Net Asset Value Premiums of Precious Metal Funds

Gold popped up this morning and pushed up to 1790, nearer to the top of the resistance band, but was then smacked down hard back to 1770.

Let's see what happens.

Sunday Evening - Litanies in Times of Plague

"The lamps are going out all over Europe, and I doubt we shall see them lit again in our lifetime."

Edward Grey, British Foreign Secretary, Whitehall, 3 August 1914

September 1, 1939
by W. H. Auden, NYC, Oct 1939

I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.

Accurate scholarship can
Unearth the whole offence
From Luther until now
That has driven a culture mad,
Find what occurred at Linz,
What huge image made
A psychopathic god:
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return...

From the conservative dark
Into the ethical life
The dense commuters come,
Repeating their morning vow;
"I will be true to the wife,
I'll concentrate more on my work,"
And helpless governors wake
To resume their compulsory game:
Who can release them now,
Who can reach the deaf,
Who can speak for the dumb?

All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.

Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.



A Litany in Time of Plague
by Thomas Nashe, London, 1593

Beauty is but a flower,
Which wrinkles will devour,
Brightness falls from the air,
Queens have died, young and fair,
Dust hath closed Helen's eye.
I am sick, I must die--
Lord have mercy on us.

"To know and to serve God, of course, is why we're here, a clear truth, that, like the nose on your face, is near at hand and easily discernible but can make you dizzy if you try to focus on it hard. But a little faith will see you through.

What else will do except faith in such a cynical, corrupt time? When the country goes temporarily to the dogs, cats must learn to be circumspect, walk on fences, sleep in trees, and have faith that all this woofing is not the last word. What is the last word, then?

Gentleness is everywhere in daily life, a sign that faith rules through ordinary things: through cooking and small talk, through storytelling, making love, fishing, tending animals and sweet corn and flowers, through sports, music and books, raising kids — all the places where the gravy soaks in and grace shines through.

Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people."

Garrison Keillor

Bill Moyers: ALEC, the Secretive Corporate-Legislative Body Writing US Laws

ALEC in the US Congress

State Legislators with Ties to ALEC By State


International ALEC 'Delegates'

Senator Cory Bernardi – Australia

MEP Philip Claeys – Belgium

Hon Iris Evans (PC - Minister of International and Intergovernmental Relations) - Canada

MEP Ivo Strejcek – Czech Republic

MP David Darchiashvili – Georgia

Assemblywoman Ayesha Javed – Pakistan

MEP Adam Bielan – Poland
MEP Michal Kaminski – Poland
MEP Miroslaw Piotrowski – Poland
MEP Konrad Szymanski – Poland

MEP Cristofer Fjellner – Sweden

MEP Richard Ashworth – United Kingdom
MEP Martin Callanan – United Kingdom
MEP Niranjan Deva – United Kingdom
MEP Daniel Hannan – United Kingdom
MP Chris Heaton-Harris – United Kingdom
MEP Roger Helmer – United Kingdom
MEP Syed Kamall – United Kingdom
MEP Robert Sturdy – United Kingdom