In the wake of the FBI raid of the Liberty Dollar headquarters, sells of the private currency have skyrocketed on eBay bringing in enormously high bids. The Ron Paul gold Liberty itself has reached $3,000.

Thats right, $3,000 for a 1oz .9999 gold Ron Paul Liberty Dollar with a face value of $1,000.

Some people will have you believe that the Liberty Dollar is illegal and is some sort of counterfeit version of the Federal Reserve Note. This is not the case because the NORFED never claimed that the Liberty Dollar was a Federal Reserve note. Calling the Liberty Dollar illegal would be similar to calling a Canadian dollar counterfeit if used within the United States.

Besides, the Liberty Dollar can not be considered counterfeit because it looks nothing like a green back. A true counterfeit should have to look and feel like the currency it supposedly trying to imitate.

In fact, after the Treasury Department’s legal team reviewed the currency, Claudia Dickens, spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing stated that the currency is legitimate. “There’s nothing illegal about this,” she said, “As long as it doesn’t say ‘legal tender’ there’s nothing wrong with it.”

The Liberty Dollar is legal because it is voluntary exchange between individuals. Why should I not be allowed to trade in gold and silver pieces if I so choose?

So the question remains: Should the Liberty Dollar be considered illegal just because the FBI raided NORFED? Or is there more to the situation than meets the eye?

I choose the latter.

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The US military, in an attempt to win over the Afghanistan populous, decided to give soccer balls to local school children. The balls were inscribed with the name of Allah; a major no-no in the Muslim religion. They really dropped the ball on this one.

The balls were dropped, via helicopter, over the Khost province of eastern Afghanistan on Friday. They contained a small picture of the Saudi Arabian Flag which has the names of Allah and the prophet Muhammad written on it in Arabic script; something most Muslims are not too happy about kicking around.

The balls were meant to make the villagers like the American presence, a goal which quickly backfired.

The local population reacted strongly, taking offense to the notion that anyone could find it appropriate to kick a ball with Allah’s name inscribed on it.

The International Herald Tribune Reports:

Villagers were “upset and angry” when they saw the ball, said Khost governor Arsalah Jamal

“They wanted to demonstrate, but we explained to them it was a mistake,” he said.

The balls were purchased in a Kabul market and were made in — you guessed it — China. They featured the flags of many countries, one of which was that of Saudi Arabia.

Muslims often display what can be seen as extreme reactions to religious insensitivity. An example of this can be seem in the bloody protests over a cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammad.

Some locals had this to say:

“This ball … carries a message with it which, like an atom bomb, can cause carnage and insecurity in all parts of Afghanistan,” a leading Afghan private daily, Cheragh, said on Monday.

Fawad Ahmad, a shopkeeper in Kabul, said: “Americans themselves create insecurity by ignoring religious sensitivity, it is against Islam.

The attempt at pleasing the locals has seemingly backfired and caused even more tensions between the US soldiers and the Afghan population.

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A new animation from JibJab.com poking fun at FOXNEWS, CNN and MSNBC: