___________________________
While reading from an avowed atheist's blog this morning I noticed a paragraph that stated the blogger's opinion regarding camels and a camel's rights, this opinion being:
"It is nice to see camels roam freely. It is not nice to see they still pull ploughs, turn waterwheels and transport tons of heavy goods along desert routes. Domesticated camels have been exploited by humans for thousands of years. They are forced to become slaves of humans. I wish I could let them free. They have the right to roam wherever they want."
After musing on that statement for a time, I concluded that different people surely have different ideas as to what constitutes rights.
As I understand life, a camel has no rights; it has only privileges that are granted to it by those who have the power to give or take away.
As do human beings.
Citizens of the United States of America have the right to keep and bear arms... as long as the government grants that right. If the government's law makers pass into law a bill that removes, no matter through whatever fanciful fantasy or base canard, the right of a citizen to keep and bear arms, then that citizen no longer has the right to keep and bear arms.
One who denies the existence of God cannot then declare that a biological human being has a God-given right, nor any other right except those granted by the Powers-That-Be.
That's the way it is.
_____
HISTORICAL CLIP
On this day, March 7, 1923, The New Republic published Robert Frost's poem "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening." The poem, beginning with the famous line:
"Whose woods these are, I think I know.
His house is in the village though,"
has introduced millions of American students to poetry.
Like most of Frost's poetry, "Stopping by Woods" adopts the tone of a simple New England farmer contemplating an everyday site.
Although Frost never graduated from a university, he had collected 44 honorary degrees before he died in 1963.
And . . .
On this day, March 7, 1876, 29-year-old Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for his revolutionary new invention--the telephone.
_____
WORD FOR TODAY
canard [kuh-NARD]
noun
- A false or misleading report or story, especially if deliberately so.
- An unfounded or false, deliberately misleading story.
synonym
hoax
_____
BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Born Mar. 7, 1980
Age: 32 years old
Age: 32 years old
Laura Prepon is an American actress, best known for her role as Donna Pinciotti in the long-running Fox situation comedy That '70s Show, for all eight seasons. She is also known for the role of Hannah Daniels on the ABC drama October Road. She has voiced characters in animated TV series such as American Dad! and King of the Hill, as well as a character in the video game Halo 2.
Following That '70s Show, Prepon worked mainly in television, guest-starring in episodes of How I Met Your Mother, Medium, and Castle. In 2011, Prepon played lead role of Chelsea in the short-lived sitcom drama Are You There, Chelsea?, based on Chelsea Handler's 2008 book Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea.
Born Mar. 7, 1934
Age 78 years old
Age 78 years old
Willard Herman Scott, Jr. is an American actor, author, media personality, clown, and comedian, best known for his TV work on The Today Show and as the creator and original portrayer of Ronald McDonald and Bozo The Clown.
Born March 7, 1942
Died July 20, 2007
Died July 20, 2007
Tamara Faye LaValley Bakker Messner was an American Christian singer, evangelist, entrepreneur, author, talk show host, and television personality. She was married from 1961 to 1992 to televangelist, and later convicted felon, Jim Bakker. She co-hosted with him on The PTL Club (1976–1987). She was a participant in the 2004 season of the reality show The Surreal Life.
Born Mar. 7, 1940
Age: 72 years old
Age: 72 years old
Danielo Giovanni "Daniel J." Travanti is an American actor best known for his starring role as Captain Frank Furillo in the 1980s television drama Hill Street Blues.
__________
I do think that our freedoms are at risk.
--Clarence Thomas
"Citizens of the United States of America have the right to keep and bear arms... as long as the government grants that right."
ReplyDeleteOf course, at least in theory, we -- the citizens -- are our government.
You are correct, though, in one specific sense. Those to whom we afford the privilege to make laws that define our notions of acceptable behavior, grant you and me the legal right to own a weapon powerful enough to tear a human body to shreds and to name that weapon a necessary means to self-defense. You and the ghost of Charlton Heston are welcome to take free possession of the high-powered rifle that sits reserved and waiting for me.