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(Property rights)-- The forgotten fundamental right
The Orange County Register ^ | 4 August 2002 | Steven Greenhut

Posted on 08/04/2002 9:31:38 AM PDT by thinktwice

Edited on 04/14/2004 10:05:19 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

The American public can easily grasp the constitutional concepts of "free speech," or "free exercise of religion," or the "right to peaceably assemble." By contrast, the phrase "property rights" doesn't have the same cachet - it just lies there like some arcane principle that must be debated by lawyers before we know what it really means.


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


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: billofrights; freedom; happiness; landgrab; property; pufflist; rights
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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.

1 posted on 08/04/2002 9:31:38 AM PDT by thinktwice
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To: thinktwice
Jefferson didn't replace 'property' with 'pursuit of happiness.' Jefferson wrote 'property' then Franklin, I think, changed it to 'pursuit of happiness' crossing out property.
2 posted on 08/04/2002 9:33:54 AM PDT by freedomcrusader
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To: thinktwice
Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
You must sacrifice your property and labor to my vision of the greater good and fairness.
3 posted on 08/04/2002 9:58:59 AM PDT by Abcdefg
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To: *landgrab; *BillOfRights; madfly
Index Bump
4 posted on 08/04/2002 10:21:42 AM PDT by Free the USA
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To: thinktwice
bump
5 posted on 08/04/2002 10:46:43 AM PDT by quietolong
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To: Abcdefg
Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. You must sacrifice your property and labor to my vision of the greater good and fairness.

Nice try, but your out-of-a-novel quotation (?) would be a dramatic portrayal of an EVIL CHARACTER within Ayn Rand's novel, "Atlas Shrugged," and it does not reflect Ayn Rand's philosophy in any way other than representing the direct opposite to her philosophy.

6 posted on 08/04/2002 10:52:32 AM PDT by thinktwice
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To: thinktwice
Bumping for a thorough read! I can't wait.
7 posted on 08/04/2002 11:11:12 AM PDT by AuntB
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To: thinktwice
:+:+:If one pays-off their mortgage on a property, why are they only allowed to possess the property deed and never see ownership of the land title?:+:+:
8 posted on 08/04/2002 11:16:36 AM PDT by Sara Of Earth †
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To: freedomcrusader
Jefferson didn't replace 'property' with 'pursuit of happiness.'
Jefferson wrote 'property' then Franklin, I think, changed it to
'pursuit of happiness' crossing out property.

I didn't know that.  The birth of PC?

9 posted on 08/04/2002 11:33:46 AM PDT by gcruse
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To: Sara Of Earth †
If one pays-off their mortgage on a property, why are they only allowed to possess the property deed and never see ownership of the land title?

You'd be best advised to see an attorney, because different states have different laws; but recording a deed with County authorities is usually all it takes to establish good title.

I seem to recall that deeds are automatically title documents, and that some deeds might even be called "Deeds of Title." Check it out.

10 posted on 08/04/2002 2:36:36 PM PDT by thinktwice
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To: thinktwice
Great, great, great article. We all need to read this again and again.
11 posted on 08/04/2002 3:32:32 PM PDT by Auntie Mame
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To: freedomcrusader
Pursuit of happiness is one of those nebulous, New-Agey concepts. Like, dude, I just wanna be happy. How exactly do courts uphold one's right to try to be happy, especially in our current world where everyone thinks they have a right to the ever-elusive goal of actual happiness?

There's a talk show host by the name of Dennis Prager who has what I think is an interesting test which, when I was a bartender, I used to use often when I was bored. He says ask someone, "Which one of these four qualities do you feel is the most important to strive for in your life: (1) to be successful; (2) to be good; (3) to be happy; or (4) to be intelligent?"

He says that 95 percent of the folks he asks this of reply "To be happy." In my bartending days, the answer to this question was 100 percent "To be happy."

I asked my daughter this question and she replied, "Well, I know what you'd want me to say. You'd want to to be good, but I just want to be happy."

12 posted on 08/04/2002 3:41:38 PM PDT by Auntie Mame
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To: thinktwice
Alexander Hamilton: "A power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will. Property must be sacred or liberty cannot exist."

James Madison: "Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions", and:

John Adams: "[t]he moment that idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the Laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.

Daniel Webster: "No other rights are safe where property is not safe."

As we know, early American common law descended from English common law. What did the English think of private property?

Magna Carta: No Freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or be disseised [deprived wrongfully of real property] of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any otherwise destroyed; nor will we pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful Judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the Land. 1297

John Locke: "The great chief end therefore, of Mens uniting into Commonwealths, and putting themselves under Government, is the Preservation of their Property." He also said, "Whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience..." --2nd Treatise of Government, 1690 the principal absolute rights which appertain to every Englishman,"

William Blackstone: The principal absolute rights which appertain to every Englishman [are] personal security, personal liberty, and private property.

13 posted on 08/04/2002 3:51:56 PM PDT by snopercod
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To: snopercod
I agree with all of what you posted. Try telling that, when you go to the County Clerk when it is time to pay property tax.
14 posted on 08/04/2002 4:11:03 PM PDT by carenot
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To: freedomcrusader
"It is agreed by those who have seriously considered the subject, that no individual has, of natural right, a separate property in an acre of land, for instance. By an universal law, indeed, whatever, whether fixed or movable, belongs to all men equally and in common, is the property for the moment of him who occupies it, but when he relinquishes the occupation, the property goes with it. Stable ownership is the gift of social law, and is given late in the progress of society." --Thomas Jefferson

15 posted on 08/04/2002 4:14:08 PM PDT by Roscoe
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To: thinktwice; *puff_list
This is a MUST READ folks - it is EXACTLY what we have been talking about for years.
16 posted on 08/04/2002 4:21:51 PM PDT by Gabz
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To: Sir_Ed; Gdpleaser; Cato; Storm Orphan; EverOnward; iconoclast; Tigen; Liberty911; Peter Libra; ...
Please share this great article with someone.
17 posted on 08/04/2002 4:48:32 PM PDT by AuntB
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To: Gabz
Thanks, Gabz. BTTT!
18 posted on 08/04/2002 7:05:30 PM PDT by Max McGarrity
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To: AuntB
Share this article...good idea.
19 posted on 08/04/2002 11:55:39 PM PDT by lakey
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
You might like this one.
20 posted on 08/05/2002 2:37:32 AM PDT by snopercod
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