[EternalVigilance]

Doing strange things with chickens and blowfish no doubt does the Haitians little good, but the real root of their nation's misery has been a traditional and total disdain for property rights and an absolute contempt for free speech.

I disagree. Their disdain for fundamental rights arises out of their rejection of the God who gave all men those rights.

Conversely, the foundation of the American Republic is the belief in that very thing.

The beliefs of a man or a nation have consequences in how they live out their public life.

[Big Bunyip]

Of course, you may be right about the social disadvantages of denying God. But you can never prove it nor suport the contention, except by citing your highly subjective conviction that all good things flow from God.

If you genuinely believe that, then you must be a dualist (which I doubt you are) because, by logical extension, all bad things must flow from somewhere else, which would make Old Scratch co-equal with God. It's an interesting theological point to argue, but essentially irrelevant.

Societies that deny free speech and property rights, on the other hand, have long, indeed inevitable, records of despotism, decay and disintegration. Such is the demonstrable result of denying liberty. God makes a pleasant neighbor, but property rights make the neighborhood in the first place.