Zone1 Who is a more virtuous man?

[Dante]

The framers our our constitution wrote much about "virtue," and I find that many with a deep knowledge of history agree, that they wrote about virtue, much more than they wrote about anything else. Heavy emphasis on "virtue."

I know people like to come across memes, and snippets of words the framers wrote, sharing then so out of context that they lose meaning. We see competing quotes, often from the same individual. How? Why? Context.

Virtue. We have many conservative Christians in America who now consider "selfishness" to be a virtue.

David French​

Opinion Columnist - 5 Jun 2025 - When Christianity goes wrong, it goes wrong in a familiar way.

Last Friday, at a town hall meeting in Butler County, Iowa, Senator Joni Ernst delivered a grim message to her constituents. In the midst of an exchange over Medicaid cuts in President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” someone in the crowd shouted at Ernst, “People are going to die!”
Ernst’s immediate response was bizarre. “Well, we all are going to die,” she said.

True enough, but that’s irrelevant to the question at hand. Yes, we’re all going to die, but it matters a great deal when, how and why. There’s a tremendous difference between dying after living a long and full life that’s enabled at least in part by access to decent health care, and dying a premature and perhaps needlessly painful death because you can’t afford the care you need.

All of this should be too obvious to explain, and it would cost Ernst — who occupies a relatively safe seat in an increasingly red state — virtually nothing to apologize and move on. In fact, just after her flippant comment, she did emphasize that she wanted to protect vulnerable people. The full answer was more complicated than the headline-generating quip.

By the standards of 2025, Ernst’s comment would have been little more than a micro-scandal, gone by the end of the day. And if we lived even in the relatively recent past, demonstrating humility could have worked to her benefit. It can be inspiring to watch a person genuinely apologize.

But we’re in a new normal now.
That means no apologies. That means doubling down. And that can also mean tying your cruelty to the Christian cross.
And so, the next day Ernst posted an apology video — filmed, incredibly enough, in what appears to be a cemetery. It began well. “I would like to take this opportunity,” she said, “to sincerely apologize for a statement I made yesterday at my town hall.” But her statement devolved from there.

“I made an incorrect assumption,” she continued, “that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth.”

She didn’t stop there. “I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well. But for those that would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I’d encourage you to embrace my lord and savior, Jesus Christ.”

Remember, this was not a snarky, impulsive rejoinder. It was a considered response. She decided to film the statement and release it. There is no ambiguity — the video delivered exactly the message she wanted to send.

Opinion | Selfishness Is Not a Virtue

Evangelical Christianity has taken a wrong turn.

web.archive.org

 

[ding]

When Christianity goes wrong, it goes wrong in a familiar way.

Religion is a tool. I don't blame guns either.

What do you do when the pie isn't big enough to feed the people at the table?

 

[Moonglow]

Religion is a tool. I don't blame guns either.

What do you do when the pie isn't big enough to feed the people at the table?

Cut smaller pieces.

 

[ding]

“People are going to die!”

My response would have been, you don't know that.

And it's not people. It's people older than 65 that are affected by medicare cuts.

 

[ding]

Cut smaller pieces.

Exactly. Life isn't fair. Expect to make sacrifices.

 

[Deplorable Yankee]

The framers our our constitution wrote much about "virtue," and I find that many with a deep knowledge of history agree, that they wrote about virtue, much more than they wrote about anything else. Heavy emphasis on "virtue."

I know people like to come across memes, and snippets of words the framers wrote, sharing then so out of context that they lose meaning. We see competing quotes, often from the same individual. How? Why? Context.

Virtue. We have many conservative Christians in America who now consider "selfishness" to be a virtue.

David French​

Opinion Columnist - 5 Jun 2025 - When Christianity goes wrong, it goes wrong in a familiar way.

Last Friday, at a town hall meeting in Butler County, Iowa, Senator Joni Ernst delivered a grim message to her constituents. In the midst of an exchange over Medicaid cuts in President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” someone in the crowd shouted at Ernst, “People are going to die!”
Ernst’s immediate response was bizarre. “Well, we all are going to die,” she said.

True enough, but that’s irrelevant to the question at hand. Yes, we’re all going to die, but it matters a great deal when, how and why. There’s a tremendous difference between dying after living a long and full life that’s enabled at least in part by access to decent health care, and dying a premature and perhaps needlessly painful death because you can’t afford the care you need.

All of this should be too obvious to explain, and it would cost Ernst — who occupies a relatively safe seat in an increasingly red state — virtually nothing to apologize and move on. In fact, just after her flippant comment, she did emphasize that she wanted to protect vulnerable people. The full answer was more complicated than the headline-generating quip.

