The Bill of No Rights

Truth, Justice, and the American Way ^ | 2001 | Kelley Ross

[ronnyquest]

As seen in "Rights, Responsibilities, and Communitarianism," the existence of a right implies a duty in others. The opposite of a duty is liberty, which implies no right in others. The identification of things for which there are no rights is thus an additional means of securing Liberty. The following is a list of no rights (or "non rights") that has been circulating on the Internet. It is sometimes said to have been written by State Representative Mitchell Kaye from Cobb County, Georgia. Now I am informed that it was really written and copyrighted by an active Libertarian from Mississippi, Lewis Napper. I have altered the common version slightly, inserting punctuation and changing the wording in a couple of places, but it is substantially identical to the circulating list, including the exhortation at the end.

[ronnyquest]

See the source for the actual list as defined by Mr. Ross. Since we have grown an entitlement culture and people think things like jobs, health care, and goods are rights, it bears reminding them that these things are the products of the labor of others and, as such, in no way guaranteed to everyone. One may pursue these things, but do not expect someone to simply give you the fruits of their labors if you are too lazy to earn said fruits.

I recommend we print about 30 million of these, laminate them, then tack them to every door we can find in every entitlement community and at the homes and businesses of their enablers.

[KrisKrinkle]

"I recommend we print about 30 million of these, laminate them, then tack them to every door we can find in every entitlement community and at the homes and businesses of their enablers."

I think it needs work, although the underlying intent isn't bad.

ARTICLE VI -- You do not have the right to physically harm other people.

If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair.

If you do not have the right to physically harm other people you don't have the right to fry them in the electric chair.

ARTICLE VIII -- You don't have the right to demand that our children risk their lives in foreign wars to soothe your aching conscience.

I don't see why you don't have the right to demand anything you want. In and of itself that doesn't mean anyone else is obligated to comply with the demand or that you have any right to enforce the demand.

There's problems as written with two or three more, but I'm not going to go into that.

[ronnyquest]

I agree, it does need work as written, but it's a good start. I'm working on a revised edition that is more in line with conservative thought, but figured I ought to publish this one as written.

Unfortunately, it was written by a "true" Libertarian, so there are elements within with which I do not agree, such as the "frying in the electric chair" item. You cannot advocate violence when screaming about the injustice of violence. Sometimes violence is the only answer.

I always come up libertarian on their "smallest political quiz" thing, but then we get into real life and things like unbridled immigration and instant amnesty for illegals, at which point I suddenly am conservative again.

[KrisKrinkle]

“I always come up libertarian on their “smallest political quiz” thing,..”

I don’t know if it’s the same quiz, but I’ve taken one with Libertarian and Statist at one set of extremes and Liberal and Conservative at another set of extremes.

After I took it once straight up, I took it again several times playing with the answers. I could get it to come out on the extreme Libertarian end or extreme Statist end, but I couldn’t get it to come out even close on the extreme Liberal or Conservative ends. I think what I took was rigged for Libertarian purposes.