Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - A Muse of Fire

"O, for a muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention,
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!"

William Shakespeare, Prologue, Henry V

Stocks managed to hold on to their gains today.

Gold finished higher with silver off just a bit.

Tomorrow's trade is going to be quiet, since most of the adults have already left for their holidays

The rest of the adults will be gone by noon tomorrow, and so I would not expect much unless *something happens.*

Which it rarely does.

I spent some constructive time today getting rid of a few late fallen leaves, and then winterizing the lawnmower for its storage until Spring.

And like a few other kindred souls, I was browsing the gift cards selection at the local grocery store for a few last minute presents.   Dolly waited patiently in the car, wrapped in her blanket.

Speaking of last minute items, the Congress is still busy attempting to avoid a government shutdown by kicking the matter down the road until early next year 

I am reading an excellent book titled, The Light Shines on in the Darkness.

I find it odd, but I have never watched the HBO miniseries, Band of Brothers. Doubly odd because the title is taken from one of my favorite scenes from Shakespeare in Henry V. When I am a bit down, I sometimes read the St. Crispin's day speech, or listen to this excellent performance of it.

Remember each other in your prayers. It is the highest expression of our humanity, in addition to selfless acts of charity.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Ornaments

"Be human in this most inhuman of ages; guard the image of man for it is the image of God."

Thomas Merton, Raids on the Unspeakable


"Far be it from any of us to be of those simple ones, who are taken in that snare which is circling around us!  Far be it from us to be seduced with the fair promises in which Satan is sure to hide his poison...

He bids you mount aloft. He shows you how to become as gods. Then he laughs and jokes with you, and gets intimate with you; he takes your hand, and gets his fingers between yours, and grasps them, and then you are his."

John Henry Newman, The Time of Antichrist

Sleepy week.

It is good to be wakeful, watchful, in those things that are most important.  Dark times are on the horizon.  And yet there is always the happiness of the hearth, and home.  And the unexpected dawn.

You know you are getting old:  you fall asleep in the recliner, and when you wake up the dog is standing on your chest, eating the Cheerios off your t-shirt.

Life is a patchwork of light, loving moments, and tender mercies.

One thing I will grant to the financiers and their politicians—  they are rarely too lazy to steal.

Have a pleasant evening.

Aktion T4 - War on the Weak, the Elderly, the Disabled, the Others

"Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness...

The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.   The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil."

Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism


"One of the primary characteristics of narcissists is their exaggerated sense of entitlement. It's hardly surprising then that so many politicians somehow think they 'deserve' to game the system. After all, from their self-interested perspective, isn't that what the system is for?

In their heavily self-biased opinion, if they want something, by rights it should be their's. So, nothing if not opportunistic, they take from public and private coffers alike whatever they think they can get away with. And given their grandiose sense of self, they're inclined to believe they can get away with most anything.

Exploiting their privileged position in such a manner hardly leaves them plagued with guilt. In general, guilt isn't an emotion they're prone to. How could they be if they feel entitled to the objects of their desire? In their minds their very ability to attain something must certainly mean it was merited."

Leon F. Seltzer


"Power will achieve its murderous potential. It simply waits for an excuse, an event of some sort, an assassination, a massacre in a neighboring country, an attempted coup, a famine, or a natural disaster, to justify the beginning of murder en masse."

R. J. Rummel


"There is not a more perilous or immoral habit of mind than the sanctifying of success.”

Lord Acton


“You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you did not know.”

William Wilberforce

The systematic murder of the elderly, the disabled, the mentally ill, the infirm, alcoholics, and social misfits began on the same day that Germany invaded Poland.

The Nazi euthanasia program was modeled on the eugenics programs in the UK and the US, although those programs avoided actual murder in favor of forced sterilization of the feeble, the infirm, alcoholics, and the mentally ill. The purpose was to cleanse the peoples gene pool, also referred to as racial hygeine.

The German program of extermination was carried out not at camps by SS soldiers, but in hospitals and psychiatric asylums by doctors and nurses.

Various experiments with the most efficient means of performing these murders led to the development of the camps with their gas chambers and crematoria.