[thinktwice]

Excellent article, highlighted (imho) by the words ...

I once heard a cop say he should have every right to search my home any time he pleases. If I have nothing to hide, then I should have nothing to fear.

I'll give him credit for this much: Perfectly summarizing the philosophy of the police state.

[Old Fud]

There are plenty of self-styled conservatives who view property rights as an obstacle to progress or patriotism or to a "well-ordered" society.

Evidenced here, daily. Compulsory compassion os A-OK as long as everyone gives up a little of their property.

If I have nothing to hide, then I should have nothing to fear.

Another familiar mantra at the home of grassroots conservatism.

W/out property rights, there are no rights. Period.

[inquest]

This is all a very nice sentiment, but it needs to be subjected to some scrutiny? Did the founding generation view property rights as "absolute"? Only in a fairy-tale version of history. There was still such a thing as eminent domain, there were still regulations of various sorts as to the types of businesses that people could operate on their property, and under what conditions, and in fact, many old colonial towns, especially in New England, had rules regarding whom you could and could not put up in your own home (in order to keep undesirables from moving into town). I want to believe in something absolute, too, but we have to face reality.

[TigersEye]

What these critics advocate is a form of majoritarianism, in which everyone has a say on everyone else's business. It's the antithesis of what the American founding is all about, and the perfect embodiment of the oft-quoted definition of democracy: Two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.

Democracy is indispensable to socialism.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

The goal of socialism is communism.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin