The IRS: It Gets Worse
I just added a new website to the “Politics” section of the links sidebar called The Tenth Amendment Center. As the Amendment that both Democrats (see any legislative action, probably ever) and Republicans (see Judge Bork’s explicit comment “the Tenth Amendment should be ignored” and subsequent legislation by Repubs) largely ignore (and abuse), I think this website does a pretty good job outlining issues which should be reserved to State control. Browse around if you like…
But in the mean time, I had to throw in a little pitch for the latest Featured Column (whatever that means) there, namely What Is a Right? written by Fox News (grumble grumble) contributor (& often lone dissenter) Judge Andrew Napolitano. Why can’t all of Faux News be like this? Read some here, then click the link for more excellence:
In the continually harsh public discourse over the President’s proposals for federally-managed healthcare, the Big Government progressives in both the Democratic and the Republican parties have been trying to trick us. These folks, who really want the government to care for us from cradle to grave, have been promoting the idea that health care is a right.
. . .
What is a right? A right is a gift from God that extends from our humanity. Thinkers from St. Thomas Aquinas, to Thomas Jefferson, to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to Pope John Paul II have all argued that our rights are a natural part of our humanity. We own our bodies, thus we own the gifts that emanate from our bodies.
So, our right to life, our right to develop our personalities, our right to think as we wish, to say what we think, to publish what we say, our right to worship or not worship, our right to travel, to defend ourselves, to use our own property as we see fit, our right to due process – fairness – from the government, and our right to be left alone, are all rights that stem from our humanity. These are natural rights that we are born with. The government doesn’t give them to us and the government doesn’t pay for them and the government can’t take them away, unless a jury finds that we have violated someone else’s rights.
What is a good? A good is something we want or need. In a sense, it is the opposite of a right. We have our rights from birth, but we need our parents when we are children and we need ourselves as adults to purchase the goods we require for existence. So, food is a good, shelter is a good, clothing is a good, education is a good, a car is a good, legal representation is a good, working out at a gym is a good, and access to health care is a good.
Does the government give us goods? Well, sometimes it takes money from some of us and gives that money to others. You can call that taxation or you can call it theft; but you cannot call it a right.
A right stems from our humanity. A good is something you buy or someone else buys for you . . . .