Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Townhall.com :: Columns :: Bogus rights by Walter E. Williams - Feb 8, 2006

In a wonderful column by Walter E. Williams, he explains a few things about rights and why things like food, housing, and healthcare are not rights and thus cannot be found anywhere in the constitution.

Let's start with what defines a right:
The way our Constitution's framers used the term, a right is something that exists simultaneously among people and imposes no obligation on another.

Going on,
Contrast that vision of a right to so-called rights to medical care, food or decent housing...If it is said that a person has rights to medical care, food and housing, and has no means of paying, how does he enjoy them? ...So-called rights to medical care, food and decent housing impose an obligation on some other American who, through the tax code, must be denied his right to his earnings. In other words, when Congress gives one American a right to something he didn't earn, it takes away the right of another American to something he did earn.


Furthermore,
Government is necessary, but the only rights we can delegate to government are the ones we possess. For example, we all have a natural right to defend ourselves against predators. Since we possess that right, we can delegate authority to government to defend us. By contrast, we don't have a natural right to take the property of one person to give to another; therefore, we cannot legitimately delegate such authority to government.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Townhall.com :: Columns :: What Hamas teaches us about Islam, Iraq, and democracy by Ben Shapiro - Feb 1, 2006

Townhall.com :: Columns :: What Hamas teaches us about Islam, Iraq, and democracy by Ben Shapiro - Feb 1, 2006


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