Winning Words 10/2/09
“The problem with people who have no vices is that generally they’re going to have some pretty annoying virtues.” (Elizabeth Taylor) Here’s an interesting thought for today: What is a virtue and what is a vice…and who determines that? Most restrictive laws have a religious origin, as with the Puritans. Most “blue laws” have been repealed, but it’s still illegal to hunt on Sunday in Connecticut and Pennsylvania. ;-) Jack

FROM SH IN MICHIGAN: smoking and drinking coffee with caffeine. If people feel like their vices help them to be more virtuous i.e., relaxed, even-tempered, energetic, better able to function in this world, well, I'm sympathetic. Just chuckling over Elizabeth Taylor's observation and reflecting on what pain-in-the-necks we can be with our annoying virtues. Wonder, if I were old enough back in the days of prohibition, if I would have been against that too. Great quote again FROM JACK: It reminds me of Robert Burns' poem: To A Louse. On Seeing One on a Lady's Bonnet at Church

Ha! whare ye gaun' ye crowlin ferlie?
Your impudence protects you sairly;
I canna say but ye strunt rarely
Owre gauze and lace,
Tho faith! I fear ye dine but sparely
On sic a place.

Ye ugly, creepin, blastit wonner,
Detested, shunn'd by saunt an sinner,
How daur ye set your fit upon her--
Sae fine a lady!
Gae somewhere else and seek your dinner
On some poor body.

Swith! in some beggar's hauffet squattle;
There ye may creep, and sprawl, and sprattle;
Wi' ither kindred, jumping cattle;
In shoals and nations;
Whare horn nor bane ne'er daur unsettle
Your thick plantations.

Now haud you there! ye're out o' sight,
Below the fatt'rils, snug an tight,
Na, faith ye yet! ye'll no be right,
Till ye've got on it--
The vera tapmost, tow'rin height
O' Miss's bonnet.

My sooth! right bauld ye set your nose out,
As plump an grey as onie grozet:
O for some rank, mercurial rozet,
Or fell, red smeddum,
I'd gie you sic a hearty dose o't,
Wad dress your droddum!

I wad na been surpris'd to spy
You on an auld wife's flainen toy
Or aiblins some bit duddie boy,
On's wyliecoat;
But Miss's fine Lunardi! fye!
How daur ye do't?

O Jeany, dinna toss your head,
An set your beauties a' abread!
Ye little ken what cursed speed
The blastie's makin!
Thae winks an finger-ends, I dread,
Are notice takin!

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us
An foolish notion:
What airs in dress an gait wad lea'es us,
An ev'n devotion!

FROM MKH IN MICHIGAN: I thought a virtue was a positive and a vice a negative. FROM JACK: I guess it depends on which mirror you're gazing into. What some people see are virtues are seen as vices to me. FROM MKH: Give me an example. FROM JACK: An atheist might see your faith as a vice, rather than a virtue. Some might see making money off of naive people as being shrewd (a virtue), while I would see it as a vice. You can probably think of some yourself...as you examine how people look at morality. FROM MKH: I get it, I guess I assume that everyone thinks form a Christian perspective. FROM JACK: A pitcher throwing at a Tigers batter is a vice. Retaliation is a virtue.

FROM DRPL IN MICHIGAN: Thanks Jack...and I thought I could have a real easy day today without thinking about stuff! FROM JACK: Why were you given a brain? FROM PH: That's what my wife says! Although sometimes she phrases it just a little bit different!

FROM PRJS IN MICHIGAN: In the Lincoln/Douglas debates you would have sided with Douglas. He was the Relativist. He said that slavery is wrong only if a majority of the voting population in the state says it is wrong. Lincoln was an Absolutist. He said that slavery is simply "wrong." Fortunately, Lincoln prevailed in that situation. FROM JACK: So, all-knowing one, you are able to determine what I think. WOW, I am impressed!

FROM MLS IN MICHIGAN: Amen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FROM JACK: It's always good to hear from the Amen Corner.

FROM MOLINER CF: One man's vice is another man's virtue. It's a matter of degree. FROM JACK: Like a matter of 180 degrees.