"The humanitarians and civilians should never be paying the consequences of war. This is a basic principle of humanity. At the time, this looks like it’s not a war against terrorism anymore. It seems this is a war against humanity itself. You cannot be destroying every building. You cannot be destroying every hospital, every school. You cannot be targeting humanitarians. You cannot be targeting children."
Charlie Nash, Aid Workers Were ‘Targeted Deliberately’, Mediaite, 4 April 2024
"All the world marveled at this, and gave their allegiance to the Beast. And they worshiped the Serpent for giving such power to him. 'Who is as great as the Beast?' they exclaimed. 'And who is able to resist him?' And the Beast was allowed to commit great blasphemies against God."
Revelation 13:3-5
"Foolishness is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own downfall in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease.
Against foolishness we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed — in such moments the foolish person even becomes critical — and when facts are irrefutable, they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the foolish person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack.
The fact that the foolish person is often stubborn must not blind us to the fact that he is not independent. In conversation with him, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with a person, but with slogans, catchwords and the like that have taken possession of him. He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being.
Having thus become a mindless tool, the foolish person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil. This is where the danger of diabolical misuse lurks, for it is this that can once and for all destroy human beings.
Yet at this very point it becomes quite clear that only an act of liberation, not instruction, can overcome foolishness. Here we must come to terms with the fact that in most cases a genuine internal liberation becomes possible only when external liberation has preceded it. Until then we must abandon all attempts to convince the foolish person. The word of the Bible that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom declares that the internal liberation of human beings to live the responsible life before God is the only genuine way to overcome foolishness."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 1945
"Therefore they shall eat the bitter fruit of their ways, and be gutted by their own schemes. For the foolish turn away from me—to death. For fools are destroyed by their pride and self-satisfaction.”
Proverbs 1:31-33
The hour grows late, and the awful hand of God is moving, slowly but inexorably.
People will not believe it, until they see. And then they will be amazed.
Stocks rallied from an early weakness once again, but fell off sharply towards unchanged at the closing hour.
Gold and silver took some selling early on, but held most of their recent gains.
The Dollar bounced back to the top of the 99 handle.
VIX did very little.
As Simone Weil well noted, 'Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, or even a duty. Sin is not a distance, it is a turning of our gaze in the wrong direction.'We might wish to think hard about the direction in which we are facing, and the darkness that is overtaking us while we are looking the other way.
Have a pleasant evening.
