[CLUE-Talk] Iraq Stuph

[Sean LeBlanc]

On 04-22 21:37, Dennis J Perkins wrote:
> Sean LeBlanc wrote:
> 
> >On 04-22 15:47, David Willson wrote:
> > 
> >
> >>Let us now point out that the same freedom that protects your right to
> >>call President Bush an SOB (Matt Gushee), a little twit (Bill Ehlert),
> >>or ~not~ my President (Joe Brockmeier), protects my right to say "Oh,
> >>shut up!"
> >>   
> >>
> >
> >You forgot the witticisms "shrub" and "raygun". Don't forget this tired
> >refrain: "Bush is dumb". Even though I haven't seen that last one on this
> >forum, it's said so much elsewhere it's bound to seep in eventually. :)
> >
> > 
> >
> >>Now, here's a funny thing:  Every time I, or some like-minded other,
> >>says 'shut up', someone accuses me of attacking his right to free speech
> >>(which is really a government-endorsed privilege, not a right, but
> >>that's another argument).
> >>   
> >>
> >
> >[Oh, let's have another argument, shall we? :) ]
> >
> >I thought it was an inalienable right granted by the Creator?
> >
> >Sean, making a mental note to read the Federalist Papers.
> > 
> >
> I think you might want to read the Declaration of Independence.  I think 
> it's mentioned in there.  The Founding Fathers had the idea that rights 
> belong to the people and that we grant some rights to the government, 
> not that the government grants us some rights.  That idea seems to have 
> been forgotten by many people, maybe because we don't teach it to our 
> children.

I actually had a portion of it memorized for high school at one point. :) I
just dug up my miniature copy of it (and the Constitution) that the Cato
Institute sent me for some promotion they were doing. I had most of it down,
but had quite a bit garbled in my memory:

 We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal,
 that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that
 among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness...

No wonder some people get all torn up over teaching these things (maybe
explains all the ad hominem attacks on various founding fathers instead of
addressing their ideas) - these documents are and continue to be radical in
nature: words like this must really stick in the craw of kings and
power-hungry bureaucrats.

I was under the impression that the Federalist Papers delved into some of
the reasoning, and that's why I mentioned it.

-- 
Sean LeBlanc:seanleblanc at americanisp.net  
http://users.americanisp.net/~seanleblanc/
Get MLAC at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mlac/