Does Virtue Matter?
Jean de La Bruyère was a 17th Century French philosopher who made a very interesting remark about the (apparently few) people of the day whose only pleasure was the acquisition of money.
I’m afraid I have bad news for Jean’s eternal spirit about the state of humankind as it exists today, 400 years later, at least in America. Here and now, those who derive pleasure by living virtuous lives are extremely rare.
When my kids were in their teens , we used to have discussions about the things that were important to them. At a certain point, they told me that money was the only thing that counted in their adolescent social lives. I asked, “Don’t things like honesty and kindness matter?” They said, “Dad, you’re from a different point in history.” I suppose so.
In principle, you’re right. In practice, we need to recall that, on the campaign trail, a smiling Mike Pence famously said, “I’m a Christian, an American, and a Republican — in that order.”
The corruption in the ultra-right wing is so pervasive that it will take an enormous amount of time, energy, and resources that could have been spent addressing other problems, but we need to start somewhere. Thanks to AOC for leading the charge here.
Key points from 
A reader sent me this and notes: “The greatest #American of all-time Jesus Christ stands with the #truckers in #Ottawa #Canada against the #covid_19 #covid #vaccine.”
OMG, this is getting hot.
Here’s an article from 
Regarding the meme here, concerning Clarence Thomas and his insurrectionist wife, a reader says: Or you should be impeached if you don’t have the personal integrity to resign.
It should come as a surprise to no one that, as half of the United States shifts (actually, squirts) to the extreme right, abortion rights are in the process of going away–at least in the red states.
This is what’s known as defunding the police. It means calling the police off of incidents in which no physical force is required, allowing them to focus the entirety of their efforts where someone could be injured of killed.
