|
|
|
October 04, 2005
Gavin Newsom should buy me a gun! And a dog!
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom thinks wireless access is a fundamental civil right: SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who became internationally known for his campaign a year ago to legalize gay marriage, said on Monday he considered wireless Internet access a fundamental right of all citizens.Does that mean wireless access is more of a civil right than the right to self defense? More of a civil right than the right to own a dog of your choice -- which Newsom (a would-be pit bull exterminator) opposes? To further illustrate how hopeless this argument is, there's no longer basic agreement on the definition of a "right." Newsom (and the people who share his philosophy) tend to see rights not as rights, but as obligations. Thus, in their minds, the "right" to wireless Internet services would not mean that I have a right to wireless if I go out and find a Internet service provider and pay for it. According to the Newsom rights doctrine, other people should be obligated to pay for my wireless Internet service. If this is a right, why stop there? Shouldn't I have the right to telephone service too? How about mail services (as Justin suggested earlier)? Or a house, maybe? If I thought of rights the same way that Newsom does, my "right" to own a gun or a pit bull would not mean I'd have the right to go out and buy them, but that the government (the taxpayers) should give them to me! (None of this is to suggest that "free" WiFi is necessarily a bad idea, mind you. I just don't think it's a civil right.) posted by Eric on 10.04.05 at 11:06 AM
Comments
Freedom isn't free. The only right is the right to be left alone. Rights are what government cannot do to you, not anything government does for you. Otherwise, I demand my right to a limousine, a chaffeur, and a butler. Ocean liner, too. I wish Gavin Newsom had come out against homosexual marriage. That way, it wouldn't be associated with the rest of his ideas, which are all Leftist, statist, pap. Homosexuals must break with the Left. Steven Malcolm Anderson the Lesbian-worshipping man's-man-admiring myth-based egoist · October 4, 2005 04:50 PM You're right Billy, and I'll put it in quotes. Nothing which the government dispenses can be honestly described as free. Eric Scheie · October 4, 2005 06:47 PM For many politicans and people, especially of the leftliberal persuasion, anything they want becomes a right. Now I believe, with the Founders, that rights not delegated to the government stay with the people. But these are not entitlement benefits, but freedom from interference. That, I'm afraid, is a dying idea. I have a right to be considered handsome and athletic and successful, too. Gavin Nuisance...God, what a putz. EssEm · October 4, 2005 11:17 PM Gavin Nuisance -- excellent. I'm going to have to start calling him that. Steven Malcolm Anderson the Lesbian-worshipping man's-man-admiring myth-based egoist · October 5, 2005 01:55 AM |
|
March 2007
WORLD-WIDE CALENDAR
Search the Site
E-mail
Classics To Go
Archives
March 2007
February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 May 2002 See more archives here Old (Blogspot) archives
Recent Entries
• War For Profit
• How trying to prevent genocide becomes genocide • I Have Not Yet Begun To Fight • Wind Boom • Isaiah Washington, victim • Hippie Shirts • A cunning exercise in liberation linguistics? • Sometimes unprincipled demagogues are better than principled activists • PETA agrees -- with me! • The high pitched squeal of small carbon footprints
Links
Site Credits
|
|
I was with you all the way down to the final parenthetical.
It's not "free", Eric.
But you knew that.