Now, your journey to the dark side is complete
Aunt B. on The Most Important Thing I’ve Learned from the Libertarians:
The government does not grant us rights. Rights are inherent to us and we lend the government the power to constrain some of those rights so that we can function as a society–we delegate power to the government. But the government doesn’t inherently have power, especially not the power to grant us rights.
Well, sort of. Some rights we do not delegate to the .gov but they seem to take them willy-nilly. I think the only amendment in the bill of rights that hasn’t been completely bastardized for political convenience is number 3. I’d recommend that Aunt B. also read One Thing.
June 2nd, 2006 at 10:29 am
Argh! Y’all have warped me. Next thing you know, I’ll be reading Ayn Rand and buying a gun.
June 2nd, 2006 at 10:30 am
By all means, buy a gun. But I wouldn’t wish Ayn Rand on anyone.
Officer Barbrady after learning to read: I read every word. Every horrible word.
June 2nd, 2006 at 10:44 am
Or, better yet, get your father-in-law to give you a gun. (Which, sadly, I still haven’t shot yet.)
June 2nd, 2006 at 11:32 am
The Fourth has been “bastardized” only in the sense that judges don’t always agree with you as to what is or isn’t “reasonable.” Given the slipperiness and inherent subjectivity oft the word “[un-]reasonable,” that level of “bastardization” is pretty much a given. I don’t know of any evidence that Amendments 6 and 7 have been bastardized for political convenience, either. No. 9 is a harder one ‘cuz no one knows WTF it does.
June 2nd, 2006 at 11:38 am
Well, what’s reasonable? No-knock raids in the middle of the night for an ounce of weed don’t sound reasonable.
June 2nd, 2006 at 2:04 pm
Not to you, but someone other than you has to decide what is or isn’t reasonable. Frankly, I doubt a court would, either, if all the cops expected to find was an ounce of weed. The reasonableness of a search and seizure depends on what they reasonably expect to find at the time of the search, not on what they actually end up finding.
June 2nd, 2006 at 3:10 pm
Oh and we had National Guard troops squatting in a church in New Orleans according to a video clip I have from ABC news for September, 2005. So there goes your #3.
[snark] It’s OK though, because I think they had an executive order or a law saying it was permissible.[/snark]
June 2nd, 2006 at 4:08 pm
Argh! Y’all have warped me. Next thing you know, I’ll be reading Ayn Rand and buying a gun.
It’s a start. Rand is an acquired taste. Like the darkest red wines, sometimes it will cause headaches.
June 2nd, 2006 at 5:18 pm
I don’t see how having para-miltary police in our neighborhoods is anything but a violation of Amerndment 3.
June 3rd, 2006 at 7:56 am
One thing missing. We also grant government the power (supposedly) to PROTECT our rights from the actions of others, foreign and domestic.
And Atlas Shrugged is great science fiction. Very entertaining.
June 3rd, 2006 at 9:48 am
Anonymous, you would, though, if you bothered to look up Amendment 3. Do you really think your neighborhood is one great big house? If so, owned by whom?