By the standards of 2025, Ernst’s comment would have been little more than a micro-scandal, gone by the end of the day. And if we lived even in the relatively recent past, demonstrating humility could have worked to her benefit. It can be inspiring to watch a person genuinely apologize.

But we’re in a new normal now.
That means no apologies. That means doubling down. And that can also mean tying your cruelty to the Christian cross.
And so, the next day Ernst posted an apology video — filmed, incredibly enough, in what appears to be a cemetery. It began well. “I would like to take this opportunity,” she said, “to sincerely apologize for a statement I made yesterday at my town hall.” But her statement devolved from there.

“I made an incorrect assumption,” she continued, “that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth.”

She didn’t stop there. “I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well. But for those that would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I’d encourage you to embrace my lord and savior, Jesus Christ.”

Remember, this was not a snarky, impulsive rejoinder. It was a considered response. She decided to film the statement and release it. There is no ambiguity — the video delivered exactly the message she wanted to send.

Opinion | Selfishness Is Not a Virtue

Evangelical Christianity has taken a wrong turn.

web.archive.org

David French hates White people and a f****** fake Catholic

 

[DGS49]

Our nation was founded as, and our founding documents describe, a rather Darwinian society. Some people succeed and some people fail. Some people are wealthy and some are poor. Some virtuous people are poor and some scoundrels are rich. That is not a problem to be solved by Government; that is reality.

To suppose that it is Government's "fault" if some citizen cannot get expensive care or drugs that could extend his life, is just silly. We do not live in the Soviet Union, and thank God we don't live in Cuba, but even if we did, there were and are people in the "Workers' Paradise" who get the best of care, and others who can't access the things they need to extend their lives.

Everybody will die. Some will have access to better care than others. So what? I believe in American "democracy" and if "we" wanted "free" healthcare we would have it. But there are too many of us out here who do not want our healthcare turned over to the same people who run Amtrak, the Post Office and the VA. Sorry.

 

[Moonglow]

Our nation was founded as, and our founding documents describe, a rather Darwinian society. Some people succeed and some people fail. Some people are wealthy and some are poor. Some virtuous people are poor and some scoundrels are rich. That is not a problem to be solved by Government; that is reality.

To suppose that it is Government's "fault" if some citizen cannot get expensive care or drugs that could extend his life, is just silly. We do not live in the Soviet Union, and thank God we don't live in Cuba, but even if we did, there were and are people in the "Workers' Paradise" who get the best of care, and others who can't access the things they need to extend their lives.

Everybody will die. Some will have access to better care than others. So what? I believe in American "democracy" and if "we" wanted "free" healthcare we would have it. But there are too many of us out here who do not want our healthcare turned over to the same people who run Amtrak, the Post Office and the VA. Sorry.

I do have free healthcare through the VA.

 

[Muhammed]

The framers our our constitution wrote much about "virtue," and I find that many with a deep knowledge of history agree, that they wrote about virtue, much more than they wrote about anything else. Heavy emphasis on "virtue."

I know people like to come across memes, and snippets of words the framers wrote, sharing then so out of context that they lose meaning. We see competing quotes, often from the same individual. How? Why? Context.

Virtue. We have many conservative Christians in America who now consider "selfishness" to be a virtue.

David French​

Opinion Columnist - 5 Jun 2025 - When Christianity goes wrong, it goes wrong in a familiar way.

Last Friday, at a town hall meeting in Butler County, Iowa, Senator Joni Ernst delivered a grim message to her constituents. In the midst of an exchange over Medicaid cuts in President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” someone in the crowd shouted at Ernst, “People are going to die!”
Ernst’s immediate response was bizarre. “Well, we all are going to die,” she said.

True enough, but that’s irrelevant to the question at hand. Yes, we’re all going to die, but it matters a great deal when, how and why. There’s a tremendous difference between dying after living a long and full life that’s enabled at least in part by access to decent health care, and dying a premature and perhaps needlessly painful death because you can’t afford the care you need.

All of this should be too obvious to explain, and it would cost Ernst — who occupies a relatively safe seat in an increasingly red state — virtually nothing to apologize and move on. In fact, just after her flippant comment, she did emphasize that she wanted to protect vulnerable people. The full answer was more complicated than the headline-generating quip.

By the standards of 2025, Ernst’s comment would have been little more than a micro-scandal, gone by the end of the day. And if we lived even in the relatively recent past, demonstrating humility could have worked to her benefit. It can be inspiring to watch a person genuinely apologize.

