So that Harris-Perry nitwit from MSNBC is back with a new promo. And what statist idiocy is she pushing now?
You do have the right to health care, and to education, and to decent housing and to quality food at all times.
No, you don’t have a right to any of those things, you boob.
Let’s pretend we did, let’s say, have a right to food. What would that mean? Well, what if I didn’t have food? Since, I have a right to it, that means someone will have to give it to me. And what if that someone who makes the food doesn’t want to give it to me for free? Then, since I have a “right” to it, the government will have to send people with guns to force him to give it to me. So saying you have “a right to food” is really saying “I have a right to put a gun to people’s heads and force them to give me what I think I need.”
I’ve said this a number of times (including in my last book), but I’m really serious on this: We need a national conversation on exactly what rights are. Too many people don’t seem to get the concept at all and seem to confuse rights with “I really want this.” So anyone know how we get national conversation going? I certainly don’t or there’d be a big new crater on the moon by now.
I have a right to turn off MSNBC, thank God–a right 99.99999% of Americans also exercise.
Rights are inherent, they don’t come from other men or collections of them (often called government.) They are not tangible, own-able things, like food, or a car; they are more like concepts, liberty, freedom, speech; things that can only be taken away by force. (Also, often in the form of a government.)
I have a right to stress relief. Stress is bad for your health. Punching liberals relieves my stress. Therefore, for my health I can punch liberals. It’s a free form of healthcare! How’s that for a common sense solution?
I have a right to bear arms. That one right is actually in writing. So when do I get my free Glock in the mail?
The left inventing “rights” that aren’t listed in the Bill of Rights but denying others that are.
Having a national conversation about what rights are would be like trying to discuss Relativity Theory with a random person at a rock concert.
…”quality food at all times”. Pretty soon we could begin to see the beginnings of an obesity problem.
What if there is no food?
Food, water and shelter, being necessary in order to live, would be inherent in the right to life, and should not be denied anyone. However, that does not mean it has to be provided. We should absolutely protect her right to have access to food…but that does not mean I have to slave in her back yard for her if she wants to grow it, it does not mean I have to pay her tab if she goes to a restuarant or pick up her bill at the grocery store. Just like we as a society protect her rights as a black female (after a couple of amendments) to vote, but that doesn’t mean she is forced to exercise that right or that I should even be allowed to exercise that right on her behalf! Freedom always comes through RESPONSIBILITY…why is that a mystery to these people?!?
Health care – a dirty rag to bandage your whip-wounds with
Education – a guy with a whip to teach you that your name is “Toby”
Decent housing – well, your shack is a little rat-infested, but it beats that ditch you were living in
Quality food – Shack-rats is good eatin’!
So… when, exactly, did they repeal the 13th Amendment?
i find this entire diatribe perversely amusing. i’m a retired general surgeon and my father was a radiologist. for decades i, and other physicians, tried to say that no one has a right to my services. the general populace sided with the government and the revolting Hill-Burton act. now that other oxen are being gored, rights suddenly have a more limited definition.
welcome aboard, at long last.
Jw – you’ve been here before. You know this whole group has been on board all along.
@ carolynthemommy
you are right. but for me the battle started in 1964 with LBJ and his great society. i can’t help but wish that this push back would have started long ago. we might have won and the country would be so much better off. so, yes this bunch has been aboard quite awhile and i truly appreciate it. i have been on this train since 1964.
and i am feeling a bit Carpentarian today.
So, you’re retired, jw. Every time I try to do that, I go crazy and have to find ways to keep working. And, of course, there’s IMAO to help me get my work done! 😉
CarolyntheMommy – ♫ “You is my (Internet) woman, now.” ♫ (Porgy & Bess)
Awwwww shucks, Jimmy.
Jw, I wish that earlier pushback happened, too! With you 100%. I had started to get my prereqs going for med school and then ACA got passed. Now every doc I know is telling me to run for the hills away from medicine. I think I’m leaning dentistry now: 1) It’s medicine with a specialty and 2) It’s still in demand if we flee this country in the next few years 3) People will pay out of pocket for it, especially for root canals and orthodontic work and 4) I can still do charitable work internationally with this degree, even though I’m a sexist/bigoted/homophobic/xenophobic/racist conservative.
