To paraphrase and contextualize Augustine, an unjust (unconstitutional) law is no law.

Love your spirit. Do you have any association with USC?

Linda,

You are welcome. And thank you for being such a shining example of that freedom we have as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Your (our)  faith ( His gift) has made you (us) free.

As an object lesson, you may want to try "liberating" some of DS's personal property for the "benefit of the family".  

Another thing altogether lacking is regionalism in clothing styles, food and other merchandise. When traveling trough various regions of the country I used to love to go into local grocery stores, for example, and find all sorts of different candy, soda, chips and cookies etc., not to mention regional styles of dress, music etc. What you get now is McDonalds, Burger King, Coke, Pepsi, Walmart and hip-hop. Such a loss!

Indeed. All laws are based on a moral (religious) code. The irony of the statement "you can't legislate morality" is that one cannot make someone moral by legislation, but all legislation codifies morality.

The problem of "The Moral Problem in America" is that we disagree about the source of the problem. Raycon hits the nail on the head. Morality is fundamentally a function of religious belief. Our "problem" is that we are a religiously divided nation. "Social Conservatives" want to use government to codify their moral code (based on Judeo-Christian beliefs) and "Liberals" want to use government to codify their moral code, based primarily on "Secular Humanism". The only solution is to re-establish a vastly more limited government at the National level and re-invigorate civil society at the State and local levels.

Ditto.  Thanks for your unique contributions, EJ. Ricochet would not be the same without you.

And we are thankful for you, Paul. And, although I doubt there will come a time in this lifetime for you and I to sit down and discuss the history of the republican form of government we both love and of which you have so eloquently written, I will be looking for you in eternity to have just such a conversation. Bless you and yours, and all of the extended Ricochet family. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

And who do you think will be behind us and to the left?

Take a deep breath. Look around you and appreciate your family, your friends, your community. Determine to make life a little better for those around you. Look for opportunites to serve. Run for office in local government. Run for school board. Study the constitution. Learn more about Federalism. Do what it takes to build an inheritance for your childrens, childrens, children.

"But as long as we keep our minds and hearts focused on the fundamental goodness and truth that guide our path, we will not be defeated. We will endure, persevere and in due course, we will be vindicated."

This is certainly the way we must posture ourselves. Moving to the Left is to move away from our core values.

There is no free candy. The left knows it and so should the middle. The candy comes from others who have had their candy stolen or who turn it over at the point of a gun. A better life through government is at the espense of both the donor and recipient: we all loose in that transaction.

Prawn,

They are two sides of the same coin. It's conservation of energy (power): when power shifts from one sphere of government to another, one increases while another diminishes. Civil government has grown at the epense of self, family, church or voluntary association (both by usurpation and abdication). The only way to diminsh the power and authority of  civil government is to revitalize the other spheres.

Just so. And this is a point of contention between conservatives and libertarians. One cannot separate ones values from ones property forced to be "contributed" for the "general welfare" by government coercion (i.e. taxes).

The founding generation would have resisted the efforts on the part of government to use their tax dollars to pay  for goods and services they believed to be immoral, even more than they resisted taxation without representation.

They abhorred democracy as much as they abhorred monarchy or aristocracy. They abhorred tyranny and despotism in any form. Today we are ruled by the tyranny of the majority more than any time in history.

"The Reformation unintentionally undid the medieval synthesis of faith and reason."

I am not certain if it was the Reformation that was responsible for this deconstruction, but I have spent much effort reconstructing it in my own life. "Credo ut intelligam"!

Looking forward to what he has to say. Thanks Thom Cat.