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Thanks -

Reading Cicero and Jefferson about Virtue is an encouragement to start 2014.

I’ll stop browsing news now, and go do chores.

Of course, because bottom line and number ONE meaning to the democrats political life is abortion. Based on their number one tenant in life, no consequences for their actions.

The democrat party platform therefore is have sex, sex, and more sex with who ever you desire, yes even same sex is hunky dory (even better), cause someone else will pay for the consequences.

Virtue ... now violates a federal regulation.

hmmmm...dint see that one coming...but wait...virtue is a pre existing condition covered under obamacare right?...Right

I have been studying the college educations of our Founding Fathers. Their education consisted of working towards a bachelors of philosophy - the scholastic variety - equal to a PhD in today's terms.

The core of their work revolved around the study of moral philosophy and ethics and their knowledge of virtue became the cornerstone of their junior and senior work.

Why? Because they were being trained to provide good leadership as judges and preachers.

So it is no wonder that they placed so much importance to virtue and why it was infused into our Founding documents.

Let me add that anyone who thinks that there could be another Constitutional Convention with equal success as the first one - is a fool - because less than half of the people at the table would share even a smidgeon of our Founders knowledge in virtue.

Thanks for posting. Government is not God. I will do my best to walk in His light.

Under President Obama, that now violates a federal regulation.

Sorry Mr. Obama, but God's holy inerrant Word overrides your unconstitutionally assumed authority to regulate our lives, our businesses, and all our activities in a manner that would result in the murder of millions of unborn human beings. "Thou shall do no murder" is God's law, and your illegally fabricated "law" that orders employers to participate in the 1st degree murder of unborn children doesn't change either His mind or His law.You may have power to destroy our businesses and ruin us financially, but nothing you can do will cause many of us to participate in the violation of God's law against murder of the innocent.

Excellent!!! Thank you, Kaslin.

Here is another essay on the idea America's Founders believed to be essential to liberty:

VIRTUE Among The People

The Soul Of America's Constitution*

America's Founders knew that it takes more than a perfect plan of government to preserve liberty. Something else is needed - some moral principle diffused among the people to unite and strengthen the urge to peaceful observance of law. They recognized that the raw materials of a free government are people who can act morally without compulsion, who do not willfully violate the rights of others, and who love liberty enough to demand that government's power is very limited. They used the word "virtuous" to describe such people. Defined by Webster, "virtue" is "a conformity to a standard of right," but whatever word is used to describe it, such a moral standard is the necessary fountainhead of a free society.
The Declaration of Independence referred to "Nature's God," the "Creator," the "Supreme judge of the World," and "Divine Providence" Our nation's founders came together, voluntarily, to create a limited government to secure for them and posterity their God-given rights to life, liberty, and property. Such liberty, they believed, rested on three great supports:

Natural law and unalienable natural rights granted by the Creator,
A written constitution to assure a government of laws, not of rulers, and
VIRTUE among the people - the best defense against tyranny.

Their own words are eloquent reminders of their devotion to this belief:
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.... It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government." - George Washington's Farewell Address

"We may look up to Armies for our defense, but virtue is our best security. It is not possible that any state should long remain free, where virtue is not supremely honored." - Samuel Adams

"Virtue must underlay all institutional arrangements if they are to be healthy and strong. The principles of democracy are as easily destroyed as human nature is corrupted!' - John Adams

Footnote: Our Ageless Constitution, W. David Stedman & La Vaughn G. Lewis, Editors (Asheboro, NC, W. David Stedman Associates, 1987) Part III: ISBN 0-937047-01-5
*Note: John Jay was America's first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

Dear Obama,
I refuse.

One vital difference between Rights and Virtues is where falls the onus of the action.

In the exercise of Rights, you are petitioning an authority to grant something due to you. It does not require any effort or improvement of character on your part to get what is due. If the ones who are charged with guaranteeing your Rights do not themselves have Virtues (especially Prudence and Justice) then the situation is indistinguishable from having no Rights at all.

In the exercise of Virtues, which are habits according to Aristotle, you become a better person. It requires effort to change yourself so that the Virtues become more pronounced in you over time. The onus is on you for good social behavior.

This is where I have a major disagreement with Jefferson. Virtues are self-evident. Anyone can see Virtue in a man by observing his behavior. The ancients knew who had Virtue and who did not. Rights, on the other hand, are a recent development. They are not self-evident by observing behavior. One needs to be raised in an environment where you are told that people have rights before it becomes “self-evident”, as it was for the Founding Fathers. Anyone prior to 1500 AD would beg to differ that Rights were self-evident.

For Thomists like me and those trained in the theology of the Catholic Church, Rights are asserted without proof, but are convenient for interfacing with society. Given the current Administration, who show no Virtue in themselves and precious little respect for Rights, I would not trust Rights to protect me, but rather the Virtues.

The primary Virtue is Prudence, which allows you to determine who else has Virtues, and therefore who can be trusted in society. Exercise it whenever you can.

Thanks for posting this...its really so simple.

How can we possibly expect a nation to turn back to, much less understand the most simplistic definition of the term “Virtue”, if that ver nation does not believe in its simple concept???

The vast majority of the american people DO NOT have time for this lesson, nor the guilt trip it will hit them with if a few decide to take on this challenge...

Much less the people we elect to office under some political ideology...They are too busy justifying their existence to worry about such trivial things like Virtue...

No, I believe this experiment that started back, over 230+ years ago. was a nice try...We had our run...I do not believe there are enough people out there willing to sacrifice, much less tout such a basic truth to the founding principles it was created (inspired) to sustain what is left of any decent, virtuous, truthful nation of people with the same ideals, goals...

Maybe there will come a time in the near future where some of the last pockets of virtue, can re-constitute, and form up something people may flock to again...But that is going to be made much more difficult by the onslaught of Liberalism and its partners in crime these Fabian Socialists that seem to embed themselves within societies and come out only after the seeds of their tree can take root and patiently take over as it has done here...

What a shame...I think this article is right on the money, but it is not enough to bring about the type of resistance to this threat to our liberties and freedoms as we, in this lifetime jave come to learn and appreciate, and do what we can to protect them...

Sure we can continue to put up a fight, but what exactly are we fighting now??? The front is all around us, and it is coming from within the ranks of the political apparatus some of us here are affiliated with, and have supported because it used to believe in those ideals...

Those people we elect to office do not believe in this stuff anymore...