"When misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages what is useful, applauds falsehood and smothers truth under indifference or insult, a nation turns its back on progress and can be restored only by the terrible lessons of catastrophe." … Frederic Bastiat


Evil talks about tolerance only when it’s weak. When it gains the upper hand, its vanity always requires the destruction of the good and the innocent, because the example of good and innocent lives is an ongoing witness against it. So it always has been. So it always will be. And America has no special immunity to becoming an enemy of its own founding beliefs about human freedom, human dignity, the limited power of the state, and the sovereignty of God. – Archbishop Chaput

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Friday, December 14, 2012

HUI Weekly Chart still looks heavy

One month ago, the HUI managed a nice bounce off of an important chart level of support coming in near the 440 level. The following two weeks it then respected that support with the market finding buyers on any approach towards the region. Last week that all changed with those former buyers apparently on strike as they did not show up in sufficient size to offset the selling pressure on the sector. The result was a downside close below 440 last week. This week the market looked as if it was going to finally get something going to the upside on Wednesday but by the close of the week it appears that those buyers on the back of the QE4 news had wavering convictions.

So where are we for now? While the market did hold above the previous week's low it still did not manage to regain that former support level of 440 as it ended the week at 437. Next week therefore will be critical for the sector. If it cannot attract enough value based buying to take the index back above 440 to end the week, it is likely to drift lower to close out the year with the very real possibility that we might see a move to 420. That would basically move the index down to revisit the downsloping trendline, which the index did manage to breach this summer. Ideally, if it were to move this low, the index would then bounce from this line (near 420) and go on to recapture 440. That would be a pretty reliable sign that the selling is exhausted.

For this index to have any chance of actually improving the technical posture, it would need to push above 460 to end a week.

One has to hope, for the sake of the long suffering share bulls, that 420 can stem the bleeding if last week's low does give way.

Putting things in Perspective

The horrible news out of Connecticut this morning should help us all to put things in their proper perspective. It is not possible to find the words to describe the anquish, pain, despair, anger, grief and desolation that has now engulfed the families of all those impacted by the contemptible actions of a worthless maggot whose warped mind somehow convinced himself that the methodical slaughter of innocent human beings, especially little children, was nothing of consequence.

"...Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes". (Matt 18: 6-7).

Just the other day it was another senseless shooting in an Oregon mall. Not all that long ago we remember the terrible shooting at the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.

These tragedies remind us of the brevity and uncertainty of life and of our own mortality. They are also a sad testimony to the decay in our culture and the decline of our nation. We are witnessing a breakdown in ethics, virtue, and morality, as well as the loss of the sense of righteousess versus sin, and the blurring of the lines between good and evil that has marked the fall of every great civilization throughout history.

Sadly, there is NOTHING politicians can do to deal with the moral rot that has now infected this land. Changing the human heart lies solely in the province of the Almighty. But as more and more He is banished to the outskirts of society, as His laws are treated with contempt if not indifference or even mockery, what can one expect? Human nature, left to itself is no different than a dead fish - it cannot swim upstream but always follows the path of least resistance and that path always tends towards corruption.

I fear for our nation's future in a way I have never feared for it before at any point in my life. What area of our society has not been coarsened? Whether it is in the financial realm where far too often these days it seems we witness fraud, decadence, vice, etc. or in the culture, in its music, which seems to become more degraded with the passing of each year, or in so many of its movies which empitomize the empty souls of an increasingly larger and larger share of our population. Everywhere one looks it seems as if the nation is spiraling downward.

"Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a disgrace to any people" says the Scripture. Nothing further can be added to that except this:

"The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether.; they are MORE DESIRABLE THAN GOLD, YEAH, THAN MUCH FINE GOLD; sweeter also than the honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Thy servant is warned, in keeping them there is great reward." (Psalm 19: 7-9).

Please keep these things in mind as we are reminded that it was at this season the Son of God came into this earth, to suffer and to die in the place of guilty sinners and to thereby offer His own spotless life as the REDEMPTION for all those who believe in Him. At times like this we are made mindful of the fact that we are all sinners and only but for the grace of God, there is no level to which we all might stoop were we left to ourselves.

Sadly, one wonders if that is not EXACTLY what the MOST HIGH is indeed doing to this nation. As He turns HIS BACK on us, in response to the nation turning its back on Him, I see no hope for any restoration of this once great nation's future.