1″Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2″So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.

3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

4so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Matthew 6: 1-4

One of the problems that I have with government-enforced largess (aside from the fact that it does not cure the ills of poverty) is that it seems to inspire self-righteous attitudes like the ones we see in John Edwards and “RG”. The contempt and disdain that they have for those they feel are “morally inferior” to them is all too evident.

It would be one thing if “RG” wanted to advocate a certain point of view and was willing to present evidence in favor of it. But that is not what is happening here. Like so many other political debates, the “RG”s and John Edwardses of the world think the debate is over, and that those who disagree with their position are some kind of moral monsters not worthy of basic courtesy. Or, in the words of Ring Lardner: “‘Shut up,’ he explained.”

Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.”

When a person quotes scripture to defend the re-distribution of wealth, it really does tell me they are not doing their part as a christian, and would rather just pay the government to do their “dirty” work. There is no comparison of the two. The government, especially this government, was never intended to “take care of poverty”. That was left to the people, and to the church. Sorry RG, but you are wrong. How much has been taken out of the hands of the middle class to help people get out of poverty. All our attempts have done is create more poverty, and less opportunity for all. – Lorica

If John Edwards is so bad, then what are you doing about poverty other than running your mouth (and your blog)?

The nutroot denizen is here assuming that ST gives nothing whatsoever to private charities that help the poor. To them, if it isn’t financed by the government, it doesn’t exist.

One thing we can all be sure of, though – ST isn’t making herself rich by soaking audiences to give campaign speeches about poverty.

But what she does – and all conservatives do – is work for a free and vibrant economy. The best anti-poverty program is a job, a concept the moonbats can never grasp. Better tax policy does more to reduce poverty than any bureaucratic program.

Let me restate it, clearly: government hand-outs do not cure poverty. If that were true, we’d have won the War on Poverty 40 years ago. Instead, if you listen to loons like RG, we’re caught in a quagmire in that war. Hey RG, doesn’t that mean you should be looking for an immediate exit strategy?

Don’t bother to answer, you are now a blocked email recipient in my address book.

Please don’t throw me in that briar patch eh ST? That’s like Alec Baldwin threatening to leave the country…please, do, and quickly.

A good therapy may be to take her frustrations out on a neighbor’s H2 with a baseball bat.