A kingdom founded on injustice never lasts.
Seneca
FEE on Liberalism, Progressivism. Socialism, etc
The Meaning of Libertarian
Stossel On the Left's War on Science
Facebook Corner
[responding to a Trumpkin cartoon showing the MSM going crazy over Trump clipping a mattress tag]And replaced them with his own label; tries to sell them at twice the price.
[Some progressive wanted to use the reference of "persons born" in defining citizenship in the Fourteenth Amendment to argue that preborn children have no rights. I respond.]
[commentator] is basically correct, The basic point is that all persons are endowed with natural or inalienable rights vs. State-conferred rights. What the OP fails to recognize is that citizenship is a legal vs. natural right. Citizens are a subset of persons or American residents; immigrants, for example, may need to be resident for X number of years and pass a test to earn naturalized citizen status and certain defined rights, like voting.
The OP totally ignores the final clause of Section 1: "nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." It is NO ACCIDENT that the Amendment uses the term "person" vs. "citizen". You have no right, for example, to steal from or kill an immigrant short of naturalization; government does not confer these immigrant rights: they are natural. Government cannot pass discriminatory policies, e.g., pass a requirement for businesses to ban immigrants from transactions.
I'm not really bothered by the OP's "real" observation that preborn babies are not entitled to cast ballots. But government, insofar as it is legitimate, cannot fail to protect the natural rights of residents, including the preborn.
[Young Americans for Liberty on FB published a 5-point meme against the Fed. A progressive troll argues that all the leading global economies have national banks and suggests that ending the Fed would be economic suicide.]
The fact is that the US economy first became the world's largest economy in the 1870's WITHOUT a central bank. And having a central bank does NOT mean you have a stable currency. See meme's point 5.
[A Ron Paul meme included a point suggesting that illegal immigration reflects the lure of the social welfare net. The meme did not use the term "illegals"; I was responding to a troll's comment.]
With a mostly open immigration system until WWI. we notably did NOT have a social welfare net to attract immigrants. Even legal immigrant have a waiting period for welfare state benefits. Studies show that immigration is a net plus for the US economy, not just because a disproportionate number start businesses. "Illegals" is a contemptible pejorative. Ron Paul is economically illiterate on this issue; it is totally inconsistent with liberty principles. He doesn't have any say beyond his property lines
[There was a libertarian thread on some progressive meme blaming capitalism for food waste.]
In the US we have food regulations at different levels of government. I think the feds mostly mandate date stamping for infant milk. Many companies will stamp to provide customers an indication of freshness and quality. Even minor labeling errors can result in needless waste, For example, I once bought deeply discounted Quest Bars because it turned out the bars had no "crunchies" listed on the label, but the protein bars were still good without crunchies. .//https://www.fsis.usda.gov/.../archive/2016/nr-121416-01
[Commentator sees government laws on food as saving civilization], you need to be more specific. The marketing quota laws are arbitrary and anti-consumer in nature. For one thing, not all produce is regulated this way. It's a variation of crony capitalism, which we free marketers despise.
The intent of food regulation is political hubris (legislators got to legislate) and pushing on a string. Farmers, restaurants, etc., have business models that depend on repeat business and word of mouth; you don't grow your business by killing your customers. Besides, even in a libertarian society, you face legal responsibility for harming your customer.
Some short takes:
- Who exactly threatened to starve you? Capitalists find killing customers is bad for business.
- Stop putting your [George Will] opeds behind paywalls. No, as bad as Pence is, Trump remains worse, almost as bad as Obama.
- The "welfare magnet for illegal immigration" is sheer, knowing bullshit.
- Even Nazis tried to rationalize the Holocaust.
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Lisa Benson via Townhall |