If not, I’ll just insist it is my right to have my education paid for and default on all my loans (presuming I’m not too ultra-rich to get any).
@15 CtheM
dentistry is a good and honorable field, but it is not medicine. pick something you love, not something you settle for, i loved general surgery. i hated the politics and paperwork it became. i never did as much international work as i would have liked, but i did spend six months at the LBJ Tropical Medical Center. the highs in medicine are unbelievable and the lows really low.
do something you love, life is too short when you are, too long if you aren’t.
sexist/bigoted/homophobic/xenophobic/racist conservative, also. not there is anything wrong with that.
While we are at it, when do these rights kick in?
We already have a system whereby the right to lifes of the unborn are completely subordinate to the privacy rights of their mothers. So when do all these rights kick in? at birth? at puberty? at adulthood? When?
If you note, these rights to food, shelter, etc. are “positive rights” Someone has to do something in order to provide you with your rights. A right to “Life” is a “negative rights”, in order for me to observe your rights, I have to do nothing. I have to not kill you,
Negative rights are reciprocal. ie. You not killing me, and I not killing you, creates a reciprocal arraignment. But if you can produce food, a “right to food” is not so much a right. The only folks who need a right to food are people who cannot, or will not, produce.
These positive rights are not reciprocal and can be summed up as a “Right to Steal” As you pointed out earlier.
We have a right to a dialogue about rights.
@JW – you started a great thread of discussion. I think that the truly freedom-minded have been with you since before 1964. However, the problem is the ratcheting of progressivism. It is the same as the old saw about boiling a frog – he doesn’t notice as the temps go up slowly and then it is too late when the water is boiling him. What’s going on now is that Obama has tried to turn the burner way up and more frogs are feeling it. The challenge will be that the ratchet has a tendency to turn only to the left. The lib/progs know that the only way to set the ratchet to turn in the rightward direction is through the application of a well-armed citizenry. They are trying to “fix” that little problem (for them) – I say we don’t let ’em.
Oh, and hopefully JW, it is never too late to get into the discussion. I will welcome every newcomer to the cause.
PS – Sorry for the multiple mixed metaphors. Brain not working while my son practices his violin.
@20 T Rich
glad you think so. i was afraid that the only thing i accomplished was annoying carolynthemommy.
A right is anything to which the Left is diametrically opposed.
JW – I don’t think you annoyed Carolyn in the least. Judging from her numerous and consistently freedom-minded posts, she probably enjoys your longstanding perspective. I was born in 1966, so I couldn’t be there to fight alongside you in 1964. However, my grandfather fought against the Bolsheviks back in Russia in 1920’s. That didn’t work out too well and he bolted for USA in 1925. My dad was the first child born here (1927), but he had several older brothers that came with my grandparents (and one older brother who died while the family was detained in Poland). I grew up in a house that was so anti-communist that we thought Reagan was a bit of a sissy on the matter (actually, we loved RWR and think he should be cloned ad infinitum). My political continuum runs in a circle with FREEDOM at the top and TYRANNY at the bottom. On the bottom left (real f’in close to TYRANNY) is communism, on the bottom right (equally close) is fascism. We (the USA) are traveling down that left branch and are somewhere below 9 o’clock on the circle. As Bill Whittle rightly reminds us, we are “the remnant” and there are more of us than we know about. We come together in places like this much like the early Christians did in the catacombs. We bolster each other’s spirits and fuel each other’s flame for freedom. We can’t stop because then we would no longer be who we are. We can only keep moving forward and influencing those that we can. I am happy to call you my friend in this fight and would never take offense to any lesson you can teach me. Good luck and keep going – we, the remnant, are with you.
Marc @5The left inventing “rights” that aren’t listed in the Bill of Rights but denying others that are.
DROP! GET UP! DROP! Too slow! DROP! Get up! Too Fast; Safety first!
Now run and make us all a hand written copy of Amendments 9 and 10 to the US Constitution–in your handwriting.
Why are you still here? GO!
The Armorer says everyone should own a rocket assisted projectile.
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