[RitaOK]

Very nice piece to ponder. Seems that grain of sand is being irritated now, building into the pearl it is becoming.

November, 2012 = Pearl Day, or Bust

[Talisker]

We hear “The Star-Spangled Banner” at sports events, but do we really hear it? Do we understand the unbreakable link between the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Easy way to check - does it put tears in your eyes?

[savagesusie]

Interesting....we are rediscovering what Aristotle said thousands of years ago in his Nicomachean Ethics. The Founding Fathers all understood Aristotle and he had a major effect on them:

“Since happiness is an activity of soul in accordance with perfect virtue, we must consider the nature of virtue; for perhaps we shall thus see better the nature of happiness.”

As the Founders knew—the pursuit of happiness, meant the pursuit of virtue—without virtue, you could not be happy.

Virtue is essential to a Republic....Even Machiavelli stated that in his Discourses on Livy. Otherwise you need masters.