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What is a Right and Where Do They Come From?
Caffeinated Thoughts ^ | 1/31/11 | Shane Vander Hart

Posted on 01/31/2011 7:22:31 PM PST by iowaguy1972

I’m listening to the public forum taking place in the Iowa House on HJR 6 which is a resolution proposing an amendment to the Iowa Constitution which defines marriage as one man and one woman.

Those who oppose this legislation cite protecting homosexuals’ civil rights. What is a right?

(Excerpt) Read more at caffeinatedthoughts.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: civilrights; hjr6; iowa; marriageamendment

1 posted on 01/31/2011 7:22:33 PM PST by iowaguy1972
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To: iowaguy1972
"Those who oppose this legislation cite protecting homosexuals’ civil rights."

Iowa forbids voting by Homosexuals? Property ownership? What?

2 posted on 01/31/2011 7:26:20 PM PST by YHAOS (you betcha!)
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To: YHAOS
The only thing that separates free people from vassals is the recognition that rights do not come from government! That distinction is the great genius of America.

Our founders rejected the Divine Right of Kings and recognized that human rights come from Nature's God. We all may interpret that God differently but we must never forget that we come into this world with "unalienable rights." To do otherwise is to willingly submit to slavery. Unfortunately many Americans have been dumbed-down and mentally debauched and are locking their own shackles on with their uninformed votes.

3 posted on 01/31/2011 7:38:39 PM PST by Bernard Marx
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To: iowaguy1972

Civil rights are defined by law and it is the stated goal to be covered. Making the claim of a violation persuades those of contrary thinking to acquiesce.


4 posted on 01/31/2011 7:39:59 PM PST by pacpam (action=consequence and applies in all cases - friend of victory)
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To: iowaguy1972
Excellent writing on this matter was done by Thomas Paine and Jean Jacques Rousseau. Their discussions have served as the basis for most debates on rights and their genesis.
5 posted on 01/31/2011 7:45:44 PM PST by SaxxonWoods (Gone Galt and loving it)
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To: iowaguy1972

Most rights either affirmed by or granted by the constitution have morphed into privilages to be excercised at the pleasure of the ruling class, all the while they create new bogus rights out of whole cloth.


6 posted on 01/31/2011 7:46:46 PM PST by umgud
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To: iowaguy1972

Oh, I know the answer to this one. Rights come from God and the legislature passes laws that are just supplemental to God’s Law so long as they don’t conflict with God’s law.


7 posted on 01/31/2011 7:50:46 PM PST by Walts Ice Pick ("I'm not going to shut up!" - Sarah Palin)
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To: iowaguy1972

From the article: “Rights are a state of being.”

I don’t see it. If rights are a state of being, does that mean I have a right to life or death, liberty or captivity, health or sickness, sanity or insanity?

Very few people are precise enough when they talk of rights. I think there are different types of rights.

For instance, natural or inalienable rights stand on their own as rights we would have in a state of nature, absent an organized society.

Contract rights are those we can gain through contracts or agreements with others.

Constitutional or legal rights come from the law of a particular society.

Discussing “rights” without adequate differentiation just leads to confusion and anger.


8 posted on 01/31/2011 8:13:34 PM PST by KrisKrinkle (Blessed be those who know the depth and breadth of their ignorance. Cursed be those who don't.)
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To: YHAOS

i tinks its depends on who you are and where you are...westerners typically defined by the Christianity common thread had a very significant contribution by the the Great Brits in 1260? called the Magna Carta which became the basis for most rights law amongst the colonies. Concepts, wording, phraseology and are of English heritage.

Our heritage with respect to liberty, rights, freedom and democracy are creatures of the British political and philosophical thought, thus Muslims/ africans/chinese never saw nor participated in that thought. We all evolved differently.


9 posted on 01/31/2011 8:18:36 PM PST by himno hero
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To: iowaguy1972

Several posts above well summarize our civil rights as intended by our US Constitution and the first ten amendments.

Our founders rejected the Divine Right of Kings and recognized that human rights come from Nature’s God. We all may interpret that God differently but we must never forget that we come into this world with “unalienable rights.” [post 3]

Excellent writing on this matter was done by Thomas Paine and Jean Jacques Rousseau. Their discussions have served as the basis for most debates on rights and their genesis. [post 5]

...westerners typically defined [rights]by the Christianity common thread had a very significant contribution by the the Great Brits in 1260? called the Magna Carta [1215] which became the basis for most rights law amongst the colonies. Concepts, wording, phraseology and are of English heritage. [post 9]

Our founding fathers used Christian concepts of every man’s inner God given worth, the experience of tyranny under the British Crown and British common law to create our constitutional republic. The Constitution says the federal government only has powers and control as listed in Articles 1-3.

Amendments 1-8 list certain rights the federal and state governments cannot take away or unduely limit from we citizens.

Amendment 9 states: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

Amendment 10 states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

In summary, Our rights existed before the government created by our Constitution and continue now. Activist judges and liberal statist lawmakers have twisted the original language of the Constitution or ignored the stated limits on our federal government to make our government more intrusive on our lives. That threatens our rights and must be corrected through the ballot box or by a second American Revolution.


10 posted on 01/31/2011 10:07:21 PM PST by RicocheT
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To: Bernard Marx
The only thing that separates free people from vassals is the recognition that rights do not come from government!

So it was asserted by the Founding Fathers and many others of that generation.

Our founders rejected the Divine Right of Kings and recognized that human rights come from Nature's God. We all may interpret that God differently but we must never forget that we come into this world with "unalienable rights." To do otherwise is to willingly submit to slavery.

As succinctly stated by Jefferson, et al.

11 posted on 02/01/2011 2:59:18 PM PST by YHAOS (you betcha!)
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To: himno hero
Our heritage with respect to liberty, rights, freedom and democracy are creatures of the British political and philosophical thought

The Founding Generation would attribute the roots of their political and philosophical heritage as equally emanating from their Judeo-Christian tradition.

12 posted on 02/01/2011 3:02:25 PM PST by YHAOS (you betcha!)
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To: YHAOS

Pal? The “free west” has a common thread, Christianity which was the basis for all of this. During our evolution a product that came which served as a landmark in our legal evolution was the Magna Carta. After that there were many modifications and amendments.

My point was that Islam cannot understand nor appreciate these concepts and they openly declare that. When the parrots say freedom and democracy? They have zEro idea.

And who is/was the free west? The G7, the most successful group that shaped modern man.... the same dudes that rode together many times against the muslim hoars.

Basically the same guys who took down the ottoman empire.

AND, they will probably do it again if someone threatens the Suez or picks on Israel.


13 posted on 02/01/2011 3:19:21 PM PST by himno hero
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To: YHAOS
As succinctly stated by Jefferson, et al.

Please forgive me for re-stating it. A lot of Americans seem to have forgotten.

14 posted on 02/01/2011 3:54:30 PM PST by Bernard Marx
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To: Bernard Marx
"Please forgive me for re-stating it."

No, no. Not at all. Please re-state it to your heart's content.

15 posted on 02/01/2011 5:25:13 PM PST by YHAOS (you betcha!)
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To: YHAOS

Thank you for your generous “permission.”


16 posted on 02/01/2011 6:18:27 PM PST by Bernard Marx
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