But we’re in a new normal now.
That means no apologies. That means doubling down. And that can also mean tying your cruelty to the Christian cross.
And so, the next day Ernst posted an apology video — filmed, incredibly enough, in what appears to be a cemetery. It began well. “I would like to take this opportunity,” she said, “to sincerely apologize for a statement I made yesterday at my town hall.” But her statement devolved from there.

“I made an incorrect assumption,” she continued, “that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth.”

She didn’t stop there. “I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well. But for those that would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I’d encourage you to embrace my lord and savior, Jesus Christ.”

Remember, this was not a snarky, impulsive rejoinder. It was a considered response. She decided to film the statement and release it. There is no ambiguity — the video delivered exactly the message she wanted to send.

Opinion | Selfishness Is Not a Virtue

Evangelical Christianity has taken a wrong turn.

web.archive.org

The notion that Medicaid cuts are causing people to die is common paranoid delusion in the low IQ moonbat demograph.

 

[Muhammed]

Religion is a tool. I don't blame guns either.

What do you do when the pie isn't big enough to feed the people at the table?

You bake your own pie.

 

[Dante]

Our nation was founded as, and our founding documents describe, a rather Darwinian society. Some people succeed and some people fail. Some people are wealthy and some are poor. Some virtuous people are poor and some scoundrels are rich. That is not a problem to be solved by Government; that is reality.

To suppose that it is Government's "fault" if some citizen cannot get expensive care or drugs that could extend his life, is just silly. We do not live in the Soviet Union, and thank God we don't live in Cuba, but even if we did, there were and are people in the "Workers' Paradise" who get the best of care, and others who can't access the things they need to extend their lives.

Everybody will die. Some will have access to better care than others. So what? I believe in American "democracy" and if "we" wanted "free" healthcare we would have it. But there are too many of us out here who do not want our healthcare turned over to the same people who run Amtrak, the Post Office and the VA. Sorry.

Junior High Schools civics lesson? Uhm, thank you - not.

 

[ding]

You bake your own pie.

True. Nothing stopping anyone from paying out of pocket.

 

[Muhammed]

True. Nothing stopping anyone from paying out of pocket.

Or getting a part time job.

 

[shockedcanadian]

Here has been the problem, for decades the West had slick politicians who were manicured by MSM, smiling, waving their plastic finger as they allowed China to steal their industries and they filled their own pockets.

Trump came along and broke the mold. Loud, unapologetic, undiplomatic. Quite different from the time he was in his prime. However, especially in his first term in the first few months in his second term, he fought for Americans and tried to tariff jobs back.

His immigration and job efforts have largely been successful. Real was growth is a big deal it is just that citizens see higher costs too.

This was made worse by the efforts of his enemies who really played dirty. Politics was new for Trump but he basically learned "this is worse than business, this is no holds barred and dirty as hell". It has now, right or wrong, become more the norm, more acceptable. His adversaries were no angels that is for sure.

Thus, the new template for the politician was borne.

I would like to see a return to a calm decorum. Good policies to bring confidence and pride to Americans.

Europe with their plastic cut out "leaders" is largely gone, they ignore and allow their militaries to become so depleted that the can not even scrounge up a ship or two. The U.S is alone save for a few still sharp nations such as Japan, maybe S Korea, Israel (they need a new government though).

America still has some sane allies who want to see America succeed and the American way of life thrive globally. Returning to the former, stoic politician may be a pipe dream anytime soon though.

 

[jacksonlamb]

Trump is a man of almost no virtue.

 

[Eman623]

Selfishness is not a virtue. But neither is generosity with other people's money.

 

[Dante]

Selfishness is not a virtue. But neither is generosity with other people's money.

Wow! Conflate things much? How is one related to the other here.

 

[Dante]

Trump is a man of almost no virtue.

Disagree 100%. Why? "Almost" does not apply here.

 

[Dante]

Here has been the problem, for decades the West had slick politicians who were manicured by MSM, smiling, waving their plastic finger as they allowed China to steal their industries and they filled their own pockets.

That dog just won't hunt here.

Your attraction to conspiracy nuttiness is well known around these here parts.

 

[shockedcanadian]

That dog just won't hunt here.

Your attraction to conspiracy nuttiness is well known around these here parts.

Are you trying to tell me Pelosi was just one great business statement analyst and she knew the stock prices were undervalued and she timed it so perfectly?

You destroy any credibility you had with the suggestion that politicians aren't stealing from citizens. It is clear as day in some instances and there is rarely if ever any consequences.