"The barbarian hopes — and that is the mark of him, that he can have his cake and eat it too. He will consume what civilization has slowly produced after generations of selection and effort, but he will not be at pains to replace such goods, nor indeed has he a comprehension of the virtue that has brought them into being. We sit by and watch the barbarian. We tolerate him in the long stretches of peace, we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence; his comic inversion of our old certitudes; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond, and on these faces there are no smiles.”
Hilaire Belloc, This and That and the Other, 1912
"Now it is our task to find one another again, to spread information from person to person, to keep a steady purpose, and to allow ourselves no rest until the last man is persuaded of the urgent need of his struggle against this system."
The White Rose, Second Leaflet, Munich 1942
"Gloom is no Christian temper; that repentance is not real, which has not love in it; that self-chastisement is not acceptable, which is not sweetened by faith and cheerfulness. We must live in sunshine, even when we sorrow; we must live in God's presence, we must not shut ourselves up in our own hearts, even when we are reckoning up our past sins. As many as are our sins, His grace is greater.
Great mercy indeed, which we forget because we are used to it; which many prophets and righteous men in the first ages of the Gospel had not, yet which we have had from our youth up. We from our youth up have lived in peace; with no persecution, no terror, no hindrance in serving God. The utmost we have had to endure, is what is almost too trifling for a Christian to mention — cold looks, or contempt, or ridicule, from those who have not the heart themselves to attempt the narrow way.
Our sins are more in number than the hairs of our head; yet even the hairs of our head are all numbered by Him. He counts our sins, and, as He counts, so can He forgive; for that reckoning, great though it be, comes to an end; but His mercies fail not, and His Son's merits are infinite."
John Henry Newman, Present Blessings, 1839
US equities did a major 'pop and flop' today, as a wash and rinse is more colloquially known.
I have not looked into what event or which component of the DXY index caused the Dollar to take a precipitous swan dive this afternoon.
But its always something.
Big Trouble in Little Bank Land if it starts a fresh slide below 100.
Gold and silver managed to spike some new highs today, as gold futures breached $2700 and silver briefly tagged the $33 mark.
Non-Farm Payrolls next week.
Wars are simmering around the globe with most of them marked with the fingerprints of Blinken and his Merry Pranksters.
Have a pleasant evening.
