Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Long Division

"Just because so many things are in conflict does not mean that we ourselves should be divided.  Yet time and time again one hears it said that since we have been put into a conflicted world, we have to adapt to it.  Oddly, this completely unchristian idea is most often espoused by so-called Christians.  How can we expect a righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone who will devote themselves undividedly to a righteous cause?"

Sophie Scholl


"People who know nothing of God and whose lives are centered on themselves, imagine that they can only find themselves by asserting their own desires and ambitions and appetites in a struggle with the rest of the world.   They try to become real by imposing themselves on other people, by appropriating for themselves some share of the limited supply of created goods and thus emphasizing the difference between themselves and the other men who have less than they, or nothing at all.

They can only conceive one way of becoming real: cutting themselves off from other people and building a barrier of contrast and distinction between themselves and other men.  They do not know that reality is to be sought not in division but in unity, for we are ‘members one of another.’ “

Thomas Merton


“In the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God. Thereafter, any attack, even on the least of men, is an attack on Christ, who took on the form of man, and in His own Person restored the image of God in all.   Through our relationship with the Incarnation we recover our true humanity, and at the same time are delivered from that perverse individualism which is the consequence of sin, and recover our familiality with all mankind."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Stocks closed largely unchanged today.

Volatility as measured by VIX continued to move lower.

Gold and silver moved slightly higher with the Dollar largely unchanged.

Defy the world with love, and a light will come into your life.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Unspeakable - As Old As Babylon

“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.

Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand.

Power is as pitiless to the man who possesses it, or thinks he does, as it is to its victims; the latter it crushes, the former it intoxicates.  The truth is, no one really possesses it."

Simone Weil


"As everything in what used to be called creation becomes a commodity, human beings begin to look at one another, and at themselves, in a funny way, and they see price tags. There was a time when people spoke, at least occasionally, of 'inherent worth'— if not of things, then at least of persons.

It is sometimes said that since everything is for sale under the rule of The Market, nothing is sacred.  Does anyone doubt that if the True Cross were ever really discovered, it would eventually find its way to Sotheby's?  The Market is not omnipotent— yet.  But the process is under way and it is gaining momentum."

Harvey Cox, The Market as God


"Those who are at present so eager to be reconciled with the world at any price must take care not to be reconciled with it under this particular aspect: as the nest of The Unspeakable.  This is what too few are willing to see."

Thomas Merton

Stocks were able to enjoy another lackadaisical summer day, with an upwards drift.

What is risk?  Something that can easily be ignored for the day, until it rises up and smacks us in the face.  But while the music plays, the dancing must go on.

Gold and silver caught a little lift on the slightly weaker dollar.   I am not so sure about silver, but gold is going to some day express its determined resistance to being treated like just another fiat currency.

Politics continues to distract and divert the public conversation.   And much of it is somewhat artificial and even arbitrary, and unrelated to the most pressing topic of the day, which is political and economic reform.

The 'lesser of two evils' is a political strategy, an engaging diversion, but not a real choice.

It is a convenient rationale designed to persuade you, the public, to accept one form of evil over another.  And if it is allowed to progress, it can lead an otherwise educated and civilized people to tolerate monstrous things—  and the unspeakable.

Such pride, such perverted justice, such hypocrisy, is as old as Babylon, and as evil as sin.

How then are we to resist, when most even of the faithful may seem to be falling away?

As I, and so many others have found, both recently and in times past, the only way to fill the emptiness of a heart either broken by loss or made unquiet by worry is with love, of God and God in others.  Defy the world with love, and a light will come into your life.

Need little, want less, and love more.  For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.

Have a pleasant evening.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Sittin' On Top of the World - Crossroads

It was a solid 97 degrees outside here today, with enough humidity added to make you wish to run back into the house.

These are the 'dog days' of summer, with apologies to Dolly. She and I went to a heavily forested local park in search of shade for our afternoon walk, and took off and played hooky for a while.

And we did not miss much. Stocks were drifting higher on a cloud of complacency, ignoring he trade war, and currency war, and the shootin' wars.

Gold and silver were lower as the Dollar ticked a bit higher.

Facebook stock was up a bit on the news that it was asking Wall Street Banks for financial information on their customers so they can better target products at them together.  Wonderful.

Need little, want less, love more. For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.

Have a pleasant evening.