Czuch: If we would provide as much for the infrastructure (which would mean jobs and a higher standard of living across the board) as we do for the common defense, I would have no argument. That we spend more than the rest of the world combined each year on the military budget, while the interior of our country rots, speaks volumes about our priorities. We would rather blow someone up in Iraq than help a drowning man in New Orleans.

And frankly, this term, "common defense", is a misnomer. We are certainly an aggressor nation. We are a greedy empire which wants more. "Defense" is the least of the Pentagon's, or the Federal government's, priorities. I see few if any Republicans, here or elsewhere, bemoaning this fact or taking issue with the Bush administration over it (or now, over the aggressive posture of Obama in Afghanistan).

It seems pretty clear to me that contempt outweighs compassion across the board, at home and abroad. I believe those verses apply directly to the attitudes of most Republicans, some Democrats, and some of the posters on this board.