THE SEVEN MORAL VIRTUES

According to Jeopardy, Aristatle taught that moral virtues could be differentiated from philosophical virtues. As for myself I don't see the difference. Today Thom Hartman was talking about five moral virtues both political parties appeal to in campaigns but the list is highly skewed in favor of the Republicans on a four to neutral basis as I see it. The one virtue that both parties agree on is care verses harm. Nobody wants to do harm. Everybody favors care and compassion. Another is fairness and recriprocity verses the alternative. This is a Republican one and the best way to illustrate it is affirmative action and the quota system, by which white people are discriminated against. Another so called virtue is Unity verses Diversity. The republicans will say that being IN "the group" is superior to being OUT of "the group". Another is authoritarianism verses anarchy. The final one is purety and sanctity verses moral corruption. If these were the five virtues, the republicans would win every time.

Let me tell you about my list of seven virtues. I have discussed them before but now I could like to include their polar opposits. The first one is Faithfullness and fadelity. This is being true to a virtue or a principle. It is loyalty to that deserving loyalty. The polar oposit is obviously being a flake and an oppertunist. The second virtue is Hope. Going along with this is seeing the positive and not the negative in everything. This is such an important quality I put it on my list largely because of the attitude of my family which wallows in negativity at virtually every turn. In World War II the Andrew sisters talked about accentuating the positive, because they knew this is what it took to get the job done. There is saying "When there is life there is hope". You can turn it around. "When there is hope there is life. The next virtue is compassion or charity. It's polar opposits are abusive behavior and apathy, which in most cases is not "benign neglect". It is sowing good karmic seed into the world. The fourth virtue on my life is courage. This comes to facing up to some moral challenge that requires one to do the right thing regardless of the personal cost to onesself. It's polar opposit is cowardess and those who make up lies and excuses for things they feel "convicted" about. The fifth virtue is Justice or the pursuit of rightness and fairness, which should be inquenchable. Some people say that justice and fairness are not important, but they are usually autocrats. The sixth virtue is perseverence or patience. This is not being patient with something that is inopperative. For instance on March 24th. 1976 I "gave my heart to Jesus" but waiting for any blessing from this act is as vain as vaiting for Hell to freeze over. It's patience in the sense of "not being weary with well doing". It's strength and perseverence tword a goal, or dying in the attempt. Some call this one "Fortitude". The seventh virtue is prudence or wisdom. You will note that anger is not "malum en se" or evil in itself. But lack of many of these virtues can and does result in anger. Anger often is not looking far enough into the future to see the probably results of your action. Some Christians might say that "sacrifice" is an inherent virtue. No, sacrifice is like anger in that it's all the context in which it is used whether it is a moral cause or not. Just as if you ask a gardener he will say that "harm" is not always a vice if it's used against unwanted weeds or preditory insects, so sacrifice is no virtue, if you sacrifice something of great inherent value, for something cheap and transitory. Perhaps getting to the point a Christian might well say "Jesus laid down his life for our salvation". The problem with this is that if you have a mass murderer who is being sentensed and another alien being steps out of his UFO saying "I will pay the price" first you better check to see if the space alien is a mortal being. If the being cannot die or be killed, then he cannot pay the price, even were suchy a thing advisable to begin with, which it would not because it violates fairness and individual responsability. The other thing is some say Jesus always trusted God. It is physically impossible for an omnicient being to either Trust or Not Trust because he knows everything that is, and as such can neither "speculate" on one thing or the other because he knows the end from the beginning. Gene Scott for similar reasons cannot "sacrifically give" as he tells his congragation to. He lived on a dollar a year salary with an unlimited expence account and as such no matter how much he chose to "give" he would just take from his own seemingly inexaustable expense account. Have I clarified things for you?

A REALLY BADLY WRITTEN STORY-LINE

The big news is that John Mc Cain has "suspended" his campaign. In my book if Mc Cain is not at tomorrow's debate, he should step down as republican standard bearer because he has abrigated his duey to run for President. Others have point out that "You can't just decide to suspend being President" or as Obama says "A President will often be called to do more than one thing at one time". Mc Cain flaked out on David Letterman and I don't blame him one bit for being put out. It can be argued that George Bush is wholly responsable for this whole deboccle because he set up the "ownership society". This was the waving of ordenary regulations so that poor people could buy a nicer house. But the fact is when Bush was confronted with the need to amend these policies the regulators were told to butt out, and even State laws were declared unconstitutional, when they tried to install their own regulations. The point is that Bush is doing this bail out just like he did with the Iraq War. He's trying to rush congress, just like with the Patriot Act, into passing something it hasn't fully investigated, with no checks or ballances or oversight. As to this notion about not having tomorrow's debate- - obviously this is to buy Mc Cain time because he hasn't prepared, or perhaps because Sarah Palin hasn't prepared for her debate. This whole bail out bill is just "buying time" untill after the election when then it's OK to have it all fall apart. It was pointed out that Herbert Hoover did something very much like this in bailing out the Banks in 1931, but it didn't work then and probably won't work now. The President gave a good C Student speech last night. There was nothing extrordenary about it but he did make some rudamentary points we've heard many times before. I have a feeling this whole bill is going to be passed with almost no changes because what this president wants, this president gets. Mc Cain doesn't know how he'll vote but he acts as though he did and his vote is so urgent it merits the suspending of a campaign. But I don't see why Obama doesn't complain more about the way he's been one-upped and manipulated by his opponet.

Now we hear that Sarah Palin consulted with an African witch doctor who is responsable for the burning of 25 witches in Tanzania. Supposedly he's really a Christian and he "drove the spirit of witchcraft" out of Palin. There are other reports that Palin has had one or more sexual affairs. Of course everyone is wondering why Sarah Palin has been kept isolated from the Press. Have we ever had a situation like this year in any previous political campaign in the history of this country? I don't think so. Those of you looking for "signs" look till next Tuesday because I predict something will happen then, on the 30th. that will more so than imagined now, illustrate just what a bad decision we will have made if we go along with this Republican business bail-out package. I repeat: there is something we don't know now that if we did know, and we will next Tuesday, we'd never in a million years do this thing.