Flight to Egypt and the Slaughter of the Innocents

 

"God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.  If we say, 'We have fellowship with him,' while we continue to walk in darkness, we lie and do not act in truth.  But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin. 

If we say, 'We are without sin,' we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing. If we say, 'We have not sinned,' we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."

1 John 1:5-10

"There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, and seven that are an abomination to Him. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that plots wicked schemes, feet that run to lawlessness, a false witness who lies about others, and those who sow discord among the people."

Proverbs 6:16-19

"When they had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you.  Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.”  Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt.  He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious.  He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi.  Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet:

A voice was heard in Ramah,
sobbing and loud lamentation;
Rachel weeping for her children,
and she would not be consoled,
since they were no more.

After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

Matthew 2:13-19

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Salvator Mundi

 

“Sometimes the noisy handful is right, sometimes wrong; but no matter, the crowd follows it.  The vast majority of the race, whether savage or civilized, are secretly kind-hearted and shrink from inflicting pain, but in the presence of the aggressive and pitiless minority, they don't dare to assert themselves.”

Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger

"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, Death By Government

“Exceptionalism— the view that the United States has a right to impose its will because it knows more, sees farther, and lives on a higher moral plane than other nations— was to them not a platitude, but the organizing principle of daily life and global politics."

Stephen Kinzer, The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, October 2013

"Exceptionalism is no virtue, no mark of the chosen, but merely the sin of pride, wearing the silks of rationalization and self-delusion. And this is at the root of every fallen angel, every lost soul, and every failing nation."

Jesse, The Will to Power in the Exceptional, March 2015

"They defended him, verbally and physically, every time he committed one of his criminal acts. They went blithely on past the suffering of all the bombing victims, the prisoners in the concentration camps, and the religious persecutors, because a different regime would have meant the end of their power."

Friedrich Reck-Malleczewen, Diary of a Man in Despair, 1947

"For these are a rebellious people, deceitful children, unwilling to listen to the commandments of the Lord. They say to their seers,‘Do not see!’ and to the prophets,‘Say nothing of what is right! Tell us only things that please us, prophesy illusions."

Isaiah 30:8-10

The volume today was very light, with the activity in the markets falling off notably after noon.

There was quite a bit of profit-taking, as the books are squared up for the end of the year.

The Dollar was flat to a little lower.

VIX was higher.

And the metals were painted, as one would expect.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Idols of Crony Capitalism

 

"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 theirs.

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, Narcissism: Why It's So Rampant in Politics, Psychology Today, December 21, 2011

"As in all periods of speculation, men sought not to be persuaded by the reality of things but to find excuses for escaping into the new world of fantasy."

"John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash of 1929

“Every idol, however exalted, turns out, in the long run, to be a Moloch, hungry for human sacrifice.”

Aldous Huxley, The Devils of Loudon

"Moral hazard is the probability that a party insulated from risk will behave differently from the way they would behave if fully exposed to the risk. Moral hazard arises because an individual or institution does not bear the full consequences of its actions, and therefore has a tendency to act with increasing recklessness, literally 'without reckoning.' It also encourages the rise to power of the sociopath in the affected organizations. It is difficult to explain moral hazard to tenured professors or the pampered princes of bureaucracy, who beat the drum with their silver spoons in support of shifting the risk of loss to the public every time that Wall Street falls into one of its own schemes and blows itself up.

Unfortunately there is a small but powerful oligopoly of privilege that is trying to project themselves onto the global stage while believing that they are immune to ordinary consequence, and have become addicted to the notion that 'others must pay' for their failures. Moral hazard comes from rewarding bad behaviour in markets with wristslaps and bailouts. It is a danger to the economy and to the public."

Jesse, Moral Hazard, 22 March 2008

This was a very quiet post-holiday trading day.  

The adults are on vacation, and the juniors are just following a pattern given to them.

I suspect tomorrow will be similar once we get past the first hour or two of trading, unless *something happens*.

The New Year's holiday is next week on Wednesday.   

Gold is forming up what could develop into a symmetrical triangle bullish continuation pattern.

 Let's see what happens.

The markets continue to be heavily weighed upon by mispriced risk.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

Christmas Day - That They May Have Life

 

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them a light has shined."

Isaiah 9:1

"And the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born to you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.'

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, 'Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.'

So they left in haste, and found Mary and Joseph and the baby, who was lying in a manger. After they had seen the Child, they spread the message that they had received about Him. and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

And Mary treasured up all these things, and pondered them in her heart."

Luke 2:10-19

"Lost friend, lost child, lost parent, sister, brother, husband, wife, we will not so discard you.  You shall hold your cherished places in our Christmas hearts, and by our Christmas fires; and in the season of immortal hope, and on the birthday of immortal mercy, we will shut out nothing."

Charles Dickens, What Christmas Is As We Grow Older, Household Words, 1851

“Man has places in his heart which do not yet exist— and into them enters suffering, so that they may have life.”

Léon Bloy

“Love endures everything, love is stronger than death, love fears nothing.  Help me, Lord, that my eyes may see all with mercy, so that I may never suspect or judge from appearances, but look deeper for what is good and beautiful in others' souls, and then come to their aid.  Let all my nothingness be drowned in the ocean of your mercy.”

Maria Faustyna Kowalska

"What does the modern world know of love, with its light touching of the surface of love.  It has never reached down into the depths, to the misery and pain and glory of love which endures to death and beyond it.  We have not yet begun to learn about love.  Now is the time to begin, to start afresh, to use this divine weapon."

Dorothy Day, The Catholic Worker, June 1946


"And there was no room for them in the inn."

Make room for them in your hearts.

"Fear not, little flock, for your Father delights to give you welcome into His Kingdom."

Luke 12:32

"And so, God bless us, every one!"

Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol