Excellent post, donkeybucks.
I have no idea what Parsons is talking about. I guess this is what happens when someone refuses to follow politics and instead just spouts off whatever he feels like from his gut.
Maybe when Barack "World Citizen" Obama cedes more of his inalienable rights and sovereignty whereby the government takes away his right to homeschool his kids, Parsons will quit pouting in the corner and become a little more politically involved.
Government should be responsible for our security (rule of law, human rights etc.) and maintaining our infrastructure -- nothing more.
The rest should be left to private enterprise, private charity, the church and our families -- all sacred institutions the far left seeks to destroy with their "secular progressive" agenda.
DOWN WITH THE WELFARE STATE!
Throughout history, the utopian totalitarian left has always been OBSESSED with making life 'easier' for it's citizen.
The left ALWAYS wants more and more positive rights (manufacturing rights out of thin air) which will be the undoing of our society if enough people don't wake up and demand action.
A positive right imposes a moral obligation on a person to do something for someone, while a negative right merely obliges others to refrain from interfering with someone's attempt to do something.
A negative right is a right not to be subjected to an action of another human being, or group of people, such as a state, usually in the form of abuse or coercion. A positive right is a right to be provided with something through the action of another person or the state.
Liberals will vehemently argue otherwise and try to have it both ways, but it is easy to see how these two sets of rights are in direct conflict with one another.
Negative rights may be used to justify political rights such as freedom of speech, property, habeas corpus (but NOT for foreign terrorists!), freedom from violent crime, freedom of worship, a fair trial, freedom from slavery and the right to bear arms.
Positive rights may be used to justify public education, health care, social security or a minimum standard of living.
-- Abortion "rights" is a positive right.
-- Women "rights" (equality pay legislation etc.) is a positive right.
-- Executing narcotic traffickers is a negative right.
-- Welfare, health care, social security are positive rights.
-- "Rehabilitative justice" is a positive right.
-- Bombing terrorist training camps halfway around the world protecting you from evil doers is a negative right.
In creating more positive rights -- government programs that hand out services to it's people -- liberals continue to erode the social and economic fabric of our society.
Each time the govt raises taxes or adds a new law or layer of bureaucracy to protect you from yourself, it erodes your negative rights and disempowers YOU individual. Because govt cannot create a positive right, without infringing on the the negative rights of another.
Too many positive rights stifles the human spirit. That's what communism is.
The United States was founded on LIBERTY (negative rights) not equal outcomes (European socialism: positive rights).
But don't take my word for it. Read the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Then come back and try and convince me that liberalism and the values represented in the modern Democrat are 'American.'
They absolutely are NOT.
