"To Romney, it seems, personal morality amounts to a roster of good personal habits (no smoking or drinking, a faithful marriage, generosity and compassion for ailing members of his faith community) that add up to a kind of personal exceptionalism that trumps whatever havoc his business behavior or political policies may wreak on the life of any poor schlub who should should cross his path."

read more here:
http://www.alternet.org/election-2012/9-things-show-mitt-romney-morally-bankrupt?akid=9514.114783.gkx7P_&rd=1&src=newsletter724250&t=5

Wow - that is a good point. Good personal habits don't equal morality. Morality comes from inside and is about how you treat people, the mark you leave on the world, the principles you honor. Not simply the ability to raise the bar on your self-discipline. Lots of really bad people in the world have very good self-discipline. Morals are different. And when you consider yourself exceptional because of your self-disciplinge, you can kiss being moral behind and enjoy being arrogant instead.

Right. In fact, Adolph Hitler lived the word of wisdom better than 99% of mormons. Does that make his personal morality good?

Morality is a construct. The elites of the ancient Greeks, who observed a moral code that placed personal honor above all else and considered meekness and humility to be weaknesses, would consider our contemporary Judeo-Christian morality (which places emphasis on meekness, humility, obedience, forgiveness etc.) to be quite immoral. This doesn't mean that either they or we are inherently "bad" or "good", it just means that morality varies by culture and society. How one views the way another treats people, the mark another leaves upon the world, and the principals another honors is colored by one's own cultural and societal mores.

and then continue brewing, distilling, and consuming booze until the day your ass is shot out of a jailhouse window?

Praise to the Man!

(I don't wanna point fingers at anyone, and no offense intended at all those who just happen to be morally bankrupt or anything...)