connect humanity to the stars is tied to our quest for spiritual fulfillment. And we are all frightened of the Gates of Death. Back then, between Libra and Scorpio, the Gates of Death were aligned with the Milky Way which is the Road to the Gods. The Path of the Dead.

Then, the earth shifted and the stars rising on the Zodiac were no longer Libra and Scorpio, the Scales and the Scorpion. The loss of this Portal was profound. The search for gods to be guides was undertaken.

The Age of the Shaman set and the Age of the City began.

So remember this when getting angry about what looks to me like rather silly attempts by humans to put the Gods into a straight jacket created by frightened humans who are worried sick because the Age of the Fish is ending.

The Future is not dark if we want it to be Light. Remember: nothing humanity has passed through since that huge comet slammed into the Earth over 60 million years ago was as bad as the beginning of the Ice Ages! This drove us out of the Garden of Eden and sent us deep into the cold outer edges of the planet, hunting animals with stones.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Why is this information important?

In the Ice Ages, the descendants of the apes of Africa worried greatly about the sun Never Coming Back Again. They could count and track things! They had antlers with slashes and notches which they kept nervous watch on the sun's transit and the stars that were there when the sun rose at dawn [sunset didn't matter back then].

Amazingly, the sun would cease to rise later and later, further and further south but would return to the north to shine on the early hunters.

This was life and death for them! The birth of all things would begin on the Equinox. Note that 30,000 years ago, the equinox was when Libra was aligned with the sun's rise on March 22.

And the shining brilliant road to the zenith was straight up at a 90 degree angle to the earth on that dawn! A brilliant sight we can only imagine! Our sunrises are not nearly so amazing and glorious, not for the last 30,000 years!

The importance of this is, humans don't have such a clear, compelling celestial marker since then! 90% of our religious beliefs and fears are from the loss of this amazing thing! Isn't it odd. I should write about this more. It certainly puts the present into perspective.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Oh, sorry, the shining path was the Milky Way. We now see it 'sideways' across the sky, not straight upwards like back then. If I were a time traveler, that is what I would want to see, that night sky.

All religions are attempts at showing humans how to transit from life to death. The rules and regulations are arcane and strange because they are often embedded social fossils from the Age of Libra 30,000 years ago.

[Bear of Little Brain]

This "amazing thing" we are losing is our superstitions. We would like to cling to these, but our innocence is lost. It was lost for certain when we photographed "Earthrise" from the moon. We no longer gaze at the remnants of gods and heroes in the heavens. They were the projections of our minds. Now we are faced with galaxy after galaxy of endless nuclear fusions, electromagnetic clouds spanning hundreds of light years, and a fearful, indifferent cosmos. How terrible are the new projections of our minds, our take on reality.
Animism to polytheism to monotheism to - what? An ever-receding god who watches over us? From where? The ends of the Universe?
My three year old grand-daughter woke up screaming and crying for her mother last night, while her grandmother was baby-sitting. She was inconsolable for five minutes or so, until her older brother comforted her. Perhaps it was a nightmare that had frightened her. A terror in the night. We adults are not so different. We, too, have our terror: that it is all pointless.
Happy days!! ;-)

[Michael]

JESUS CHRIST!!! (Speaking of Jews)

What a bizarre dialogue has taken place here.

What a hostile/counter-hostile distraction from any useful way of addressing any of the real problems facing the people of this country (including any problems for the U.S. created by Israel's internal and external politics).

Calvino neatly tossed out a motive-impuning accusation to attack Carli for asking a question Calvino felt was not favorable to Israel. Calvino's assertion that to question or criticize Israeli politics = to hate Jews does not deserve a response, but it sure succeeded in starting a pointless catfight.

Does criticizing the policies and actions of Robert Mugabe = racism? Does criticizing the policies and actions of Libya = hating Arabs? Does criticizing the policies and actions of the U.S. in Iraq = anti-Americanism?

Only a very simple and prejudiced mind uses these kind of personalized accusations to try to cut off public questioning and criticism of anyone's policies and actions, and it is always disappointing to see it succeed in provoking a response and generating a verbal brawl.

Elaine, as usual, attempts to provide a mature perspective on these complex issues, including the long, complicated, and entangled connection between the governments of the U.S. and Israel (I speak as someone who has worked for the U.S. State Department as a Foreign Service Officer). Let's try to honor the forum she has provided with some mature thoughts and discussion of our own.

[Bear of Little Brain]

On the Milky Way:
There was some notion being discussed the other month that our Solar System is not part of the Milky Way, but part of some outer arm of some other galaxy intermingling at right angles to it. Then I think it was being disputed. Then I lost track of it all. Ho, hum.
All the best.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Oh, the solar system definitely was part of a smaller galaxy and yes, we are not part of the Orion arm, we are at an angle to it!