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Nonsense on Stilts

Vincent linked to this piece of drivel over at the Eugene Weekly blog, titled “One Big Way to Honor Ted Kennedy,” in his post below, but in case you were too lazy to click on it:

While the nation mourns the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy, there is a meaningful way to assure his legacy, and that would be for Congress to pass comprehensive health care legislation in his name.

Kennedy has been quoted many times over many years saying effective health care should be “a right, and not a privilege.” Let’s make it so.

Listen, everybody: I’m sorry, but health care is not a natural right. As much as you would like it to be, as much as you bleat and whine and posture, it’s not. Natural rights are moral, not material. They are rights that are immutable by time, place and circumstance. They are rights that exist, in the lofty conception of classical liberal thought,  in the “soul.” In other words, they are things that you inherently possess, not things that you demand the government give you.

To wit: If you were lost in the desert, the Founding Fathers would say you still possessed all of your natural rights – moral conscience, free speech, self-defense. Hell, you could even build a little shelter and claim it as your own. But you could shout yourself silly, and an ambulance wouldn’t magically appear to grant you free medical care.

So please, if you’re going to claim the government should provide everyone with health care, at least don’t try to frame it in some sort of neo-enlightenment nonsense. You just make yourself look stupid.

  1. Orev says:

    You’ve got to be kidding me. So, should we pass Sen. Byrd’s legislation giving everyone free dentures when he passes away? I mean, he’s as old as the hills and has done even less that the late Sen. Kennedy up till now.

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