Pardon me, where did that right exist? I must have missed it.
Is it like, "the right not to be offended?"
Cause I missed that one, too.
I have often read some on this board exclaim, "Do YOU KNOW how offensive that is?"
So? If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out.
"Pardon me, where did that right exist? I must have missed it."
Then you missed the part about "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". It's government's job (as defined by the people) to set the conditions under which these are possible.
"Is it like, "the right not to be offended?"
False argument. I'm offended by the fact that I can't smoke a cigarette in a bar, but more than willing to admit that it does offend others and maybe presents a health risk to non-smokers. In the grand scheme of things, while it's inconvenient to interrupt my merry-making to go outside and light up, no one has taken my cigarettes away. It's a trade-off I'm willing to make because I wasn't raised to be a selfish slob, nor educated to believe that being one was simply a matter of exercising a "right". It's called compromise and it's a fact of life. I'm willing to make that compromise, are you?
"So? If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out."
No, but if thine eye results in unbearable and unreasonable costs to society and human suffering, in contravention to the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness", then pluck it out. At what point did prgamatism die a silent death? When did having consideration for others and recognizing the potential consequences of your actions cease being a requirement for civil society?
The argument is that society allows this or that evil but not this particular evil is irrelevant: society, by consensus, has decided which forms of evil it's willing to put up with and which ones it is not, and it empowers government to regulate both. That's one of the byproducts (and engines) of civilization...and compromise.
All the laws about concerning this issue (WOD) are not the dictates of a rampant government, but the result of an elected legislature, acting upon the concerns of it's citizens, creating and enforcing laws on behalf of those same citizens. You may not like it, but it is legal, it is constitutional and until the general public says otherwise, necessary.