>>>>>Imagine if every single one of us embraced the concept that everything that happens to you in life is your responsibility, your fault, your credit, your decision. If every single one of us went through life believing that everything we have, everything we screwed up everything we lost everything we gained was a result solely of the decisions and actions we did. Imagine how difficult that would be for most people. Because that means that every time something goes wrong in your life, you have to then blame yourself and you have to look inside yourself, and you have to be introspective.
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>>>>>If you go through life constantly believing that everything that happens to you is a result of your decisions then you place that on other people as well and you always expect the best effort from your fellow citizens.
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>>>>Having no religion is first requirement.
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>>>The Federal government is working hard on that one.
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>>I just complimented you earlier today but disagree with you vehemently here. The federal government has been working hard on that one since its inception. Our founders, who continue to amaze me with their vision, specifically wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution so we would be a country free from religious indoctrination or persecution. That is what many of our early settlers fled here to escape. No religion was stated and none was intended. IMO it's part of what makes our nation great. Bring me your tired, your poor. That is the country we are. It has worked pretty well in my opinion.
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>That's some fine revisionism.

Make your case, then. There is all kinds of stuff around that the founders intended this to be a religious nation, founded by God, but the words they set down in stone in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights say they decided otherwise.

My heart is really not in this debate. My ex wife called to say her mom died this evening. It was expected. People make mother in law jokes but in fact she was the best mother in the law in the world, not to mention in the running as best mother and best grandmother. In a way her life was a classic American story. She was the 4th of 7 sisters in a farm family near Springfield (her father must have wondered what he had to do to produce a free farmhand, LOL) and married a second generation Lithuanian who was run out of Springfield for trying to organize a union at Sears Roebuck. Pat and Jim were married for 55 years, bickering for most of them. Life is a comedy if you look at it right.