Sometimes I collect and log thoughts I don’t want to discuss at full length.  So you may consider today’s post a sheaf of promissory notes.

A young man in one of my classes ingenuously suggested that the educated and well-off are more virtuous than the poor.  I wasn’t surprised that he held such a complacent view, but only that he so readily gave voice it.  Among well-off people, this sort of thinking is no less common than it ever was, but nowadays it is impolitic to let it show.

I’ve asked before why some people don’t think about God, or even about whether He exists.  Let me change the question.  Supposing that He does exist (you may not accept the supposition), then why would it be wrong to ignore Him?

Even the strongest critics of the sweeping pardon of Hunter Biden are careful to praise the president for fatherly compassion.  Compassion is especially due toward those to whom we are closest.  But was the president truly compassionate?

The feeling of compassion is not the same as the virtue of compassion.  Feelings cannot steer themselves.  That’s virtue's job.

For generations, Americans took for granted that if you want a happy and virtuous nation, it will have to be a religious nation.  George Washington thought so: