Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for lunch.
Freedom comes from the recognition of certain rights which may not be taken, not even by a 99% vote.
— James Bovard, “Individual Rights“, Sacramento Bee (1994)
Tag Archives: rights
Inalienable Rights
A right is not what someone gives you;
it’s what no one can take from you.
– Ramsey Clark, U. S. Attorney General, New York Times, 2 October 1977
Fewer Laws
The US Code, only a subset of all laws and regulations on the books today. The US imprisons a higher percentage of its populace than Communist China does, more than Iran, more than did the Soviet Union, Saddam Hussein's Iraq, or the Taliban's Afghanistan.
America needs fewer laws, not more prisons.
By trying to seize far more power than is necessary over American citizens, the federal government is destroying its own legitimacy.
We face a choice not of anarchy or authoritarianism, but a choice of limited government or unlimited government.
– James Bovard, Lost Rights; The Destruction of American Liberty
But Now You Know
Natural Rights, Virginia-Style
That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.
— George Mason, Virginia Declaration of Rights, (1776)
Congress vs. the Bill of Rights
Can any of you seriously say the Bill of Rights could get through Congress today?It wouldn’t even get out of committee.
– F. Lee Bailey, Newsweek, 17 April 1967
Minority Rights <- Ayn Rand
The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.
– Ayn Rand, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
Words of the Sentient 