The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.
— Thomas Jefferson (Letter to William Hunter, 11 March 1790)

Where do our rights come from? Are they a gift to us from God or do they come to us from our government? I think that that’s an important question. It also seems to be central to the divide between liberalism and conservatism in our modern American political discourse.

Here’s another question — who actually possesses the rights we’re talking about? Do rights belong to the individual or do they belong to society? Do they belong to the people or to the government?

(Hat tip to Scott at Powerline)

The Toledo Blade has some pieces on Obama, and FDR’s Second Bill of Rights.

Without further ado, here is that list of “rights” that the left want to append to the Constitution:

• The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or
  shops or farms or mines of the nation;
• The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing
  and recreation;
• The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a
  return which will give him and his family a decent living;
• The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an
  atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by
  monopolies at home or abroad;
• The right of every family to a decent home;
• The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to
  achieve and enjoy good health;
• The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old
  age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
• The right to a good education.

Amazingly, this list shares many common points with the UN Declaration on Human Rights, which I have commented on before.

Nancy Pelosi, (perspective member of the ruling Triumvirate), was at Google’s HQ and made this point:

…on concerns that Democrats might control both the White House and Congress she said the following:

“Elect us, hold us accountable, and make a judgment and then go from
there. But I do tell you that if the Democrats win, and have
substantial majorities, Congress of the United States will be more
bipartisan,” said Pelosi.

Yes, of course. 

When the Far Left wing of the Socialist Democrat
has firm majorities in both houses, and hold the White House, the
Republicans will be more willing than ever to work with them on moving
the United States firmly leftward, until it looks like a bad copy of
the Soviet Union.

I don’t know why I didn’t see that before.  It’s so clear now.

“Tax cuts for the rich!” That’s always the complaint whenever a Republican proposes reducing the heavy tax burden that we must share in order to fill the government’s coffers long enough to pretend that there’s a non-negative net balance. “Government can’t afford a tax cut!” That’s another refrain. “If you cut taxes the deficit will grow!” is another. All three of these statements, typically uttered by Democratic politicians are of course correct, but for the wrong reasons.

I’m really getting tired of the notion that only white people can be racists. To that end, I present you with the dictionary definition of the term “racism”, from dictionary.reference.com…

rac·ism    (rā’sĭz’əm)  Pronunciation Key
n.  

1. The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
2. Discrimination or prejudice based on race.

rac’ist adj. & n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition - Cite This Source
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Now that that’s out of the way, tell me where the “white” or Caucasian race is mentioned. You don’t see it in the definition of “racism” as given by the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, do you? If you did, then wouldn’t that be an example of the second definition listed?

Here’s a question for you. How many people buy and sell stocks each day? Isn’t it reasonable to assume that there are millions of people in the market and that on any given day hundreds of thousands of them are making trades? I don’t ever actually see any statistics on that. Nevertheless, headlines like this one leave me scratching my head…

“Stocks dive on belief global recession is at hand”

Who determined the reason why stocks “dived”? The market isn’t even closed yet, and stocks appeared to rebound at least for a while. In fact, for the last several days, stocks have alternately gone up and down with wild swings. It seems to me that the “analysts” that write these headlines have a vested interest in bad news.

Sometimes, I think that the major media and the political punditry really have their priorities out of whack. Why else would we have to endure articles that criticize a candidate for the amount of money that they spend on their wardrobe?

[N]ews that the Republican National Committee (RNC) bought Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her family nearly $150,000 worth of clothing since September fueled charges of hypocrisy by her detractors and sparked questions about the legality of the expenditures.

Really? Why?

Consider it a campaign expenditure, similar to John Edwards’ haircuts at $200 or more a clip. Yes, I know that conservative commentators criticized Edwards for those haircuts, and that Rush still refers to him as “the Breck Girl”, but come on! This is ridiculous on both sides.

Do you recall the controversy a couple of years ago regarding the Seattle School District’s definition of Racism? Well, they may have taken down the old racist definition of racism, but they haven’t completely eliminated the racist message behind it… If you follow THIS link, you’ll find that they define cultural racism as

“These aspects of society that overtly and covertly attribute value and normality to white people and whiteness, and devalue, stereotype, and label people of color as “other”, different, less than, or render them invisible.”

They also reference "I Can Fix It" by damali ayo.

The very first thing to notice about this “art project”, is that it is first directed only at white people who, apparently, are the only people capable of racism. When it moves on to “people of color”, it speaks only about dealing with white racism, assuming that "people of color" cannot be racist.

Yep, that’s me. And you.

In the Seattle Times yesterday, there was this lovely article. It seems that a “tax analyst” has come to the conclusion that Barack Obama’s tax plan isn’t “socialism”, it’s just a bit of “traditional progressive taxation.” Apparently it can’t be socialism because “We’ve had a progressive tax system for some time, and both Republicans and Democrats have bought into it.”

Yes, we’ve had a progressive tax system for some time.

Socialism involves state ownership of the means of economic production and state-directed sharing of the wealth. America’s democratic capitalist system is neither socialist nor pure free market; rather, it mixes the two, and it has at least since the progressive income tax was introduced 95 years ago. Under it, the wealthy pay higher income tax rates than those who are less fortunate do. It’s a form of sharing the wealth.

In the Seattle Times today, I read this report about a Florida police officer being fired for Tasering a 15 year old boy.

A rookie police officer in central Florida has been fired after supervisors learned that he Tasered a teenager at a birthday party that involved underage drinking.

Eustis Police Chief Fred Cobb says 22-year-old Dan NeSmith lost his job, but the department will not charge him for shocking a 15-year-old boy in the back with his police-issued Taser last month.

A video taken at the party shows the teen volunteering to be stunned while other guests at NeSmith’s Leesburg home cheer them on.

So, tell me this… was this firing an incident of “abuse of power” akin to that which Democratic Alaskan Congressmen allege about Sarah Palin? After all, she purportedly “abused her power” when she fired her Public Safety Commissioner — for not firing a trooper that Tasered her 10 year old nephew. Sarah Palin had additional reasons for firing Walter Monegan, including public insubordination over budget conflicts. Even so, those reasons were ignored over the “pressure” to fire her former brother-in-law.